Debussy- Complete Works For Piano- Vol. 4

Product description 12 Études pour piano Livres 1 & 2 - Images pour piano Livres 1 & 2 - Étude retrouvée / Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano. Review ...Bavouzet's Debussy offers the epitome of style, virtuosity, taste, and interpretive intelligence. His touch is miraculous... Listening to him is a joy. If the Études remain Debussy's least popular set of piano pieces, this performance should go a long way toward easing their passage into the pianistic mainstream... -- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com How times have changed! Much as we think of Debussy as a particularly sensuous composer, the quintessentially French manner of playing his piano music used to be decidedly anti-sensuous: sparing rubato, colors more black-and-white than pastel. But the latter-day Frenchman Jean-Efflam Bavouzet gives us Debussy unashamed of voluptuousness, and good for him. Even in the Études, the music has a deliciously organic feeling of inhaling and exhaling, and moments of magic are duly relished. The "Reflets dans l'eau" opening the first set of Images does indeed suggest the buoyancy of water and ripples of light on its surface. Mr. Bavouzet has virtuosity where called for, but there's nothing chilly about it. What's more impressive throughout is the sheer naturalness - the humanity - of the music-making. Add Chandos' full-bodied sonics, and this is a splendid wrap-up to Mr. Bavouzet's Debussy survey. -- The Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell, December 21, 2008Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. "Debussy: Complete Works for Piano, Volume 4" (Chandos): An award-winner in Europe, French pianist Bavouzet is relatively unknown in this country. Go figure. His Debussy series is superb, bringing to bear just the right dosages of brain and heart. Volume 4 takes on "Images," the first and second series, and the Etudes, Books 1 and 2. -- San Jose Mercury News, Richard Scheinin, January 2010