Hélène Grimaud, Hélène de Montgeroult, Xavier Richardeau, Black Pumas, Grand Corps Malade, Batsükh Dorj

2023-11-03 17:30:08

For Clara

Intermezzi, Op. 117 et Lieder und Gesänge, op. 32, Johannes Brahms. Kreisleriana, op. 16 Schumann. With Konstantin Krimmel (baritone), Hélène Grimaud (piano).

Cover of the album “For Clara”, by Hélène Grimaud. DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON/UNIVERSAL MUSIC

The French pianist, who has just published a volume of interviews, Reborn (Albin Michel, 240 p., 20.90 euros), has also released a new album, with Deutsche Grammophon, around the beloved figure of Clara Schumann, who was jointly celebrated by the compositions of Brahms, the “lover”, and of Robert Schumann, the husband. From these old traveling companions, Hélène Grimaud brings together pieces that she has performed for a long time. So the three Interludes, op. 117 already recorded for Erato in 1995, with blooming sound quality and touching expressiveness. A second engraving which testifies to a much darker and tormented spirit, inclined to sing in full voice, with colors crossed by violent moods. The same sense of urgency runs through the Kreisleriana Schumannian works, another hobbyhorse of her youth, which the pianist plays more than ever in the first person singular in a whirlwind of heightened sensations and tragic intuitions. The one who says she experiences music through her body “like a Visitation experience” will inhabit with the same imperative necessity the Songs and singing, op. 32, from which the sensitive prosody delivered by Konstantin Krimmel, a young baritone with a vocal palette as ductile as it is seductive, seems to be born. Marie-Aude Roux

Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music.

Portrait of a visionary composer

Works by Hélène de Montgeroult by Marcia Hadjimarkos (forte piano), Beth Taylor (mezzo-soprano) and Nicolas Mazzoleni (violin).

Cover of the album “Portrait of a visionary composer”, by Marcia Hadjimarkos, dedicated to Hélène de Montgeroult. SEULÉTOILE/SOCADISC

“Paradoxical”. We could not otherwise describe Marcia Hadjimarkos’ approach, which consists of restoring the music of Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836) on an instrument, the “square piano”, in vogue at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, to exploit it particularities of timbre by means of four somewhat “gimmicky” pedals whose use the composer would have prohibited. The pianofortist therefore claims to defend the works of a creator whom she judges “ ahead of its time » by performing them on a keyboard that looks like a false harpsichord (Neuhaus piano from 1817). If his choices of pedals offer a wide range of colors, they often turn out to be anecdotal. L’Study No. 7 thus gives the impression of being played by a duo combining a mandolin (right hand) with a cimbalom (left hand). Under these conditions, revealing the originality of language is very difficult. However, on the same page, Edna Stern achieved it on a Pleyel from 1860 (recording published in 2017 by Orchid Classics). The present use of the “square piano” seems less damaging to Nocturnes, very Mozartian, for mezzo-soprano, because the instrument occupies the back of the stage. The same goes for the entertaining sonata on. 2 n° 3 in which the violin, melodious as possible, is supposed, according to the title of the piece, to ensure the” accompaniement “. Another paradox. Pierre Gervasoni

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