Vanessa Wagner - Maurice Ravel: Piano Works (2014)

'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.

TRACKLIST

1-5 Ma mère l’Oye

01. I. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant
02. II. Petit Poucet
03. III. Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes
04. IV. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête
05. V. Le jardin féérique

6-13 Valses nobles et sentimentales

06. I. Modéré
07. II. Assez lent
08. III. Modéré
09. IV. Assez animé
10. V. Presque lent
11. VI. Assez vif
12. VII. Moins vif
13. VIII. Lent

14-16 Gaspard de la nuit

14. I. Ondine
15. II. Le Gibet
16. III. Scarbo

17. Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19