French pianist Helene Grimaud plays with time in Singapore recital and SSO concert
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Acclaimed French pianist Helene Grimaud discovered the piano at seven and was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire at 13.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
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SINGAPORE – Acclaimed French classical pianist Helene Grimaud, who has earned a reputation for playing by her own rules, thinks there should be no contradiction between freedom and fidelity.
As a child, listening to Russian classical pianist Sviatoslav Richter play Austrian composer Franz Schubert’s Piano Sonata In B-flat Major, she was intrigued by the marriage of these two seemingly incompatible ideas and asked: “How is it possible to be so removed from the text and at the same time be so true to it?”
Grimaud is in town to perform French composer Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto In G Major at the Victoria Concert Hall with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) on Oct 16 and a recital at the same venue on Oct 17.
In an hour-long roundtable with the media on Oct 15, the 54-year-old was voluble and erudite about her life and music.
The virtuoso pianist discovered the piano at seven and was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire at 13, winning first prize in piano performance three years later.
Her musical milestones include debuting in 1995 with the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado, and the New York Philharmonic under maestro Kurt Masur in 1999.
“One thing that has always fascinated me is trying to reach this reconciliation of opposites, whether it’s in the work or the way you live life,” she says, fresh out of rehearsals with music director Hans Graf and the SSO.
She is known for her exquisite rubato – the expressive flouting of strict timing in performance – and her intensely individual interpretations of classical composers. At rehearsal with the SSO on Oct 15, her body rocks along with the orchestra as she keeps and steals time.
Grimaud played Ravel’s Piano Concerto In G Major with the SSO in 2015 under the baton of American conductor John Nelson. The Straits Times praised her “expansive, romantic performance”.
Helene Grimaud is known for her exquisite rubato – the expressive fluctuation of strict timing in performance – and her intensely individual interpretations of classical composers.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
Returning almost a decade later, Grimaud says she was elated for this invitation to revisit the work with the SSO.
Asked how she would approach the piece, the writer of several books searches for the right words: more expressiveness, more clarity, more serenity.
Eventually she lands on this: “More freedom, but not freedom at the expense of the score. On the contrary, this freedom within the universe that is given to you.
“On the one hand, I like this idea of the artisan – of people who shape the stone. There’s something beautiful and noble about it, and this is what you do when you practise and rehearse.
“But at the time when you are doing it together with your colleagues and with the audience present, it’s almost like you have to have the wisdom to just let go.”
She has a ritual of seeking silence and darkness before she goes on stage. But she is quick to add: “It’s, of course, better not to be too dependent on that ritual, because there will inevitably be something that gets in the way of that, especially on tour and travel.”
Beyond being a pianist, Grimaud has built herself up as a kind of Renaissance woman.
She established the Wolf Conservation Center in upper New York State and says her relationship to the wolves is also a relationship to “the world of the non-spoken – which is the counterpoint to music”.
She has also been a Rolex Testimonee since 2009 and says she is “extremely lucky” to have the partnership with the watch brand. She adds: “Any large corporation worldwide, I think, has a responsibility to support things which make us ultimately human and nurture those things so that they can be preserved for generations to come.”
To Grimaud, it is the question of tempo which gets to the heart of how she sees the diversity of the world. “The main difference between people is their perception of time – and that’s going to make you different to each person.”
When choosing how and when to play a note, she says it has to be organic: “There has to be a sense of inevitability. When it’s time to play that note, it has to feel like it’s that time and that time only. Even though we know that, artistically and creatively, there are so many different options.
“There are so many different ways of doing something and they would all equally be right – and they could also be equally faithful to the text.”
Book It/Helene Grimaud And Hans Graf
Where: Victoria Concert Hall, 11 Empress Place https://www.sso.org.sg/whats-on/helene-grimaud-hans-graf-ravel-beethoven
When: Oct 16, 7.30pm
Admission: $38 to $148
Info:
Book It/Helene Grimaud In Recital
Where: Victoria Concert Hall, 11 Empress Place https://www.sso.org.sg/whats-on/helene-grimaud-piano-recital
When: Oct 17, 7.30pm
Admission: $38 to $148
Info:
