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."

"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

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