Debussy: Complete Works for Piano, Volume 4 (Incls 'etudes pour piano')

Recording of the Month Gramophone December 2008
Gramophone Award WINNER 2009 - Instrumental

"Another ravishing release from Jean-Efflam Bavouzet - so what are you waiting for? Few pianists can have done all of these things at once in this repertoire so adeptly, so naturally. For anyone looking for the must-have Debussy collection, Bavouzet is surely the leading contender."
(Gramophone)

"Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's flexible virtuosity and innate grasp of Debussy's style and sound world yields ravishing, freshly minted interpretations of the Images and Etudes that proudly rank with (and sometimes surpass) the catalogue's reference versions." Gramophone Magazine, December 2008

"Anyone who doubts Bavouzet's abilities should sample the playful romp through the third of the Images, the quasi-Etude 'Mouvement', or his beautifully atmospheric 'Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut'." BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 ****

'Bavouzet commands all the shading, nuance and timbral sensitivity one expects in Debussy, together with virtuoso flair and characterful spontaneity.' (Gramophone) '…there is a balance of clarity and lyricism that immediately distinguish the pianist's work.' (International Piano) are just a couple of reviews from the previous three volumes of this highly praised recording project. This appraisal of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, an exclusive Chandos artist, affirms his position as one of the greatest Debussy interpreters.

'We have a lot to learn from Debussy,' writes Bavouzet, 'through the sophisticated sounds he seeks to create and the simplicity of his textures by which he builds, in just a few phrases and harmonies, a whole world of poetry, but also through writing which always reveals a highly contrapuntal way of thinking, Debussy compels us to listen to his music in a very private, intense and nearly religious manner.'

Here Bavouzet completes his cycles with works at the extreme of his pianistic style; Études Books 1 & 2 and Images Books 1 & 2. Étude retrouvée completes the recording. The Images were the product of Debussy the artlover and derive from his early reading Baudelaire. The Études, on the other hand, look inwards at the properties and possibilities of the musical substance itself. They contain some of Debussy's most demanding piano writing - five of the twelve were never recorded commercially until after 1950. But, despite their difficulty a playful spirit is very much in evidence.

This series is a deeply personal project for Bavouzet who has been involved in all aspects of the recording process.