In his search for precision, clarity and formal perfection, Maurice Ravel can be considered as an heir of French baroque composers such as François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau. The gentle melancholy that coloured many of these baroque works also comes across in Ravel’s music. In the six-part piano suite Le Tombeau de Couperin from 1917, Ravel paid homage not only to the earlier French masters but also to the soldiers who fell in World War I. Alexandre Tharaud’s recital, the mood of which is undeniably melancholic, also includes works by Ravel’s contemporaries and compatriots Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc. Completing the programme is Franz Schubert’s Moments Musicaux, a piece that Tharaud performs in his role as the pianist in Michael Haneke’s award-winning film Amour.

"Tharaud is able to make the leaps from visionary to flippant, sublimely beautiful to downright silly with ease and his willingness to take risks really impresses." (BBC Music Magazine)

Flagey, Festival van Vlaanderen Brussel