Pogorelich plays Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit (Ondine - Le Gibet - Scarbo) 

I play that piece every morning. After that I wake up

4:28 just absolutely blows me away

I am an Registered Piano Technician and often the fact that the condition of the piano a pianist is given on which to perform is overlooked. This piano is obviously regulated very well and voiced perfectly including the una corda pedal giving the artist a full palette for color and dynamics. Mr. Pogorelich is not only a gifted pianist but he understands the instrument he has been given and makes the most of its ability to do what he asks of it. So as is often missed a big praise should go to the piano technician who prepared this piano for him to make this lovely recording.

This is an incredible human achievement - somebody actually wrote this, somebody actually played it, and we even have the means to capture that performance and preserve it for eternity. Any one of those things is mind blowing; to have all 3 is a miracle.

If I had a time machine I'd bring this piece to Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, and watch their reactions

Some composers write pieces of music with the intention of making them difficult for the sake of being difficult whereas I feel, though indeed Ravel composed Scarbo with the intention of surpassing Islamey in terms of difficulty, he's able to strike the right mix between virtuosity and beautiful music.

I think with Ondine, Ravel achieved musical perfection. Within all its complexity, dynamic ranges and sonority there is incredible beauty and structure. He does all this without repetition of sections. Truly amazing! I think this one piece secures his immortality in the ranks of the masters.

Ondine is without a doubt the absolute most beautiful piece of music i have ever heard, to this day. It is impossibly gorgeous.

Ivo Pogorelich was born in Belgrade in 1958 as son of a musician. He received his first piano lessons at the age of seven and went to Moscow at the age of twelve to study at the Central Special Music School and then at the Tchaikowsky Conservatory. In 1976 he began intensive studies with the renowned pianist and teacher Aliza Kezeradze, with whom he was married from 1980 until her untimely death in 1996. Mme. Kezeradze was able to transmit the spirit and matter of the school of Beethoven and Liszt, the tradition of the Liszt-Siloti school, originated in Vienna and than carried through to the Conservatory of St. Petersburg, flourishing towards the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th. Century. Pogorelich´s sound, concerts and recordings pay homage to this exceptionally refined, visionary, and truly revolutionary woman, who so lovingly made Pogorelich a unique artist of genius. Ivo Pogorelich won the first prize at the Alessandro Casagrande Competition at Terni (Italy) in 1978 and the first price at the Montreal International Music Competition in 1980. In October of the same year he entered the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw where, when prevented from participating in the final contest as a soloist with the orchestra, a fierce controversy resulted in the renowned argentinian pianist Martha Argerich, a member of the jury, protesting and leaving the competition, joined by other members of the jury panel, with the words “He is a genius”. The New York Times once wrote “He played each note exactly, with such a feeling, such expression, he was an entire orchestra- it was as if he played 200 years ahead of our time”. In this spirit Ivo Pogorelich is known today as a poet of the instrument. Ivo Pogorelich is not only an artist of the highest caliber, discipline and musicianship, but the archetype of the modern artist, the isolated and courageous master, who finds his own way to new heights of expression, no matter the prejudices or the barriers of misunderstanding raised against him. He stands alone at the beginning of a new epoch like a prophet, mapping the routes that art would take. Pogorelich´s cathartic and mystical sound, is concerned with the ultimate mysteries that transcend this world. His grandiose, colossal and majestic art, symbolizes the struggle of the human soul to find release from the bonds of its material body. His exquisite and overwhelming music continues to echo throughout the entire performance and beyond, so the action is at once momentary, eternal and complete. Pogorelich´s interpretations are indescribably beautiful and irresistible. His sound is pure poetry and extremely emotional, yet entirely unsentimental. We are hypnotized by his new and radical naturalness, by his nobility, dignity, severity and sobriety; transporting us to states of wonder, ecstasy, meditation, love and compassion. -- Sound and Silence, Life and Death, Time and Space; collapse into the Eternal moment of Infinity. -- ----------------------- "you have to get into the phycological frame of mind in which composers wrote their works in order to discover its secrets. virtuosity comes from the greek origin virtue. original is finding the origin Gaudi said. rachmaninov had arthritis at the end of his life, he was so weak that his sound was very short, that is the reason he played fast, to fill the vacuum. if you have long sound you are in command to achieve clarity and the hypnotic sound between the notes. the problem was always the conflict and the difference between the absolute and the relative quality. beauty in music is like in diamonds, the purest diamond in the world is the Koh-i-Noor, it is the absolute beauty to which others with relative beauty are compared. work as hard as a galley slave. one should always try as much as possible to rediscover music as though one is hearing it for the first time, searching everywhere for new meanings and new depths. the highest function of the artist is to release the spirituality and the emotional immediacy that lie within the score. sound becomes metaphysical only when you have completely explored all physical possibilities. you should explore until reaching the absurd. music takes you to another universe of eternity that remains with you after the concert is finished." Ivo Pogorelich. ------------------------------------

wtf man this goes beyond beauty

By no small margin, the greatest performance of Ondine I have ever heard.

