This Argerich/Abbado performance of Ravel's G major Concerto isn't all that new, dating as it does from February 1984. But it is clear from the initial whipcrack that it is to be exciting sonically, with an attractive orchestral crispness allied to bass strength. The jazzy, bluesy elements in the second-subject pair of themes in the first movement rightly have a touch of the primitive about them too. On the other hand, Argerich treats the rhythm here (the Meno vivo beginning at fig. 4) so waywardly that momentum and the overall Allegramente mood are casualties (Pascal Roge on Decca errs in the same direction). The movement is in fact some 35 seconds slower overall than her 1968 DG performance (now on CD); there is also a curious noise at around the 2'29'' mark.
Tempo is a worry too in the Adagio, where without justification from the score the pianist suddenly adopts a noticeably quicker pace at fig. 2 which in its turn is dragged back in the bar before fig. 6, the reprise, to something near to—but still faster than—that of the beginning. (This doesn't happen in her earlier and more satisfying recording.) The LSO's cor anglais player is sensitive in his solo here, but is balanced a shade backwardly against the strings and one might say the same of the piano too, which in softer passages throughout is short of tonal depth. In the Presto finale (delightfully vivid in Argerich's earlier recording) there are more tempo changes which are regrettable, whether or not they are the result of editing, such as the faster pace at fig. 24 and then an unbelievable slight slowing for the last 12 bars.
The D major Concerto in the (singular) hand of Michel Beroff is more satisfying, for broadly speaking he and the conductor have the measure of this intense music, though in some orchestral passages Abbado sometimes relaxes tension too much so that the tonal curve is choppy. Here, as with Argerich, the piano sound is not always so immediate as it should be and it needs a more commanding incisiveness in the central march-like Allegro. Both Roge and Jean-Philippe Collard (EMI) are better served by their engineers and beyond that, while Beroff plays with distinction, I feel that there is no question that both these other pianists and their respective collaborators bring more subtlety and beauty to this piece. One grievous error defaces the Collard version—the missing orchestra in the penultimate bar—but he is more compelling than Roge and I firmly prefer his account to the others.
On the new DG issue, Ravel's little Fanfare is realistically recorded, but the engineers (more likely than the player) cut short the final tamtam stroke, 19 seconds long though it is even so. As for Le tombeau de Couperin, I don't care for the hurried-sounding Prelude and the rigidly metronomic Forlane; but to balance that the Minuet is attractively lilting and the Rigaudon with its finely managed rhythm and textures a delight.'