MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS
Downloads from The Classical Shop

Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809)
Piano Sonatas - Vol. 3
Sonata No. 29 in E flat major, Hob. XVI: 45 (1766) [22:35]
Sonata No. 33 in C minor, Hob. XVI: 20 (1771) [25:38]
Sonata No. 42 in G major, Hob. XVI: 27 (before 1776) [13:10]
Sonata No. 16 in D major, Hob. XVI: 14 (before 1767; 1760?) [13:57]
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)
rec. Potton Hall, Suffolk, 16-18 May 2011, DDD.
CHANDOS CHAN 10689 [75:22]

Experience Classicsonline

This is the third CD of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Haydn piano sonatas cycle. Sonata 29 makes a good beginning to the disc because of its deceptive simplicity. Left hand imitates the right but with both contributors managing to achieve an interesting variance. What struck me immediately was the tripping, dance quality of Haydn’s musical argument. This Bavouzet brings out through his ever-fluent, pacy projection with clarity and brightness. You’re very conscious of the progression of the exposition as an expansive, integrated paragraph but with, all along, sinewy application of rhythm. Bavouzet makes clear the paradox of this movement: that it’s structurally formal but homely in ambience and playful in approach.

I compared the classic recording by John McCabe, part of his complete cycle made in the late 1970s (London 443 785-2). McCabe cultivates a smoother, more lyrical line and very much clarifies the contributions of the left and right hands. With McCabe you feel that this illuminates how a Haydn sonata of 1766 operates. With Bavouzet the interplay between the hands is more of a jocular conversation, of quip and counter-quip. Unlike McCabe, Bavouzet observes Haydn’s marking of the repeat of the second half of the movement. This gives the whole more balance and substance. He also introduces in the repeat a judicious application of ornamentation. Moreover he generates such a fecund momentum that you think what accomplished music and playing this is. McCabe plays well but Bavouzet excites.

Bavouzet’s slow movement is smoothly flowing, lyrical and ornate. At the climax of its second part for a short spell it becomes more intense and keenly felt before returning to the earlier calm. McCabe’s even tone throughout is more dispassionate and classical in manner than Bavouzet’s greater ostentation. That said, I did feel here that Bavouzet overdoes the ornamentation in his repeats and this diminishes the movement’s gracefulness. The finale in Bavouzet’s hands is a scamper of brittle brilliance, a bravura display of technique, dexterity, precise articulation. McCabe, nifty and sonorous by turns, is less dazzling but more witty.

Sonata 33 is also strikingly fluent in Bavouzet’s hands and yet from the outset tinged with sadness and isolation. The second theme (tr. 4 0:25) starts purposefully but then expands into an aching second phrase. The third theme fragments into a series of writhing semiquavers calmed by a sudden, brief Adagio. This changes from high C flat to a sunnier C natural. The development (3:57) is more piercing because it features extended and taut imitation between right and left hand. The second theme elements appear in reverse order (5:18), emphasising the now more troubled perspective. The Adagio returns but ends on a high A flat which remains its grave self. In this sonata Bavouzet presents this all coolly and with objectivity.

Here I compared the recording by Julia Cload published in 2009 (Meridian CDE 84578/9-2). Cload takes a more measured view of the Moderato marking. She takes 12:36 in comparison with Bavouzet’s 10:33. This creates a more desolate opening yet the two elements of the second theme are thereby less contrasted and Cload’s high C natural is less luminous. Bavouzet omits the coda until the repeat. This neatly allows the second half of the movement to end with the same dotted quaver + semiquaver/quaver aside that concludes the exposition but without the second half’s sombre retort. Cload supplies all the music both times.

The slow movement is pastoral in mood yet has a degree of rhapsodic passion within its classical frame; it’s an Andante con moto. This Bavouzet brings out well, opening restfully yet effecting both keen contrast and equipoise between right and left hands. Particularly lovely is the sunny, limpid melody picked out (tr. 5 3:46) and gliding into the return of the climax of the opening theme. Cload, more leisurely, taking 9:02 against Bavouzet’s 7:35, is slightly studied in her sensitively balanced luxuriant savouring. I prefer Bavouzet’s cleaner approach to octave leaps, as in the B flats at 0:42, where Cload softens the high note.

Bavouzet parades the opening theme of the finale (tr. 6) with a waspish discipline, though the second theme (0:17) is briefly more laid back as is the exposition coda, but with a welter of scampering in between. The development (2:00) begins with an airier version of the first theme in the upper register. Bavouzet omits five bars from the coda in the first playing. What will strike you most about Bavouzet’s account is his added material in the repeat, a 50 second cadenza from 5:47 including partial recall of themes and earlier contrasting moods. It’s a wonderful tour de force but arguably diverts attention from Haydn’s climax of the development. This can be found at 5:29 second time where the left hand’s crotchet leaps and descents assert themselves with increasing passion against the continuous right hand semiquavers. That said, Bavouzet keenly realizes that climax too, especially from 3:17 first time. Cload in this movement is generally more turbulent and romantic yet also has a more lyrical climax, but with neither Bavouzet’s commanding discipline nor his intensity of progression.

The cheery baroque flavour of the opening movement of Sonata 42 (tr. 7) is robustly carried off by Bavouzet, with the tail of the second theme from 0:42 made to sound zany. Bavouzet adds another cadenza, 7 seconds of fitting jocularity from 3:40, to usher in the recapitulation in the repeat of the movement’s second half. The following Minuet, kept moving forward, is thereby elegant yet sufficiently crystalline not to be merely chintzy. It is later tempered by a surprisingly wistful Trio. The wit of the theme and four variations of the Presto finale is emphasised by Bavouzet’s crisp and breathtakingly fast playing.

Whimsicality pervades Sonata 16 which is full of touches of the unexpected. The first movement begins fairly laid-back yet is melodiously worked and growingly intricate with the recapitulation stealthily slipping in. Bavouzet omits the coda’s repeat of the closing five bars at lower register until he repeats the second half of the movement. Then a lively Minuet encases a surprisingly ethereal Trio. The finale (tr. 12) is a martial summons followed by cascades of semiquavers. In giving poised attention to the rare crotchet rests in both hands - especially in the development repeat from 2:18 - Bavouzet lets us stand apart and appreciate Haydn’s invention. This is what his bold approach to interpretation does throughout. You may not agree with everything he does, but you know you’re in the presence of great playing.

Michael Greenhalgh

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.