Glorious Grimaud in Brahms P/C 2

Friendly, articulate and unassuming are three traits that characterize Hélène Grimaud (pronounced “Ay-Len Greemo”), the French concert pianist who made her sensational debut here in Kuala Lumpur on 2 and 3 February 2013. At a press conference in the Mandarin Oriental two days before her appearance at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, we caught up with Hélène to share about her two great passions in life – classical music and wolves. A late starter on the piano at age seven in 1976, Hélène’s progress was so swift that she entered the Paris Conservatoire six years later and took first prize at the conservatory in 1985 and also won the Grand Prix du Disque for her Denon recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Sonata the same year. She moved record labels from Denon to Erato and after that, to Teldec. Finally in 2002, she joined Universal Classics’ Deutsche Grammophon (DG) where she has been recording best-selling thematic albums like Credo, Reflection and Resonances.

Her music repertoire tends to be “smallish”, as she believes great classical works like the Brahms Piano Concertos take a long immersion period. She has taken about 22 years to come to grips with Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto and has just recorded it with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Andris Nelsons on DG. Her first impression of Malaysia was the friendliness of the people here and the lush vegetation within KL, which is very similar to Singapore. A keen lover of nature and animals, she spends time at home in Weggis (an idyllic municipality on the north shore of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland) and partially in New York when she is not on her concert tours. Some of her recreation time is spent listening to the radio and she derives much pleasure in listening to all forms of music as well as reading. A current book that she particularly enjoys reading is Kristen Wolf’s The Way. She herself has authored two books entitled “Variations Sauvages” and “Leçons Particulières” and is currently working on her third book soon. Her other passion in life is the conservation of wolves. Fascinated by an encounter in 1991 in Florida, she set up a wolf sanctuary called the Wolf Conservation Center and environmental education center in South Salem, New York in 1999.

At the Saturday concert (2 February), a pleasing modern and symphonic rendition of Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 prefaced her excellent performance of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2. German MPO music director Claus Peter Flor was at hand to guide the orchestra in a warmly romantic interpretation of the concerto. The first movement contained solidly argued, coherently played and structurally sound playing of great fire from Grimaud and Flor. There was a wide and varied palette to her touch on the piano as the turbulent D minor second movement was suitably passionate. In the third movement, principal MPO cellist Csaba Koros’ beautifully played solo was the highlight, contrasting with the tempestuous middle section. Grimaud delighted the audience with a suitably skittish interpretation of the last movement, which brought about repeated curtain calls. We should congratulate DFP for bringing Grimaud over to Malaysia. Her first trip here is one of the most musically satisfying concerts amongst those given by the top echelon of pianists (like Volodos, Ashkenazy and Thibaudet) who have graced the DFP hall.