Her fingers flow across the keys as if they were part of the instrument. What a wonder we humans can be!!! Glad I came across her beautiful artistry and the beauty of this Beethoven.
H. Grimaud plays like she is reading a poetic epic from the past. The phrasing, the tempo, the radiant sparkles in the melody and the rhythmical effect resonates to the listener what Beethoven is feeling and thinking while he recites his verse.
I've been listening to recordings of Beethoven's Late Piano Sonatas for over 45 years now, and this is without a doubt one of the finest live performances I've ever heard. I couldn't agree more with an earlier comment: "Beautiful touch! Pure tone produced. Orchestral sound. Well articulated. Great dynamic contrast. Expressive interpretation with full technical control."
This sonata is really subtle and deep, requiring the performer to play expressively and with a style that is more or less the opposite of "bravura"...and she pulls if off amazingly well. This performance captures the wistful and melancholic mood that I believe Beethoven intended. Bravo!
Undoubtedly, she has the power to move people with her way of interpreting and gesturally accompanying each one of the notes, taking us by the hand to that world that we can only imagine through the beauty of music...
Her performance embodies who SHE IS.....genuine...not a phony influenced by external voices. Her voices are from a purity found in nature...They influence her musical gesture....tonal quality....exceptional pianism. She is RARE like Glenn Gould was rare. He followed a voice that speaks to us because it is eternal. Helene Grimaud knows that voice, too. She is a gift from the DIVINE! Merci!
"her voices are from a purity found in nature." Gush like this rather overlooks the fact that this is a human being, not a "gift from the DIVINE!" It's a fine performance; can't that be enough?
I hear eternity, i can hear also sounds of ever-ending suffering, enjoyment, hope and fear, everything, a finest piece of truest art representing what humans experience, all in this Beethoven's 31th sonata,Helene Grimaud, beautiful hands
C'est tout le romantisme de Beethoven qui est contenu dans cette sonate. Mais encore il faut une interprète de grande sensibilité pour l'exprimer. Hélène Grimaud est cette interprète qui tout en suivant la ligne parvient à mettre en évidence la beauté de l'âme du créateur. Elle est une artiste rare que j'aime beaucoup!
Two words: Helene Grimaud! If these conjure in your mind words like "divine", "phenomenal", "out of this world" and/or "I can't stop listening," you are on the right track! Bravo, bravo, bravo Ms. Grimaud!--and THANKS.
je trouve cette interprétation et tous les autres des Concerts de Mozart que j'ai trouvé sur You tube de Madame Grimaud d'un niveau vraiment rare à ces jours. Grande technique, absolue, impéccable, mais sourtout de la vraie poésie, une sensibilité merveilleuse qui me fait penser à l'inoubliable Clara Haskil, mieux qu'à la fantastique Marta Argerich. J'aimerais écouter cette très jolie femme de Aix en Provence interpreter Schubert, que j'adore, et surtout les dernières trois Sonates D 958, D 959 et D 950. Je suis persuadé, elle as seulement 51 ans, que Hélène Grimaud nous donnera encore pour plusieurs années les trésor de son art de l'intepretation et un facon de jouer le piano superbe et unique. Monsieur et Mesdames chapeau!
This sonata, especially the 1st movement, has been my (most) favorite piano piece quite a while - along with several of Schubert's emotional pieces. It brings back old memories of loss and failure which I, regretfully, let happen. At the same time, it stirs some yearning still left in me. This feeling, or sentiment, is usually vague but Helene makes it pretty strong and vivid. A fantastic piano playing!
Observe your mind: where is the "I" that lets things happen? There is no "you" there to blame, we each do what we do and what happens happens. Piano music helped me realize this fundamental zero-center: playing a piece like this, I have literally hovered above myself looking down at my hands, doing nothing, just observing the body making music without me. Now where is the "I" in this experience we call life?
j'adore ce pianiste francaise. J'ai fait sa connaissance il y a 7 ans, et, dés le premier momento, elle m'a seduit par sa facón de jouer le piano, son expressivité et par le repertoire qu'elle choisit chaque fois qu'enregistre un disque. Elle est merveuilleuse !!
