H L Ne Grimaud - Piano Concerto 2 / Etudes Tableaux - Music & Performance - CD

What continues to make the performances of the young French concert pianist, H￩l￨n Grimaud, so compelling to listeners throughout the world? Certainly there is a daring imagination and fire in her playing. This passion also carries over into her private life, where she raises wolves on her three acre Westchester estate. In her professional life Grimaud has tackled some of the most treacherous and taxing works in the piano literature, with a panache that has sent critics away from concerts full of praise.

Her 2001 recording of Rachmaninoffs Second Piano Concerto, with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra, is without a doubt one of the most exciting performances of this work to be released in years. The Second Piano Concerto is a war-horse in the true sense of the word. Phenomenally difficult, countless young pianists thunder through its gargantuan passages with total abandon. Thrilling perhaps, but what does it mean? Grimauds interpretation differs. She certainly possesses prodigious technique, but she brings to the Second Piano Concerto a heroic clarity seldom heard in the bombast of her contemporaries.

The opening of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto is one of the most thrilling moments in music. Grimaud's opening chords build with feverish intensity into an arpeggiated accompaniment of one of the most majestic melodies in the repertoire. What could possible follow an opening of such grandiosity? At first it seems as if the solo line is completely overwhelmed, like a thrush driven from its nest, thrashing violently as it takes flight. Calm is restored as the orchestra regains control and introduces one of the most poignant melodies in all of music. After a brief period the piano takes this melody and begins to soar to unfathomable heights, often conversing with the orchestra.

The opening of the second movement reveals why H￩l￨n Grimaud has become one of the premiere pianists in the world today. The solo piano enters, playing nothing but a series of arpeggios, but meaning and direction are brought to every note by Grimaud. Against this simple background, woodwind solos rise and fall, imbuing the melody with greater and greater life with each phrase. Little by little the piano becomes more involved in the conversation, becoming increasingly animated. When Grimaud finally takes the melody, the tender caresses can do little to hide the haunted emotions that well beneath the surface. There are few melodies in music full of such melancholy and pathos.

The third movement introduces Rachmaninoff at his most skillful, with lively rhythms and daring virtuosity permeating the texture. After a jaunty orchestral introduction, Grimaud seizes controls in a cadenza

like passage of blinding virtuosity. What ensues is a delightful melody, as the solo piano tackles formidable challenges with the self-assurance of a mountain goat scaling the most treacherous peak. Rachmaninoff introduces yet another amazingly moving melody in the orchestra as a secondary theme, which Grimaud takes up with simple elegance and grandeur.

The Rachmaninoffs Second Piano Concerto has become one of the most beloved piano concertos in history, and can there be any wonder? It possesses everything; daring virtuosity, bold colors and beautiful melodies that seem to look into our souls and translate the rage and passions of our lives into music. The insight H￩l￨n Grimaud brings to this performance is nothing short of miraculous.

By Perri M. Zimmerman