Track Listing

1. Prelude
2. Fugue
3. Prelude
4. Fugue
5. 1. Allegro
6. 2. Adagio
7. 3. Allegro
8. Prelude
9. Fugue
10. Chaconne in D minor
11. Prelude
12. Fugue
13. Prelude & Fugue in A minor BWV 543
14. Prelude
15. Fugue
16. Prelude in E major
17. Prelude in C sharp major BWV 872

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #164958 in Music
• Released on: 2009-02-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition

Album Description
Helene Grimaud presents her first-ever Bach recording! Once again, charismatic Helene Grimaud presents an album with an individual concept. Bach vs. Bach Transcribed brings together original keyboard works by the master with works by Bach arranged (transcribed) for the piano by pianist-composers of later generations: Busoni, Liszt & Rachmaninov. This is the first time that Hélène Grimaud has recorded Bach - a challenge for any musician. The repertoire includes the famous Well-Tempered Clavier II and the Concerto no. 1 in D minor, the latter performed with Grimaud's regular collaborators, the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Bach "Transcribed" features the Bach/Busoni version of the Chaconne in D minor, the Violin Partita in E major arranged for piano by Rachmaninov, and Liszt's version of the Prelude and Fugue in A minor. A landmark project in Grimaud's successful career, this recording is bound to be a best-seller.

Classic FM, London, October 2007
"Hélène Grimaud clearly feels the music she performs very deeply . . . Grimaud lacks nothing in power, intensity or technical finesse . . . one encounters a sense of fantasy . . ."

