Thanks in no small part to his ever-growing catalog of outstanding recordings, the French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is known for a wide range of musical sympathies and for his impeccable pianism. Bavouzet was born in Lannion in Brittany in 1962. His early career was slow to blossom—his first recordings to make a widespread impression were of the complete solo piano music of Ravel (2003) and an adventurous programme of lesser-known Liszt (2005), both of which are polished and full of character. He embarked on the complete solo piano music by Debussy in 2007, on five albums that stand out for their luminous textures and rich palette of color as much as for Bavouzet’s understated technical aplomb. Despite the success of his Ravel and Debussy, he avoided being pigeonholed as a French specialist, not least by recording the complete piano sonatas of Haydn (2010-22) and Beethoven (2012-16), both of which are remarkable for their sheer consistency, and for the individual attention he lavishes on every work. In Bavouzet’s hands, Beethoven’s early sonatas seem to spring directly from Haydn, while the late sonatas are suitably ethereal and visionary. He also brings a comparable elegance and personality to concertos as varied as Mozart’s (2016 onward, with Manchester Camerata and Gábor Takács-Nagy) and Prokofiev’s (2014, a compelling recording of all five concertos with the BBC Philharmonic and Gianandrea Noseda).