Pianist Marouan Benabdallah returns to Bengaluru for a recital devoted to French colours and Baroque grace.

The programme opens with a selection of French Baroque repertoire — Rameau, Lully and Royer — exploring the refined dance rhythms, ornamentation and courtly lyricism of 17th– and 18th-century France.

The second half features Maurice Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, a luminous suite for solo piano that blends neo-classical clarity with impressionist harmony and serves as Ravel’s tribute to friends lost in the First World War.

Although not a French citizen, Marouan maintains a deep artistic and personal connection with France: French repertory has long been central to his programmes, his mother lives in Paris and has been decorated as a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, and his stepfather, Alain Rechner, served as Délégué général of the Alliance Française in India (2006–2010).

Since his first visit to India in 2007, Marouan has toured the country more than twenty times and is widely recognised among Indian classical-music audiences.

Presented by The Bangalore School of Music & Fine Arts (with support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco, New Delhi), this recital promises an intimate yet vividly coloured journey through French music — from courtly Baroque gestures to Ravel’s radiant modernism.