About the Artist
Hélène Grimaud was born in Aix-en Provence in the south of France in 1969. She studied with Jacqueline Courtin at the conservatory there and subsequently in Marseille with Pierre Barbizet. At the age of 13 she was accepted by the Paris Conservatory where she won the first prize in piano in 1985. In July, immediately after graduating, she recorded Rachmaninov's Sonata no. 2 and the complete Etudes-Tableaux op. 33 (Grand Prix du disque, 1986). She studied additionally with Gyorgy Sandor and Leon Fleisher. 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 recital in Tokyo and Daniel Barenboim's invitation to perform with the Orchestre de Paris. Hélène Grimaud has since performed with many of the world's major orchestras and renowned conductors. 1988 First performs for pianist Dmitri Bashkirov, who becomes an important influence on her playing. Appearance at the Lockenhaus Festival at the invitation of Gidon Kremer, with whom she performs; Kremer and Martha Argerich become further important influences in her career 1990 Debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, followed by appearances with leading orchestras in the USA and Europe. Settles in the USA. New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum; European debut with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Temirkanov (Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto no. 2) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival 1993 Tours Germany with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi 1995 Debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker led by Abbado (Rachmaninov, Concerto no. 2) 1996 Highly successful tour of Spain with Jeffrey Tate and the English Chamber Orchestra; performs with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under Abbado at the Lucerne and Pesaro Festivals 1997 Performs and records Brahms's Concerto no. 1 with Kurt Sanderling and the Berlin Staatskapelle (Cannes Classical Recording of the Year, 1999) 1999 New York Philharmonic debut with Beethoven's Concerto no. 4 under Kurt Masur. Gri¬maud and the photographer J Henry Fair establish the Wolf Conservation Center, a private, non-profit-making educational facility in South Salem (Westchester County, NY), to promote conservation of this threatened species 2000 Debuts with the Boston Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Soloist in a European festival tour with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Performs Beethoven's Concerto no. 4 with the Berliner Philhar¬moniker and gives a solo recital in the Philharmonie which is filmed for TV broadcast 2001/ 2002 Debut in Amsterdam with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly (Ravel, Concerto in G). Beethoven's Concerto no. 4 in Paris, and at the London Proms with the Orchestre de Paris and Eschenbach. In January 2002 she is appointed an "Offi¬cier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Ministry of Culture 2002/ 2003 Signs an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Gives world premiere of new work by Arvo Pärt at London's Tate Modern and performs Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall. Festival appearances at the London Proms and Edinburgh 2003/ 2004 Records Pärt's Credo in the composer's presence; the recording also features Coriglia¬no's Fantasia on an ostinato and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and Tempest Sonata (Choc du Monde de la musique, Diapason d'or, 2004). Publication in 2003 of her book Wild Harmonies ("Variations sauvages") in which she talks about her life as a musician and her environmental work with wolves (international release in September 2006) 2004 Beethoven's Concerto no. 4 in San Francisco; US tour with the Russian National Or¬chestra (Bartók, Concerto no. 3); Beethoven's Concerto no. 5 on a European tour with Michael Gielen. Records the Second Sonatas of Chopin and Rach¬maninov, plus Chopin's Barcarolle and Berceuse, and Bartók's Concerto no. 3 with Boulez and the LSO (German Record Critics Award, Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2005; Midem Classic Award, 2006), both released in 2005 2005 Records Reflection - music inspired by Clara Schumann, including her husband Robert's Piano Concerto, songs by Clara herself, and solo and chamber music by Brahms (release: 2006). Echo Award in the category "Instrumentalist of the Year". In October 2005 her second book Leçons particulières is published 2006 Appearances throughout the USA, Europe and in Japan, including concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, St. Petersburg Philhar¬monic, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, San Francicso Symphony Orchestra, Gul¬benkian Orchestra, Vienna Symphony and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (London Proms), as well as recitals at New York's Carnegie Hall, with the LSO Chamber En¬semble and at festivals including the Lucerne Festival and the Musikfest Bremen 2007 Concerts include appearances in the USA, Canada and Europe with the Dallas, Chicago and Toronto Symphony orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, Russian National Or¬chestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Berliner Philhar¬moniker and Berlin Staatskapelle. With the Dresden Staatskapelle and Fabio Luisi she performs Beethoven's Concerto no. 5 on tour throughout Europe, and also with the Strasburg Philharmonic Orchestra in France and Germany, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Germany, the Israel Philharmonic Or¬chestra in Tel Aviv, and the Philadelphia Orchestra in the USA. Recitals in Los Angeles, Luxemburg, Vienna and Germany. Appearances at the Caramoor Summer Festival with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Aix-en-Provence Festival with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Verbier Festival (with Maisky and Quasthoff), and the Salzburg Festival. Release of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 5 with the Dresden Staatskapelle under Vladimir Jurowski 2008 Performs concertos in the USA with the Orchestra of St. Luke's (Carnegie Hall, Beet¬hoven, no. 5), the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Bartók, no. 3), the Washington National Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven, no. 4); in Europe with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Beethoven, nos. 4 & 5), the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Ravel, G major), the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (on tour in Israel; Beethoven, nos. 4 & 5), the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Schumann; Rachmaninov, no. 2), Dresden Staats¬kapelle (Schumann), the Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Rachmaninov, no. 2), Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Brahms, no. 2); with the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala (Brahms, no. 1) and in Japan with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orches¬tra (Beethoven, no. 5). Solo and chamber-music recitals in London, New York, France and numerous German cities; festival appearances in Istanbul, Verbier, and Lucerne. A special highlight is her appearance at the Last Night of the Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall; the concert will be broadcast live around the world. Grimaud records works by J. S. Bach, including the Harpsichord Concerto no. 1 and three Preludes and Fugues, and transcriptions of Bach by Busoni, Liszt and Rachmaninov (release: autumn 2008) 2009 Scheduled appearances include a tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski in France, Germany and Switzerland; performances of Bach's Piano Concerto BWV 1052 in Spain, Italy and Germany with the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra; numerous recitals with Lisa Batiashvili and Truls Mørk playing works by Brahms, Shostakovich and Schumann in Spain, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; appearances at the Verbier Festival and concerts in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy

Customer Reviews

Will listen to this CD many times again
Ms. Grimaud's DG recordings are distinguished by their unique programs. This CD is no exception. The CD opens with two Preludes and Fuges from the Well Tempered Clavier before moving on to the Keyboard Concerto in D Minor and then alternating between further excerpts from the Well-Tempered Clavier and romantic transcriptions of Bach's works, including the stunning Bach-Busoni Chaconne in D Minor.

The advantage of such programming is that the listener is constantly refreshed and interested because each section of the CD is so much different and the pieces linger long in the mind after the CD is over. I know of no one else who puts together CDs like this and this leads perhaps the whole to be more than the sum of the parts - not that the parts are bad!

The piano sounds, as portrayed on the cover, to be a full concert grand. I do not feel the music is therefore "intimate"; this is concert hall Bach not salon or living room Bach - but the piano is very warm and full sounding. Though I have heard criticisms of Grimaud's playing as too harsh, this is certainly not the case in this album.

