COMPLETE WORKS FOR PIANO VOL. 2

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Debussy:
 Ballade
 Danse - Tarantelle styrienne
 D'un cahier d'esquisses
 3 Estampes(Complete)
 3 Images oubliées for piano
 L'isle joyeuse
 Masques
 Pour le piano
 Valse romantique (L. 71)

"Bavouzet's strengths…to the fore, with glowing colours in the opening Ballade and Valse romantique, followed by sparkling elegance in the Danse."
BBC Music Magazine - January 2008 ****

"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 the Tarantelle 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 a warmer, more curvaceous way with the Valse romantique but Bavouzet's shapelier urgency proves more convincing in Pour lepiano's central Sarabande, as well as its earlier incarnation in the cycle of 'forgotten' Images. The recorded sound is never less than pleasing."
Gramophone Classical Music Guide - 2010