Classical review: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Auckland Museum

French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, who performed at the Auckland Museum, has a high-profile CD catalogue.

French pianist transforms recital hall into a salon with intimate yet bold interpretations.

Auckland Museum's auditorium might have been on the European concert circuit this month, hosting two top-notch pianists just weeks apart.

While Kirill Gerstein's provocative mix of Bartok, Bach and Liszt saw too many empty seats, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet sold out the house -- the Frenchman's high-profile CD catalogue and his sparkling Ravel concerto with Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra may well have played their part here.

The charmingly chatty Bavouzet transformed recital hall into salon, announcing a bonus Beethoven sonata, describing it as "very particular, in two-and-a-half movements".

He took care, extending the cantabile of Opus 78 into a thoughtful Allegro, delving into a brilliant sonic paintbox for its development section.

Bavouzet heeds what composers say, as when Beethoven specifies that his Opus 90 sonata should set off "lively, and always with feeling and expression".

Extremely malleable tempi underlined drama as well as poignant dissonances and, in the second movement, some thorny counterpoint did not detract at all from the surrounding lyrical ambience.

He made bold decisions with Opus 101, one of the tougher sonatas. The focus fell on rich, resonant chords in its first movement, and he swung into the second with such brio that a few falterings increased the sense of bravado. And who could forget those few bars in which a firmly sustained pedal created such heady magic?

After interval, more convivial chat revealed that Debussy's Images would replace the programmed Ravel Sonatine.

These were masterly, as the pianist explored every watery inflection from ripple to splash in Reflets dans l'eau, fearlessly living up to the Stravinskian whirl he had hinted at in Debussy's final Mouvement.

While one missed the cool classicism of Ravel's Sonatine, his Miroirs more that compensated.

The daringly suave modernisms of Noctuelles thrilled every bit as much as Oiseaux tristes with its mournful premonitions of Messiaen's later aviary.

Debussy was brought back for the encore. His L'Ile Joyeuse was rendered with such airy and impish nonchalance that we might have been floating in a hot-air balloon, looking down on an enchanted island totally taken over by a hedonistic but unfailingly elegant dance party.

What: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
Where: Auckland Museum
When: Saturday