Prokofiev & Ravel - Piano Concertos - Deutsche Grammophon: 4776593 - download

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And this is Ravel a performance that bristles both on the keyboard and in a series of fabulous orchestral solos… a lurid delight. — BBC Music Magazine, July 2008, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 21st Apr 2008
Catalogue No: 4776593
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Length: 50 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

May 2008

Editor's Choice

Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16

Work length30:09

$3.40

$4.60

Yundi (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Seiji Ozawa
Recorded: 2007-05-27
Recording Venue: Grosser Saal, Berlin Philharmonie

1. Andantino

Track length11:09

$0.85

$1.15

2. Scherzo (Vivace)

Track length2:17

$0.85

$1.15

3. Intermezzo (Allegro moderato)

Track length5:41

$0.85

$1.15

4. Finale (Allegro tempestoso)

Track length11:02

$0.85

$1.15

Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major

Work length20:48

$2.55

$3.45

Yundi (piano)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Seiji Ozawa
Recorded: 2007-05-27
Recording Venue: Grosser Saal, Berlin Philharmonie

1. Allegramente

Track length8:15

$0.85

$1.15

2. Adagio assai

Track length8:41

$0.85

$1.15

3. Presto

Track length3:52

$0.85

$1.15

Reviews
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Reviews

July 2008

And this is Ravel a performance that bristles both on the keyboard and in a series of fabulous orchestral solos… a lurid delight.

2010

This unusual coupling contrasts two wildly different works. For some, Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto is a work of genius, while for others it remains a monstrosity. Holding up a malevolent distorting mirror to Russian Romanticism, it carries the uneasy modernism of Rachmaninov's Fourth Concerto to its logical and devastating conclusion. Ravel's G major Concerto, on the other hand, recalls the spirits of Mozart and Saint-Saëns and contains a slow movement that is among the composer's most touching creations.
Prokofiev's Concerto is daunting and massive, Ravel's an enchanting jeu d'esprit.
Certainly Yundi Li (superbly partnered by Seji Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic) has few doubts about either concerto. Indeed, his performance of the Prokofiev, in its prodigious, unflagging power and brilliance, far surpasses any other in the catalogue. His moto perpetuo scherzo is vivace with a vengeance and the colossal first movement's combined development and cadenza is played with an authority that will make lesser mortals pale with envy and admiration. He is no less attuned to Ravel's charm and vivacity, to music seen through a glass brightly rather than darkly, touching off the central Adagio with a moving simplicity and whirling us through the finale with a dazzling and engaging joie de vivre. It only remains to add that this superlative young Chinese pianist is heard in the full glory of DG's sound at its most opulent and crystalline.

May 2008

Yundi Li's performance of the Prokofiev, in its prodigious, unflagging power and brilliance, far surpasses any other in the catalogue. He is no less attuned to Ravel's charm and vivacity, to music seen through a glass brightly rather than darkly.

18th April 2008

Yundi Li doesn’t stint on the clatter and madcap preening [in the Prokofiev], yet the performance still leans toward the emollient. Put that down partly to the Deutsche Grammophon recording’s round, resonant ambience and the gleam of the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Seiji Ozawa.
Brighter pleasures are offered by...Ravel’s [concerto] in G major, a real blaze of sunshine. Much of the delight here is orchestral; the way Ozawa juggles Ravel’s shifting textures in the first movement is masterly...The adagio is where Yundi Li shines the most, tenderly probing his solo, supplying glancing rubato.

Prokofiev & Ravel - Piano Concertos

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