Helene Grimaud Rachmaninov

Hélène Grimaud is a pianist who defies feminine stereotypes. Her favored repertory has been Brahms, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Schumann, and Liszt, not the less muscular music of Mozart (which she didn't perform until she was 21 or record until 2010), Poulenc, or Chopin. Grimaud's lush sound and sweeping interpretations drew comparisons to such pianists as Martha Argerich and Jorge Bolet.

Fitting her reputation for interpreting the keyboard repertoire in a big way, Hélène Grimaud presents her first recording of J.S. Bach's works with transcriptions by Ferruccio Busoni, Franz Liszt, and Sergei Rachmaninov, which were all intended to update the music for the modern grand piano. Because Grimaud's style is direct and robust, reminiscent of Martha Argerich, and the transcriptions are dramatically more pianistic than the originals, Bach purists should look elsewhere for more meticulous and historically informed performances of these Baroque pieces, perhaps on fortepiano or harpsichord.

Memory Echo sees Nitin Sawhney return to music and ideas he began exploring in 2018 with Hélène Grimaud for her Memory album. For this new release Sawhney has woven together four of his original compositions – The Fourth Window, Picturebook, Time and Breathing Light (performed by Hélène Grimaud) – with haunting remixes of Satie’s Gnossienne No.1, Debussy’s Clair de lune and Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, Op.34 No.14. By refining the essence of his collaboration with the French pianist, he has created the seven-track Memory Echo, set for release in digital-only format on 25 October 2019.

Hélène Grimaud’s new album MEMORY can be thought as an invitation to mindfulness.

Hélène Grimaud's particular fascination with the music of German composers - from Beethoven, the father of musical Romanticism, through Schumann and Brahms to the late Romanticism of Strauss - is reflected in this 2-CD set, which also embraces music by Rachmaninov, Ravel and Gershwin. A pianist who combines intellectual and philosophical rigour with a readiness to take risks as she strives for expressive freedom, Grimaud is motivated by a profound personal belief in the power of music: "Music changed my life - it gave me a sense of purpose and direction. It saved me."