Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli - London 1959 Live (Score)

Absolutely jaw dropping performance of Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, one of the most difficult ever piano pieces in standard repertoire.
Every movement is phenomenal and is played in such a poetic manner. The ondine beginning chords in the RH, and the double note runs near the climax, both of which are very difficult and uncomfortable to play, have such a clear, and perfectly crystalline sound which sounds better than so many other pianists. His voicing in the movement and the climax, one of my favourite parts in piano literature are impeccable. I love the way he treats it; not playing it too fast (the part that leads to the climax) and the climax itself is very clear and it has the perfect balance of RH and LH bass which compliment each other. 5:21 is amazing. Michelangeli definitely has the best performance of Ondine.

The second movement, La Gibet, is a real treasure with the atonal structure and mysterious and eerie feeling to it, and it is really present here.
Michelagenli plays this piece best in my opinion but this exact recording in 1959 London is my favourite performance mainly because of La Gibet, which I felt was slow enough to feel the emotions that Ravel intended, similar to Argerich’s performance. I prefer it compared to his 1960 recording in Prague which is 2 whole minutes faster and in this he lets the piece breathe more especially the movement. Not to mention the piano is of much higher quality, which makes the bass sound more profound.

The final and most famous & technically difficult movement, Scarbo, is incredible. In the start the repeating D-Sharp notes are the cleanest I have heard them and at a perfect tempo. His scarbo is metronomic but very ectatic, powerful, and passionate with a profound bass. 16:40 and 20:45, the two climaxes, are played with fiery. No excess rubato just Michelangeli creating magic.


Recording used:
   • Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli - Ravel...  
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I hope you enjoy the new score layout: I stopped using imovie and screen recording the score (thats why in previous videos there was an annoying grey arrow icon in the corner of the screen) and instead am using premiere rush after learning how to use it properly. As such the videos look better and the transition between pages are much more fluid.