It’s almost ten years since French pianist Bertrand Chamayou recorded Ravel’s complete piano works, and now, in this the 150th anniversary year of Ravel’s birth, he has released an album which he calls “a modest contribution” to the “anniversary celebrations of a composer who has been my tireless companion since childhood”.
Bertrand Chamayou © Audoin Desforges
‘Fragments’ is a portrait of Ravel, expressed through his own music and homages written by both his contemporaries and composers of our time. As Chamayou says in the liner notes, all the pieces by other composers have “Ravelian echoes” – be they stylistic (for example, Sciarrino’s De La Nuit, whose fleet filigree textures are redolent of Ravel’s Ondine or Durieux’s Pour tous ceux qui tombent, which, for me at least, recalls Oiseaux Tristes from ‘Miroirs’) or direct homages. The album also includes some of Chamayou’s own transcriptions of Ravel and the composer’s own transcription for solo piano of La Valse.
Salvatore Sciarrino: De la nuit (Bertrand Chamayou, piano)
It’s a charming and intriguing selection of miniatures, thoughtfully curated and exquisitely performed by Chamayou, who has chosen pieces which showcase not only Ravel’s style and influence, but also the pianist’s technical and musical panache. The playing is stylish, sensitively shaped, rich in colour and nuanced dynamics, and always with a beautiful sound.
Bertrand Chamayou plays Ravel: 3 Chansons, M. 69: No. 2, Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis
Particular highlights are the opening piece Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis an introspective miniature tinged with poignancy, with its simple twining melody. The first instalment from Daphnis and Chloe, the Danse Leger, is supple and sensuous, while Tansman’s Hommage a Maurice Ravel, a brief prelude whose bell sounds are somewhat evocative of the sombre spareness of Le Gibet from Gaspard de la Nuit. These sounds are mirrored in Ravel’s Piece en forme de habanera which follows. Originally scored for voice, the music is exotic and mysterious, underpinned by a perfectly paced, gently swaying habanera rhythm. Finally, the closing Scène de Daphnis et Chloé manages to be both sultry and ecstatic with its perfumed harmonies and twinkling cascades of notes.
Alexandre Tansman: 4 Preludes, Vol. 2: No. 2 Lent (Bertrand Chamayou, piano)
Overall, the album really demonstrates Ravel’s enduring musical influence – in textures, harmonies, melodies, articulation and musical imagination – and the ‘homage pieces’ shine a revealing light on Ravel’s own distinctive soundworld. Chamayou can trace his musical lineage directly to Ravel through his teacher Jean-François Heisser, who was himself a student of Vlado Perlemuter, who was mentored by Ravel in the 1920s. In addition, Chamayou hails from Toulouse, not far from Ciboure, the town where Ravel was born (near Biarritz in the South of France) so he can rightly claim a special connection to the composer. This special ‘musical heritage’ manifests itself in Chamayou’s immaculate, unfussy yet highly sensitive playing and beautifully balanced quality of sound and touch.
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