There are things about the French-born pianist Helene Grimaud that make it almost possible to ignore her music. There is her memoir, already published in French, although she’s just 35. It begins, "I have no nostalgia for childhood." There is her attraction to wolves. She and her boyfriend run what they call a Wolf Conservation Center north of New York City. And there’s the fact of her movie-star looks. She’s been featured in Vogue. But listen to her playing, and listen to her talk about music, and her intensity makes you ignore all the rest.
Siegel: This is Rachmaninov’s second piano sonata -- she’s paired it with Chopin’s second sonata on her new CD. It is a tribute to two masters of romantic piano music
Grimaud: There are obvious parallels, I think, between Chopin and Rachmaninov. For me, they’re two composers that, first of all, have devoted most of their existence to writing for the piano exclusively or almost exclusively. They’re both wonderful pianists themselves, but they, even beyond all of this, for me, they really epitomize the Slavic soul, and also the notion of exile.
Grimaud: It gives their music a nostalgic color, something quite poignant without necessarily sadness in it, so it’s a very interesting emotion. There’s also something very noble, very dignified about the expression of both those composers, I feel.
Siegel: Chopin, the Polish exile, in France and Rachmaninov, the Russian ex-pat in California.
Grimaud: Exactly, so that’s for bringing the two of them together beyond their respective worlds which have so much in common. There’s also the theme of death that we owe to those two second sonatas.
Siegel: I want you to talk about Chopin’s second sonata. When you play something that is so well-known as the Funeral March from this sonata, how do you as an artist approach this, which is going to be on the knife’s edge of cliché? What do you do, because we know this so, so well?
Grimaud: Well, it’s a good point, and it’s something that we encounter on a regular basis in our vocation, but you can’t let that intimidate you in any way, shape or form. And when the time has come for me to reacquaint myself with a piece or dive into its expressive fiber for the first time, I have no choice. This is something that I must do, and I’m never daunted by however many fantastic versions might be out there because there is an inner voice that fits the material.
Siegel: Wow, when you are in the “expressive fiber,” as you say, the Chopin sonata -- I have a habit of listening to music cranked up very loud, and I’m hearing you breathing throughout that piece, and you’re really into it there.
Grimaud: Yes, well, how can one not breathe something that just sweeps you away?
Grimaud: It’s a manifestation that I can’t really control. I suppose if I wanted to, I could, but there’s really no reason to. And you have a choice between the breathing or the humming, and I’m sure the breathing is the lesser of the two evils.
Siegel: You mean when you’re playing, in practice you might be humming, but in recordings you confine yourself to breathing.
Grimaud: That’s exactly right.
Siegel: I want you to talk about the Rachmaninov second sonata. You’ve said that this collection of these two pieces, which are most of the CD, represent both death and also transcendence in the Rachmaninov piece.
Grimaud: Yes, that is very palpable in the finale of the Rachmaninov sonata. There’s that jubilation, that victory over one’s demons.
And of course the theme of bells is ever-present in his music and in the sonata from the very start of the first movement. It’s there and it continues all the way throughout. So there’s something very ominous about that, but also toward the end of the piece, it becomes a hopeful chime.
Grimaud: You know, what’s really interesting is what these two composers have to say about the timeless preoccupation of mankind. It really places this idea of death and the way it’s always there. And so these pieces really put you face to face with, "What are we here for? What is life about?” And so, in a way, it puts you back at the center of the urgency of living, and you can only really achieve that by looking death in the face, really.
Siegel: Well, Helene Grimaud, thank you very much for talking with us today.
Grimaud:: Thank you very much, thanks to you.
Siegel: Helene Grimaud’s CD is called, Hélène Grimaud plays Chopin & Rachmaninov.
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