"French pianist Kim Barbier takes a musical walk through the centuries. Her first stop is Scarlatti, which she approaches very rhythmically and coquettishly. Next stop is Mozart’s Sonata facile, K. 545, which is played fluidly, (...). The stopover at Debussy is atmospheric and evocative, the journey from Bach to Chopin’s fifth Etude from Opus 25 is short and the etude concise and sparkling, while the twelfth from the same volume hints at the drama of the First Ballade with dark colors and plenty of power, the echo of which seems to be Bruno Delepelaire’s Eclats No. 2, a more than fitting echo of Chopin’s music. Then, with the Intermezzo op. 118/2 by Johannes Brahms, there is a conciliatory look back at a Ballade, a walk that brought many an emotion on a melodious Bechstein."
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