Review and cover in CligMag magazine for Vincent Larderet
Vincent Larderet’s recording dedicated to Maurice Ravel has received a very positive review by Jean-Charles Hoffelé in the March 2026 issue of CligMag (N°146), where the pianist also appears on the magazine’s cover.
The article highlights the ambitious scope of Larderet’s project: a four-CD integral recording of Ravel’s piano works, of which this album represents the second volume. The critic praises the pianist’s approach, noting the clarity of sound, natural phrasing and expressive breadth without grandiloquence that characterise the interpretation from Menuet antique onwards.
"Vincent Larderet's patiently completed integral recording will be the most comprehensive of his piano works: four CDs, of which this is the second. I admire the clear, full sound, the obvious phrasing, and the breadth without grandiloquence of the playing from the Menuet antique onwards, which opens a disc where the small pieces are like precious breaths between the two major cycles offered by the album. Gaspard de la nuit is without grandiloquence but not without mystery; Vincent Larderet strips it of its virtuosity to allow its decadent atmospheres to emanate: there is something of Huysmans in this Aloysius Bertrand, and also a little of Nerval. The sensitive portraits masked by the dances of Tombeau de Couperin are perfect, first of all because of their unaffected style, the simplicity of the phrasing, and the precise rhythms that remind us that the pianist bases his interpretation on the scores annotated by Vlado Perlemuter: there could be no better guide, and when he cannot slip behind Vincent Larderet, the clarity of his message also fills the little Menuet, especially that sensitive marvel that is the little Prelude for Jeanne Leleu. Ravel allowed a few writers to lock away in the large cabinet what he had not intended to be there. Lucien Garban showed a touch of genius in casting his transcriptions in Ravel's pianistic style. While the Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré retains its emotional power, it is the Fauvist colours and sunny inspiration of the Introduction et Allegro that will draw you in, a marvel finally revealed that further enhances the value of this second volume." Jean-Charles Hoffelé – Review included in CligMag N°146 magazine (FR – March 2026 issue) featuring Vincent Larderet on the cover
