Alain Planès
Although pianist Alain Planès has demonstrated a natural affinity for the French repertory, with an especially fine sense for the music of Debussy, Satie, and Chabrier, he has more often been associated with the works of Schubert and Haydn, two composers he has devoted much time to both in the concert hall and the recording studio. His vast repertory also includes the outputs of Chopin and Scarlatti, and he is a champion of compositions by Boulez, Berio, Ligeti, and Stockhausen. Planès has made numerous recordings, mostly for the Harmonia Mundi label, where he issued a recording of piano music by Gabriel Fauré in 2024.
Planès was born in Lyon, France, on January 20, 1948. At age five, he began playing the piano, and at eight, he appeared in concert with an orchestra. Young Alain inherited his mother's love for the arts, divulging not only a prodigious keyboard talent but an affinity for poetry and painting. At 12, he won first prize in a competition at the Lyon Conservatory, then enrolled at the Paris Conservatory shortly afterward for studies with Jacques Février. Planès engaged in further music study in the U.S. at the University of Indiana at Bloomington, where his most important teachers were Menahem Pressler, Franco Gulli, William Primrose, and György Sebök. Planès soon became a regular partner in chamber concerts of cello virtuoso Janos Starker.
After his return to France, Planès served for a time as the pianist for Pierre Boulez's Ensemble InterContemporain. In 1981, he left this post to launch his international career as a soloist and chamber player. Throughout the '80s, he built his reputation on a mixture of solo and chamber appearances, and soon, his recordings began to draw notice as well. His initial effort for Harmonia Mundi was the 1991 collaboration with cellist Lluís Claret in cello sonatas by Chopin and Richard Strauss. A string of other recordings followed, including an eight-disc series of Schubert sonatas and solo works, as well as a substantial series of keyboard sonatas by Haydn.
In the new century, Planès remained busy as a soloist and chamber player, appearing with the leading orchestras and at many festivals, including the Marlboro, Aix-en-Provence, and Montreux. Among his recordings are a 2006 release of Debussy's Children's Corner Suite and 2009's Chopin chez Pleyel on a period instrument. Planès was the subject of the 2016 documentary Alain Planès, l'Infini Turbulent, by Dominique Lemonnier. He has continued to record into the mid-2020s, mostly for Harmonia Mundi, including an album of Liszt's transcriptions for piano of Beethoven's symphonies in 2020, Chopin's complete nocturnes in 2021, and Fauré's piano music in 2024.
© Robert Cummings /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Debussy: The Complete Etudes
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Mar 28, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frédéric Chopin: Complete Nocturnes
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jun 25, 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Estampes, Pour le piano, Piano Works (Alain Planès)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Feb 22, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: La belle Maguelone (Live)
Stéphane Degout, Marielou Jacquard, Alain Planès, Roger Germser
Classical - Released by B Records on Oct 6, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Children's Corner, Suite bergamasque, Images (Alain Planès)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jul 31, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Préludes (Alain Planès)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Dec 14, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joseph Haydn: Piano sonatas
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jan 21, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Harmonie du soir, mélodies & songs
Alain Planès, Eugene Asti, Sophie Karthäuser, Stéphane Degout
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Aug 24, 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin chez Pleyel
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Oct 22, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Béla Bartók : Piano Works
Solo Piano - Released by harmonia mundi on May 19, 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Janacek: On an Overgrown Path
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jun 22, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Haydn: The Late Sonatas
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Apr 21, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joseph Haydn: Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jan 21, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Préludes, Op.28 (Alain Planès)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jan 26, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies transcribed for the piano by Franz Liszt
Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Georges Pludermacher, Alain Planès, Paul Badura-Skoda, Michel Dalberto, Jean-Claude Pennetier
Symphonies - Released by harmonia mundi on Aug 28, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Janacek: On an overgrown path (Alain Planès)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jun 22, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chabrier: Piano Works
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Nov 15, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sonates pour piano
Classical - Released by INA Mémoire vive on Sep 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Sonatas, Vol.2
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Oct 8, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Sonatas, Vol.3
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Feb 27, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo