Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit (Pogorelich)

Gaspard de la nuit (Three poems for piano after Aloysius Bertrand ), M. 55 is a suite of piano pieces by Maurice Ravel , written in 1908. It has three movements , each based on a poem or fantasy from the collection Gaspard de la Nuit. The piece is famous for its difficulty, partly because Ravel intended the Scarbo movement to be more difficult than Balakirev 's Islamey . Because of its technical challenges and profound musical structure, Scarbo is considered one of the most difficult solo piano pieces in the standard repertoire.
0:00 - Ondine
7:22 - Le Gibet
14:15 - Scarbo
Performer: Ivo Pogorelich, 1983 Deutsche Grammophon

[@frederikmarohn6358]

something about that texture at 4:50 is the most beautiful thing on earth. Like staring at the moon in the dead of night.

[@jeffgrigsbyjones]

Novices are amazed by the speed, but longtime players are blown away by the 50,000 shades of quiet - starting at pianissimo and going down from there.

[@fazergazer]

I started working on Ondine when I turned 15. Eventually got the technical components worked out in a year. But didn’t get the interpretation down until 15 years later. Still working on Gaspard…I’m now 63 and every time I bring something new and this suite teaches me new things.

[@raymbar]

This helped me realize that there are so many flute concertos and sonatas i'll be working on for decades, and I can never truly conquer a piece. I'm 15 now and working on the Chaminade flute concerto and It excites me so much to think that I still have so much to discover!

[@cranez006]

I knew my instructor was very talented, but I had no idea HOW talented until he showed me a copy of an old VHS tape showing him performing this for his college recital. I feel almost embarrassed playing early Chopin nocturnes in front of him.

[@nsb1755]

Don´t know what shocks me more: the surreal quality of this masterpiece or the fact that I will never be able to play it :(

[@brash_hown]

Never say never bro anybody with two working hands and their whole life ahead of them can learn how to play it

[@williamlu4394]

Listening to this for the first time gave me dementia

[@Mofos_of_Metal]

People seem to constantly talk about how "difficult" Gaspard is but don't talk enough about how much of a musical masterwork it is. Shimmering colours, fire and ice, passion and detachment - it's all there and it's one of the greatest pieces of music ever composed. Yes - it's extremely difficult, but it's written with extraordinary attention to being pianistically idiomatic. Ravel wasn't really noted as a "virtuoso" but he really wrote like one - harnessing the capabilities of the instrument to their maximal expressive potential. I know Ravel and Debussy are often compared and grouped together - but they really are quite different, and while I think both are legendary masters - I don't think Debussy ever wrote a single piece of quite this stature - it's one of the great marvels of human creation!

[@ChollieD]

Agree. Debussy was a great miniaturist, like Grieg. Ravel is like the Stanley Kubrick of turn-of-20th-Century composers. Not a lot of output but what's there is superlatively original, drenched with concentrated creative thought. Gaspard is ultra-detailed music, as if he put most of an orchestra's accompaniment from a concerto into the piano-only score. I heard that both Debussy and Ravel were at the first performance of Rite of Spring, cheering it on, and that Saint-Saens was booing. I want to believe it. :-)

[@alanleoneldavid1787]

Debussy last prelude feux de artífice and some etudes like no. 11 I think are at the same level of this piece. Maybe estampes, and images too

[@Dylonely42]

What about La Mer, Afternoon faune prelude or Péleas ?

[@johnfoerster7533]

"Musical masterwork" -- errrr, what? like in: having audacious harmonical sequences ? (not), technical structures (eg polyphonic stuff/ counterpoints)- not; grand musical architecture (for example as in Liszt's b-minor sonata)? not. It's just sound coloration and - clearly -written simply to impress on a wow/virtuoso level. Take contemporaries- any - Scriabin's preludes, Rachmaninov's intricate polyphonics in g-minor or D-major prelude op23- or take earlier stuff: Chopin's preludes, list could be endless: this, here , clearly is The Emperor's new Clothes: everyone seemingly in awe of musical structure- it's rubbish! just admit it!

[@Dylonely42]

@@johnfoerster7533 Don’t criticize something because you don’t clearly understand it.

[@fazergazer]

This performance of Scarbo is transcendent and scintillating. All the pieces of this suite reach their full flower in this recording.

[@Egbert_Souse]

Love his tempi. Ondine not too fast. Much easier on the listener. Too fast and there becomes a disproportionate focus on the technical difficulty and less on the music. I might add that it's virtuosic at any tempo and Pogorelich's are on the money. A contradiction is that Scarbo is blistering fast but it never sounds frantic, perhaps because of its amazing clarity. Magically delicious! P.S. I never listen to the slow parts (just kidding). Le Gibet will take you away!

[@conradclipper]

God I love Gaspard so much. Thanks for such a beautifully played upload

[@lucasgust7720]

Best version ever!

[@marcusanthonyPOV]

Pogorelich's interpretation is the one that most captures the rhythm of this piece. Just listen to the opening bars. Whenever I hear someone else play them, it sounds muddy and rhythmically inconsistent.

[@Dylonely42]

What a masterpiece of music…

[@robertatruppa2783]

Ero felice quando lo suonavo!😭

[@norbertosztermajer4522]

I am not a true classical musician but I started composing modern orchestral music seriously about 2 years ago for fun and experimenting but also as practice for possible career in this area. While I find a 7-8 minute song already pretty long this one with its technical difficulty feels like alien level for me. How it is even possible to compose, remember and play a piece like this? This is simply insane. How long does it take to practice such a piece on piano? There are so huge differences in level of difficulties in music.

