This is Volume 4 in Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s project to record the complete piano sonatas of Haydn. The last volume in the series (CHAN 10689) was a Critic’s Choice in Gramophone, an Instrumental Choice in the magazine BBC Music, Editor’s Choice in the magazine Classic FM, and Recording of the Month in MusicWeb International.

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.’

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet received a BBC Music Award in 2012 and a Gramophone Award in 2011 for his recording of works by Debussy and Ravel (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier). His recording of Bartók’s Concertos (with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic) was short-listed for a Gramophone Award, and he has won multiple awards for his recording of the complete works for solo piano by Debussy, including a BBC Music Magazine Award for Volume 3 and a Gramophone Award for Volume 4.

**** - Excellent

Luca Segalla - Musica magazine - March 2013

“...if you’ve already collected the first two volumes in Bavouzet’s Haydn cycle, you have no reason to hesitate in acquiring this latest one ... he’s [Bavouzet] a very serious artist who is more than well equipped to be an informative guide through this music.”

Jerry Dubins – Fanfare – March/April 2013

Music ****(Very Good) Sound ****(Very Good)

A Ri – Fono Forum magazine – December 2012

***** Very Good

Remey Franck - Pizzicato magazine - November 2012

BBC Instrumental Choice
Performance ***** Recording ****
“...Among the finest accounts on disc: searchingly nuanced ... The decorations Bavouzet adds from time to time always sound spontaneous and are often varied in repeats...”

Bayan Northcott – BBC Music magazine – November 2012

“More Bavouzet – and more delights, as the French pianist continues his admirable survey of the 50-plus Haydn piano sonatas. Quite apart from his stylistic command and sheer delight in the music, Bavouzet’s mixing and matching of different periods in the composer’s awe-inspiring pianistic development ensures there is never a dull moment...” ****

Andrew Clark – The Financial Times – 7 September 2012

“This series is turning into a real classic: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has an infectious sense of the witty fun that underlies so many of Haydn’s inventions, and the finale of the D major Sonata No 30 fairly fizzes with joy. But the real discovery here is a new version of the wonderful, touching Variations in F minor...”

Nicholas Kenyon - The Observer – 16 September 2012

CD of the Week

"... With his Yamaha piano Bavouzet’s crisp articulation - a constant delight - seeks to emulate the plucked action of the harpsichord, but he brings a singing legato line to Haydn’s melodies."

Hugh Canning - The Sunday Times - 16 September 2012

*****

D Glyn-Jones

Haydn: Piano Sonatas, Volume 4

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk

Rachel Smith

Jonathan Cooper

Piano

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN

Piano Sonata No. 38 (Hob. XVI: 23)

Piano Sonata No. 40 (Hob. XVI: 25)

Variations (Hob. XVII: 6)

Piano Sonata No. 3 (HOB. XVI: 19)

Variations (Hob. XVII: 6)