The rendition of Ondine is pure genius and by far the best one I’ve ever heard.

one of the greatest imaginative masterpieces of music-- possibly one the most difficult piece to play technically with the nuances and colorings that Ravel demands in a truly remarkable performance by the great Pogorelich

This piece is remarkable, I can picture the poems scenes reveal themselves. Ravel was brilliant and so much imagination. The beginning of Ondine scares me just to look at the score let alone play it. Mr. Pogorelich is such a gifted pianist.

The dazzling virtuosity never compromises the logic, precision, and coherence of the composition, and yet the music heard evokes a profound sense of beautiful mystery...I never feel that Ravel's orchestration ever feels "outdated", likewise his piano music stands the test of time, the wide palette of colors from the piano feel fresh today. Pogorelich's performance is masterful and brilliant.

From the unbelievably quiet pianissimos, to the vivacious and unequivocally emotional climaxes, to the sheer virtuosity of the rendition, Pogorelich’s performance is truly a masterpiece on all levels. It is not often that a pianist can achieve such mastery of technique and expressiveness in one recording, but he manages just that. Such a level of command over the piano is something that many pianists can only dream about, but all can admire. In my opinion, this is the definitive standard by which all performances of Gaspard de la nuit should be measured. Thank you very much for uploading this!

Ravel's music sends chills up my spine!

Really love his interpretation of Ondine. I think he puts the most effort and feeling into it out of all the other pianists. It really does sound mystical, magical and enchanting. Bravo!!! By far my favorite interpretation of this piece. This performance is otherworldly! Most of the other interpretations can make this sound magical and mystical. But this one is the most enchanting in my opinion.

just came back to this gorgeous work because of the amazing part at 4:28 in the Ondine - Ravel uses the exact same 'Coltrane changes' as seen in the famous jazz piece Giant Steps! (B -> G -> D# -> B). He was truly ahead of his time...

4:25 Climax of Ondine. This is where Pogorelich really shows who's boss.

Amazing! The way he plays 16th in intervals and chords pianissimo and fast with one hand (right and/or left)! His technique is perfect!

Probably the best performance I've ever heard of what happens to be my absolute favorite piano piece. I have a feeling I've commented on this video before... oh well. It's just too incredible. The entire depth of my musical experience can be summarized in this performance of this piece. So many thanks for posting the score along with it, too; for me, being able to read along with those mind-shattering perpetuo moto 32nd-note explosions somehow makes the whole experience just that much more integrative and dazzling. Thank you thank you thank you!

... all my life I loved Scarbo... all my life I loved Le Gibet... all my life I loved Ondine... and one day I discovered I loved the three of them...

4:18 - 4:28 i can’t describe how wonderful this part is

The second piece is so morbid and unsettling. I love it.

Pogorelich is superb playing the whole piece (Gaspard de La Nuit)....Amazing....So perfect....Ravel would be proud to listen to this.

This performance of scarbo is absolutely breathtaking

The guy at Ravel´s publisher who was in charge of the sheet music, must have looked at this piece and thought: "No way in f...... hell I´m doing this. I´m applying for a job at Satie´s publisher instead!"

reading the poetry completely changes le gibet and scarbo's feeling, as well making you realise how clever of an imitation of the poem the piece is

No wonder this is one of the hardest piece in the world. Keeping all those chords even is like impossible for me.

I owned this recording on vinyl years ago, and listened to it over and over in the dark, utterly transported by it. Then I had the great pleasure of seeing Ivo Pogorelić perform at Expo '86 in Vancouver. When he came to the front of the stage to bow, his hands were massive! This is one of my all-time favourite Ravel compositions, which shows a stylistic link to Debussy, but also Ravel's emergence as one of the truly great composers of the 20th Century. The textures and colours he conjures are by turns lush and rapturous, bleak and desolate, childlike and grave. A Master!

15:13 I wish Ravel had explored this motif more.

Ondine by Pogorelich is extremely splendid. It always carries me into an ecstasy.

Sometimes the first recording/performance you hear of a piece becomes the definitive one. I had never heard this piece until this recording came out. I had it first on LP, then on CD. To my ears it is as perfect as one could expect. The clarity of the line. The sense of ease through some of thee most difficult measures in the repetoire. It still amazes me.

4:23 I have no words to describe this progression. I have rarely heard a climax with such intensity as to give me shivers. Gaspard de la Nuit It is a piece that every time I listen to it I discover surprising details that attest to Ravel's genius. Bravo

One of the best performances I ever hear of such a difficult piece, Pogorelich plays this piece of art with tremendous artistry and mastery. Composer & performer both: masters.

