Making waves
Ravel’s childhood and holiday home of St-Jean-de-Luz is in my mind’s eye as I pick up the phone to call Bertrand Chamayou. The French pianist has pitched up in the pretty Basque fishing town to take part in a one-off concert with the Labèque sisters as part of the Festival Ravel. As a going concern for over a century, the festival has hired Chamayou to give it a shot in the arm, prior to a full-scale relaunch in summer 2021.
It sounds like a dream and I’m keen to hear more, but I have an advance copy of Chamayou’s latest album, which bears that very name, from Erato/Warner Classics. It’s a collection of lullabies old and new, borrowed and blue – and I find it entrancing. ‘The concept of a lullaby album was actually a very old idea of mine,’ Chamayou tells me. ‘Probably since I was a teenager. I have always loved lullabies.’
