Fleisher’s Ravel

Posted by mwblogger

May 26, 2009

Do you ever have that experience where you go to a concert and hear a piece of music performed, and for days after that is the only music you can hear? I’m there now. I went to Alice Tully Hall the other night to hear pianist Xiayin Wang perform a piece by my friend Sean Hickey, and one of the other works on the program was Ravel’s “Albordora del Gracioso” from Miroirs. It’s a devilishly difficult work of many moods and damn near impossible to assay—unless, of course, you play like Ms. Wang! She can do anything. I was bowled over.

So now I’m home and listening to Fleisher play the same work (on my Essential Leon Fleisher compilation) for probably the 30th time since the concert a few days ago. Masterful, of course—they both capture something essential in Ravel aside from negotiating the seemingly insurmountable technical difficulties. There’s a side of every Ravel piece just soaked in the idea of play, of, dare I say, fun, that both nail. I had the advantage (and this is always true) of seeing (hearing?) Wang play live versus simply listening to Mr. Fleisher on my stereo, but one can imagine his live reading being just as thrilling, equally engrossing and even equally showman-like.

And, how shall I put this? I’ve been accused of stealing from this piece more than once. Should I deny? And now that I am into my 31st listening, will the problem worsen? Probably, because this is music I’ve soaked in not only by listening (Ravel is perhaps my favorite composer, and his piano output my favorite sub-sector of his work) but by my own deeply feeble attempts to play it. Thank God there’s my Fleisher recording to show me the way. And on the 32nd listen, it just gets better and better.

Buy The Essential Leon Fleisher Here

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