Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
– Financial Times on Beethoven Sonatas Vol.1, May 2012
Multiple-award-winning pianist and ICMA Artist of the Year in 2012,
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is renowned for his performances of works by Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev, Bartók, Beethoven and Haydn. He regularly works with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vasily Petrenko, Pierre Boulez, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Kirill Karabits, Andris Nelsons, Krzysztof Urbański, Lawrence Foster and Iván Fischer.
Recent and upcoming highlights include a return to the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, where he opened the 2013 festival with a performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 under the baton of Louis Langrée, and a return to the BBC Proms with regular collaborators Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and performances with San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Sydney Symphony and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Other recent collaborations include appearances with the Boston Symphony and Budapest Festival orchestras, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France.
In the 2013-14 season, Bavouzet makes his debuts with the Pittsburgh, Seattle and Beijing symphony orchestras, and returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra (for a Beethoven concerto cycle over two days), Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and Tivoli Symphony Orchestra (in a programme directed from the piano). He is artist-in-residence with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo in 2014, and further ahead, he returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski.
An equally active recitalist and chamber musician, Bavouzet regularly performs at London's Southbank Centre, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussels' BOZAR, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Moscow Conservatoire and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, where he received the annual Classical Elites Beijing Instrumental Recital of the Year award for his complete Beethoven sonatas cycle. Forthcoming recitals include appearances at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Wigmore Hall and the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. Next season, he also tours the United States with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Europe with the Danel Quartet.
Particularly celebrated for his work on disc, Bavouzet has won Gramophone awards for his recording of concerto works by Debussy and Ravel (BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan Pascal Tortelier) and for his fourth volume of Debussy's Complete Works for Piano. His interpretations of Debussy and Ravel have also earned him two BBC Music Magazine awards and Diapason d'Or, whilst his first volume of Haydn's Piano Sonatas received a Choc de l'année. Bavouzet records exclusively for Chandos and current recording projects include a Beethoven Piano Sonatas cycle and a Haydn Piano Concertos cycle with Manchester Camerata and Gabor Takács-Nagy.
Bavouzet has worked closely with Pierre Boulez, Maurice Ohana and Bruno Mantovani (the latter’s “Le Livre de Jeb” was written for him) and is also a champion of lesser known French music, notably that of Gabriel Pierné and Albéric Magnard. He performed Pierné’s Piano Concerto in 2013 at the Palazzetto Bru Zane and is recording Pierné’s complete works for piano and orchestra with Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
A former student of Pierre Sancan at the Paris Conservatoire, Bavouzet won first prize in the International Beethoven Competition in Cologne and made his American debut through Young Concert Artists in New York in 1987. As well as his performing activities, Bavouzet has made a transcription for two pianos of Debussy’s Jeux, published by Durand with a foreword by Pierre Boulez.
Bavouzet is artistic director of the Lofoten Piano Festival in Norway. For more information, please visit www.bavouzet.com