Bavouzet crafts a masterful journey through Ravel’s piano music
This year is Maurice Ravel’s sesquicentennial, and with his music proliferating on concert programs, there may be no better time to hear his work in concert. And of all the events, past and still to come, few are going to better, or likely even equal, Tuesday night’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center concert in Alice Tully Hall.
CMS produced this, but it was all the work of one man, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. In one mini-marathon program with two intermissions, the French pianist played Ravel’s complete published keyboard music catalogue.
It was superlative. And it was so despite the absence of La Valse. Although Bavouzet has recorded all this music for Chandos, including La Valse, it’s not originally for solo piano. While Ravel orchestrated some of these works, such as Le tombeau de Couperin, La Valse was originally an orchestral score he later reduced for the keyboard.
Still, through Bavouzet’s hands the concert was full of Ravel’s wit, beauty, style, and extraordinary personal logic. The pianist played with deep artistic wisdom, and taking the music in mostly chronological order, the performance built to an engrossing and thrilling plateau. Bavouzet began with Sérénade grotesque, coming to an end with Le tombeau. In the middle stretch, though, he arranged the sequence for maximum drama and expression: Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn, Valses noble et sentimentales, and Gaspard de la nuit.
Bavouzet generally used tempos slightly faster than usually heard, possibly because of the length of the program, but everything was in proportion and finely balanced. That was the technical foundation for all his playing, along with absolute attention to the sinews of each piece.
Ravel of course is full of colors and sensuality, and it’s both an easy and correct path to emphasize those, to explore the richness of notes stacked together. Bavouzet, instead, had an unerring horizontal approach, a clear flowing line through each piece that made Ravel’s thinking sound both organic and inexplicable.
With a kind of matter-of-fact passion, Bavouzet seemed to both puzzle and marvel at just how Ravel crafted the theme in the first movement of the Sonatine or the fabulous harmonies in the Haydn tribute. The Sonatine, in the first section, was a gorgeous performance, with scintillating energy in the final movement. For d’Haydn Bavouzet hammered out the name-theme of B-A-D-D-G as a nice demonstration of just what he was going to do, before gliding into the music.
The small pieces, including the A la manière miniatures, were full of charm, the larger works were fantastic journeys through the inner workings of Ravel’s music and thoughts. Miroirs concluded the first section, and was slightly subdued and deeply atmospheric, with a stunningly beautiful “Oiseaux triste” and an exquisite “La vallée des cloches.” The slow sections of Valses nobles were just as carefully played, without indulgence but full of character, Bavouzet showing a measured touch.
Gaspard was tremendous. This is narrative, even if not straight drama, and Bavouzet unspooled it with a strong, implacable forward flow. The long crescendo and rising activity in the first movement had an elegant accumulation of energy and expressive depths with a thrilling undercurrent. His pace in “Le “gibet” was so even and steady that the music seemed to swell with effortless expression. “Scarbo” was unmannered, full of power and mystery.
After this, Le Tombeau was glorious, serene and beautiful, with wonderful poise. The pianist’s articulation of the two fugal movements was exceptional, and the sense of culmination was fully satisfying.
But there was still more. Bavouzet sat down at the piano for an encore, and indeed played La Valse. From the churning beginning to the peaks and valleys of the climax and finale, he added a wild freedom to cap off the night with an incredible flourish.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents music of Mozart, Schumann, and Spohr, 6:30 and 9 p.m. November 20. chambermusicsociety.org
One Response to “Bavouzet crafts a masterful journey through Ravel’s piano music”
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Posted Dec 06, 2025 at 4:20 am by John FitzGibbon
Yes, I agree: he was masterful! I couldn’t stop myself from giving it my utmost attention, my work at hand put on hold. He played with such power, grace and “breathfulness”. Kudos in the highest!!!