The D Minor Concerto is technically impeccable, the notes clean and distinct. Her playing of the concerto is a celebration of a piece that is not polyphonic but a glorified continuo to a fairly dramatic keyboard concerto. There is no romantic interpretation however - the outer movements maintain a prcise and fast clip. Following along with the score, Grimaud and the Chamber Orchestra remain perfrectly in sync.

The Chaconne is very romantically played, including some accelerandos and pauses that caught me off guard. Parts of the Chaconne are sunnier then I have ever heard. The Chaconne is where Ms. Griamud is at her most individual, and thus perhaps the most memorable part of the CD.

In short, this is a CD I look forward to putting into my player and tour through the many facets of Bach and the other subsequent tributes to him by other composers.

A romanticist's Bach
This is a lovely CD of beautiful music that stands up to repeated listens--especially the Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, which is fantastic.

This is not "pure" Bach, whatever that term might mean. Bach purism, like that reflected in the comments by "villegem," is not a mark of intellectual superiority. It's a mark of pettiness and pedantism and a desire to flash one's intellectual cufflinks and be admired. But it isn't admirable; it's shallow. Grimaud is a romantic, playing her romantic interpretations of Bach's music. She doesn't pretend to be playing the "pure" thing. And that's an entirely respectable aesthetic choice.

First, there is no such thing as the perfect performance of the ideal Bach; all performances are interpretations, no matter how "faithful" they claim to be to some Platonic form of the original. Even the decision to play Bach on a Steinway grand is itself anachronistic, and therefore an interpretive choice. If you're looking for the "real" Bach, you probably shouldn't be looking to a pianist in the first place. Moreover, given the fact that composers often change the music itself between performances, the notion of resolving on some sort of Authorized Version of this music is silly pseudo-sophistication.

Nor do we know what Bach himself, who could not have imagined the technical and aesthetic changes that would come in the two and a half centuries since his death, would have thought of those innovations. Maybe, if he had been born in 1800, he would have become a wild-eyed Wagnerian mystic. None of us can know. Few artists ever resolve on some Officially Sanctioned version of their work from which any divergence is somehow a betrayal.

Second, even if Bach had done that, it would still be a perfectly legitimate aesthetic choice to disregard such injunctions. There is nothing objectionable in Grimaud putting a romantic spin on Bach. If she finds an element in baroque music that she would like to draw out and express in her own way, then what she produces is her own art, which deserves to be evaluated on its own terms. Shakespeare stole his plotlines from Plutarch and other sources, but we wouldn't dream of criticizing him for not telling the "true" story of how Julius Caesar was killed! If you don't like Shakespeare's Julius Caesar on its own terms, then that is a reasonable position to take, but you can't condemn him for somehow betraying Plutarch or not understanding what Plutarch was trying to do. Likewise, if Grimaud's statement doesn't resonate with you--if you consider romanticism to be "oozing"--then that's fine, and you have a right to dislike the work. But as long as she's competent at the keyboard (which she certainly is, in spades), then there's no basis other than snobbery for criticizing her for not being "true" to Bach, which 1) she does not claim to be, 2) she has no obligation to be, and 3) no person ever actually could be anyway.

So much for "villegem." Now, how well does the product hold up? Very well indeed. There are some minor problems--Grimaud tends to make certain whispering noises while playing that can be a little distracting. Not like Keith Jarrett or anything, but a little annoying at times. And there are some parts of the concerto that get a little dull. They last no more than a minute, though. And, again, the Prelude and Fugue in A Minor (as transcribed by Liszt--again, Grimaud doesn't pretend to be performing some abstract Authoritative Bach) is marvelous. She draws out things in Bach's music that I had not noticed before, and has given me a greater appreciation for his artistry also. And what more can one ask of a concert pianist?

The Not-So-Special-Edition
A sticker affixed to the paperboard case of Helene Grimaud's Bach album labels this as a "deluxe limited edition," but there is nothing particularly deluxe about it.

The packaging is a quad-fold paperboard case, which is done well, with a pouch in one panel for the CD booklet. That is all that it takes to call this "deluxe" apparently.

Of special note: this is a 16-track CD. Track 17, ("17. Prelude in C sharp major BWV 872") as listed here on Amazon -- for both editions, actually -- does not exist here.

Apparently Amazon has used the track list to a more exclusive digital-only edition (not the one they themselves offer), as that mysterious 17th track seems to be available only to the iTunes edition. (I dislike iTunes, so this fact kind of irks me.)

None of this speaks to the recording, but these details seem important enough to alert potential customers. Amazon should pay more attention to their product listings.