The French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is no stranger to our shores, nor is he to the music of Maurice Ravel (born 150 years ago this year).

In 2023, Bavouzet played Ravel’s G major Piano Concerto with the SSO, which has brought him back again for concerts including this solo recital in celebration of Ravel’s anniversary.

It is decades since we had a concert of this nature, when another French pianist, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, played all of Ravel’s music for solo piano over an afternoon and evening at the Sydney Town Hall. Bavouzet does not play all of it, but he certainly gives us the meat.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Photo supplied

The Schubert-inspired Valses nobles et sentimentales was originally announced, but Bavouzet decides to replace it with the better-known and more demanding suite Gaspard de la nuit. He also adds the lovely Jeux d’eau to the first half, and finishes with a 15-minute encore in the form of the composer’s piano transcription of his orchestral piece La Valse. Include the early Sérénade grotesque, the