Helene Grimaud

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.

Helene Grimaud and Mat Hennek's fascinating multimedia project
Together with the Freiburg photographer Mat Hennek, the French star pianist Hélène Grimaud gave a series of spectacular multimedia concerts in the Elbphilharmonie in 2017. Hélène Grimaud accompanied Hennek's photo series »Woodlands« with music by romantic, impressionist and modern composers: Fauré, Ravel, Liszt, Janáček, Debussy, Berio and Takemitsu. The very different pieces were held together by seven small compositions that the British composer and DJ Nitin Sawhney wrote exclusively for Hélène Grimaud.

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.

Passing from ’Credo’, the title of her first DG recital, to ‘Reflection’, Hélène Grimaud presents us with a second lovingly themed gift, this time mirroring the entwined love of Robert and Clara Schumann and their adored protégé, Johannes Brahms. Sumptuously presented (there are 13 photographs of the pianist) and recorded, few tributes could be more committed.

Hélène Grimaud's performances on this disc a coupling of Beethoven "Emperor" Piano Concerto with his Piano Sonata in A major, Op. 101 are truly fantastic. Her technique is essentially untouchable and her tone is surprisingly colorful. And, as in her previous recordings, her interpretations are outrageous. With Vladimir Jurowski and the Dresden Staatskapelle in the Concerto, Grimaud is unafraid to do whatever she wants with balance and tempos.