CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 2; RAVEL: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand - Blancard, Ballon, Ansermet, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 2; RAVEL: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand - Blancard, Ballon, Ansermet, L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
FORMAT (CD, LP, DVD?)
FORMAT (CD, LP, DVD?)
The Eloquence label has restored to modern circulation many recordings of the Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet but few of them have been as overlooked as this pair of concertos which are now released internationally for the first time on CD, in new digital remasterings. French music found Ansermet in his element and he was a concerto accompanist of renowned sensitivity: ‘the slow movement is particularly sweetly felt,’ as Gramophone remarked in its March 1951 review of the Chopin F minor concerto. In his booklet note, François Hundry (author of the authoritative biography of Ansermet) remarks on the frisson and Romantic sensibility which pianist and conductor create together in this, their only partnership on record.
The Canadian-born pianist Ellen Ballon (1898–1969) was especially renowned for her performances of Chopin and Villa-Lobos. Arthur Rubinstein, no less, once hailed her as ‘the greatest pianistic genius I have ever met’. After a prodigious start to her career, she studied with Rafael Joseffy and Josef Hofmann in New York and then Wilhelm Backhaus in Vienna. Over the course of half a century, she played at the White House for three different US presidents.
Like Ballon, Jacqueline Blancard (1909–1994) made several solo recordings for Decca, of Mozart, Schumann and Brahms. She is hardly better known now, though she gave the Swiss premiere of Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand with Ansermet in 1937, made its first recording the following year (for Polydor under Charles Munch) and then recorded both Ravel concertos for Decca (reissued on Eloquence, 480 0070) with Ansermet who evidently held his fellow Swiss musician in high esteem. Issued here is not that 1953 recording but yet a third, made in 1949.
‘The Ravel concertos are well served on discs by such eminent French pianists as Robert Casadesus, Monique Haas and Marguerite Long. Jacqueline Blancard belongs in this august company as a performer, and since she has the collaboration of the best Ravel conductor now functioning, this recording is strongly recommended.’ (Ravel) High Fidelity, January 1954
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21*
Ellen Ballon, piano
London Symphony Orchestra
Ernest Ansermet
MAURICE RAVEL
Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major°
Jacqueline Blancard, piano
L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Ernest Ansermet
*FIRST INTERNATIONAL RELEASE ON DECCA CD
°FIRST RELEASE ON DECCA CD OF BLANCARD’S 1949 RECORDING
BIG SPRING CLEARANCE SALE
-
A Treasury of English Keyboard Music - Gerald Gifford
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
AMERICAN CLARINET (Reich: New York Counterpoint; Carter: Clarinet Concerto; Adams: Gnarly Buttons; Sandroff: Tephillah)
Regular price €8,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Amor de Lohn: The Distant Love Of The Troubadors - Martin Best Ensemble
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
AVE REX ANGELORUM: CAROLS AND MUSIC TRACING THE JOURNEY FROM CHRIST THE KING TO EPIPHANY: CHOIR OF KEBLE COLLEGE, OXFORD
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach Family: Chamber Music For Two Flutes
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
BACH: 6 Brandenburg Concertos (1953 Aldeburgh Festival Opening Concert) - Britten, English Chamber Orchestra (2 CDs)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
BACH: 6 Partitas, BWV 825 - 830 - GUSTAV LEONHARDT (2 CDs)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
BACH: Brandenburg Concertos 1-4 - ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN in THE FIELDS, SIR NEVILLE MARRINER
Regular price €8,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: Complete Works For Organ, Vol. 10 - Kevin Bowyer (2 CDs)
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: Keyboard Concertos BWV 1053-1058 - Nick van Bloss, English Chamber Orchestra
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: Mass In B Minor, BWV 232 - SCHWARZKOPF / KARAJAN / VIENNA PHILHARMONIC (2 CDs)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: The Partitas BWV 825-830 - Virginia Black, piano (2 CDs)
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Bach: Works For Harpsichord - Richard Lester (2 CDs)
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Balanchine's Jewels - MARIINSKY BALLET AND ORCHESTRA (Blu-Ray)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Complete Sonatas For Violin & Piano and Cello & Piano - PAUL TORTELIER, JACQUELINE DU PRE, CHRISTIAN FERRAS, ERIC HEIDSIECK (5 CDS)
Regular price €14,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: String Quartets Op. 18/3, Op. 18/5 & Op. 135 - ARTEMIS QUARTET
Regular price €7,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Symphonies 1, 2, 3 & 8 - WOLFGANG SAWALLISCH, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (2 CDs)
Regular price €9,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Symphonies 4 & 6 - SIMON RATTLE, VIENNA PHILARMONIC
Regular price €8,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Two Romances; Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto; Schubert: Konzertstuck: RONALD THOMAS, BOURNEMOUTH SINFONIETTA
Regular price €4,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per -
Beethoven: Variations For Piano - JOHN OGDON, EMIL GILELS
Regular price €8,95 EURRegular priceUnit price / per