Customer Reviews

Resonances

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone who knows Grimaud's strong musical personality won't be surprised that she attacks Mozart with the same passion as Beethoven. Still, it's been decades since I've heard a pianist approach the A minor Sonata K. 310, as if it literally were Beethoven. You have to banish all thought of tinkly period performance. Grimaud makes the sonata sound as big and stormy as, say, Beethoven's 'Tempest' sonata. She employs all the resources of a concert grand to dramatize the first movement, and then she releases us into the lyrical reflections of the second movement with telling contrast. I've tended to find her phrasing somewhat too arbitrary in the past -- it was really only Grimuad's early recordings on Denon that I admired -- but here I'm very sympathetic to her instincts, which are highly personal, in the vein of Mikhail Pletnev, another artist who can infuriate his critics.

Her individual touch works very well in two modernist works, the Berg Sonata Op. 1, which sounds suitably restless and brooding, and Bartok's Six Romanian Folk Dances, where her fervor is striking, along with her mastery of Bartok's off-kilter rhythms. Sandwiched between them is the main event, the Liszt B minor Sonata. There is always a steady stream of virtuosos ready to prove their mettle in this work, the latest being Yuja Wang on DG. Pianists approach Liszt either as poets or steel fingers. Krystian Zimmerman and Maurizio Pollini meld the two sides, and I felt that Wang came quite close, too. The secret isn't to strike a compromise, though, but to have something engrossing to say.

Grimaud gets off on the right foot by phrasing the well-trod staccato chords with a real sense of mystery and atmosphere; nothing is detached or perfunctory. We are off on a story, which she tells passionately. Unity can be a problem in this piece, and the line can sever if the performer takes small missteps in timing. Grimaud takes the music by the nape of the neck and never relents in her forward drive. The high drama of her conception is greatly aided by a beautiful instrument that is superbly recorded by DG -- I doubt that I have ever heard better. My only real criticism is that there tends to be a certain sameness to her fervent, improvisational approach that shortchanges emotional variety here and there. Too much brilliance can subtract from the overall experience after a while.

As far as technique goes, the wow factor is very high. The product description tells us that Grimaud (who has recently been plagued by exhaustion and chronic health problems) is taking his program on a world tour. One anticipates that it will be a triumph -- this disc certainly is.

This is a very special artist. Beware of pundits who spend an inordinate effort dismissing her. They doth protest too much. Grimaud is a life force to be reckoned with and those who belittle her from without are most probably at war from within and projecting their conflict on to her. (See Villagem regarding her recording of Bach.) She will not be all things to all people of course, but such is the nature of those who take a stand.

I had the good fortune of hearing her play this program in person in Frankfurt in early October. As good as the CD is, the live performance was even better so I very much recommend hearing her in person if you a chance.

This is a wonderfully conceived program delving into the cultural crosscurrents of the Austro-Hungarian empire steadily moving eastward from Mozart to Bartok. Throughout, the human voice permeates the music which is otherwise rooted in an existential intensity that reflects Grimaud's musical essence. This is especially true in the performances of Berg and Liszt. In the first it cries through the cacophony of atonality connecting one to the spectrum of moods and struggles so characteristic of the modern condition on its deepest and most plaintive level. This is followed by the immense emotional journey of Liszt's sonata in B minor. As cogent as the performance on the CD is, I could swear that in her live performance she took the liberty to extend the pause between the repeated notes on the opening refrain when it is revisited about two thirds of the way into the piece just before the fugue section begins. A shame she did not include this interpretation in the recording as it provided an absolutely riveting sense of drama and suspense - to have so much pyrotechnics juxtaposed with this simple note by note almost desultory yet supremely profound musical line. She received an immediate standing ovation from much of the audience for this performance. The Mozart is performed admirably it would seem to me though I am not really a Mozart fan. What provides a fascinating comparison, however, is how the thematic musical line in its last movement finds its unexpected analog in the Berg sonata allowing insight into the comparative contexts of each artist's historical period - such similar ideas with such different expressive content - one expressing a type of heroic romanticism and the latter a most plaintive - almost stumbling - existential search. At the end, the Bartok Roumanian Dances arrive providing a chance to sit back and relax - but only just a little bit as the performance is vintage Grimaud intense. The musical crosscurrents from the east are allowed to infiltrate the western idiom and sing their vibrant communal song bringing us all back together again after our lonely life-review searches have left us - oh - just a tad exhausted.

