Reflection

Hélène Grimaud - Reflection

Reflection
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CD Details

Artist: Hélène Grimaud
Composer: Johannes Brahms
Composer: Clara Wieck Schumann
Composer: Robert Schumann
Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen
Orchestra: Staatskapelle Dresden
Performer: Anne Sofie von Otter
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-09-12
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Soundtracks:
  1. Allegro affettuoso
  2. Intermezzo (Andantino grazioso)
  3. Allegro vivace
  4. Er is gekommen in Sturm und Regen
  5. Warum willst du and're fragen?
  6. Am Strande
  7. Allegro non troppo
  8. Allegretto quasi minuetto
  9. Allegro - Più presto
  10. No.1 in B minor, op.79/1
  11. No.2 in G minor, op.79/2

Music reviews of Reflection

Music Review: self-indulgence
Rating: 2 Stars

it is very strange with me that repeat listening to Grimaud's all DG recordings has made me tired of her playing. It is the same with this recording; the first listening was ok except the 3rd movement of the piano concerto where Grimaud "crushed" the first five very important notes recurring throughout the movement. It was the most ruined rendition of this beautiful phrase that I've ever heard. (a simple comparison with the most recent noble performance of this piece by Andsnes reveals the difference right away and then the fact that her colleagues were excellent to cover her.)

And the second listening and onwards assure me that Grimaud plays all the music in the same style - big and loud low register supported by pedals, which always produces quite an impressive sound effect at the first listening, and her obssessive focus on poetic and sensitive phrasing in the slow passages, no matter what she plays. And clearly she is less confident in her right hand than her left - many times in this recording, melody lines on the right hand are heard 'muddy' in the concerto and the rapsodies. She overpowers von Otter's singing, too, which she shouldn't have for Clara Schumann's lieder even if the piano part needs rigor and passion.

In my conclusion of this recording, the overall performance is good mainly because of her outstanding colleagues.

But the most disturbing is her self-indulgence on so called "themed" albums. It may be another way of effective communication with listeners, but unfortunately, it doesn't resonate with me. It seems to me that her own philosophy comes first and the music next. At the listening guide linked on her website, she kindly guides this theme "love" by explaining the relationship between three great musicians. She tells the concerto was written for Clara, the lieder for Robert, which natually makes you anticipate a similar link for Brahms. However, the link is broken there.

She even introduces an episode with her playing of the first rapsody in background about when Brahms visited the Schumanns for the first time as if the rapsody had been heard by the young Brahms. This is not true-the pieces Brahms played at that time were from his early sonatas, not the rapsodies written in his later life. Grimaud could have devised a better program to illustrate the beautiful relationship between three musicians because there're quite a number of Brahms' pieces profoundly inspired by the Schumanns. I wonder why Grimaud chose the rapsodies she recorded in 2000, even before she signed the contract with DG. She might not have had enough time to learn/practice other pieces as she has to write, tour, and raise wolves.

I once admired her freshness very much before she became a big star of DG, but not any more. She is stagnant and her playing is all the same. When I looked at the program for her first Carnegie Hall recital in coming November, I couldn't be more disappointed - all the solo pieces featured in her lastest two DG albums; how commercial and lazy even! The initially announced Chopin Sonata #2 has been just recently replaced by Bach/Busoni Chaconne, but it's also the same.. She has already played the piece so many times since several years ago (a video clip is even circulating on the net) and probably it will be put in her next recording scheduled next year.

I'm not impressed by her any more.
More Reflection free music reviews:
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Description of Reflection

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Titled Reflection, this CD program examines one of classical music's most fascinating triangles: the love between Robert Schumann and his wife, Clara, and their friend Johannes Brahms, who loved them both. There is music by all three composers here, and the almost 80-minute program is varied and fascinating. Robert's popular, stunning A minor Piano Concerto is played by Grimaud with romantic abandon but little sentiment; when it is showy, it comes from the music itself and is not an affectation. The first movement is filled with poetic vs. dramatic contrasts; there is a subtle but noble transition on piano and winds from the gently presented second movement to the springy, dramatically energetic third. Esa-Pekka Salonen is the remarkable conductor of the superb Staatskapelle Dresden. Grimaud then joins with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter in three songs by Clara. Two, with texts by Rückert, are poems to connubial love and the third, "Am Strande," was composed as a gift for Robert's 40th birthday. Brahms's Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in E minor is given a strong but lyrical and well-balanced reading by Grimaud and cellist Truls Mørk; both play with passion. Brahms's two Rhapsodies for piano complete the program; Grimaud gathers the darkness of the second and gives a fervent performance. What a beautiful CD! --Robert Levine

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