Bertrand Chamayou returns. The last concert in Bordeaux by the French pianist, awarded five times at the Victoires de la Musique Classique, dates back to 2022 in a Liszt program. This Saturday, January 25, he will play the complete works of Ravel for piano at the Auditorium. This body of work gave rise to an acclaimed album in 2016 (“editor’s choice” from the English magazine “Gramophone”); he takes it up again in 2025 as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. But it is in any case deeply anchored in the personality of Bertrand Chamayou. Interview.
Ravel seems to have been a pivotal composer for you. After recording this complete piece, you moved towards Debussy or Messiaen whereas before, you only played romantics….
It’s true without being so. Indeed, it was after recording Ravel that I played Debussy, Falla or Stravinsky, but at the same time, he has been in me since my childhood. I must have been 8 years old when I saw the score of “Jeux d’eau” and I was impressed by what the notes on the staff depicted. We could see the trickling of drops of water. From then on, I absolutely wanted to hear and play this music.
Ravel was an aesthetic shock. There is a luminous side, a search for clarity in sound and polyphonies in him. Unlike the late Debussy, he remained attached to classical forms, as in “Le Tombeau de Couperin”, which was inspired by baroque dances. His music guided my way of playing, looking for something luminous, aquatic, pearly. Even when I played romantic musicians.
How did you design the progression between these piano pieces? Is there a strategy to how you string them together?
Yes, I did not try to respect a chronological order because that would have unbalanced the program. I would not have had pieces of the same length or the same density before and after the intermission. I also avoided linking works of the same tone so as not to have a repetition effect. And I don’t do virtuoso pieces one after another, so I can rest! And then, there is also something intuitive in this program: putting two works in a row because I felt like it!
-You play Ravel after Vlado Perlemuter, Noël Lee or Samson François. Is it hard to find your place after such immense performers?
That’s a good question (laughs)! What I can say is that I was born in a different era, that I grew up in a different sound environment, that I don’t play on the same instruments. These artists produced sublime recordings; now, it is up to us to bring this music to life by seeking to understand the feelings that the composer wanted to express.
You will publish a new album dedicated to Ravel in March. What else do you have to play after this complete?
Piano transcriptions of orchestral works like “La Valse” or “Daphnis & Chloé” written by Ravel, vocal works that I transcribed myself and tributes to Ravel by other musicians. Either it’s him or it’s close.
Saturday January 25 at 7 p.m., 10 to 50 euros, opera-bordeaux.com
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