Chamayou - Mendelssohn Piano Music: Bertrand Chamayou
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Artist: ChamayouComposer: Mendelssohn
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2008-06-24
Music Label: Naive
Music reviews of Mendelssohn Piano Music: Bertrand Chamayou
Music Review: Pianism of the Highest Order
Rating: 5 Stars
In his insightful booklet notes, Bertrand Chamayou writes, 'It may seem astonishing that the vast majority of pianists so seldom frequent the works of Mendelssohn.' This is true, but this recording by Chamayou does much to convey how lovely and even important Mendelssohn's piano works are. Chamayou goes on, '...the real burden he has to bear seems to be the fact that he belongs to the generation of 1810; when placed alongside his colleagues Schumann, Liszt and Chopin, he "creates a slightly schoolmasterly impression", as he once perceptively wrote to his mother in his account of meeting Chopin.' I will admit that I, too, have had somewhat that impression of Mendelssohn's music, with a few exceptions, but on listening to this CD of a selection of some of his lesser-known as well as some thrice familiar works, I came away with an impression that Mendelssohn is worth a re-examination, at least by me. This is, of course, at least partly a function of Chamayou's extraordinary talent at the keyboard. The music sounds natural and spontaneous, even when Mendelssohn's vaunted craft is much in evidence. Chamayou's touch is variously delicate, even elfin in such things as Rachmaninoff's transcription of the Overture to 'Midsummer Night's Dream' or the Scherzo in E Minor from the 'Three Fantasies and Caprices' Op. 16, but he is capable of getting deep in the keys in things like the 'Variations serieuses' or the deliciously lyrical Liszt transcription of Mendelssohn's lied 'Suleika' or the first cut on the CD, the B Minor Prelude, Op. 104a, No. 2 whose torrents of sound are electrifying. Throughout one is aware that Chamayou is not playing these works as virtuosic showpieces but as deeply felt musical utterances. I am smitten by his playing and am eager to hear more of it.
As far as I know this is the only CD of Chamayou available in the US. There is little biographical information available about him, even on the Internet. He is young, from his picture looking to be in his twenties, and was born in Toulouse and studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Jean-Fran?ois Heisser and in London with Maria Curcio. He had some study with Murray Perahia (whose sound is similar to his). He is known primarily in France, where he is reported to have played Liszt's 'Transcendental Etudes' more than forty times in recital. That cycle has been recorded, reportedly, but I found no evidence of it on American online sites. It is reported that he will play Messiaen's 'Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-J?sus' a number of times this year (2008); one hopes a recording will follow.
A word of praise to the recording team who have provided a marvelously lifelike sound for Chamayou's well-regulated piano.
Strongest recommendation for piano music lovers.
Scott Morrison
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