For this demanding program Grimaud's technique is more than up to the task. But, more importantly, her playing bridges connections and assists the listener in bridging these connections as well - an experience for which I am truly grateful. Overall I consider the performances on this CD to be on another level compared to what I am otherwise likely to hear.

I give this recording a full 5 stars.

I just drove home from work listening to the end of the Liszt. I was so terribly moved I had to listen to the last five minutes several times. I have been a fan of Ms. Grimaud for some time, and I think her critics are missing the forest for the trees. There are no words to describe how powerful her playing of this incredible work are. I hope she brings this program to my city. I went to New York to hear her play Rachmaninoff #2 a few years ago, but, as I was warned by the regular sitting next to me, the acoustics in Avery Fisher are not so great. I will walk over hot coals to hear her play this live. I can't imagine anyone doing it better.

Hélène Grimaud continues to amaze her audiences in orchestral concerts and recitals. She appears a delicate flower, but the energy she pours into her performances is astonishing - and always in keeping with the composers' works she performs. In this particular album she is at her most versatile. Few pianists would dare create a program this challenging, but Hélène Grimaud always takes a step beyond the norm, so programming Mozart with Berg with Liszt and Bartok may seem strange to some, but listen to the approach she uses with each of these challenging pieces and her genius will be substantiated.

She opens with Mozart's Piano Sonata No.8 in A minor and brings more sound and substance to this work than we are used to hearing. This she follows by Alban Berg's exigent Piano Sonata, Op.1 and plays it with such clarity of line that it seems simple. Franz Liszt, the mighty Hungarian, is represented by the frequently performed Piano Sonata in B minor, one of the challenges many pianists like to include on programs because of the virtuosity it demands from the artist. In Grimaud's hands and mind the work is not only comprehensible but also magnificently beautiful. She completes this recital (for that is what this CD must surely be) with another Hungarian composer, Béla Bartók, finding all the lilt and freedom in his 6 Roumanian Folk Dances, BB 68.

Grimaud's pianist colors are always clear, focused, and yet full of passion. She is a one of today's very finest musicians, both technically and intellectually. And this album of strange bedfellows is an exceptional success! Grady Harp, April 11

Grimaud is a poet and provocateur. She does not "create" poetry with her music, per se, but in the physical play of her work she embodies it. She does what I think few successful, world-class artists do: provoke the listener with artistic evocation, technically brilliant invocation, and a conceptual/intellectual vibrancy. Her work is not about perfecting a tradition, but within the tradition she opens new pathways to the music--with the concerns and technical possibilities of today--while retaining an essential integrity with the tradition that has carried a work forward.

I love this album, and think Grimaud is one of the more vital, essential artists working today in any discipline.

Grimaud has complete control of her keyboard. Whether fortissimo or pianissimo, or Alban Berg's vague Maesig bewegt, Ms. Grimaud has everything under control. Her tempi, her touch, her ability to turn notes on a page into a joy to the ear and a pleasure to the soul, are indicia of her mastery of the art form she has chosen to represent her considerable skills as an artiste. I especially enjoyed her performance of Mozart's effervescent Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor. The First Movement, Allegro maestoso, is played with fervor, fire, flash at a sizzling speed. This piece is played several times in the film, Room With A View, to underline the mixed amorous emotions of the heroine.

