Purchase this album - Reflection
On September 12th 2006, Deutsche Grammophon releases the third studio album by Hélène Grimaud on the yellow label. Entitled Reflection, this recording is an innovative concept album made up of solo piano, chamber and orchestral repertoire by the celebrated musical love triangle of Robert Schumann, his wife Clara Schumann, and their friend Johannes Brahms. Hélène Grimaud is joined on this recording by Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Staatskapelle Dresden, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and Grimauds long-time chamber music partner, cellist Truls Mørk.
Hélène Grimaud's new album reflects the close personal and musical relationship between the Schumanns and Brahms. Just as in Grimauds recent Chopin/Rachmaninov recording, this new album explores the themes of love and transfiguration through music. The album features Grimaud performing Robert Schumanns romantic Piano Concerto in A minor op. 54. The disc was recorded in Dresden (where Clara Schumann premiered her husbands composition in 1845) on what would have been the Schumanns 165th wedding anniversary
Born in Aix en Provence in 1969 and now living in New York State, Hélène Grimaud studied the piano at the conservatoire in her native town and subsequently in Marseille with Pierre Barbizet. At the age of thirteen, she was accepted by the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, where she won the first prize in Jacques Rouvier's class in 1985. She studied additionally with Gyorgy Sandor and with Leon Fleischer.
The year 1987 marked a decisive turning point in her career with appearances at MIDEM in Cannes and at the piano festival La Roque d'Anthéron, her first solo recital in Paris and an invitation to perform with the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim.
Hélène Grimaud has performed with many of the world's major orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Berliner Staatskapelle, Royal Philharmonic, Bayerische Rundfunk, Tonhalle Zurich, Russian National Orchestra, the Oslo, Rotterdam, Israel and St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo NHK Symphony. In North America, she has worked with the Boston, San Francisco and Toronto symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. In addition to Barenboim, she has collaborated with conductors including Abbado, Blomstedt, Bychkov, Conlon, Chung, Davis, Dutoit, Hogwood, Järvi, Janowski, Masur, Pletnev, Sawallisch, Temirkanov, Ashkenazy and Zinman.
In 2002, Hélène Grimaud signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Before that, she recorded for the Teldec Classics, Erato and Denon labels.
Hélène Grimaud's recordings for Teldec included Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
In addition to her piano career, Grimaud is a founder and co-director of The Wolf Conservation Center. Based in New York, the Center is dedicated to publicizing the plight of wolves in the wild. The organization's activities include public education, reintroduction of wolves in federally designated areas that can sustain viable wolf populations and promoting wildland habitat preservation for all species.
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