Great artists talk about their past recordings
This month: BERTRAND CHAMAYOU Pianist
MY FINEST MOMENT
Messiaen
Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus
Bertrand Chamayou (piano) Erato 9029619666 (2022)
This was maybe more important to me than anything else I’ve done, because I had been carrying the idea of playing it since I was a kid; it was a dream come true to record it. I tried so very much to reach something transcendent – I don’t know if I managed to, but I decided to record it in a very special way. I asked my sound engineer not to be there, and so he taught me how to manage the computers and place the microphones. I wanted to be alone with the music and my piano – the only person there was the tuner.
I had to postpone the recording twice; the first time because it was getting too cold and it was impossible to continue – my fingers were like ice! The second time was because I injured my left hand trying to play No. 11, which is unique because you play with the fist. I was doing so many takes and I had to stop – my hand was black and blue.
Finally I made it. It took ten days; it could have been shorter, but I was trying so hard and working very late.
The complete cycle was 1,000 takes, which is crazy, but I kept thinking, ‘This is good, but it’s not enough.’ I really wanted it to be something very special. In the end I reached something I am proud of, because it was like running a marathon… two marathons!
MY FONDEST MEMORY
Ravel Complete Piano Works
Bertrand Chamayou (piano) Erato 2564602681 (2016)
Ravel was someone I also developed a passion for when I was a young kid, maybe eight or nine years old. I have so many memories from my former teacher (Jean François Hessier) and Vlado Perlemuter – a Polish pianist who actually played for Ravel when he was younger and whom I heard in recital. I grew up in Toulouse, so all my first memories of Ravel are connected to the city, my teacher, this pianist that came and all the concerts I’d listen to with the orchestra. So it was something very dear to me and I decided to record this album there. It was recorded in a wonderful church that had been transformed into an auditorium with a lovely name – Saint-Pierre des Cuisines – and actually a glorious acoustic. The whole experience was very nice because I was, in a way, behaving like
