ALEXANDRE THARAUD
Ravel: L'Oeuvre pour piano (Harmonia Mundi)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

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The first thing you'll notice, is how quiet it is: how pianist Alexandre Tharaud manipulates his instrument, a modern Steinway, to show off not its capacity for bravado, but its warm, natural sounds that grasp your ear delicately. The piano compositions featured here by Maurice Ravel comprise a series of stunning, ambient maneuvers that reflect what Tharaud refers to as a "cult of secrecy that pervades [Ravel's] work." These are delicate pieces, to an almost fragile extreme, and their recording in the Temple Saint-Pierre fills a room with sound from its most unexpected reaches.

Like a morsel of spring, "Une Barque Sur L'Ocean" delights in catastrophic lows and dizzying ascensions: dark days, and warm basking afternoons on the suggestion of June. From its architecture, Tharaud seems to interpret a single being's optimism in this contrast. Restrained grandeur is teeming in "La Vallee Des Cloches," a construction that seems to be in perpetual preparation for its grand entrance and ends up sounding like a hundred times the first impression of a big room.

As a complete collection of Ravel's solo piano work, L'Oeuvre pour piano is an ambitious feat and far more than one listen can appreciate. Without constrains of time, it is a reward for many afternoon sessions. As recorded, this is one of the most private works of any style and should be treated as such. The joy is everywhere, just not from a flamboyant perspective.

© 2004 - Erick Mertz