There are three good reasons to hear this
Ravel disc. The first is
Percy Grainger's ingenuous arrangement of La vallée des cloches (Valley of the Bells) from the five-movement piano suite Miroirs scored here for large orchestra plus enormously expanded percussion section simulating the tintinnabulations of the title. The second is the otherwise unidentified C. Viacava's impressionistic arrangement of Jeux d'eau (Play of Water), the composer's first big piano work, scored here for lush and voluptuous orchestra simulating the bubbling and burbling of the title. The third is
Eugene Goossens' enormously evocative arrangement of Le gibet (The Gallows), the central movement of his Gaspard de la nuit piano suite, scored here for weird and melancholy orchestra to simulate the swaying and swinging of the title.
However, in these three arrangements and in the four originals,
Geoffrey Simon and the
Philharmonia Orchestra sound utterly unlike
Ravel. In the Rapsodie espagnole, the orchestra is heavy and phlegmatic while
Simon is pedantic. In the five-movement suite from the Mother Goose ballet, the orchestra is dull and plodding while
Simon is dry and dusty.
Gwendolyn Mok is an adept if uninspired soloist in the Piano Concerto and
Sally Burgess is a capable if unlovely mezzo-soprano in the Five Popular Greek Melodies while
Simon and the
Philharmonia are polite but uncongenial accompanists. Recorded in 1991, this super audio compact disc sounds less like a true surround sound and more like reverb had been added to the rear channels in the remastering.