Works by Couperin, Debussy, Ravel, Rameau, Hahn
Martin James Bartlett (piano)
Warner Classics 5419789680 60:10 mins
In his own words, Martin James Bartlett is ‘rather awful at dancing’, but that hasn’t put him off lacing up his dance shoes and gathering a troupe of French composers for this album. And whether or not he’s any great shakes on the dancefloor, he’s certainly at home conjuring up Baroque gavottes and ghostly waltzes on the keyboard.
Not that this is uniformly the most toe-tapping dance-inspired piano album I’ve ever heard, though it is a lovely programme, built around Ravel’s neo-classical Le tombeau de Couperin and the transcription of the cataclysmic La valse. There’s much rewarding playing; Bartlett is a highly expressive musician. If his Romantic Rameau remains rather earthbound, his Couperin flickers with a cosy firelight warmth. His two Hahn miniatures are deliciously bittersweet and whirlingly joyful, while Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1 slips by like liquid sunshine.
Bartlett enjoys a good rubato, and how you feel about that is possibly a matter of taste. At times, the pulling back is almost imperceptible and the effect magical (in the early stretches of the Prélude from Le tombeau). At others, it feels superfluous – in that same piece, he twins a crescendo with a drawing out of the tempo far less convincingly. After the chaste lines of the Fugato, the enigmatic lilt of the Forlane sags. The Rigaudon peps up matters with hearty and nimble fingerwork, while the silvery Toccata sparkles.
La valse is all rumbling menace in Bartlett’s hands, packed with punchy bass chords and roaring glissandos. His vision of the piece is rather choppy, but it’s often exciting nonetheless. Some pianists, such as Angela Hewitt, make the piano dance; others, like Bartlett, make it sing. Rebecca Franks
