Jean-Yves Thibaudet's
Carte Blanche is nothing more or less than a classic encore album, with short pieces in a virtuoso or lyrical mode that the performer uses to top off a program and display a bit of special knowledge in the process. There is a booklet note in interview format, similar to many others except that in this case, the interviewer is
Renée Fleming. She characterizes the contents as a dessert menu, which is accurate enough, although several pieces, such as Gabriel Pierné's Étude de concert, Op. 13, allow
Thibaudet to display his chops in full. The pianist explains that the works hold personal significance for him; the
Chopin Waltz in A minor, Op. posth., for example, was the first work he remembers hearing. The opening Pride and Prejudice Suite of
Dario Marianelli fits the plan as
Thibaudet was involved with that film. It doesn't quite fit with the rest of the music, however.
Thibaudet does better when he turns to popular song, which has always been one of his specialties, and with
Earl Wild's adaptation of Embraceable You, one of the Seven Virtuoso Etudes after
Gershwin, he effectively puts this together with virtuosity in a tremendously compelling performance. He concludes with his own arrangement of
Barber's Adagio for strings, which he correctly notes is quite difficult to remake for the piano. The collection as a whole neatly balances the personal and public-facing qualities of such releases, and it's a lot of fun in every way and a fine representative of the work of this exponent of Gallic flair. Also notable is the sound from a hitherto little-known venue, Zipper Hall at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. ~ James Manheim