Pianist Hélène Grimaud, A Little Night Music of Quietude and Passion
/By Truman C. Wang
2/27/2020
Hélène Grimaud is a French pianist who excels in the music of her countrymen, as well as the impassioned works of German and Russian composers. All too often, the miniature pieces of Debussy and Satie can sound dainty and wan in the hands of lesser players. Not for Grimaud, who, on her return to Disney Hall on Wednesday, February 26, imbued them with heat and passion, as if they were the products of a Mediterranean summer holiday. Thus, the cascading arpeggios of Arabesque No. 1 became the raging Yosemite Fall in June, not the trickling Bridal Veil Fall in September. The brisk tempi for La plus que lente and Rêverie suggested these were stimulating, not languid, daydreams. The famous Clair de lune was delicately and radiantly spun without being sentimental (even though it was originally titled Promenade sentimentale) The 1st and 4th Gnossiènne of Erik Satie and Bagatelles of Valentin Silvestrov also received glowing and luminous readings from Ms. Grimaud.
The French pieces were interspersed with three Chopin works in minor keys (E-minor Nocturne, A-minor Mazurka, A-minor Waltz), amplifying the quietly romantic night mood of the first half of the recital. Unlike some of her younger colleagues, Hélène Grimaud’s pianistic style, as in her wardrobe, is sensibly down-to-earth and non-flashy, content to let the music speak for itself without any affectation of tempo or phrasing.
The second half of the recital, Schumann’s Kreisleriana, was all about the extrovert display of passion and energy, a courtship piece for Clara showing the young composer at his dizzying and Romantic height (perhaps also foreshadowing his mental illness). Ms. Grimaud launches the 35-minute work in boldly arresting style and the wild, quasi-fugal chase at the heart of the 6th section of Kreisleriana held no terrors for her. The emotions were bold and brilliantly lit in the ‘extrovert’ sections, while the ‘introvert’ sections recalled the intimate night mood of the French pieces heard earlier.
Ms. Grimaud offered three lively encores by Rachmaninoff: Études-Tableaux, Op. 33, Nos 2, 3, 8. The evening started with intimate salon music, and ended in a splash of brilliant colors and good cheers.
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.