Cédric Tiberghien | UKARIA Cultural Centre

As a regular recitalist at London’s Wigmore Hall and as a soloist with the London and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, French pianist Cédric Tiberghien is noted for his sensitive, versatile musicality as well as his innovative and engaging programming.

His multiple talents are on display in this inventive, witty recital that stages the two halves of a conversation and increasingly delighted banter between compositional voices. Tiberghien’s first half juxtaposes movements from Maurice Ravel’s 1917 Le tombeau de Couperin with the music of Couperin himself. Ravel shared Couperin’s flair for wry titles and sparkling musical humour. ‘The dead are sad enough, in their eternal silence,’ he replied to a complaint that his tribute to Couperin was insufficiently serious.

The second half introduces new protagonists: Claude Debussy, Jean-Philippe Rameau and contemporary British composer Julian Anderson. The recital ends with Debussy’s infamous L’Isle Joyeuse: as the composer himself ruefully noted, ‘God, how difficult it is to perform that piece seems to assemble all the ways to attack a piano since it unites force and grace ’