SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Other Links

Editorial Board

Google Site Search

Haydn, Debussy, Ravel: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano). BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert, Wigmore Hall, London,16.3.2009 (CC)

Haydn: Piano Sonata No 39 in D, H XVI:24
Debussy: Hommage à Haydn, Images, Set 2
Ravel: Menuet sur le nom de Haydn, Miroirs


What magnificent programming!. A while ago I interviewed Jean-Efflam Bavouzet for a Stateside print-based magazine and was impressed by his deep repertoire knowledge coupled with a clear love of life. For this Wigmore lunchtime recital, Bavouzet began with some ‘pure’ Haydn – the Piano Sonata No. 39 in D, Hob.XVI:24. In a last-minute switch of composer order, Debussy followed (the Hommage à Haydn and the second book of Images), then Ravel (Menuet sur le nom de Haydn plus Miroirs).

The Haydn Sonata began brightly and jovially. Bavouzet’s staccato attack is a joy, as was his pearly touch in the development. Like Brendel, he delights in physical manifestations of Haydn’s wit – the sudden raising of the hand right away from the keyboard after a particularly off-the-cuff moment. Projection was exquisitely managed. The slow movement, an Adagio, was limpid in the extreme, with rests given their full measure (it is only when one hears it like this that one realises just how often pianists don’t count!). The finale bubbled, just as the first movement had done, its gait delightful and yet projecting a full awareness of the greatness of this music.

So to Debussy, the Hommage à Haydn of 1919, a piece submitted, like the Ravel Menuet, to the Revue Musicale to mark of the centenary of Haydn’s death. Debussy’s short work moves from a reflective opening through to a jazzy section (with quasi-stride bass) and back again. It was magnificently played by Bavouzet, who seemed even more at home here in the more unbuttoned passages than he does on his Chandos recording (CHAN10467). The second book of Images opened with some miraculously controlled textures (inner voices in particular in “Cloches à travers les feuilles”). Bavouzet used a distinguishably different touch for each of the music’s layers. The brittle moonlight of “Et la lune descend descend sur le temple qui fut” ended with sounds hanging in the air (the fine-tuning of the piano absolutely in evidence) before some skittish, almost frisky, goldfish swam into view for “Poissons d’or”. Bavouzet’s technique is such that one hardly notices his variety of touch, or the fact that every note sounds at exactly the right hierarchic level – the music just speaks. This is as it should be. Technique should not draw attention to itself, at least not in this repertoire.

The Ravel Menuet sur le nom de Haydn emerged as a bitter-sweet foil for the set of five pieces that make up Miroirs. “Noctuelles” was flighty and unpredictable but with more than a hint of the sensuous. Most impressive of this group were a magnificently sculpted “Une barque sur l’océan” and an “Alborada del gracioso” that reached ecstatic heights (and included fast repeated notes many pianists would surely kill for). The final “La vallée des cloches”, like the first movement of the Debussy Images,  a bell piece, was exactly what was needed after the exultant “Alborada”. And finally, an encore – Ravel’s Jeux d’eau in a performance of gossamer delicacy that opened out to an imposing climax. 

Best known on these shores, perhaps, for his landmark, universally-lauded Debussy series for Chandos, Bavouzet is a player who has explored a wide variety of contemporary music. In addition, given the success of his Chandos activities, it is perhaps easy to forget that he has actually recorded the complete Ravel (on Dabringhaus und Grimm). Bavouzet’s devotion to his teacher, Pierre Sancan (1916-2008), seems clear – he was on his way to the Eurostar immediately after the recital in order to play in the Paris Conservatoire the same evening, in a programme honouring Sancan. If only that, too, were to be broadcast!.

Colin Clarke


^{Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page}