François-Xavier Poizat
AP321 - 6CD - 400' - Oct 25, 2024
François-Xavier Poizat is recording Maurice Ravel's complete works with piano for the first time, to mark the composer's 150th birthday. The programme covers not only the solo pieces and concertos, but also the chamber music, the four hands pieces and the sublime corpus of melodies, all brought together in a luxurious 6-CD box set.
Although Maurice Ravel is not generally considered to have been a very prolific composer, it nevertheless takes no fewer than 6 CDs to record all of his works involving the piano, which are brought together here for the very first time by the pianist François-Xavier Poizat. This exceptional project – the recording took 18 months to accomplish and involved almost 120 musicians, technicians and engineers – presents not only the composer’s complete piano music (concertos, solo pieces and duets), but also all of the chamber works including the instrument and the songs with piano accompaniment. In the good company of the Philharmonia Orchestra under Simone Menezes, the Quatuor Voce, the pianist Louis Schwizgebel, the violinist Michael Foyle or the singers Thomas Dolié, Brenda Poupard, Suzanne Jerosme and Florent Karrer, François-Xavier Poizat covers a large part of Ravel’s creative life, in which the piano was most certainly the essential element, and explores the diversity of the composer’s inspiration. After spending twenty years assimilating this music, the pianist reveals with simplicity, finesse and deep understanding the vast and rich imagination of Maurice Ravel.
CD1 | CONCERTOS | European birth & views across the Atlantic
with The Philharmonia Orchestra, Simone Menezes, Yves Marcotte, Valentin Liechti
CD2 | SOLO PIANO & 4-HANDS | Miniatures & rarities, the birth of a genius
with Louis Schwizgebel, Anaïs Cassier
CD3 | SOLO PIANO & 4-HANDS | Literary texts and inspiration from a France of yesteryear
with Louis Schwizgebel
CD4 | CHAMBER MUSIC | Strings from East to West
with Michael Foyle, Jamie Walton
CD5 | SONGS | Voice of men
with Thomas Dolié, Brenda Poupard, Héléna Macherel, Constantin Macherel
CD6 | SONGS | Voice of angels
with Suzanne Jerosme, Florent Karrer, Thomas Dolié, Loïc Schneider, Natan Ca' Zorzi, Panagiotis Giannakas, Quentin Chartier, Quatuor Voce
