Inon Barnatan ***
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 31st October 2018
When Ravel appears alongside Mussorgsky on concert programmes, it’s usually the dapper Frenchman’s lavish orchestration of the Russian’s Pictures at an Exhibition. For his immaculately tailored International Piano Series debut, Inon Barnatan maintained this pairing, preceding Pictures with a collection of Ravel’s solo piano works, most of which are more often encountered wearing full orchestral garb. This keyboard tour of the originals – barring La Valse which began life as a poème chorégraphique pour orchestre, later transcribed for piano – was a fascinating insight into these composers’ colour palettes when restricted to just black and white.
Inon Barnatan
© Marco Borggreve
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