Product Description

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: PROKOFIEV/RAVEL
Title: CON PNO 3/CON PNO
Street Release Date: 05/14/1996
Domestic
Genre: CLASSICAL COMPOSERS

Track Listing

1. Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26: Andante - Allegro
2. Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26: Theme and Variations. Andantino
3. Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26: Allegro, Ma Non Troppo
4. Piano Concerto in G major: I. Allegramente
5. Piano Concerto in G major: II. Adagio assai
6. Piano Concerto in G major: III. Presto
7. Gaspard de la nuit, for piano: No. 1, Ondine
8. Gaspard de la nuit, for piano: No. 2, Le gibet
9. Gaspard de la nuit, for piano: No. 3, Scarbo

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35330 in Music
• Brand: PROKOFIEV/RAVEL
• Released on: 1996-05-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
These performances established Martha Argerich as one of the most exciting and brilliant young pianists in the world. Thirty years on, they are still among the finest available. Now they have been remastered and reissued at mid-price, once again proving the somewhat demented fact (from a marketing point of view) that there's no relationship at all in the classical music business between quality of performance and what one pays for it. From the listener's point of view, this makes for a great time to start a classical record collection; and if you're looking for either of these concertos (or "Gaspard"), this is one of the recordings you will want to own. -- David Hurwitz

Amazon.com essential recording
This is the original Prokofiev/Ravel concerto coupling as it appeared on LP; the Prokofiev has also been coupled with the Tchaikovsky First Concerto. I prefer this edition since superb performances of the Ravel are less common. The young (1967) Martha Argerich plays the Prokofiev for maximum brilliance but leavens the Ravel with the composer's ironic lyricism. It's very effective. The bonus is one of the greatest performances of the Ravel piano suite ever recorded, but it leaves me wondering what will happen to the remainder of the original LP. All those solo Ravel pieces should be in the catalog; as Argerich plays them, they offer a primer on what keyboard color is all about. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews

Breathtaking!
In my opinion, this is THE Prokofiev 3rd Concerto to have. It is simply wildly breathtaking. Argerich does not use her formidable technique to show off what she has, but rather to benefit the music as a whole. The rhythmic drive is so intense that the orchestra - this is the Berlin Phil we are talking about here - have difficulty in keeping up with her. But nonetheless, they do a super job in accompanying her. She makes the piano sing, playing notes as if she was singing. The sheer energy of this pianist is amazing. In her debut recording for EMI, she was said to have taken several cups of black coffee before entering the studio to record. Perhaps she did the same thing for this recording? Anyway, the way she interacts with the orchestra is most uncanny. Great performers have the ability to listen to others, but Argerich has the ability to almost accompany the orchestra (!) when necessary. The piece sounds as a whole, not as individual movements, in my opinion, which is great: that way it fully keeps the listener's attention. She lets rip in the last movement and the result is unbelievably improvisatory, but she maintains tension and control in the movement, and indeed the whole concerto. I think tension is one of the main keys to playing this concerto well. Otherwise it sounds technical, not musical. The Prokofiev ends spectacularly. Then comes the Ravel concerto in G. It is very jazzy, and Argerich's version has rarely been surpassed. I think that has a lot to do with her improvisatory approach to music. Someone commented that she is a true improvisor, in the tradition of Liszt, but unlike her predecessor, she never tampers with the notes itself. Here, that improvisatory approach really works, and it never for a moment sounded dull or repetetive. Abbado seems in full agreement with Argerich and it is another successful recording. After the wonderful concerti, the Gaspard de la nuit. It is a notoriously difficult piece, but Argerich makes it sound dead easy, as usual. She is said to have learned the piece in less than five days when her one-time teacher Friedrich Gulda, told her to master the piece in five days. She says that it was easy because she didn't know it was supposed to be difficult! Well, that certainly comes across, and she gives a very pictorial account of the work that borders on the frightening. The remastering is first-class. It has clarity and fullness compared with previous remastering, although in the Prokofiev the sound was a little opaque, due to the orchestral detail, which makes the orchestra sound a little compressed. But it is a small matter, as this is a disc that has few equals or competitors, and I doubt it will ever have serious competition with future versions. Stunning.

The young Argerich--fresh and completely without affectation
The few complainers about this famous recording have slipped far down the list here at Amazon, and what's striking is that the things the detractors hate about Argerich (mannered phrasing, overly aggressive attack, rushing, banging) are the very things we don't get here. Argerich can adopt a reckless, hectoring style, but at her best--as here--she's full of imagination, wit, and an uncanny ability to see beneath the surface of the score.

I can only second everyone else's high praise for the Prokofiev and Ravel concertos, which are spellbinding, as well as the praise for her Gaspard de la Nuit, which is staggeringly virtuosic and original. Abbado conducts with gusto and style, if not the greatest nuance, and only the somewhat dated sonics detract (marginally) from an acclaimed recording that has remained in print for forty years.

Ahh... Come On, Now...!
I cannot believe that David White and the so-called "music fan" are listening to the same CD the rest of us are! This recording
is what made a Martha Argerich fan out of me. Her playing throughout this collection is just spell-binding and thoroughly amazing.
Argerich has recorded the Prokofiev 3rd twice already, and a third recording is reported to be ready for release. Each of them are as different from the others as can be. The later one, with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony, is both more austere and more poetic than this one, but here we have the young Argerich, full of the fire, brio and self-confident daring
and risk-taking which made her reputation. Few other pianists would attempt to take the outer movements of the Prokofiev at the
tempoes Argerich does here (FAST!). To say that she pulls it off
with abandon is an understatement! The slow interior movement is
as thoughtful and beautiful as anything you will find in Prokofiev, with notes falling from suspension like drops of water off icicles in the first thaw after a long winter. The way Martha turns on a dime, from peaceful contemplation to firey
agitation is something to behold. She is so good, it's almost silly!
As for the Ravel pieces, both solo and with orchestra, Argerich's
affinity for Ravel's music and her ability to communicate its
profound, yet subtle, emotional content is unsurpassed. Nobody
plays Ravel's piano music better than Martha Argerich. They can only play it differently.
If you are already an Argerich fan, why isn't this CD in your collection? If you have yet to discover her artistry, this CD
makes an excellent place to start. Welcome to a larger universe!