Bavouzet's Bartok

This one snuck up on me, at least partly due to the fact that I wasn’t exactly looking for a new recording of Bartok’s piano concertos. The last new set I bought was Boulez’s with the trio of famous contemporary pianists, and that was almost six years ago. Anyway, I’m generally quite fond of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s playing, but how would he handle Bartok? Pretty much as I expected, as it turns out.

Bavouzet’s playing throughout the set is generally on the light side, with dazzling dexterity and speed, quite a bit of elegance and panache, and perhaps a hint of superficiality. He’s a quintessentially French pianist. But that’s not always what works best in this music. The weakest performance of the set is the first. It lacks the incisiveness and bite that, say, Kocsis or Zimerman bring, or the color that Anda or Schiff bring. The whole thing is very energetic and vibrant, but it lacks that last bit of oomph or gruffness or Hungarian goodness, take your pick. The orchestral layout, with the percussion right behind the piano, is a nice touch. Overall, it’s quite good if not a standard setter.

The second is better. Bavouzet’s style fits more nicely with this overtly virtuosic piece, and he delivers. He seems to have nary an issue with any of the writing, and his articulation is impressive indeed. That superficiality is on display here, but that doesn’t matter much. As with the first, the whole thing is delivered in most vibrant fashion, and the dynamic range is quite broad, with the big bass drum thwacks having more than a little heft (though not near as much as in Schiff’s recording).

Easily the best performance on the disc is the third. It ranks among the better versions I’ve heard, and all the attributes previously mentioned are on full display, save one: superficiality. Here, especially in the second movement, Bavouzet digs a little deeper, and his dynamic range seems broader, though that may be just the result of the sparser orchestration. The orchestral playing is again vibrant. No, it’s a bit more than that. It’s actually rather intense. This is the type of performance that would garner a standing ovation in almost any concert hall.

Overall, I must say that I am quite pleased with this disc. It does not join the ranks of the great recordings by various Hungarian pianists (Kocsis, Schiff, Anda, Sandor), but it is of very high quality indeed. Bavouzet displays fine chops, and Gianandrea Noseda and his BBC band offers extremely energetic support. Sound is generally superb, almost offering a challenge to the Schiff recording, though some spotlighting is obvious, and there are hints of congestion in some tuttis. (The latter may be an accurate reflection of the acoustic.)


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