Have you heard Pascal Roge? He's pretty darn good.

Svjatoslav Richter

Oh yes, it was probably a bad idea to listen to K.B. Let me guess: too fast, too confused, too must virtuoso allure, bad taste. But I suppose you will not do the same mistake again

vladibaby79 I can only laugh at your comment because you summed her up! LMBO! I once heard her Prokofiev War Sonata (7th) and was appauled!

i do have to disagree, martha's version is exquisit and yes it does not compare to any other interpretation. but kathia's rendition wasn't bad at all if that's what you're implying

I heard Pogorelich play this once, years ago before he went mad. It was miraculous.

@@dzordzszs He went completely off the rails. I few years after the Gaspard concert I heard him again - the pieces were unrecognizable because of ridiculous tempos (3 times faster or slower than they should be). The music was literally distorted beyond recognition and was almost impossible to listen too. About half the audience left in the intermission.

...clarity and precision and grace...wonderfully expressive...every note has meaning...

Benedetti Michelangeli…

I had always considered Argerich's performances of Gaspard to be unrivaled until I heard her great friend Nelson Freire. There are at least two performances on KZfaq by him of this work, and they are no less fabulous than hers. My only regret is that one of his recordings suffers some audio distortion, but the fire and virtuosity come blazing through.

@@karlakor Yes you are referring to Pogorelich who is superb, but do hear Michelangeli and especially Benjamin Grosvenor

@@789armstrongGrosvenor is surprisingly good, all three are top tier; although I sometimes wish he had that same intensity as pogorelich in Scarbo especially

@@Ace-dv5ce Yes, Grosvenor is excellent and comparable to Michelangeli who owns this piece.

⁠@@789armstrongMichelangelo was one of Argerich’s teachers

He is one of the best performers of our generation. I prefer to hear him over many more better-known pianists.

Yes the Grovsner performance is a miracle

What do you mean by "half diminished seventh chord"? A half diminished chord is not a dominant seventh chord.

Lol. Do you mean eargasmic? And I agree.

@@davisatdavis1 remsan03 probably means both

Depends on what you mean by play it? Some folks audition with it to get into music school, its painful to see, but again if you mean recordings of it? MANY.......as to decent recordings, I can think of about 6 that are NICE to listen to I believe Richter did a version I liked ALOT, Lisitsa, etc etc BUT again, its not the speed its the atmosphere, you invoke

Thanks. How long does it take to figure out what notes to hit? I play the guitar and can read music but the sheet music fot gaspard is sick!

oh, you mean transcribing it??? Well, you do have the rest of your life...BUT if you are serious, get a copy of the score...NOT easy

No I mean reading the sheet music and then figuring out the notes to play.

It really depends on your skill level and whether or not you're ready for the piece technically and emotionally. Valentina Lisitsa took 3 days to learn the entire Gaspard. As an amateur I took over a year just for Ondine without touching le gibet and scarbo, nowhere near a pro's level of course (but then I just play for fun in my free time, I practiced about 1-2 hours a day. Lisitsa has said that she practices up to 12 hours a day!) . And even if you can play the notes themselves, you also need the emotional maturity and time to understand what you're playing, and to figure out a good interpretation of the piece that delivers the expression you want. Really difficult but not impossible to conquer one bar at a time.

Pogorelich and Perlemuter fans

Probably not available. But, you can buy her famous recording by Deutsche Grammophone, it is really an important reference recording, even if she was very unhappy about; she told in a documentary that she was then pregnant and played not the way she used to, and afterwards heard the master tape and was crying and found that I sounded like a pregnant housewife. In my opinion, she was then the most talented pregnant housewife of all times! LOL

@@vladibaby79You are right. That quote is from her daughter’s documentary on her entitled Bloody Daughter. Excellent film about Martha and her fame, family and her life.

What do you find so exceptional in Pogorelich's Scarbo? At the very beginning the repeated notes must be "très fondu en trémolo". This is not the case with Pogorelich: they crackle like a submachine gun. And on the following pages many notes are not bonded enough according to the score. Of course this gives a greater clarity but was it Ravel's will ? It does not help for a mysterious and unreal atmosphere, a kind of hallucination. Also the big arpeggios which go from top to bottom of the keyboard crescendo and then go up to the top vanishing are not vanishing at all with Pogorelich. And I could point out other details where Pogorelich does not respect what Ravel wrote, even if his dynamique control his remarkable (his pianissimo trills!). The target in Scarbo is not to play as fast as possible, but to give an atmosphere of anguish and fear. Of course Pogorelich does that, but also many others (Gieseking, Michelangeli, Argerich, Grosvenor, Debargue, ...)

I like Pogorelich's playing. Really amazing pianist, but Argerich is also superb. I think one of the world's best pianists ever. Each pianist brings something special to a piece of music. Makes one see it and experience it in a different shade

I agree--Argerich--for the Ondine, Pogo for Gibet and Scarbo

Kennst du "Bloody daughter", den FIlm über MA von einer ihrer 3 Töchter? Ich hab ihn auf Dvd, falls es dich interessiert!

Aber natürlich besitze ich dieses Video schon längst, aber trotzdem vielen Dank für das Angebot ,liebe Nora.

+Christine Horand-Haberecht I think I prefer Argerich's version to the Benedetti. She makes every note sing, and few others accomplish that. This is especially startling because -- until I heard this performance -- I'd always assumed that Argerich didn't much care for Ravel's music. There's a really dreadful performance on youtube of one of her performance's of Jeux D'eau. (To be fair, there are other performances by her of the same piece that are really splendid.)

Arturo was one of Martha’s teachers

She plays it far better than most and her playing of the third movement Scarbo is pretty much the standard...As to the too fast, I cant see it, you could see the score online, the tempo is a ball breaker yes, but the piece is incredible fr its interpretation. I was a bit let down by Lisitsas performance, there are a few others out there, There isa GOOD recording of Argerich playing this on Deutsche Grammaphon

whitbywv Perlemuter was one of Ravels students and he learned Gaspard (as well as all his works) directly from Ravel. He doesn't play it as fast and as a result you can hear more colors coming from his interpretation. Perlemuter has the best interpretation hands down as close to what the composer wanted.

I'm so glad Ravel let you know this firsthand, what luck we have to be surrounded by so many knowledgeable people, who seem to have always been 'there'...

personally I dislike the rubato, self-indulgent versions of Ondine. Argerich's tempo is spot on, allowing the phrases to spin out without mannerism.