Recent Releases No. 76 (CD Reviews)

by Karl Nehring

Ravel: Complete Works for Solo Piano. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano. CHANDOS CHAN 20287(2)

 

Sometime back in the day I owned Bavouzet’s previous recording of the complete Ravel solo piano music; come to think of it, I almost certainly still own it, hidden away somewhere in the stacks of CDs that I have lazily enough allowed to pile up on shelves in the corner of my listening room. No, I can’t imagine that I would ever have gotten rid of it, so it is probably somewhere in one of those piles along with my other favorite recordings of the Ravel piano works, those of Abbey Simon and Vlado Perlemuter. (A favorite release that I can find is one I recently reviewed [you can read that review here], that by Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho on DG.) Surprisingly enough, when I did a search of the Classical Candor archives for reviews of recordings by Bavouzet, expecting to find several – a few solo piano recordings, maybe some concertos – I found only one, and on that one, he is not even the featured performer; rather, he is the pianist on Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Garder of Spain (you can see that review here). This new recording by Bavouzet is clearly a labor of love, the pianist returning to the music of Ravel two decades after his earlier recording, bringing with him a deeper appreciation for the music of the great French master. The generous CD booklet contains not only extensive notes on the music by eminent English musicologist Hugh Macdonald, but also an essay by Bavouzet in which he marvels at how Ravel, who was far from a virtuoso pianist himself, “was capable of inventing the most magical pianistic effects without being able to try them out himself?” But Bavouzet is able to produce Ravel’s magical pianistic effects, and the Chandos engineering team has done a fine job of recording them. This has become my new favorite Ravel piano set. Highly recommended!

 

Anna Lapwood: Firedove. (1) The Bells of Nidaros Cathedral; (2) Alan Manken: The Bells of Notre Dame (fromThe Hunchback of Notre Dame); (3) Hans Zimmer: Time (from Inception); (4) Flight – Introduction; (5) Rachel Portman: Flight; (6) Olivia Bell: Limina Luminis; (7) Julie Cooper: Firedove; (8) Ivo Antognini: Come to Me; (9) Bob Dylan: Make You Feel My Love; (10) Robbie Williams & Guy Chambers: Angels; (11) Ola Gjeilo: Northern Lights; (12) Poppy Ackroyd: Murmurations; (13) Louis Vierne: Naïades; (14) Hania Rani: Glass; (15) Maurice Duruflé: Prélude et Fugue sur le Nom D’Alain Op. 7. Anna Lapwood, organ and conductor; Jess Gillam, saxophone (4, 5); The Chapel Choir of Pembroke Choir, Cambridge (7, 8, 9); Elena Urioste, violin (7); Molly Hord, organ (9); Maryam Giraud, soloist (9). Sony Classical 19802809272

 

Anna Lapwood MBE (b. 1995) is skilled not only as an organist, but as a conductor and broadcaster as well. In 2021, for example, she appeared at the BBC Proms both as a presenter for BBC Television and as soloist in the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony. In 2016, when she was just 21, she was appointed Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, where in 2018 she established the Pembroke College Girls’ Choir for girls aged 11 to 18. She has become a notable ambassador for classical music through her outreach on social media (she became known worldwide as “the TikTok organist”), her midnight sessions at the Royal Albert Hall (where she is currently the Resident Organist), and her numerous concerts and personal appearances. The first release we reviewed that featured Anna Lapwood (b. 1995) on organ was Christopher Tin’s To Shiver the Sky, a spectacular-sounding production for multiple choirs, organ, and orchestra (you can find that review here). At that time we were beginning to become aware of her talents both as an organist and as a choir conductor through her Twitter (now X) account; there she posted about working on an arrangement of Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, which would go on to become the centerpiece of her first solo album, Images, which was released in 2021 on the Signum Classics label (you can read our review here). In 2023, she signed with Sony Classical and released her second feature album, Luna (you can read that review here).

Now she is here with a new album, which she characterizes as “an explosion of emotion, bringing together all the different strands of my musical world, from organ to choral, and from classical to pop, all seen through the lens of this remarkable instrument.” The “remarkable instrument” to which she refers is the organ at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway. The centerfold picture in the CD booklet shows Lapwood seated at the keyboard of this imposing instrument, which was built in 1930. With 129 stops and more than 9,600 pipes, it is one of the largest organs in northern Europe. From the sound of the cathedral bells that open the album, the choir, the plaintive saxophone, and of course the magnificent organ itself, the album unfolds a full spectrum of sound from the intimate to the grand. Remarkably, despite the varied nature of the program, Lapwood’s musical vision comes through as consistent and compelling. Whether playing the organ on Hans Zimmer’s Time or leading the choir in Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love, she is able to draw us into the music, make us share in her reverence for the sheer wonder of melody and harmony. This sense of reverence is especially evident in her transcription for organ of Ola Gjeilo’s transcendent choral work, Northern Lights, a subtle wonder. With notes on the music by Lapwood herself and superb engineering by veterans Mike Hatch and Jakob Handel, Firedove earns an enthusiastic recommendation.