La Belle Helene Grimaud, Conjures Beethoven

Conjuring Beethoven!

The virtuosity of La Belle Helene Grimaud conjures the spirit of Ludwig Van Beethoven in her stellar new Deutsche Grammophon recording of Beethoven: concerto no.5 “Emperor”/piano sonata no. 28 with Vladimir Jurowski.

Heaven and earth are joined in this CD; a fiery tempest of power, magnetism and human endeavor. It is to the discretion of the listener to follow the music into a ghostly, melancholic, introspection that bursts as a dark flower suddenly into realization or to succumb to an auditory opiate of other worldly beauty.

The “battlefield” or Opus in Grimaud’s narrative of Beethoven’s no. 5, is personal. Grimaud informs us, “I think that the real idea of Beethoven’s music is to be found where the extremes collide. It’s not about hollow pathos or empty, unquestioning, marching heroism...”

Grimaud’s new Beethoven recording was named one of the top CDs of 2007. I waited forever for this CD to be released in local stores and now wish I had ordered it months ago, direct from Deutsche Grammophon.

Grimaud creates a vortex in her interpretation, with the fusion of pathos and sound. It is the shades and colors of feeling engaged in the text of her understanding of Beethoven that becomes the revelation of spirit. Grimaud has been called “a philosopher at the concert grand” but to me she is a poet’s musician and plays to the heart. Perhaps herein lies the intimate and empathic genius of her virtuosity.

Princess Haiku you have waited too long for this music, she thought. But upon hearing the new Beethoven Recording she knew the time was well spent. After all how often are we able to keep solace with the great master?

Thank you La Belle Helene.

self revelation in the music of Helene Grimaud

Luminous qualities that can be appreciated in the virtuosity of pianist, Helene Grimaud are self reflection and intuition. Grimaud's piano provides an intimate portrayal of her feminine psyche and an intensity of feeling that belongs to the archetypes of dreams and introspection.

These same qualities can be disturbing to some people and would explain the unreasonable criticism that is at times directed towards her. Perhaps her music is too personal, too close to the source for those who are afraid of "the fire within."

I see Grimaud's interpretive music as being in the tradition of Anne Sexton or Sylvia Plath in that she takes the "other" into an interior and purely subjective realm of intense feeling.




The Kiss

My mouth blooms like a cut.
I've been wronged all year, tedious
nights, nothing but rough elbows in them
and delicate boxes of Kleenex calling crybaby
crybaby, you fool!

Before today my body was useless.
Now it's tearing at its square corners.
It's tearing old Mary's garments off, knot by knot
and see - Now it's shot full of these electric bolts.
Zing! A resurrection!

Once it was a boat, quite wooden
and with no business, no salt water under it
and in need of some paint. It was no more
than a group of boards. But you hoisted her, rigged her.
She's been elected.

My nerves are turned on. I hear them like
musical instruments. Where there was silence
the drums, the strings are incurably playing. You did this.
Pure genius at work. Darling, the composer has stepped
into fire.

Anne Sexton

Hélène Grimaud - Rhapsodie n°1 - Brahms
Uploaded by r6boy

the latest buzz on La Belle Helene Grimaud

La Belle Helene is completing several difficult months on the concert circuit, having weathered health problems, controversy and now an abrupt concert cancellation in Prague. -A cancellation that she is innocent of provoking.

"The unthinkable happened Saturday night, Sept. 15, when Špiroch canceled the Staatskapelle Dresden concert after a run-in with piano soloist Helene Grimaud. Hundreds of irate concertgoers waiting on the front steps of the Rudolfinum were told to go home. There has been a flurry of recriminations ever since. The festival put out a press release accusing Grimaud of making unreasonable demands to tune and alter the Rudolfinum’s Steinway just before the concert, and faulting her for the cancellation. Grimaud says there was a legitimate problem with the middle pedal, and that rather than try to fix it, Špiroch became belligerent and “threatening,” and canceled the concert himself." (Praguepost.com)

I hope that the rest of her season proceeds more smoothly and I am looking forward to hearing her perform with the San Francisco Symphony.

Deutesch Gramophone hasn't released her new Beethoven CD yet and it will no doubt dazzle. Below is a clip of her playing Beethoven.

La Belle Helene, at the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra

This is an amazing link:

http://www.medici-arts.tv/

It will take you to online performances of classical musical luminaries such as Helene Grimaud, performing at the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra and is available until, August 31, 07.

