Bertrand Chamayou plays Ravel

The Programme

Prepare to dream. Maurice Ravel plunges into the dark heart of the Romantic imagination to conjure water nymphs, sinister fairytales and things that go bump in the night. Unsuk Chin, meanwhile, embraces pure virtuosity: her Six Études, she says were created for a pianist who ‘is prepared to push themself to – or past – their limits’. This is music in which virtuoso piano playing moves onto another plane: a place where sound shades into pure imagination.

The Performers

It’s the natural habitat of Bertrand Chamayou – a master-pianist with personal roots deep in the French tradition founded by Ravel, who believes that ‘creating new music must be at the heart’ of his musical life. Few living performers are better-equipped to bring out the hidden connections that link some of the most compelling piano music of the 20^th and now the 21st century.