Vanessa Wagner – Ravel: Piano Works (5.1 Edition) (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

„Pavane pour une infante défunte“, an early work, takes us into the world of dance that perfumes the musical world of Ravel. „Gaspard de la nuit“ in the French Romantic tradition, is a triptych inspired by three of Aloysius Bertrand’s prose-ballads: Ondine, the water nymph; Le Gibet (Gallows), paints a gruesome picture of „a bell tolling from the walls of a city, beneath the skyline, and the body of a hanged man, reddened by the setting sun“; Scarbo, depicts the night-time mischief of a mocking dwarf. We return to the dance with the bold‚ “Valses nobles et sentimentales“, a series of waltzes written in 1911. Finally, „Ma Mère l’Oye“ (Mother Goose), shows Ravel’s affection for his childhood days. Vanessa Wagner brings out the modernity of these scores, their sudden movements of violence, their moments of ineffable sweetness. She plays with rigour, intensity and a velvet touch.

Vanessa Wagner’s inclusion of the solo version of Ma Mère l’Oye is a nice touch which sets this Ravel recital apart from the myriad other versions. She plays a Yamaha, which perhaps lends itself less well than a Steinway to Ravel’s colourscape, though it is an aid to clarity, not least in the fast repeated notes that bedevil ‘Scarbo’. This is a notably broad reading of Gaspard, the central movement particularly drawn out (two and a half minutes longer than Argerich’s live 1978 Concertgebouw reading). Bavouzet, Tharaud and Osborne gain in atmosphere by being just that bit tauter than Wagner; she does, though, find a good degree of caprice in ‘Scarbo’, although others are more malevolent. There are good things in the faster numbers of Valses nobles and she manages to convey the vigour of the opening without becoming percussive. But turn to Volodos in his live Vienna recital and the work is lifted to another level, particularly in the more ethereal numbers. On the whole, Wagner is most convincing in the faster music; in slower numbers her rubato is arguably over-generous. ‘Le jardin féerique’ is one instance, the opening of the suite another (I’m no purist: I have a weakness for the naughty but nice arrangement of this suite for two pianos and percussion). That’s something that particularly afflicts the Pavane pour une infante défunte, a piece that Osborne and Bavouzet in their different ways realise much more effectively.

Tracklist:
1-01. Vanessa Wagner – I. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant (01:49)
1-02. Vanessa Wagner – II. Petit Poucet (02:47)
1-03. Vanessa Wagner – III. Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes (03:05)
1-04. Vanessa Wagner – IV. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête (04:36)
1-05. Vanessa Wagner – V. Le jardin féérique (03:33)
1-06. Vanessa Wagner – I. Modéré (01:12)
1-07. Vanessa Wagner – II. Assez lent (02:17)
1-08. Vanessa Wagner – III. Modéré (01:22)
1-09. Vanessa Wagner – IV. Assez animé (01:04)
1-10. Vanessa Wagner – V. Presque lent (00:50)
1-11. Vanessa Wagner – VI. Assez vif (00:46)
1-12. Vanessa Wagner – VII. Moins vif (03:25)
1-13. Vanessa Wagner – VIII. Lent (05:05)
1-14. Vanessa Wagner – I. Ondine (06:26)
1-15. Vanessa Wagner – II. Le Gibet (08:26)
1-16. Vanessa Wagner – III. Scarbo (09:19)
1-17. Vanessa Wagner – Pavane pour une infante défunte (07:05)