SSO – International Pianists in Recital | Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
20 October, 2025, City Recital Hall, Sydney
MAURICE RAVEL (1875–1937)
Sérénade grotesque (1893)
Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899)
Miroirs (1904–05)
Gaspard de la nuit (1908)
Le tombeau de Couperin (1914–17)
For many of the concertgoers at the piano recital of the music of Ravel, pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet would have touched so many comfort buttons as the music of Ravel has been a staple of concerts and radio broadcasts for many decades. Audiences love to listen to their favourites and this was no exception. Bavouzet’s deeply felt understanding of the music and his flawless technique ensured the audience was both spellbound and enchanted as this is indeed music that transports the listener to ethereal places far from the mundane. The music of Ravel has earnt the right to be favourite.
Ravel’s piano music is of utmost importance when looking at European piano music as the 19th century was drawing to a close and the decade or so afterwards. His music further developed the French aesthetic pioneered by Debussy and his colleagues and created a French sound that was lovingly admired and imitated all around the world. It is music that is transparent, then mysterious, energetic, followed by a sweetness with no end. It is a great contrast to the music from Germany that was the mainstay of European music throughout the 19th century.
Opening with Sérénade grotesque, a short early work written when the composer was just 18, Bavouzet assured all present that it would be a night to remember. Perfection playing here and in Pavane pour une infante défunte Bavouzet played with such restraint and elegance drawing a myriad of colours from the piano. It was so measured and ever so comforting. Bavouzet added Jeux d’eau at this stage in the recital so as to connect Ravel’s development as a composer. Written just two years after the Pavane it already has ascended to even higher realms of imagination both in compositional technique and in developing piano colours.
Acknowledging the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth gave Bavouzet an opportunity to program three masterpieces from the composer’s piano output and with the encore covered 27 years of Ravel’s pianist writing. The first major group he performed was Miroirs with its five contrasting movements, each a stand-alone gem. The favourites stood out, the dynamic and virtuosic Alborada del gracioso and the introspective and ever so colourful La vallée des cloches.
For me the standout work on the program was Gaspard de la nuit written when Ravel was 33 and at the height of his invention and at a stage when he knew exactly what he wanted to write. Watery Ondine is followed by the heavy chordal steps of Le Gibet before the music races off to nether worlds of fancy in the menacing Scarbo. Bavouzet dispatched each movement with ease and insight, compassion and in Scarbo, electrifying playing.
The final work, Le tombeau de Couperin is a work written during the Great War and its six mvts are dedicated to friends who died in that conflict. It mines the music and attitudes of the baroque suite whilst always the compassion of the composer is at the forefront. The finale, Toccata, is as an exciting music as you can imagine and thrilling too. A great concert had come to the end… but had it?
Well, the audience was satisfied and surely the pianist was exhausted but Bavouzet seems to have boundless energy for, as an encore, he thrilled all with an astonishing performance of La Valse, about 12 minutes! The score, originally intended as ballet music for Diagheliv’s Ballets Russes, lives on as an orchestral work, a composition for two pianos and most scarily, as a solo piano work. This encore was an extreme version of the craziness, menacing music that harkens back to the fury of Scarbo and the audience stomped and gave pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet a standing ovation. That night dreams were invaded by malevolent fairies, by water sprites and dancers going at breakneck speed. Ah, wonderful.
A personal postscript. It is easy to just listen to the beauty of Ravel’s music, his invention, his stunningly virtuosic writing but I write as a composer who is in awe at the precise constructions, the near perfect symmetry, the delicious harmonic invention and the pursuit of a music that leads to newness all the time, that is restless in its search for perfection. 1,000 people at the City Recital Hall got it. They had their favourites and were at times comforted and also had excitement galore. A master pianist performing a concert of masterworks is a great recipe for a brilliant recital.
Phot Credit: B Ealovega
