Gabriela Montero; Maurice Ravel - Piano Concertos (Gabriela Montero)

Information

Composer: Gabriela Montero; Maurice Ravel

• (01) Montero - Piano Concerto No. 1, 'Latin' Concerto
• (04) Ravel - Piano Concerto in G major

Gabriela Montero, piano
The Orchestra of the Americas
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor

Date: 2019
Label: Orchid Classics
http://www.orchidclassics.com/releases/orc100104-gabriela-montero/

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Review

As person and pianist, Gabriela Montero has always been unequivocal in outlook and it is little surprise she has turned to composition after making her name through reviving the latterly neglected art of improvisation (whether of her own or of others’ music) in recital.

Those having heard her rhapsody Ex patria (9/15) will appreciate Montero’s command creatively and executively, and her First Piano Concerto proves no less assured. Its Latin subtitle indicates the Latin American inflections which are everywhere apparent, not least in the opening Mambo with its propulsive rhythmic interplay. The Andante emphasises a melodic domain that imparts touching intimacy to the dialogue of soloist and orchestra, then the finale displays its venezolano epithet in a movement all the more engaging for its brevity.

Having Ravel’s Concerto in G as the coupling makes sense inasmuch as this piece embraces its past and present no less vividly. Montero has the measure of the first movement’s emotional ambivalence, not least that spellbinding episode before the reprise of the second main theme, then suffuses the Adagio with expressive raptness that never cloys. The final Presto ensures a bracing close, though others have teased greater subtlety from behind its whimsical facade.

Competition is stiff in the Ravel – Hélène Grimaud (Warner) and Anna Vinnitskaya (Naïve) being among the strongest recent versions, while the virtues of classics by Martha Argerich (DG) and Alicia de Larrocha (Decca) endure. Montero holds her own, however, and the only proviso is the short duration: surely another improvisation would not have been misplaced?

-- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_cd_review.php?id=16838
https://www.amazon.com/Montero-Ravel-Concertos-Orchestra-ORC100104/dp/B07VQ9RLN1

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Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles. His best known works include Boléro (1928), Gaspard de la nuit (1908), Daphnis et Chloé (1912). Ravel was also an exceptionally skilled orchestrator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel

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Gabriela Montero (born May 10, 1970 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan pianist. Montero began formal piano lessons at age four and was awarded a scholarship from the Venezuelan government to study in the US at the age of nine. From 1990 until 1993, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne. Montero is known in particular for her real-time improvisation of complex musical pieces on themes suggested by her audience and other sources, as well as for performances of standard classical repertoire. Her CDs has won several awards, including a Grammy at the 2015 Latin Grammy Awards.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Montero
https://www.gabrielamontero.com/

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