The two remaining Movements are played with equal skills in shadings of tone. I'm not a fan of Alban Berg. I suppose because I don't understand him. But Ms. Grimaud's playing of Berg's Piano Sonato, Opus i, began to open some doors for me. Perhaps, with more playing of this CD I'll begin to understand her love for Berg and for this work. Liszt's Piano Sonata in B Minor is classic Liszt: fire and fury and then some touching lento portions. Unless you can control Liszt he'll run away from you, making everything sound like bombast. Ms. Grimaud has Liszt under control. The Liszt Sonata is 30 minutes in length. But I didn't notice the passage of time. I was so riveted to the Work that time's passage played no part in my appreciation of Ms. Grimaud's performance. Bela Bartok is not one of my favorite composers. Again because I don't understand his use of tonalities. Ms. Grimaud played some of Bartok's Rumanian folk dances. To my surprise I liked them! Thank you, Helene, for opening more musical doors for me. Arthur Stanley Katz, King Arthur

Well, I'll be looking forward to hearing Grimaud's next album where she conceivably plays Beethoven in the manner of Mozart. If her style reversal doesn't work both ways then there's something wrong with the picture here. She's a great pianist, but one who can also be wayward and stubborn in her eccentric performance practices and detrimental in pushing certain stylistic choices on someone like Mozart that vary so far from the norm - like looking through the wrong end of the telescope - they may be hardly justified or warranted. I'd like to see her have greater respect for certain composers, and for certain reviewers to notice the difference. If she has to play Mozart like Beethoven to create some interest, she might be better off sticking to Beethoven.

This is my first Grimaud CD (I've never heard her live) and I can understand the acclaim she's received from her fans: her technique is astounding and her fluidity marvelous. Nothing on this disc appears to challenge her, much less cause her difficulty. From this CD at least, her technical horizon appears limitless.

But what her playing lacks is the ability to make each composer's distinctive voice come to life--at least in these works. Her attack of the Mozart Sonata #8 is like ball peen hammer on soft butter. A first listen causes surprise and is invigorating; but repeat listenings show the playing to be too forceful, monolithic, and--in total--the effect sounds inappropriately ham-handed and blunt. It lacks depth, nuance, and care.

She handles the Berg best here, but that's simply a lucky pairing of her deliberate, forceful style and the lack of melody in this piece. What it lacks, she fills in (imposes upon it), so there's no harm, no foul. Nice enough, but she doesn't bring out Berg's soul here.

I've never cared for Liszt, so I have few other versions to compare this to, but even here, she's too mono-ideational, too much the steamroller. Even Liszt requires some nuance and subetly of phrasing, and that's missing here.

She's completely off-base on the Bartok. None, if any, of the folk melodies have survived here--there's no possiblity of dancing to this version. I've heard this piece orchestrated a few times, and--even with mediocre orchestras--they preserved the folk elments much better than she's been able to do.

All in all: I'm amazed at her technique; that's the reason for the four star rating. But the overall effect here is of that of a pianist who has failed to bring out true nature and idiosyncracies of these four disparate composers.

It isn't possible to sum up a performance such as this in a few well-chosen words, but here goes. The recording is crystal clear, very closely miked with little, if any "engineering". The technique is faultless but a little too idiosyncratic & agogic for my taste. Alas, the second Viennese school is mostly lost on me but I can recognise the great skill of Ms Grimaud's performance. There is overall a sense of fragility & restrained passion which is almost frighteningly cold & precise. The Mozart isn't the Mozart I know & love. I felt like saying "slow down, relax a little". Just listen to the first movement played by Richter on YouTube to illustrate the point. The B Minor Sonata lacks much of the, often overdone, Lisztian melodrama. This rendering resembles a dissection laying bare the complex anatomy. As a purely intellectual exercise I'm sure these pieces have a lot to offer but I'm not in the position to comment on that, except that after the third careful listening these interpretations become much more enjoyable. "Playing the most difficult piano works well isn't just about speed and virtuosity. It's about grasp. In the great B Minor Sonata of Franz Liszt, a measuring stick for all great pianists, we're listening for brilliance and momentum, but also for ascending structure, accumulating detail and mad, mad tension."