Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Introduction and Allegro
Piano Trio
La Valse (two piano version)
String Quartet
Nash Ensemble
rec. 2025, Yehudi Menuhin School, Stoke D’Abernon, UK
Reviewed as lossless download
Onyx 4270 [76]
The recording industry has been kind to the memory (and music) of Maurice Ravel in his anniversary year. There have been a number of new recordings released, most well-regarded by our reviewers – see here for a list of them – and now the Nash Ensemble, which had its own anniversary (60th) last year, makes its contribution. The group has chosen four of the most iconic Ravel chamber works, which makes it both an appealing release but also one that has to compete with numerous other recordings (though possibly few with this particular combination).
The ethereal and beautiful Introduction and Allegro receives a very good performance. The only other version in my collection is the famous one from the 1960s with Ossian Ellis and the Melos Ensemble on Decca, and while there isn’t quite the same level of sensuousness and languor in this new recording – it is certainly more reserved – it is still very much worth a listen.
This is the third recording the Nash Ensemble has made of the great Trio, the previous for Virgin Classics and CRD. It is an unemotional reading, which, based on reading a biography of Ravel and seeing the French biopic Bolero this year, is probably exactly what the composer would have wanted. But I’m not the composer, and I found the performance a little cold; brilliantly played without doubt, but it didn’t stir the blood and wrack the emotions like my favourites, those by the Sitkovetsky and Wanderer trios.
La Valse is one of my least favourite Ravel pieces, and the arrangement for two pianos even less than the orchestral version, so I’m not sure how much my opinion of this performance would be worth. That’s if I had one, because I can’t get past the music. So I am going to take the easy way out, and get you to audition it for yourself.
My other recording of the String Quartet is by Quatuor Ebène (review), which was the 2009 Gramophone Recording of the Year. The Nash Ensemble’s version is more than three minutes faster – two of those being in the slow movement – and that rather sums up my impression. It is lacking the depth and intensity that Quatuor Ebène find. Again, it might be a reading of which Ravel approved, but I’m not so sure here.
The sound quality is very good, and the booklet notes provide brief but adequate information.
I profess to being rather disappointed. As I’ve said, I suspect that the fastidious and emotionally restrained (or should that be repressed) Ravel would have admired these performances, but they didn’t really resonate with me.
David Barker
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