JEAN-EFFLAM BAVOUZET

Haydn Piano Sonatas Volume 10:

Sonatas Nos 3, 4, 28, 45 and 60; Arietta con 12 Variazioni Hob. XVII: 3

Chandos CHAN 20191

5 STARS

By Peter Quantrill

 

Anyone familiar with the C major Sonata (No 60) from the likes of Brendel – or under their own fingers – should hold on to their hats. This is bracing, superbly articulate Haydn playing, often dazzlingly quick-fingered but fired with the poetic temperament to open out (the middle of the Allegro’s development) and plunge into Beethovenian depths.

 

The other known quantity here is the Arietta con Variazioni: disarming to begin with, steadily more elaborate and profound. This is music that’s far too good to be left to ‘specialists’, but Bavouzet sets a high bar for anyone hoping to emulate him even in the superficially straightforward sequences of two early sonatas, Nos 3 and 4. His opener is No 45 in A, dispatched with sublime fluency and a Baroque formality in the brief but searching central Adagio.

 

Now watch Jean-Efflam Bavouzet give a short lesson on Haydn's Sonata in E minor Hob.XVI/34: