New album, new book, concerts galore, animal protection... Hélène Grimaud rarely takes her foot off the gas! In a career spanning 35 years, she has fed her piano with a wealth of activities. She takes a break for Qobuz to talk about this creative torrent, her relationship with romanticism and recording in general.

Hélène Grimaud discuss her creative torrent, relationship to romanticism & recording for Qobuz

Qobuz

Johannes Brahms again and again... Hélène Grimaud is not giving up, and it’s for the best: the music of the master of Romanticism (who is “indispensable to her more than anything else”) is her field of excellence. This passion lies at the heart of the album For Clara, which the French pianist based in California released on Deutsche Grammophon, with the three Intermezzi op. 117 and the nine Lieder und Gesänge op. 32 sung by the young German baritone Konstantin Krimmel. The programme also includes the Kreisleriana composed by Robert Schumann for his wife Clara: “You and your thoughts dominate these songs completely and I want to dedicate them to you - and to no one else - and you will smile so beautifully when you find yourself in them.”

Hélène Grimaud has always enjoyed Romanticism, which is undoubtedly the musical movement most closely linked to nature. The pianist, a pupil of Jacques Rouvier and Pierre Barbizet, didn’t wait until 2023 to become concerned about ecology either: protecting the planet has always been at the heart of her concerns. Hélène Grimaud has been preserving wolves for many years, and mustang horses more recently, and she feeds her piano with everything she does, without worrying about what people will say. Writing (her latest book, Renaître, was published by Albin Michel), recording, performing and passing on her music, she talks about how all of these interests intertwine in this exclusive interview.

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