Chandos CHAN 10689

Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Volume 3 – Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

The multi-award-winning pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet continues his great survey of Haydn’s piano sonatas. This is Volume 3 in a series, of which The Times wrote: ‘Who is the best composer for refreshing the spirit and making you laugh? Haydn, of course, especially when in the hands of a pianist like Bavouzet, another master of delight.’ In the words of Bavouzet himself: ‘Each volume of this ambitious, extended project will arrive over the years like a postcard, dispatched during my travels with scant respect for chronological considerations, but undertaken with the greatest passion for trying to convey as vividly as possible to twenty-first-century ears the boundless treasures of this sublime music.’ He also notes: ‘We often forget how little information Haydn left us in the scores of his keyboard works: few indications of dynamics or of phrasing, and the briefest guides to tempo. This task is never anything other than absolutely fascinating, but for the performer it is also testing, and even risky. He must, even more than usual, create his own world, his own logic, left only to hope that, in the absence of tangible evidence, he will not distance himself too far from the composer’s intentions, which remain forever unknowable.’

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Riccardo Risaliti – Musica – February 2012

Recording of the Month

Michael Greenhalgh - Musicweb-international.com - 9 March 2012

‘Critics Choice’
“Lovely sound, deriving from a Yamaha piano and sessions at Potton Hall in Suffolk...”

Stephen Plaistow – Gramophone – December 2011

Artistic Quality 10 Sound Quality 10
“If you’ve been collecting this series you won’t need any recommendation from me, if you haven’t been, you ought to start. Once again Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s Haydn sweeps the field... Another great release in a standard-setting series.”

David Hurwitz – ClassicsToday.com – 24 October 2011

“...Without letting personality obtrude, his [Bavouzet] approach is nevertheless uniquely personal. The subtlety, humour and grace of his playing is undergirded by a keenly perceptive intellectual grasp and unfailing musicality. No doubt these performances will afford pleasure and insight for many years to come.”

Patrick Rucker – International Record Review – November 2011

“...This is sublime playing ... throughout, Bavouzet strikes an ideal balance between reticence and projection of personality. As he extends his project, sending irregular ‘postcards’ reflecting his passion for this ‘sublime music’, he pulls away from fin but selective interpreters ... staking a claim as Haydn’s greatest contemporary keyboard exponent.”

Andy Hamilton – International Piano – November/December 2011

Editor’s Choice
“A recording worth rushing to the shops for. Bavouzet plays these inventive masterpieces with real love.” *****

Charlotte Gardner – Classic FM magazine – November 2011

Instrumental Choice
Performance ***** Recording *****

“This third disc in Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s ongoing exploration of Haydn’s Keyboard Sonatas is the best yet...”

Bayan Northcott – BBC Music magazine – November 2011

"...Bavouzet shows exquisite taste, always making us aware that behind Haydn’s classical lines lies a hugely inventive personality."

Andrew Clark - The Financial Times - 3 September 2011

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R Wall

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S Carchiolo

Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Volume 3

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

Rachel Smith

Jonathan Cooper

Piano

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN

Sonata No. 29 (Hob. XVI: 45)

Sonata No. 33 (Hob. XVI: 20)

Sonata No. 42 (Hob. XVI: 27)

Sonata No. 16 (Hob. XVI: 14)