Maurice Ravel(1875-1937) Selected Piano Works Le tombeau de Couperin Gaspard de la nuit Sonatine MusicMasters 67172 Recorded 1998 Cecile Licad, Piano TT 62:41 Summary: Marginally Recommended I first became acquainted with Cecile Licad quite a few years ago from her Sony recording of Chopin and Saint-Saens piano concertos. I've had many hours of pleasure from that Sony disc and have been surprised that Licad does not record more often. MusicMasters did record her recital of Ravel works in the late 1990's. Unlike most single-disc Ravel piano recordings, Licad has put all her eggs in only three baskets. Two of them, Le tombeau de Couperin and Gaspard de la nuit, are among Ravel's most famous piano works. The competition is very strong and includes Gieseking, Roge, Thibaudet, Casadesus, Lortie, Queffelec, Ousset, Hass, Simon, and Nojima. I was hoping to be able to enthusiastically endorse Licad's disc, but such is not the case. The one word which I feel best describes Licad's performances is 'yummy'. Licad prefers to be smooth, delicate, sultry, and luxurious. This approach works well with pieces such as the 2nd movement fugue and the Menuet from Le tombeau de Couperin. However, its appeal is limited when the music cries out for exuberance, excitement, or detail. Among many examples, her Prelude from Le tombeau does not deliver sufficient animation or strength, her Toccata is much too subdued, and "Ondine" suffers from a lack of urgency and poor representation of the incessant double-notes. Actually, "Ondine" is a perfect example of the essential elements missing from Licad. The tale concerns a water-nymph who seduces her prey and drags them down to the bottom the sea. With Licad, the story changes to one of two lovers having a little tiff on their float a few feet from the shore. Overall, Licad tells only part of the story. Switch to Nojima on Reference Recordings, and the piece's breadth opens up magnificently as Nojima has us living the life of the mysterious underworld of the ocean. Any great moments? Yes, her Menuet is the best I've heard on record. Licad beautifully conveys the delicate and sultry nature of the music in a luxuriating and very slow performance. But one piece of music does not make a great recording, and Licad often gives 'flat' readings of wonderful music which deserves better. Don's Conclusions: Cecile Licad offers a limited picture of Ravel's solo piano music, as she concentrates on smooth and sultry performances to the exclusion of many other elements. I do want to emphasize that her readings are quite lovely and might be the perfect music for seducing one's partner (assuming the partner is not alert). I don't hear any romanticizing of the music along the lines that Kyoko Tabe gives us on her Debussy/Chandos disc; that's a good sign. Ultimately, most of the other recordings of Ravel(some mentioned above) are much more rewarding in that they try to give us the full range of Ravel's musical world; Licad does not. Yet, there is virtue in 'yummy' performances, and Licad could be very attractive to a particular segment of the classical music audience. I checked into availability and found that the disc is still offered on a few sales sites on the internet such as H & B Recordings. The disc's cover has a sultry and rich background which provides a good hint of what's inside. Recorded sound is in sync with the cover and the performances. Don Satz [log in to unmask]