Ravel - Piano Concerto [Zimerman/Boulez-London Symphony Orchestra] This is the two-handed Piano Concerto in G Major, first off this is recorded spectacularly, on the back insert DG calls it a 4D recording, a truly lovely depth and separation of instruments, it's a joy to hear such wonderfully recorded music, and with Ravel we get something so French too!, and Ravel also dabbles in Jazz idioms with expertise.
Krystian Zimerman is Polish, born in 1956, he made this recording in 1994, he's now 54, for some reason i like the booklet front cover [photo by Susesch Bayat], of a smiling Boulez and Zimerman, the photo is lovely and sharp, i like the blue / green marbled pillars.
This is one of the very best recorded discs i own, i love the snap right at the very start of this Concerto, Ravel startles us out of our comfort zone, but it's the slow movement that's just so gorgeous and soothing, it starts off with a 3 minute piano solo [0:00-3:01], very dreamy and reflective, and sounds like it dips into the Minor keys at times [1:51], it's the flute that shakes us from the solo dream as the orchestra come in [3:02], the piano becomes louder and sadder [4:00], but the dreaminess is kept up, a faster high treble section creates a lovely variety [5:00], and the piano and orchestra reach a zenith in loudness and agitation [6:06], and there's my favourite part of this movement, with the cor anglais playing the gorgeous melodic line [6:18-8:18 & 8:34-8:45], while the piano almost ad-libs up and down the keyboard in the treble, it's a beautiful ending, and so mesmerizing.
Here's Helene Grimaud playing the slow movement on YouTube.
