# 100 Favorites: # 69



## JACE (Jul 18, 2014)

*Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit; Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6
Ivo Pogorelich (DG)*










I know that Michelangeli and Argerich have made superlative recordings of Ravel's _Gaspard de la nuit_ -- but if I were taking just one version to my desert island, it would have to be Pogorelich's. The whole performance is superb, but the clincher is Pogorelich's masterful way with the second movement, "Le Gibet." The ostinato that runs throughout the movement is truly hypnotic -- as if time ceases to exist. Pogorelich doesn't just evoke vague, sinister impressions; it's like they've sprung to life, suddenly become tangible. It's extraordinary. I've not heard anything else like it. Prokofiev's forbidding Sixth Sonata is less immediately appealing than Ravel's _Gaspard_, but the composition reveals itself with time. Again, Pogorelich's playing is entirely convincing. He deftly captures the music's angular, shifting, emotionally ambiguous landscape.


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