Darknesse Visible: piano music by Ravel, Adès, Debussy, Britten et al. – Inon Barnatan

The brilliant Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan debuts on Avie with Darknesse Visible, an album of colourful and atmospheric masterpieces by the French composers Ravel and Debussy, and the Englishmen Thomas Adès and Ronald Stevenson. The title derives from Adès’s Darknesse Visible – a wondrous and dreamlike prism on John Dowland’s song In Darkness Let Me Dwell. Barnatan chose works that are linked by different characteristics of darkness, and all inspired by literature. Ravel’s inspiration for Gaspard de la nuit was the gothic, haunting quality of Aloysius Bertrand’s poetry, while La Valse builds in intensity and works itself into a satanic frenzy. At the heart of Debussy’s Suite bergamasque is the enchanting ‘Clair de lune’, whose masked figures of the Verlaine poem of the same name dance in the moonlight. Ronald Stevenson’s compelling fantasy on themes from Peter Grimes brings out the dark side of human nature, as explored by Britten in his celebrated opera.