I am happy to see that la belle, Helene has recovered from health issues she experienced earlier in the year and is back to doing what she does best; playing exquisite keyboard music.

Helene Grimaud is now lending her name and support to Amnesty International, and the International Children's Camp Villa Sans Souci as well as The Wolf Conservation Center she founded in 1999.

Bravo, Helene. It is not surprising that a musician who plays intimately from the heart is a humanitarian as well. It is a bit reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn isn't it?

la belle Helene plays Schumann

The Latest Buzz on La Belle Helene

Here is a lovely video of La Belle Helene Grimaud playing a Schumann piano concerto on YouTube. For some reason they won't let people embed, so follow the link.

The newest buzz is that La Belle, at the height of her musical career
is the New Brand Ambassador for Montblanc.

"NEW YORK, May 23, 2007 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Helene Grimaud is acknowledged as one of the best pianists of her generation. The public loves her and musicians respect her. In 2007, Helene Grimaud was named one of the international brand ambassadors for Montblanc and the new face of an extensive advertising campaign.

I expect that her wild wolf refuge may benefit from this, although of course I'm only guessing. As a poet I like fancy pens, although I don't have one. I guess it's the same thing as artists drooling over lofts and having to work in box cars and chicken coops while lawyers live in their lofts and play hip hop music. The world, I am told- isn't supposed to make sense.

At any rate, Viva la Montblanc and may you feed a lot of wild wolves this year. BTW the Mont Blanc homepage has one very hot picture of La Belle. Here is more info via their homepage and apparently they have a classical music award program as well as fine products so I underestimated La Belle's role.


"Montblanc has appointed the world-class Pianist Hélène Grimaud as new Brand Ambassador of Montblanc’s arts & culture projects like the “Prix Montblanc”. The Prix Montblanc is another celebration of an award given by Montblanc to award and encourage young classical music talents who have shown tremendous efforts and contributions to the development of arts and culture."

La Belle Helene Plays on Clara Schumann Piano

I found a video on Youtube of la Belle Helene playing on the Clara Schumann Piano. What Helene didn't know was that the ghost of Clara was rustling around in the shadows of the room. How could Clara resist the beauty of La Belle's touch?

She couldn't said, Princess Haiku. -And believe me if I could repeat what other ghosts say I would never stop writing stories. But of course, there is a ghost code of ethics. We aren't like certain therapists who betray the confidences of dead poets and musicians etc.

What Clara said about Helene...... My lips are sealed.

lovely Helene in red via pariroma.com I found an interesting new blog, Some Classical Music and Peace which deserves a visit.

The Tempest of Helene Grimaud

For Helene Grimaud Enthusiasts:

I found an interesting review of her concert in Washington D.C. on July 11, 06, written by Charles T. Downey in Ionarts.

"The effect of star power was on display Sunday night when pianist Hélène Grimaud gave a recital at Shriver Hall. The crowd was the largest and youngest in my experience of the venue, with all tickets sold out in advance and an overflow crowd, largely students, filling in the unused seats and some even allowed to sit on the stage."

The full article VIA Ionarts...

La Belle Helene

What is she thinking?

"Playing the Piano is a Reconciliation of Opposites" says Helene Grimaud

This link will take you to French-born pianist, Helen Grimaud's interview with Robert Siegle on NPR.

Helene Grimaud describes playing the piano as a "reconciliation of opposites" in a provocative interview with Robert Siegle. She describes her desire for absolute isolation and oneness with nature versus a desire for universal communication (in this instance) via the musical dialectic of the German Romanticists.

Helene Grimaud has a particular and unique psychological complexity derived from this juxtaposition of contradictory impulses. This is a key issue with Grimaud; the necessity for personal integration and simultaneous individuation. In her piano music, Grimaud expresses who she is, and also whom she will become.

I have a strong intuition that Helene may also have a gift for musical composition. Many of the great composers were also poets at heart and Grimaud has poetic capacity; as evidenced in her piano playing and in her writings expressive of myths and Jungian archetypes. The future will reveal itself in this regards, thinks Princess Haiku.

This link also takes one to other interviews with Grimaud and Siegle at NPR and wonderful phrases of music, described in Grimaud's own words as "touched by the heart." Music doesn't become more expressive of basic humanity than it does in the piano of Helene Grimaud.

I wish her all the best and have read online that she has recently been unwell. This is wishing her renewed health and continued musical success.


