Ravel's complete chamber music (2/3): Pierre Fouchenneret, Julia Hagen, Guillaume Bellom, and Arthur Hinnewinkel

The 2025 Rencontres Musicales d'Évian pay tribute to Maurice Ravel 150 years after his birth with an all-star lineup performing the complete set of Ravel's highly spirited, kaleidoscopically colorful chamber music! In this second volume, prize-winning violinist Pierre Fouchenneret meets rising-star cellist Julia Hagen in Ravel’s strikingly austere, emotionally complex, and technically demanding Sonata for Violin and Cello, written in memory of the composer’s close friend and contemporary, Claude Debussy. Alongside pianist Guillaume Bellom, Fouchenneret then dazzles in the rhapsodic and explosively virtuosic Tzigane, a fiery showpiece inspired by the composer’s meeting with Hungarian violinist Jelly d'Arányi. To finish, pianist Arthur Hinnewinkel joins the string players in conjuring the dreamlike soundscape of the chamber music masterpiece that is the Piano Trio in A minor. Revel in Ravel’s lush, expansive harmonies, exquisite melodic lines, and a triumphant, Basque-inspired final flourish to round out the whirlwind program.

Photo: Julia Hagen © Simon Pauly