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In Reply to: RE: Even if you have a hi-rez version, the Vox is well worth getting. posted by Sigmund on May 19, 2015 at 10:52:49
Let's see now. . . Vox LP's, Vox CD's, Mo-Fi SACD's, Classic Records DVD-A's. . . also a Doug Sax re-mastered CD - I forget which label (which I thought was not very good - it sounded through headphones as if he'd sucked out the middle of the orchestra from the mix). I still like the hi-rez versions the best. ;-)
My wife and I saw Esa-Pekka conduct Mother Goose with the SF Sym recently. I didn't think it was too bad - a bit to interventionist for my taste. But Madeline (my wife) was all outraged. "He's sure got a long way to go before he gets to Skrowaczewski's level!" was her verdict.
Follow Ups:
As did we! We managed 'rush tickets' orchestra mid/rear but in front of the overhang so pretty decent.
Wife liked 'Nyx' while I say nix to Nyx.
My go to version of the suite has long been Munch with the BSO from 1958, one of those relatively few RCA Living Stereos that imho really does live up to the hype. Munch was great with Ravel in general. As I type this I'm listening to Ansermet's 1957 version (almost as good, but the OSR's strings may not quite equal the those of the BSO). I like it when it isn't too soupy, heavy or dramatic. It should be an airy, light confection/fantasy, like spun sugar or French puff pastry.
I also saw his Ma Mère L'Oye with CSO last week. It was beautiful with lots of textures and colours coming through in lush orchestration but Salonen kept a relative cool in emotional department. I still prefer Stan's long lovely build to the finale. Plus, he decided to play the original piano versions with a missing tune and several Preludes and they were out of sequence. So the program felt a bit incomplete.
Salonen and Skrowaczewski have a very different style and personality in that not sure if Salonen ever make music like Stan.
I enjoyed the Chicago premier of L'enfant et les sortilèges . That was terrific.
I also like my *hi-rez* version. Which is a Vox box 4LP ( Sansui Quad ) set. :)
Also, I'm trying to understand your comment about the piano version(s) of Ma Mère L'Oye. The original form of the work was the suite for piano, 4-hands, which Ravel later orchestrated. (Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know.) Still later, Ravel expanded the suite into a ballet, with added prelude and interludes. Ravel himself wrote this lengthier ballet for orchestra only - no piano version, although a piano transcription of the complete ballet was made subsequently by Jacques Charlot. So I think what you're saying is that Skrowaczewski recorded the ballet, and Salonen performed the suite (as he did when he conducted here in SF recently). In either case (suite or ballet), it's a magical work!
1 Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty
2 Tom Thumb
3 Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas
4 Conversations of Beauty and the Beast
5 The Enchanted Garden
And here is the piano version per Wiki:
I. Pavane of Sleeping Beauty
II. Petit Poucet
Little Tom Thumb
III. Little Ugly Girl, Empress of the Pagodas
IV. Conversation of Beauty and the Beast
V. The Fairy Garden
So what Salonen played was the *5 piece* original piano version instead of later Orchestra version. That's why the performance was not only shorter but the tune order was different, too.
Here is the orchestra version I am used to:
I. Prélude
Prelude
Très lent
II. Premier tableau - Danse du rouet et scène
Spinning Wheel Dance and Scene
III. Deuxième tableau - Pavane de la belle au bois dormant
IV. Interlude
V. Troisième tableau - Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête
VI. Interlude
VII. Quatrième tableau - Petit Poucet
VIII. Interlude
IX. Cinquième tableau - Laideronnette, impératrice des Pagodes
X. Interlude
XI. Sixième tableau - Le jardin féerique
So I felt a bit short changed!
You are calling it suit ( 5 pice short original piano only version ) or ballet ( longer orchestral version with extra tunes and different song order ).
P.S. No. I don't have a Sansui Quad decoder. I used to have Technic's CD4 decoder tho. Rmember those? All the rage back then.:D
of the extended piano version?
And just what I need, another version of this piece...
The likely reason is that the Jacques Charlot transcription for solo piano of the whole ballet was made, I suspect, to serve the utilitarian purpose of providing the music for ballet rehearsals, rather than for concert use. You can check out what it looks like on the IMSP/Petrucci Library site - you'll see occasional supplementary staves where Charlot had to leave out orchestral lines which just would not fit with all the other notes the pianist was also supposed to play at the same time! (You'll also see supplemental "missing" lines in Ravel's own solo piano transcription of La Valse - but at least that transcription is the work of the original composer. And it's such a challenge - even if Ravel did have to leave out an occasional orchestral line or two - that pianists do take it up and play it in concert and on recording.)
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