专辑简介

For most of her young career, Helene Grimaud has recorded for Erato, so this disc, Helene Grimaud Artists Portrait, is essentially a précis of her career to date. Of course, almost everything here is a portion of a larger work; there are movements from concertos by Schumann, Beethoven, Gershwin, and Brahms, plus a couple of pieces of late Brahms, with only Beethoven's Sonata, Op. 110, served complete. But Erato's portions do paint a very accurate portrait of the artist as a young virtuoso of enormous talent.

She is a young, impetuous virtuoso: Grimaud pushes tempos mercilessly in the Schumann Allegro affetuoso. She is a young, imperious virtuoso: Grimaud forces her extravagant expressivity on Beethoven's Allegro moderato. She is a young, energetic virtuoso: Grimaud pumps the dynamics in Gershwin's Allegro agitato. She is a young, excitable virtuoso: Grimaud pulls the form tight and taunt in Brahms' Rondo Allegro non troppo. But Grimaud is not a reflective artist. Her late Brahms is pretty but meaningless and her Beethoven Op. 110 is well played, but not thought through very well. In her Beethoven Sonata, Grimaud's phrasing lacks cogency, her themes lack coherency, her structures lack unity, and, ultimately, her performance lacks urgency. Grimaud is a young virtuoso of enormous talent and too little sense of impulse control. Erato's sound is crisp and clear.