[@DAMusic-qu2ec]

An average player will probably need over 500 hours to learn it properly. Basically 1-2hrs a day for a year is reasonable. For a prodigy, they could learn it in a week, which is fairly typical in a top level music conservatory. Hard to believe, but there are players who can basically sight read this.

[@mechedrei3036]

Good God what did i just listen to

[@nebulawh]

Ravel

[@sigil5772]

Mysterious voice: Mr Hunt, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to sightread Ondine Ethan Hunt: we choose NOT to accept it

[@catherineloriotahahah6614]

Maurice Ravel nous projette dans un autre monde

[@ronl7131]

Young Pogorelich so very good. Highest Artistry here

[@pclarsen8765]

Seven sharps. Owch!

[@jerzydawid9169]

Piękne

[@franciskurkdjian6728]

😍

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

Comparing how well he plays this to how badly he plays Rachmaninoff Second Concerto defies belief that it’s the same pianist.

[@matijamatejic1232]

Novi Sad ptsd

[@funkyassjohn6116]

What did you not like and send a link to the rach please?

[@bonbondojoe1522]

His Chopin Prelude 16 is really good tho

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

@@bonbondojoe1522 yes, I’ve heard that and agree.

[@rag2458]

@@bonbondojoe1522 his Chopin Preludes as a whole are excellent

[@Andrew-sw1cv]

Arguably the best rendition. Is this the henle score?

[@MrHullU]

The score is edition peters by Roger Nichols. And yes it is one of my favorite recordings ;)

[@dwacheopus]

I liked perlemuter's more :) (1951)

[@Olgaspeakskorean1234]

simply beautuful, magnifiscent

[@Dylonely42]

19:43

[@PointyTailofSatan]

This piece always puzzled me. One of the hardest piano pieces known, yet Ravel was not known as a particularly good concert pianist. Ravel's real genius was his orchestral works. It makes one wonder if Ravel could even perform this at a concert level.

[@thegoodgeneral]

Ravel himself said he wasn’t a great pianist but everyone who heard him play called him a virtuoso.

[@MrHullU]

0:00 4:04 6:35 7:46 15:09 22:30

[@some2l9]

This has already been upload by musicanth with many views if it's the same performance though this does seem clearer.

[@MisterPathetique]

Yes, it's the same performance. This is basically a remake of the musicanth video.

[@ShaunakDesaiPiano]

I love how Scarbo is Ravel just pulling the UNO reverse card on Balakirev. For context, Ravel wrote Scarbo deliberately in a way that it would be more difficult than Balakirev’s Islamey, which was considered the hardest piano piece at the time.

[@some2l9]

Although I wouldn't say it's 'just' that. Of course technical demand is _one_ aspect of this set, then there's the exquisite beauty and captivation they engender …for lack of better words. It's kind of like when people say Chopin was given to empty virtuosity; a claim I never understood… like he's Liszt or something. -And it's not even quite true there. For me, in the abstract of execution, aurally Scarbo is 'nothing but' a delightful vignette with some of the shiveringly spookiest passages in pianistic representation.

[@gidster192]

Islamey wasn’t even close to the hardest piano piece at the time it was written, so I never understand how that became a common thought back then lol. Scarbo for sure passed it in difficulty though if there was ever any doubt

[@cynicxloud]

@@gidster192if not islamey or scarbo, then what piece(s) are you talking about?

[@funkyassjohn6116]

​@cynicxloud any liszt reminiscnes

[@gidster192]

@@cynicxloud some the pieces that were much harder than Islamey at the time of its composition were: Liszt: Feux Follets, 1838 Paganini Etudes No 4b and 6, Beethoven Symphony No 9 Transcription, Symphony Fantastique Transcription, and many other works (etudes, transcriptions, fantasies, reminiscences, and etc). Beethoven: Hammerklavier Sonata Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Paganini (books 1 and 2). Alkan: Concerto for Solo Piano, Symphony for Solo Piano, Le Preux, and many other etudes from his massive collection. Mereaux Etudes (particularly 24, 45, 60, and others). Most of these pieces are behemoths of difficultly that would even pose good competition to Scarbo, although I’m sure you could argue Scarbo is harder than a handful of these listed pieces, while Islamey on the other hand is not.

[@Dylonely42]

3:41

[@lucielebrun9452]

gaspard c'est le meileur prenom du monde

[@TerryUniGeezerPeterson]

With its constantly shifting meter, added voicing, 32nd notes, Ondine alone is near impossible to play.

[@leolopezpianoarte]

14:30

[@shenchao-shen]

我一直覺得真實的版本是豎琴鋼琴合奏的…..

[@benhouhousmail6563]

Thanks a lot for this video. This is one of the most profound and precise rendition of Gaspard. Everything is there, the magic and the precision. I guess this is the result of years of work, study and experience. There is a beautiful video showing Ivo studying Ondine with his teacher in Moscow..kzbin.info/www/bejne/onjblIZ-lriGY5o) I love this master piece so much that I spent month to make an simplified arrangement of it for flûte and piano. Here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eKWbdadsa7qCfLs, I added some chords in it :-) enjoy.

[@rodterrell304]

An almost impossible piece to play for most mortals

[@corvanha1]

Make a simplified version, an extraction of it or maybe that exists. I don t know I am an amateur player. Only played the sonatine...difficult enough...

[@Bruce.-Wayne]

I love Sonatine....🙂...Beethoven and Mozart have some beautiful sonatina...

[@Dylonely42]

What a masterpiece of music…