Grimaud plays Schumann via YouTube

Early Landscapes of Helene Grimaud: Aix en Provence

The early landscapes of Helene Grimaud are filled with the beauty and mystery of Aix en Provence; a city most artists would leap at the opportunity to experience. Why is it that not only Helene, but most creatives feel the need to strike out for themselves in foreign and isolated terrains to discover themselves? Those born with the beauty of ancient history seek avant-garde landscapes and vis versa. Perhaps being connected to the far past is a form of bondage. Princess Haiku doesn't know as she is a California ghost and adapts to edgy and new, as easily as the dream world. We will have to ask Helene won't we? If Princess Haiku listens carefully to the hidden subtext in her new CDs she will learn more.

Helen Grimaud on New York Public Radio with Leonard Lopate

Helene Grimaud seeks higher levels of consciousness and awareness through musical expression and brings others along on her journey. In this live interview on New York Public Radio with Leonard Lopate, Helene Grimaud discusses a myriad of topics: the emergence of musical interest in childhood at Aix en Provence, establishment of a wolf reserve in New York, an autobiography- Wild Variations and the CD Reflections; a musical discourse between Robert and Clara Schumann and Brahms.

The cool sophistication in Helene Grimaud's presentation of self contrasts the stormy music of the German Romanticists she loves. Her book, "Wild Variations" reflects the interweaving of motifs and interests of German Romanticism: emotions, dreams, travel, nature and mythology.

High Quality Video of Helene Grimaud live

I found an amazing video of Helene Grimaud in concert at http://totemvideos.bog.com/
Click on the title of this entry for an excellent musical experience.

Helene Grimaud: Astrologic Revelation

I wonder, mused Princess Haiku, how a ghost can order a birth chart on ASTROTHEME. Determining a date of birth could be a problem. For Helene Grimaud fans, here is a link (click on the bold) to her birth chart and analysis. The rest of you might want to see what the stars have in store for you too. ASTROTHEME looks like an interesting and fun place.

Helene Grimaud Plays Iceland

Here is a lovely photo of Helene Grimaud in blue, playing with the Iceland Symphony. I have never been to Iceland but appreciate its good taste in music in-so-far as they have invited Grimaud to perform with them. Iceland is known for its famous wildlife preserves and perhaps one of Helene's favorite wolves came along for the trip.

I found an interesting article about Helene Grimaud in Newsweek: Oct 13, 2006 "Playing With Wolves" that includes an interview about her relationship with music and wolves. To her the two are not so different in the demands they make of her attention. I would call this "Wild Wolves, Wild Animus." Fascinating isn't she?

Open Portal: Alexander Scriabin's Mystic Chord

Alexander Scriabin was deeply immersed in the theosophical teachings of Helena Petrovna Blavasky when he created his "mystic chord." Scriabin's composition, Vers La Flamme, was "considered to be influenced by Scriabin's theories of synesthesia; a condition wherein one experiences sensation in one sense in response to stimulus in another. It is doubted that Alexander Scriabin actually experienced this. His color system, unlike most, lines up with the circle of fifths: it was a thought-out system based on Sir Isaac Newton's Optics. Indeed, influenced also by his theosophical beliefs, he developed it towards what would have been a pioneering multimedia performance: his unrealized magnum opus Mysterium was to have been a grand week-long performance including music, scent, dance, and light in the foothills of the Himalayas that was to bring about the dissolution of the world in bliss."

Regardless of one's opinion of the psychic power of Vers La Flamme, it is an amazing, brilliant composition. The first time I heard it, I imagined "raspberry sherbert melting in the mind." Listen for yourself and decide what you think. Another pianist who has discussed synesthetic experience is Helene Grimaud and I am wondering if she has recorded, Scriabin's, Vers La Flamme and "opened the portal for listeners."

Alchemy and Pathos "Helene Grimaud Plays Chopin Rachmaninov"

Pathos and Alchemy as twins are the leitmotif of the 2005 Deutschegrammophon recording "Helene Grimaud Chopin Rachmaninov." In this CD Helene Grimaud plays the Piano Sonata no. 2 of both composers and explores musical intertextuality within and between the composers. This beauty intermingled with the colors of pathos and alchemy is a lush, colorful, whirlpool of profound sound complemented by extreme virtuosity.

