Ravel: Piano Concertos; De Falla: Nuits dans les jardins d’Espagne
Alexandre Tharaud (piano); Orchestre National de France/Louis Langrée
Erato 5419766071 60:53 mins
Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain, but this heady blend of French and Spanish sensibilities is more than a mere filler. Its three movements teem with evocative melodic invention and rich colours, arguably making it the best exemplar of an impressionist piano concerto given neither Debussy nor Ravel quite wrote a work that fits that epithet.
There is much to admire here, not least the Orchestre National de France, which is on superlative form under Louis Langrée. While losing no finesse, the woodwind in particular recapture the quintessentially French sound that was in danger of being lost in recent years, whether in the tangy opening of the De Falla or the oaky lyricism of the bassoon in the first movement of Ravel’s Concerto in G.
Tharaud is the star of the show, though, and something special might be expected of this perennially thoughtful, interesting and daring pianist. His bravura and poetry are to the fore in the left-hand concerto, along with some extraordinary sonorities in the De Falla. Sadly, in the Concerto in G, elements of distinctiveness too often stray into mannerism. It is not so much that the long solo of the slow movement is played like Chopin, but that the left hand audibly adjusts speed rather than having a natural ebb and flow. As with similar small bumps in the outer movements, these moments might intrigue once, but wane on repeated listening. Christopher Dingle