The Ravel Piano Concertos pose a challenging conundrum. Composed concurrently, no two Concertos are more vividly contrasted. The first in G major is, by Ravel's own admission, a 'jeu d'esprit' emulating the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saens, while the second in D major is 'dark and visceral,' a malignant masterpiece. Opening with a sound aptly described as like 'the scraping of a witch's cauldron' it was inspired by Paul Wittgenstein, the Concerto's dedicatee who had lost his arm in the First World War.
Later, the Left-Hand Concerto was clouded by many troubles. Wittgenstein disliked it and demanded alterations which Ravel, for ever the perfectionist, refused. Toscanini declined an invitation to conduct the first performance which was given by Wittgenstein with much re-writing causing Ravel to become apoplectic with rage. Later still Cortot's edition, arranged for two hands, met with further blanket disapproval prompting the composer to write to conductors insisting on their refusal to engage the pianist. It took Clifford Curzon to write about the fallacy of this arrangement claiming that it destroyed the very nature of the Concerto, its meticulous exploitation of the individual strengths of each finger. The first French performance, which met with Ravel's approval, was given in 1933 by Jacques Fevrier.
Seong-Jin Chen, whose recording of Ravel's complete solo piano music is, arguably, the finest of all, enters a crowded competitive field. Both Concertos boast recordings by Louis Lortie, Samson Francois, Krystian Zimerman and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, to name but four. And there are legendary discs of the G major Concero by Michelangeli and, perhaps most of all, by Martha Argerich(on DG, but even more memorably on Avanti Classics). And I have to say that by comparison Seong-Jin Cho's heavily characterised performances while masterly at many levels lack a necessary sense of French cool and a tendency to dim too much of the First Concerto's sparkle. In the incomparable central 'Adagio' I missed a more seamless flow and a greater sense of the music's jade-like enigma, though he comes into his own in the mad cap finale where he is as exhilarating as you could wish.
The D major Concerto is a greater success, its evocation of war, the march of jack boots all too audible, is powerfully evoked and never more so than in the long concluding solo cadenzaa which is made to well up out of the darkness into a blaze of defiance. Outstanding alternatives to this extraordinary work are by Robert Casadesus(Ravel's favourite interpreter) and Leon Fleisher, grandly rhetorical and like Wittgenstein one- armed ( though a victim of focal dystonia.) The Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons could hardly be more alert, as they were on the previous Fleisher recording conducted by Seiji Ozawa. DG's sound and balance are exemplary.
Bryce Morrison