Notes and Editorial Reviews
Exemplary artistry that augurs well for the remaining masterpieces
If anything, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet surpasses the high standards he set in his previous Debussy release (7/07) with this second instalment. While Bavouzet is no slouch in the tone-colour department, his interpretations do not primarily concern themselves with sound-painting. Instead he focuses upon clarity of textures, rhythmic precision, well differentiated articulation, plus scrupulous balances between the hands and within chords. Timbral variety and tonal allure arise from these elements working together. As you listen to Bavouzet’s effortless rhythmic lilt and buoyant sense of line in
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the Tarentelle styrienne, Masques and “Jardins sous la pluie”, or his firm bass underpinnings and impeccably calibrated arabesques throughout L’isle joyeuse, you don’t perceive the “hammerless” piano of Debussy’s dreams. Instead, the piano’s innards morph into a finely honed chamber orchestra. Similarly in “Pagodes”, Bavouzet’s sharply profiled melodies shed welcome animated light on a piece that’s often interpreted too flaccidly.
Some might favour Alain Planes’s warmer, more curvaceous way with the Valse romantique (HM, 9/07) but Bavouzet’s shapelier urgency proves more convincing in Pour le piano’s central Sarabande, as well as its earlier incarnation in the cycle of “forgotten” Images. The recorded sound is never less than pleasing, even if it doesn’t quite match the richness and detailed immediacy of the Planes disc and Steven Osborne’s reference Debussy Preludes (Hyperion, 10/06). All told, Bavouzet’s exemplary artistry bodes well for Children’s Corner, Suite bergamasque and the mature Images to come in future volumes, along with a highly anticipated remake of the Etudes.
-- Jed Distler, Gramophone [1/2008]
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Works on This Recording
1.
Ballade slave by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1890/1903; France
2.
Valse romantique by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1890; France
3.
Tarentelle styrienne "Danse" by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: circa 1890; France
4.
Images oubliées by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1894; France
5.
Estampes (3) for Piano by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1903; France
6.
Suite for Piano "Pour le piano" by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1896-1901; France
7.
Masques by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1904; France
8.
L'isle joyeuse by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1904; France
9.
D'un cahier d'esquisses by Claude Debussy
Performer:
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (Piano)
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1903; France
Featured Sound Samples
Tarentelle styrienne "Danse"
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