Grimaud's performance is as edgy as it is provocative in that her interpretation of the music is a fuse to light primal, human feelings. It's not surprising that musical conformists are threatened by her work; which is as intellectual and deliberate as it is emotionally rich. The use of leitmotif as a musical or literary strategy goes back to Greek mythology and dramas. Anyone who has read Helene Grimaud's book, "Wild Harmonies" will be aware that myth-speak is her opus.

The postmortem dialog of this recording between Chopin and Rachmaninov, delivers the listening audience to uncharted territories within. And there Helene Grimaud leaves them to find their own way out of the necropolis and to define their experience. As a poet I experience this recording as a text within texts and the point of transformation occurs by integration of the resulting cognitive dissonance. In short, this gorgeous music results in catharsis and deeper experience of self. And- this is what all great art or alchemy is about.

Most of the great composers have an amazing poetic capacity and I see that quality in Helene Grimaud and have an intuition that she may surprise us suddenly with compositions of her own. We can only dream....

The Sea Change of Helene Grimaud

Helene Grimaud, has always been recognized as a gifted pianist and recently gone through a sea change, transforming into a virtuoso of legendary ability. The phrase "sea change" derives from a quotation in Shakespeare's play, "The Tempest," suggesting a profound transformation caused by a remarkable agency or energy.

I had the pleasure of hearing Helene Grimaud's new CD "Reflection" a musical dialog between Robert & Clara Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. Grimaud plays with a lightness and subtlety belonging to sea-foam with the force and passion of the ocean beneath. Her interpretation incarnates the spirit of these composers. As I listened to Robert Schumann's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor, waves parted with color as they did for Marc Chagall. I listened with a poetic mind, as consciousness spilled forth from a keyboard; auditory moonlight reflecting upon minnows darting in and out of the sky's eye.

So intimately, does Grimaud understand Brahms in his Sonata for Piano and Violoncello no. 1 in E minor, that she evokes him as one would a beloved; effortlessly and without self-consciousness. In the music of- Brahms Two Rhapsodies for Piano, Helene Grimaud removes herself so completely as pianist, as an intermediary, that she becomes the music.

"Reflections" is for everyone; the consummate music professional seeking extreme virtuosity, a poet such as myself seeking music to awaken the spirit or anyone who enjoys beautiful music. I suggest that you add this CD to your collection for Helene Grimaud will soon be recognized as a legendary artist.

Belows are some video clips from youTube of Helene Grimaud.








Other information on Helene Grimaud. (bold=link)

And still more of Helene Grimaud

Issac the Syrian

I have been reading Helene Grimauds autobiography, "Wild Harmonies" and found this wonderful quotation in it.

"I remember this phrase from Isaac the Syrian: "He who has seen himself is greater than the one who has seen the angels."

"Something Wild," by Helene Grimaud

Piano virtuoso, Helene Grimaud is as dynamic and unique off stage as she is on. In her dual role as musical performer and protector of wild wolves she stands alone. Rather than assuming the role of "diva" she has risen to the "call of the wild." Grimaud is as committed to the cause of saving wolves in their natural habitat as she is to performance art; a rare contrast of interests.

I had the opportunity of hearing Grimaud play Chopin at a rehearsal performance with the San Francisco Symphony a few years ago. Rehearsal performances are special in that they allow the audience personal glimpses of an artist's personality that are otherwise hidden during the formality of concert performance.

The lovely, Helene arrived slightly late for rehearsal and was dressed in blue jeans and leather. She strode onto the stage with elegance and ease, casually tossing her jacket under the piano. When she began to play her gorgeous playing and singular capacity for musical absorption drew a collective breath from the audience.

Grimaud recorded her first CD at the age of fifteen and won the French equivalent of a Grammy the next year. Every since her concerts have continued to amaze and delight an international audience. "In 1991, Grimaud encountered a wolf-dog hybrid in Florida and felt an immediate, instinctual connection to the animal--one that the wolf also seemed to share. Determined to do what she could to protect this threatened species, she committed her time and resources to becoming certified to found her own wolf preserve on the grounds of her home in New York State."

I haven't read Grimaud's new book, "Something Wild" yet but I intend to as soon as I can purchase a copy and expect to find her life story as fascinating as her music.

As an aside, I would like to mention that my favorite Helene Grimaud CD is,"credo." On this amazing CD is music Grimaud recorded with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchesta & Choir. "Credo" for piano, mixed choir and orchestra was created by modern composer Arvo Part.

Hélène Grimaud - Credo

The links will take you to samples of the music on the CD.