Jean-Efflam Bavouzet

“Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s flexible virtuosity and innate grasp of Debussy’s style and sound world yields ravishing, freshly minted interpretations…” – Gramophone Magazine, December 2008

French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s enthusiasm and artistic curiosity have led him to explore a repertoire ranging from Haydn, Beethoven, Bartók and Prokofiev, to contemporary works by composers such as Bruno Mantovani and Jörg Widmann. As well as performing, he has also recently completed a transcription for two pianos of Debussy’s famous dance poem Jeux, published by Durand with a foreword by Pierre Boulez.
Bavouzet has maintained a close relationship with Boulez ever since their first appearance together with the Orchestre de Paris in 1998, appearing together at the 2008 BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Other recent engagements for Bavouzet have included appearances with the Orchestre National de France and Daniele Gatti, as well as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Ingo Metzmacher, Orchestre Symphonique de Strasbourg, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Vladimir
Ashkenazy. He has recently performed all five Prokofiev concerti with the Warsaw Philharmonic under Antoni Wit.
Bavouzet is a regular at London’s Wigmore Hall, the La Roque d’Antheron and Piano aux Jacobins Festivals in France and has performed a concert cycle playing the complete Beethoven Sonatas in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing throughout the 2008/09 season – a project for which he received the annual Classical Elites Beijing “Instrumental Recital of the Year” award. He has also given recitals at the Brighton and Bath Festivals, and at the International Piano Series at London’s Southbank Centre.
Highlights of his 2009/10 season include Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Cleveland Orchestra and Ashkenazy, and performances with the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool and Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestras and the New Japan Philharmonic. He will also return to the Orchestre National de Lille to give the world premiere of Bruno Mantovani’s Piano Concerto. Further ahead, he will appear with the Philharmonia Orchestra under both Esa-Pekka Salonen and Christoph von Dohnányi, the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Neeme Järvi, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Lawrence Foster, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Bergen Philharmoniske Orkester under Andrew Davis, as well as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Konzerthausorchester Berlin with Gilbert Varga. He will tour the US with the Orchestre National de France and Daniele Gatti in spring 2011.
An exclusive recording artist for Chandos, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet has won multiple awards for his recording project of Debussy’s Complete Works for Solo Piano, culminating in the reception of the BBC Music Magazine Award for Volume 3 of the cycle and a Gramophone Award for Volume 4. Other awards include the “Choc de l’annee 2008″ (Le Monde de la Musique magazine), while Volume 2 has won the “Diapason d’Or 2008″. Future orchestral recording plans include Bartók’s Piano Concertos with the BBC Philharmonic and a recording of works by Ravel and Debussy with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The first volume of his new recital CD project of the Haydn’s complete Piano Sonatas has also just been released.
A former student of Pierre Sancan at the Paris Conservatoire, Bavouzet was invited by Sir George Solti to give his debut with the Orchestre de Paris in 1995 and is considered the Maestro’s last discovery. He is a Professor in the Piano Department of the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany.