Bravo Bavouzet!

[gradus]

Top class live piano recital at lunchtime today by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Debussy, Liszt, wonderful playing and excellent sound.
I think the praise M. Bavouzet attracts is justified and it is well worth catching the repeat or iplayer recording.

[Nick Armstrong]

Top class live piano recital at lunchtime today by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Debussy, Liszt, wonderful playing and excellent sound.
I think the praise M. Bavouzet attracts is justified and it is well worth catching the repeat or iplayer recording.

He's a great artist I didn't hear today's, but went to his last couple of Wigmore recitals I shall have a listen to the lunchtime recital from today

[Pianorak]

Top class live piano recital at lunchtime today by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Debussy, Liszt, wonderful playing and excellent sound.
I think the praise M. Bavouzet attracts is justified and it is well worth catching the repeat or iplayer recording.

Entirely agree. Just one question: Are those Debussy Images oubliées likely to grow on one on repeated listening?

[gradus]

I thought that I knew most of the Debussy piano repertoire but I had oubliéed those. Perhaps not in the front rank (?) but instantly recognisable as his work. I was however 'blown away' by the playing in the Toccata and L'Isle Joyeuse.
J-EB and M. Thibergien are two pianists I would travel some distance to hear. Vive la France!

[Pianorak]

I thought that I knew most of the Debussy piano repertoire but I had oubliéed those. . .

. . . as had Gieseking in his "Complete Works for Piano". Gordon Fergus Thompson included two of them.

[Bryn]

. . . as had Gieseking in his "Complete Works for Piano". Gordon Fergus Thompson included two of them.

Also known as Images inédites, Planès did not forget them, or edit them out of his Debussy survey.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

thanks for noting this recital gradus; have very much enjoyed his recordings of the Ravel Concerto and Haydn Sonatas ...will Iplayer the concert

[Pianorak]

Also known as Images inédites. . .

Thanks for that, Bryn. I didn't know that. There are about a dozen pianists who have recorded them.
Alain Planès is a fine pianist who recorded some excellent Janáček a.o.

[Bryn]

... I didn't know that ...

Nor did I before I got the Planès box.

[HighlandDougie]

the Planès box.

which also contains, among other joys, what in my unhumble opinion is what has to be one of the most poetic, imaginative etc etc performances of the Images (the inoubliées ones) ever committed to disc, although J-E B runs it close. Now to spin the Gieseking SACD version.

[Belgrove]

J-EB and M. Thibergien are two pianists I would travel some distance to hear. Vive la France!

Cedric Tiberghien. I agree gradus, they are both exciting pianists worth making a special effort to hear. Bavouzet has another enticing lunchtime Wigmore Hall recital on 2nd July with Francois-Frederic Guy performing Rite of Spring.

He has just embarked on recording a Beethoven sonata cycle which I have not yet heard, but given the quality of his Haydn discs, I am optimistic. Has anyone heard these yet?

[silvestrione]

[QUOTE=HighlandDougie; Now to spin the Gieseking SACD version.[/QUOTE]

Slightly off topic, but, Dougie, I'd be really interested to know if the Gieseking SACD is worth having for improvements to the sound...

[Extended Play]

He has just embarked on recording a Beethoven sonata cycle which I have not yet heard, but given the quality of his Haydn discs, I am optimistic. Has anyone heard these yet?

Andrew Clark in the FT on Saturday gave the first three discs a five-star review, saying "This is one of the biggest discoveries I have come across in years......Bavouzet's Beethoven...is consistently engaging in its imaginative scope, stylistic freedom and technical fearlessness".

[HighlandDougie]

There is no denying that the recordings do sound their age (older than me) but the intervention(s) by the re-masterers (reducing tape hiss, for instance) are done sensitively so that the character of the performances still comes through strongly. Certainly better sounding than the EMI References copy of the Preludes which I have. And Gieseking's feeling for Debussy transcends any limitations of recording. It seems to be cheaper here in France so I regard it as money well spent. D F-D's Schubert next.

[rauschwerk]

He has just embarked on recording a Beethoven sonata cycle which I have not yet heard, but given the quality of his Haydn discs, I am optimistic. Has anyone heard these yet?

I heard him play the Op.10 sonatas at Potton Hall (the recording location) a few months ago and was rather disturbed by the vehement way in which he played. At times his tone caused me some discomfort. The recorded sound may, of course, be another matter but I shall not be adding any of his discs to my collection.