0:00 I. Prélude - "To the memory of Lieutenant Jacques Charlot" 3:00 II. Fugue - "To the memory of Jean Cruppi" 6:00 III. Forlane - "To the memory of Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc" 14:00 IV. Rigaudon - "To the memory of Pierre and Pascal Gaudin" 17:25 V. Menuet - "To the memory of Jean Dreyfus" 22:55 VI. Toccata - "To the memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave"
forlane again on track, nice and crisp and just the right amount of rubato. Menuet very nice, again those gorgeous, delicate shadings that draw you in to his psychological space. The toccata is very very good. This piece is an absolute beast and pianists are routinely defeated by the last two pages. You can always see it by the look on their faces - "aw crap!" - as they slop through the last e major arpeggios.Even this titan of technique is similarly defeated, just like everybody else. I can't think of another piece that does this to pianists. Even scarbo. Even petrouchka!! I do quibble of course. It's a great, great performance.
Indeed? Bravo for your enthusiastic review, but are you demanding that we, perhaps less transported listeners (> 33,800 and counting) embrace your vision and declarations of true musical artistry? Surely you must realize there have been probably ten thousand major and minor budding pianists that have loved and beat the shit out of Ravel's Tombeau in good faith effort to interpret and reveal his 'true artistry', since le Tombeau first hit the charts? One suspects there have been a few frauds or imposters along the way, but not too many. Le Tombeau is not an easy piece to fake. Life's too short for absolutist opinions from dogmatic musical critics. Get a grip man, move on a new latitude. If you wanna play the piece, sit down and start to work at it. Let us know how you're doing every few years :-). Perhaps you should concern yourself with the score, development of your own ear, keyboard technique, touch and eventual transcendent interpretation and leave Mr Sokolov to extol his keyboard virtuosity, as he is quite capable of doing, thru the music. I suspect most of us would trust him to 'tell it like it is'. Others may offer differing, yet quite valid interpretations, as you yourself may achieve one of these days.
karl walter g my enthusiasm was probably mistaken for absolutism. I found quite a few interpretations I appreciate for this of that reason (Zhukov, François, Libeer among others), yet this specific performance simply sounds divine to me. I played this Suite several times (you can even find my Toccata as played in Paris last summer, on my channel), but still I come back to this in renewed awe and humility, every single time. Please don’t be so strict in judging my impetus, you may end up dulling it :)
Shall we come to some agreement? Sokolov, he's in the groove, a fine pianist, and a beautiful performance !! Sorry if I applied too heavy a sledge hammer to your fan's notes. That sorta language would hardly do justice to the mysterious fabric of Piano Forte touch. One feels Mr. Sokolov has wandered in those realms.
Beautiful work! Thank you I. Prélude "To the memory of Lieutenant Jacques Charlot" II. Fugue "To the memory of Jean Cruppi" III. Forlane "To the memory of Lieutenant Gabriel Deluc" IV. Rigaudon "To the memory of Pierre and Pascal Gaudin" V. Menuet "To the memory of Jean Dreyfus" VI. Toccata "To the memory of Captain Joseph de Marliave"
Le Tombeau de Couperin est une “lamentation” pour les six amis morts au front pendant la Grande Guerre. Ravel dédie chacun des mouvements à l’un ou deux de ses compagnons : I. Prélude " en mémoire du lieutenant Jacques Charlot "; II. Fugue " en mémoire de Jean Cruppi "; III. Forlane " en mémoire du lieutenant Gabriel Deluc " ; IV. Rigaudon " en mémoire de Pierre et Pascal Gaudin " ; V. Menuet " en mémoire de Jean Dreyfus ". Plus qu’un Requiem c'est une remembrance poétique, chacune des compositions invoquant par une danse l’ami perdu. Pour y parvenir, il s’inspire de l’esprit des suites de danses écrites pour le clavecin par des compositeurs comme Couperin ou Rameau. Á la façon d’un enchantement, il s’agit d’une libre interprétation revisitée réaffirmant par ce retour au passé un éveille du pays commun. Au dire d’Adorno, mélancolie claire et cristalline du temps fugace qu’on ne peut pas écrouer, car peu importe ce qui de lui s’échappe ("Ravel", Écrits musicaux IV).
I have loved this piece since I first heard it over 50 years ago. And I love Sokolov. I appreciate all the criticism noted below. But what is so marvelous about this performance is that he makes it a real tombeau. Every note is full of grief and loss. This is the piece Ravel wanted to write.
Everything Sokolov plays seems to be in the precise voice of the composer. When he hear his Beethoven or his Ravel it seems as if there is no other way to perform these pieces, and yet so many do. He seems to be able to immerse himself into the soul of anyone he plays.
Truly an exceptional performance, the finest I have heard. I couldn't have imagined how divinily the Forlane could be interpreted; this profuse use of _rubato_ is of course daring but all justified. Sokolov here transforms time to something beyond and makes me somehow silently contemplate the essence of time and its passing from a new angle. The suite is an utterly fine and delicate interpretation in its entirity too, I'm very willing to excuse the tiny uncertainty in the Toccata, it actually makes the listening somehow more comfortable - to know that even the very best have their limits. Even more, I think it is almost appropriate and welcome in precisely that piece as it is so notorious for its extreme difficulty in performance, requiring the approach of a most pedantic clocksmith from the pianist.
prelude and fugue very nice, articulate and sensitive. I just listened to the forlane and I feel like I need to get out of the car and push. It's gorgeous in a way, delicate shadings, but the rubato is so extreme it verges on self-indulgent.
Sokolov is a unique phenomenon, an original genius and one of the greatest, most imaginative musicians and pianists of all time. There is no other performance I have heard this which combines such exquisite clarity with just the right amount of pedal and atmosphere. Only Pletnev and the late Samson Francois approach him in unique greatness; keep your eye on Aleksandr Malofeev, too, just 17 years old but another phenomenon.
Amazing, terrific, wonderful... I heard more times the final Toccata played by him (he played it several years as encore): maybe this is his best performance.
Un peu trop de rubato par endroit je trouve, notamment dans le menuet! Je suis d'accord qu'on ne doit pas tout jouer "métronomiquement" mais là ça me parait trop, à la limite de la faute de goût même. La toccata est bien par contre!
