MUSIC : Ravel Revisited by Abbado and Boulez

Ravel is a superb entertainer, perhaps the supreme master of orchestral color--even in his works for solo piano, which he insisted were always produced with the orchestra in mind. And while Ravel disclaimed any interest in abstraction or aestheticism, there are few composers who can match his ability to set us to dreaming of exotic vistas.

He has appealed to and found sympathetic conductors among a wide range of contemporary conductors, from the austere Pierre Boulez to the ecstatic Leonard Bernstein, with just about everyone else save the Germans in between (although Wilhelm Furtwangler’s sole, unlikely seeming recorded foray into this territory makes one wish he had explored it further).

Among pianists he has been championed by a comparable variety, from the pristine Walter Gieseking to the willful Ivo Pogorelich. Ravel, with his exhaustive exploration of instrumental color and dynamic range, has proven congenial, profitable territory for the modern recording industry.

Before the 1950s, live performances and even recordings of the complete “Daphnis et Chloe” were rarities. The score was, at nearly an hour, regarded as too long and expensive, with its large, sparsely utilized chorus.

The complete work, of which there are at least a dozen CD versions currently available--including one (on the London label) by the conductor of the 1911 premiere, Pierre Monteux--is no longer a stranger to our concert halls.

Interestingly, none of the recorded versions falls into the trap of overexpressiveness invited by the score. Which is not to say that the various interpretations aren’t dissimilar.

Take the two most recent: One is new and has Claudio Abbado leading the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Deutsche Grammophon 427 679, with the orchestral “Valses nobles et sentimentales”). The other is a reissue of the celebrated mid-1970s Pierre Boulez-New York Philharmonic edition, which comes as part of a Boulez-Ravel set (Sony Classical 45842, 3 mid-priced CDs).

Abbado, with the advantage of state-of-the-art recording and flawless orchestral execution (the oboe, English horn and clarinet solos in the “Pantomime” section are breathtaking), presents a lush-toned, moderately paced reading that is equally alive to Ravel’s arching melodies and his modernist bite.

Boulez’s New York Philharmonic is in finest fettle as well, and while his interpretation may be less sexy than Abbado’s, and somewhat harshly recorded, the conductor’s insistence on optimum clarity of articulation generates terrific rhythmic punch.

The Boulez set, which also enlists the services of the Cleveland Orchestra, presents the rest of the composer’s orchestral output in comparably cool, clarifying fashion: the complete ‘Ma mere l’oye,” “Rapsodie espagnole,” “Bolero,” “Valses nobles et sentimentales,” “Le Tombeau de Couperin,” “La Valse,” the “Pavane,” several brief, less familiar works, and the Concerto for Left Hand, with pianist Philippe Entremont as soloist.

Pianist Martha Argerich--whom we encounter far too seldom in this part of the world--joins forces with Abbado and the London Symphony for the jazzy, G-major Concerto (Deutsche Grammophon 423 665). A quarter-century ago the same soloist and conductor, with the Berlin Philharmonic, recorded Ravel’s divertissement de luxe , as he referred to the Concerto, for the same label.

While the new, marginally slower version is laudable in all respects, it is unnecessary. Its coupling of brief orchestral pieces and a characterless reading of the Left Hand Concerto from pianist Michel Beroff and Abbado is hardly as beguiling as the material included with the older, recently re-released and less expensive G-major Concerto (on Deutsche Grammophon Galleria 419 062, mid-price): Argerich’s dramatically, digitally and coloristically dazzling interpretation of “Gaspard de la nuit”--the ultimate melding of Lisztian, quasi-orchestral glitter and Gallic suavity--and, at the other end of Ravel’s emotional and dynamic scale, the tender Sonatine.

Philippe Entremont, who is chiefly concerned with conducting these days, is a more plain-spoken Ravel pianist in a budget reissue of his 1974 set containing the bulk of the solo and four-hand music (CBS/Odyssey 45611, 2 CDs).

His performances are for the most part sturdy rather than magical. Hardly to be despised, but difficult to recommend--other than as decent value for the money--in view of the availability of such imaginative competition as Argerich, Vlado Perlemutter (Nimbus) and Vladimir Ashkenazy (London).

The composer’s two-piano versions of his orchestral “Rapsodie espagnole” and “La Valse” are played with color and vitality by the Turkish twin-sisters, Guher and Suher Pekinel within a particularly lovely sonic framework--crystalline and sonorous, as the music demands (Teldec 44931). This attractive but very brief recital further includes works by Granados and Manuel Infante. It could have accommodated “Ma mere l’Oye” as well.