Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

It was all the more exciting, therefore, to hear Jean-Efflam Bavouzet last night. This up-and-coming French pianist is relatively unrepresented on the internet and on disc (apart from his Debussy series on which below, there is a complete set of Ravel, some Liszt and even Haydn that I’m quite curious about). For Warsaw, Bavouzet chose to perform all five of Prokofiev’s piano concertos, over two evenings. (He played with the National Philharmonic under its director Antoni Wit). Tonight’s concert consisted of Nos. 1, 2 and 4.

There was a moment of scare as Bavouzet handled the Concerto No. 1 with a lot of nonchalance, crazy tempos (the orchestra really struggled to follow), wrong notes, and little attention paid to articulation and nuance. As the Concerto drew to an end and Bavouzet went backstage before the next work, I heard some really negative comments from the audience, but I suspected from the onset that his carelessness was in fact well-controlled, and in tune with the exuberant, youthful character of the work (It was, after all, Prokofiev’s graduation all). It was confirmed by a very different performance of the Concerto No. 4. This is uneasy, ironic, acidic music, and Bavouzet gave one of the best live performances I can remember. He was sober, exact, articulate, and played this unloved concerto with respect and dedication. His reading also departed from the usual practice of emphasizing the first movement, representing a gradual crescendo leading to the fourth movement. After intermission, there was equally fine playing the more technically demanding and emotionally broader Concerto No. 2. This was serious, thoughtful, rewarding Prokofiev.

As usually when I really like a pianist on stage, I went on to buy a Bavouzet CD. His most widely available recording is a 4-CD set of the complete works of Debussy (Chandos label), which is cleverly planned, including some unpublished and recently discovered works, and also some notes from the pianist in the booklets – a controversial genre, but Bavouzet keeps his prose succinct and engaging (and in very good French).

It is often unfair to seek the emotion of a live concert on disc. At home, my listening tends to be far more analytical and comparative. Of the works I bought (Debussy’s Images and Études), I have a good dozen performances by such giants of the past as Gieseking, Michelangeli, Gilels, Gulda, François and Richter. Few modern pianists can stand the comparison. I am happy to say that although Bavouzet’s Images are well-played and poetic but hardly original, the Études are very fine indeed. This is complex, technically very demanding music that shows Debussy at his less evocative, more forward-looking and ‘purely musical’. Bavouzet’s command of the piano is excellent, and he plays with a technical and intellectual freedom that allows him to show the music’s affinities to contemporary composers such as Boulez, Messiaen and perhaps even Stockhausen. His seamless thirds and panache are impressive in Pour les tierces, as are the broken octaves and dynamic contrasts in Pour les octaves. The best etude is perhaps Pour les sonorités opposées. The refined chords here look back to Fauré and Debussy’s early works with one eye, and to late 20th-century music with the other. Bavouzet’s playing as accomplished, sober, self-conscious; this becomes almost philosophical music.

Few Bavouzet recordings are available on the internet but there is an interesting complete version of Janáček’s rarely played Capriccio and this excerpt from Debussy’s Images.