The difference between very high level professional pianists and the "top" ones, like Pogorelich, seems to be huge. Look at all versions of this piece on youtube, many of them by great pianists. He is in a different league.

I love how he plays 20:14.

This magnum opus is probably the nightmare of many pianists just like Frank Zappa's _The Black Page #1 and #2_ is for many percussionists. Excellent job mister Ivo Pogorelić, Croatia should be very proud of you. 💥💥💥💥💥

They say there is a very fine line between insanity and creative genius. I think this performance is a perfect example. How Ravel could conjure such a piece of music is beyond words.

Ondine is played out of this world perhaps the finest performance of it

This is an amazing, brilliant musical journey created by one of the most gifted composers of the 19th and 20th century. When I listen to this I can sometimes imagine it scored for orchestra. He clearly succeeds in saying with notes what the poet expressed in words. The opening, enigmatic right hand sets the exquisite scene (in fact my right hand gets tired just listening to it). It reminds me of another of my favorite Ravel piano works the Jeux d'eau, with the sounds of water cascading over rocks.

Wonderful sound. Delicate, transparent and beautifully modulated. He conjures up the image of the seductive and quixotic water sprite, Ondine, and the gloomy, Caspar David Friedrich-like atmosphere of the gallows. In his interpretation of Scarbo, Pogorelich is sparing in his use of the damper pedal, but his half pedaling is masterful. It is certainly a pleasure to hear all of the notes so clearly. The Scarbo is a singular performance, ironic and mordant. Pogorelich obviously read the original poem, and he does not content himself to simply wallow in a feather bed of luscious sound. In this regard, the performance is a thrilling alternative. What a brilliant technique. Bravo!

How is this recording able to get 50 dislikes? This is the best existing recording of the masterpiece from Ravel, performed by a legendary pianist.

It's so genius bringing that bass line from 18:34 all the way to 18:47. I love it.

The finest performance of one of the most exquisite pieces ever written for any instrument.

Absolutely breathtaking! Ravel was a mad genius to create such a musical world from three poems 😍

This is a truly wonderful performance of one of the greatest pieces ever written for the piano. Thanks for putting it up so that we can hear this interpretation and never forget it!

He performs Scarbo in what has to be my favorite way at the moment -- with technical prowess, but not mechanically. It's so alive...

the most precise,and carefully delineated performance of this magical work,that i have heard.

Stunning composition, exceptional performance.

I love this piece. Wish I had discovered it sooner. The first movement is gorgeous. The second is chilling. And the third is just everything in life period. Love this!

I just can't get my head around 10:33 - 10:46. Pogorelich shades every chord differently and it sounds beyond stunning

20:25 such a delicate passage. Truly ominous and magical.

The first Ravel piece I ever saw was the Fountain. I was browsing sheet music at the music store to find some things to sight read for my teacher as potential options for a competition, and I LOVED how it looked, I knew it would sound magnificent, and it would be hard enough to play to qualify for my ranking. He became my favorite composer from that time forward. His compositions look as beautiful on the page as they sound to the ear, and when your fingers achieve the notes perfectly, you feel like the rain outside is falling directly from your fingertips. This piece is no exception, and it is performed with a lovely touch.

Very very GREAT!!! The score synchronized with the music! Thank you Musicanth, you're fantastic!

The best performance of Scarbo.❤

4:00 i've never head a piano sound so desperate and mournful. Ravel never ceases to amaze me..

My brain is fried. I can't even think this fast. No, I take that back. I can't even follow the score and have it make sense in my head. I wonder how the pianist felt. Amazing!

Artificial intelligence will never be capable of generating or writing a piece of music such this magnificent timeless piece of art

It is most delicate, deliscious and delightful Version which I ever heard. Love Pogo !

That buildup from 4:17 to 4:28 is unbelievably good! 🙌🏽🙌🏽

My God, the clarity, the clarity … it is just astounding.

This is the greatest recording of Ondine. Most pianists try to play it but just fail. Even Pogo. cannot play as well it now that he is much older. To answer another commentator - no Ravel could not play it . His pianist capabilities were made fun of by his contemporaries. However therein lies his great genius in that he could create sounds he could not physically hear. Lazar B gets very close because of his immense technique but Pogo. is the prime interpreter.

