Haydn: Piano Sonatas Volume 1
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)
Awards:
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Sunday Times, 2010, Albums of the Year
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Gramophone Magazine, May 2010, Editor's Choice
nothing, either in expression or tone, is ever forced. It helps that [Bavouzet's] modern grand (maker unspecified) has a relatively crisp lower register, and that the recorded sound rightly...
Haydn: Piano Sonatas Volume 1
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)
Purchase product
Awards:
-
Sunday Times, 2010, Albums of the Year
-
Gramophone Magazine, May 2010, Editor's Choice
nothing, either in expression or tone, is ever forced. It helps that [Bavouzet's] modern grand (maker unspecified) has a relatively crisp lower register, and that the recorded sound rightly...
About
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s complete Debussy cycle has proven to be a real winner with the critics and the record buying public. He now embarks on the Haydn Piano Sonatas, and confirms that he should in no way be pigeon-holed in French repertoire.
Few leading pianists have recorded these virtuosic Classical sonatas but Maestro Bavouzet felt he had something new to contribute. He plays a Yamaha grand, imported from France which he felt best suited the timbre that he wanted to achieve.
The programme for Volume 1 contains the experimental and ambitious Sonata in A flat major, No.31; the elegantly virtuosic Sonata in D major, No.39l, expressive Sonata in B minor, No.47 and the almost Schubertian Sonatas in C sharp minor, No.49. Volume Two will be released this autumn.
Bavouzet launches this new series with the support of a number of concerts across Europe.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
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Sunday Times2010Albums of the Year
-
Gramophone MagazineMay 2010Editor's Choice
April 2010
nothing, either in expression or tone, is ever forced. It helps that [Bavouzet's] modern grand (maker unspecified) has a relatively crisp lower register, and that the recorded sound rightly achieves spaciousness and intimacy...a wonderfully promising series.
April 2010
This beautifully recorded disc promises well for another classic Bavouzet set to complement his Debussy recordings.
May 2010
Clarity of line is paramount in this music and that is what Bavouzet delivers: he views the sonatas with sobriety but by no means dispassionately...Discreet ornamentation adds allure to music that offers both majesty and sweetness, and ranges from the grand gesture to Haydn's trademark high jinks
28th March 2010
The scherzando middle movement of the C sharp minor sonata (No 49) made me want to dance around the room to Bavouzet’s joyous playing. Unadulterated bliss.
25th March 2010
however extensive his survey turns out to be, the results should be well worth hearing...Though he exploits all the tonal possibilities of the modern concert grand, Bavouzet also makes full use of the latest ideas on performance practice...It's the best kind of historically alert piano playing.
4th April 2010
The French pianist renowned for Debussy has now turned his attention to Haydn, and the results are effervescent and dazzling
26th March 2010
[Haydn's sonatas] still have a Baroque feel which Bavouzet doesn’t seek to play down, and he conveys Haydn’s impish spirit with the utmost clarity.
12th March 2010
This first release in a long-term series offers four sonatas, dispatched with scintillating brightness and many ornamental trills...It’s impossible not to be impressed...by the panache of No 39 in D or the grand carnival of the relatively lengthy No 31 in A-flat.
