Ravel: Complete Music for Solo Piano

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Fergus-Thompson is an instinctive Ravelian to be reckoned with. — BBC Music Magazine, October 2019, 4 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 19th Jul 2019
Catalogue No: ELQ4829041
Label: Eloquence
Length: 2 hours 19 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

Work length16:40

$8.80

$12.00

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1990
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

1. Modéré - très franc

Track length1:36

$1.10

$1.50

2. Assez lent

Track length2:17

$1.10

$1.50

3. Modéré

Track length1:30

$1.10

$1.50

4. Assez animé

Track length1:22

$1.10

$1.50

5. Presque lent - dans un sentiment intime

Track length1:22

$1.10

$1.50

6. Vif

Track length0:55

$1.10

$1.50

7. Moins vif

Track length3:04

$1.10

$1.50

8. Epilogue - Lent

Track length4:34

$1.10

$1.50

Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit

Work length22:08

$3.30

$4.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1990
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

I. Ondine

Track length6:57

$1.10

$1.50

II. Le gibet

Track length5:31

$1.10

$1.50

III. Scarbo

Track length9:40

$1.10

$1.50

Ravel: Jeux d'eau

Work length6:05

$1.10

$1.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1990
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin

Work length26:32

$6.60

$9.00

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1990
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

1. Prélude

Track length3:24

$1.10

$1.50

2. Fugue

Track length3:18

$1.10

$1.50

3. Forlane

Track length6:52

$1.10

$1.50

4. Rigaudon

Track length3:38

$1.10

$1.50

5. Menuet

Track length5:15

$1.10

$1.50

6. Toccata

Track length4:05

$1.10

$1.50

Ravel: Prélude

Work length1:37

$1.10

$1.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

Ravel: Miroirs, M.43

Work length30:47

$5.50

$7.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

1. Noctuelles

Track length4:46

$1.10

$1.50

2. Oiseaux tristes

Track length4:22

$1.10

$1.50

3. Une barque sur l'océan

Track length8:18

$1.10

$1.50

4. Alborada del gracioso

Track length6:53

$1.10

$1.50

5. La vallée des cloches

Track length6:28

$1.10

$1.50

Ravel: Menuet sur le nom de Haydn

Work length1:57

$1.10

$1.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

Ravel: Menuet antique

Work length7:04

$1.10

$1.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

Ravel: Sérénade grotesque

Work length3:56

$1.10

$1.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

Ravel: Sonatine

Work length11:58

$3.30

$4.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

1. Modéré

Track length4:40

$1.10

$1.50

2. Mouvement de menuet

Track length3:19

$1.10

$1.50

3. Animé

Track length3:59

$1.10

$1.50

Ravel: A la manière de Borodine

Work length1:48

$1.10

$1.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

Ravel: A la manière de Chabrier

Work length2:03

$1.10

$1.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte

Work length6:47

$1.10

$1.50

Gordon Fergus-Thompson (piano)
Recorded: 1993-01-01
Recording Venue: All Saints Church, Petersham

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About

Recorded for the ASV label in 1990, this collection of Ravel’s piano music has never previously been released complete. Now reissued for the first time in more than a decade, this set presents not the kind of coolly

objective view of the fastidious composer-craftsman that modern recordings have accustomed us to, but more of a poet in sound and in touch with his Basque origins.

The piano was for Ravel the principal medium of musical thought, and his approach to the instrument was at once lavish and precise. Lisztian virtuosity is entwined with an antique spirit of French dance in both the darkly Impressionist Gaspard de la nuit and the much gentler strains of the Valses nobles et sentimentales. Likewise Jeux d’eau takes its inspiration from a Lisztian template while Le tombeau de Couperin pays deeply affectionate tribute both to friends killed in the First World War and to an imagined Eden of formal manners and gentility, presumed lost forever.

Although his repertoire ranges from Bach to Webern, Gordon Fergus-Thompson has won particular renown as a Franco-Russian specialist in command of the most technically challenging repertoire by the likes of Balakirev. Following the reissue of his complete Scriabin recordings, and his renowned Debussy, Eloquence brings back another pair of albums which find the pianist in his element: rhythmically free yet in complete control of Ravel’s fastidiously exacting scores; timbrally refined yet abandoned to the Viennese excess of La valse as well as the blurred, dream-like moods of the Miroirs.

‘Fergus-Thompson sounds sparkier and freer, with a gentler flow of tone and more space in the recording ... There’s no problem, at least, about brilliance of effect. The finale of the Sonatine finds more vigour and purpose, and some of the minor pieces have an attractive light touch.’ - BBC Music Magazine

‘Fergus-Thompson [...] confirms his calibre and status as a distinguished, most individual Francophile ... Even the most experienced Ravelians will find themselves returning to these finely recorded accounts for a special and magical enlightenment.’ - Gramophone, October 1993

Reviews

October 2019

Fergus-Thompson is an instinctive Ravelian to be reckoned with.

Ravel: Complete Music for Solo Piano

2 CDs

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