BaL 28.06.14 - Ravel's La Valse

[Bryn]

Leonard Pennario. ...

Thanks. I see it has been posted on YouTube, and is also included on a 4 CD set ($49.95) of which only 3 copies remain available, new, from the MSR site. Glenn Gould can also be heard playing his own solo piano transcription via YouTube.

[Don Petter]

Thanks. I see it has been posted on YouTube, and is also included on a 4 CD set ($49.95) of which only 3 copies remain available, new, from the MSR site. Glenn Gould can also be heard playing his own solo piano transcription via YouTube.

The Pennario was also on a single EMI CD ('Romantic Piano Music') CDM7 69117 2.

[Roehre]

Leonard Pennario.

And another four hand version is by Cor de Groot and Gerard Blerk (APR 5611)

Gérard van Blerk, please

[Don Petter]

Gérard van Blerk, please

Sorry! Should have looked at the APR site instead of the first one that came up.

Thus do errors epropagate.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This a very short work for BaL. It isn't long since BaL reviewed an even shorter work: Alborada del gracioso. I wonder whether the BaL winner for La Valse will be on the same CD.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Just bumping this one to the top of the pile in anticipation of today's broadcast,

[Tony Halstead]

Just bumping this one to the top of the pile in anticipation of today's broadcast,

[LeMartinPecheur]

WHOAHH, hurrah, I don't need to get the wallet out Was surprised that I could only find 3 orchestral La valses on the shelves - Cluytens, Martinon and DUTOIT.

Didn't hear what he said about the first two, if anything - too busy packing to go Ooop North (inc Bridgwater Hall on Fri). But didn't feel it was a great BaL. Not Mival's fault: so many performances are good of their sort, and which sort you go for seems pretty much a matter for you.

[amateur51]

This was a curate's egg for me; I just couldn't take listening to that much La Valse & I think I need to lie down in a darkened and silent room for a while ...

There were plenty of recordings that I expected to hear and didn't (Cluytens, Rattle, Monteux in San Fransisco, Haitink in Boston etc) but time limits what can be demonstrated and on balance I think that William Mival did a pretty good job.

Perhaps it is because I heard them very early on but I was very taken with the recordings by Ansermet, Martinon and Albert Wolf. The Barenboim was hilarious but not in a good way and I didn't like the Cantelli either. I wish there had been a HIPP-approach recording to hear from say Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth but perhaps I'm counselling perfection.

[Pianorak]

Total waste of time - nowt but orchestral!

[verismissimo]

I bought (for pennies) the Dutoit earlier this week from Zover and it's indeed fab.

But the revelation for me (for a few pennies more) was the piano transcription by Ravel played absolutely brilliantly by Geoffrey Saba.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The Dutoit just happens to be the only version of La Valse I have on CD, bought when it first came out in 1983 (and on a single CD). I would have been surprised if it had not been a contender.

[LeMartinPecheur]

But the revelation for me (for a few pennies more) was the piano transcription by Ravel played absolutely brilliantly by Geoffrey Saba.

Ooh, thanks very much for the reminder verismissimo. You sent me rushing to the LP shelves where I found a Saba disc of 'Great Piano Transcriptions' (IMP Classics, 1987) with this on. Is that the one you've bought, albeit no doubt on CD?

[verismissimo]

Ooh, thanks very much for the reminder verismissimo. You sent me rushing to the LP shelves where I found a Saba disc of 'Great Piano Transcriptions' (IMP Classics, 1987) with this on. Is that the one you've bought, albeit no doubt on CD?

That's the one, LMP. Full of delicious things, not least the Grainger transcriptions.

[LeMartinPecheur]

That's the one, LMP. Full of delicious things, not least the Grainger transcriptions.

I'm always a sucker for Grainger! Probably his Rosenkavelier transcription was the reason I bought this disc as I already had most of the others.