Ondine, Douce comme la brise et forte comme la vague, Va au devant des obstacles et traverse les mers déchaînées, Dans les flots tumultueux de l'océan tu sais rester fière et limpide comme l'eau de roche, Tu apaises mon âme de ta douceur naïve,et telle une nymphe tu m'inspires et m'aspires, Oh Ondine! Que trépasses si je je t'oublie! Qui saurait me procurer autant de plaisir que tes langoureuses caresses le long de mon corps, Baigné dans ton eau pure et au soleil éclatant, Tu ondines, ondules, et parcours le littoral de mon corps, Telle un sage stoïque tu nous enseignes à tous l'importance de l'harmonie et de la transparence, Car limpide tu es et claire tu es, Ondine! Sauve-nous des aléas obscures des eaux noires de l'existence! Ondine et ondule, Ondine!

This is lovely, and awe-inspiring.

Just about the time you think you've escaped their call, you're sucked back in again. Breathtaking. Beautifully done.

Stunning....stunning....stunning!

Not to brag or anything, but I think I can play 6:20 to 6:47 pretty well.

Ondine is such an angelic piece. 5:06 always leaves me star strucked. And now hearing "Le Gibet". Just hearing the repeated B-flat octaves is like hearing the sound of distant knell bells. It reminds me of the last section of The Bells by Edgar Allen Poe.

This is the best version ive ever heard of Ondine. The harmonies are so powerful, its unbelievable... Ravel was brilliant.

I absolutely love the beginning! It is soo beautiful!

1st movement (ondine) is water & beautiful. 2nd movement (le gibet) is underrated, dark & beautiful. 3rd movement (scarbo) is virtuoistic and beautiful.

Acorrding to most, Scarbo is technically the most difficult piano solo ever written, Ravel purposelly tried to "out do the difficulty in "Islamey",written by Mily Balakieriv..

Love this rendering, Pogorelichs control of the piano keys is just incredible, for such a difficult piece he delivers so smoothly.

Ravel really did set out to make one of the most brilliante inspiring works of tone color and imaginative thinking. Very amazing!

Sound quality is so clear and beautiful :)

Cumplido, sugerente, arrebatador. Pogorelich reescribe cada poema, lo hace vivir en el espacio, en particular ese "gibet" patético y el "Scarbo" imprevisible y mágico. Soberbia interpretación de partitura tan compleja. Ivo es genial como lo era Ravel, ha recreado el Gaspar y uno tiene la sensación de oírlo por la primera vez. Escuchado en la noche de estos Andes ecuatorianos, me he dejado llevar y al terminar la audición no sé donde estoy, si en las alturas por encima del Tablón Pachamama o simplemente disuelto en los aires.

Thank you for uploading this with updating score. This is my fav rendition of my fav piano piece. It goes to 11.

timeless and otherworldly majestic, what a composer.

My favourite recording of any piece, ever...

4:20 best interpretation I’ve ever heard

Beauty beyond perfection !!

Whauh, what a piece, and what a playing!

This rightly had a rosette in the Penguin, phenomenally skilled playing, totally secure and in the idiom; the colours he finds in the middle movement are unique. His playing seems to luxuriously thicken out to the full length every note.

Le Gibet is perhaps one of the darkest pieces of music I've ever heard. It's gloomy and brimming with despair. Really demonstrates the evil of this world.

One of the greatest pieces of piano music ever written!

Genius composition. Technically daunting. Le Gibet is may favorite.

Gorgeous performance.

Pogorelich's rendition is impenetrably clean

I once turned pages for maestro Pogorelich performing Chopin 2nd Sonata. I was terrified enough back then, but I can't imagine what it would be like to turn the pages for THIS :D

Such a masterful performance, sensitive and powerful in turn.

Trying to learn this piece is quite the learning experience. All movements pose their own difficulties, technically and emotionally. The pristineness of Ondine, the desolation of Le Gibet, and the anger and fear of Scarbo. For a while I thought Le Gibet would be easier, and while technically your fingers aren't occupied with insane jumps or tricky trills, the repetitive tolling of the Bflat octave and the occasional moments with some rather uncomfortable positions for the hands is pretty exhausting, not to mention trying to capture the lonely, deathly atmosphere of the movement. Ondine is already challenging enough. To capture the elegance of the piece is the most tricky part of it. Wrong notes will easily be audible in this movement. Scarbo is deservedly regarded as one of the most demanding pieces in the piano repertoire, classical or not. The very deep, dark and angry character of this piece is awesome.

IVO POGORELICH ... definitely one of my favorite pianists!!!

Composing Ondine is one of the greatest achievement of what a human can do, reaching such high beauty is really but really difficult

I first heard this mesmerizing piece of music ("Le Gibet") in a movie, " the Hunger". I am SO grateful to youtube for this transcription. sincerely, John.

So majestic

4:17 most epic buildup ever

This particular piece,especially Ondine ,conveys a sort of overwhelming,sad loneliness,Ravel must have felt..He never married or was known to have a "significant other".. it is a deep, emotionally charged composition and perhaps his most Beautiful..and Greatest.

a truly great composer and a truly great pianist. great artists