Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit (Cho, Barnatan)

Gaspard: One of, if not the most, impressionistic pieces from a composer whose work is predominantly impressionistic. Seong-Jin Cho's recent album recording of this work not only meets but transcends the insane technical demands of this work. I'm bad at writing descriptions, so here's just a list of some of my favourite moments/aspects: • The RH "shimmering" texture in Ondine is almost transparent while preserving a remarkable clarity. (Seriously, it's not obvious how impressive this is until you start wading through the IDAGIO database, listening to dozens of pianists awkwardly fumble their way through the opening.) In general, all of the pianos (piani?) and pianissimos are approached with this gossamer delicacy—which really is a signature of Cho's playing. • The textures are not just one-off moments (as opposed to the other recording I've chosen—but I'll get to that) but rather they take on a life of their own, with little developments and variants (e.g. the "staccato shimmering" at 2:19) and they even interact with each other (e.g. note how the "shimmering" 32nd-note pattern is emphasized at 2:04 on top of the entry of the lush lower register, which I consider another texture—reminiscent, in fact, of Ravel's harp writing, in his "Introduction et Allegro" for instance). If I were being pretentious (which I am) I'd say the textures are treated almost like leitmotifs (this is definitely most obvious in Scarbo). • The sudden changes of colour/character (e.g. 3:00, 4:38, 13:07, 15:48) • Not really about the recording, but the climax at 3:51 is one of my favourites in all of piano literature. • (4:25) I don't know how he makes his glissandi sound like that—he does the same thing at the end of the Menuet of Debussy's Suite Bergamasque—but it's addicting to listen to. • (5:01) I love the attention to each individual voice — that's another thing, Cho doesn't treat the textures as just textures, but as their own lines too. This is especially prevalent in Le gibet, where most of the movement is written on three staves (e.g. 8:00 and especially at 10:40). • (Le gibet, 6:23 but also throughout) Playing the second note in each slur so softly that it becomes a near-inaudible echo of the first. I recall Grosvenor doing this as well, but Cho takes it to another level. Also, these repeated note slurs are supposed to mimic bell tolls, which is why I love that Cho phrases the melody around the tolling (e.g. 6:39, note how the rubato of the main line seems to move independently from the bell) (also 8:42 and later again at 9:15). • The larger chords in Le gibet (e.g. 7:33 and even the usually harsh high-register chords at 8:23) and in Scarbo are played with incredible warmth, fullness, and clarity. This is especially noticeable during those jazzier passages (e.g. 8:54 and 14:00). • Scarbo in particular is full of small rhythmic idiosyncrasies that are sometimes so subtle I didn't notice them at first (e.g. the little pause before the figure at 13:02 and 13:06 is such a wonderful use of rhythmic anticipation) (e.g. the lengthening of the last sixteenth at 13:56 to taper the end of the "phrase"). Cho: 0:00 – Ondine 6:21 – Le gibet 12:06 – Scarbo Barnatan: 21:19 – Ondine 28:23 – Le gibet 35:07 – Scarbo Oh right, Barnatan's recording! I completely forgot to talk about it. I wanted to include a recording to contrast Cho's (much like Doyen's in my Tombeau video) and I settled on Barnatan's. His Ondine is played with even more transparency than Cho's (which I didn't know was possible) to the point where many of the notes in the RH shimmering texture are almost inaudible and a fair number of them actually are! In general, the shimmering textures in this recording are more "shimmery" than any other recording I've heard. Seriously, if you can listen to this Ondine without imagining a glistening bed of water, that's solely out of a poverty of imagination. Barnatan's Scarbo is frenzied, erratic, violently percussive at times, and messy (in a good way) whereas Cho's is more a controlled chaos. The rhythmic playing makes Barnatan's Scarbo quite compelling at times.