It’s clear from pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s repertoire choices that he’s a passionate soul with a hunger for the romantic. Born in Lannion, France in 1962 and raised in Metz, Bavouzet went on to study at the Conservatoire de Paris; after winning first prize in the Beethoven International Piano Competition in 1986, he embarked on a lauded recording career that would eventually include a rhapsodic, pensive collection of the complete Beethoven sonatas. His gentle readings of Ravel and Debussy play well against energetic performances of Bartók and Schumann that rattle one to attention in the best way possible.