Jean-Efflam Bavouzet; BBC Symphony Orchestra / Yan Pascal Tortelier Chandos CHSA5084

Two years after winning the Instrumental Gramophone Award for Vol 4 in his complete Debussy piano music cycle, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet returns to the Awards pages with a Concerto nomination for his Bartók concertos and the category win for works by Debussy, Ravel and Massenet. The Ravel piano concertos are, of course, refined interpretations, with “their blend of subtle phrasing, polish and unanimous zest”, wrote Geoffrey Norris. Yet it is Debussy’s infrequently aired Fantaisie which is the disc’s trump card – a “voluptuous” and “tantalising foretaste of things to come” from the then young composer.

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