Hélène Grimaud is a pianist who defies feminine stereotypes. Her favored repertory has been
Brahms,
Beethoven,
Rachmaninov,
Schumann, and
Liszt, not the less muscular music of
Mozart (which she didn't perform until she was 21 or record until 2010),
Poulenc, or
Chopin.
Grimaud's lush sound and sweeping interpretations drew comparisons to such pianists as
Martha Argerich and
Jorge Bolet.
An "agitated and agitating" child by her own admission,
Grimaud started studying the piano at nine at the Aix Conservatoire, simply as a channel for her surplus energy. After only three years, she was able to play
Schumann's Papillons, the first movement of
Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata, and
Fauré's Barcarolle No. 5 impressively, and she entered the Paris Conservatory at 13. There, as an impatient and rebellious student of
Jacques Rouvier, Genevieve Joy, and
Christian Ivaldi, she insisted on learning repertory at a faster pace than the conservatory allowed; on her own, she arranged to play the
Chopin Concerto in F minor with the conservatory orchestra back in Aix when she was 14.
Rouvier, impressed, gave a tape of that concert to a producer for Denon and that company, initially not realizing
Grimaud's age, recorded her in
Rachmaninov's Sonata No. 2 and Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33. That CD garnered a Grand Prix du Disque;
Grimaud was only 16. In 1987 she began playing concerts outside the conservatory, including an engagement at age 18 with
Daniel Barenboim and the Orchestre de Paris (only her fourth public concert).
She maintains friendships with
Barenboim,
Martha Argerich, and
Gidon Kremer and greatly admires the work of
Vladimir Horowitz and
Glenn Gould.
Grimaud shares
Gould's fascination with clear counterpoint and
Argerich's and
Kremer's general intensity. Yet her treatment of
Brahms, for example, avoids attention-getting extremes of tempo and instead follows what she has called a "pulsation that's very close to the ideal heartbeat," while also clarifying the textures. She is willing to take risks in performance, but only those that she feels illuminate the music rather than spotlight the soloist. In
Rachmaninov, she emphasizes what she calls the music's "nobility of heart" and lyricism rather than its virtuosity. She has continued a busy schedule of international performances with some of the world's most prestigious orchestras, focusing on concertos of
Beethoven,
Rachmaninov,
Brahms,
Schumann,
Ravel, and
Bartók. As a recitalist she has toured with repertoire including the works of
Arvo Pärt,
John Corigliano,
Beethoven,
Chopin,
Schumann, and
Brahms.
Grimaud cites an appearance at The Last Night of the Proms in 2008 as a personal highlight of her career.