Her passion for the music is what stands out! So beautifully played! Her own interpretation of Bach's passion is inebriating! The base note accents 14:18-14:30 is stunning, a mixture between Bach's baroque and heavy metal's Led zeppelin. All all of this is done sans sheet music! Thank you lady Grimaud for your stunning performance!
bravo pour cette magnifique sonate de Beethoven qui associe a merveille la puissance de ce compositeur au suptil et lege phrase des doigts sur le clavier, tout en douceur. merci d exister.
For 21 minutes... my brain had tastebuds. Somewhere along the way...i think i also developed a third ear. Ludwig and Hélène falling in Love. Thank you for uploading.
Helene, Sie sind fantastisch! Selten sieht man eine ueberaus begabte Pianistin wie Sie!!! Vielen herzlichen Dank und liebe Gruesse aus São Paulo, Brasilien! Ich hoffe sehr, dass Sie bald zu uns kommen koennen. Es wird eine unheimlich grosse Freude, Sie "live" zu hoeren!
Love Helene Grimauds personality, Integrity & Authenticity. She is trying to express the true meaning of the Truth and Emotion the way Beethoven might have felt about it - is a work of Love. Wonder how Beethoven loves her interpretation.
I'm overwhelmed. The is peerless, sublime. She has understood this work and played it to absolute perfection. What a wonderful pianist, and such a dignified personal presentation. No crappy affectations and nonsense. Bravo! :-)
A very convincing performance, thoughtful, with unbroken concentration and real musicality. Grimaud has artistic integrity and approaches Bruno Walter's famous advice to make it as if it is new, even though we have heard and played it many times, without seeming artificial or seeking for effects. Very nice. And I think she does not forget that the music is by Beethoven, not by her, heh... Surely it is a different approach from the magnificent straightforwardness of a Schnabel, but Schnabel was from a different time and place. I think it is needlessly ungenerous to dismiss an approach like this which has much to offer, and shines in it's own unique way. These comments are so full of little amateur critics who think something is to be gained by putting in their cramped and crabby (and often embarrassingly uninformed and uneducated) two cents worth, sigh... In other words, "Lighten up for chrissakes..."
your comment is accurate but hardly necessary. folks type quickly... errors happen! please offer your thoughts on the sonata or the performance. perhaps you have something insightful to say. and yes, sentences start with a capital letter.
Yes, thanks. The performance was riveting. It flowed beautifully, the bass and treble volume matched wonderfully. While she's a handsome and pleasantly expressive woman, I'd just as soon had more camera on her hands and less on her face, but that's a quibble. I'll go listen to Schnabel now.
Une sensibilité extraordinaire, une compréhension profonde de cette sonate si complexe avec son adagio et sa fugue entremêlés. Hélène Grimaud est une des plus grandes pianistes de notre époque.
Does Beethoven get more complex, and complete, than this, as though on a loom, he has drawn, teased and woven all the strands of his creative genius into one form, on a single instrument, and then let the echos of each source and reach ring out, resound and sing. The challenge, and conquest, is no less for the performer.
ivankaramasov She is, she is one of the most beautiful musicians in the world. She is an introvert, likes to be in the presence of wolves. However, if she knows you, she can be very chatty. Sometimes when you talk to her, and you are bombarded by her beauty, you will/we will loose our chain of thought.
Amo la música de Beethoven, para mí está será la sonata Ofelia, pues describe los profundos sentimientos que compartí con mi esposa ahora ausente, es la música de se perenne presencia conmigo.
Beethoven will always be the best, the pinnacle of them all, producing such beauty in this and so many of the other later pieces, whilst totally deaf the whole time. All the other great composers had the sense of hearing to aid them, but couldn't reach these heights, in my view..
+Alex Ovenden hi. i think his hearing went with age. he had his hearing through the 7th and 8th symphonies but in the end he had to rely on the floor vibration and the memory of sound. he also based much of his melody on what he heard in his travels. he could pick up songs from the hills where sheperds played on flutes or sung melodies that were old even then . bernstein thought he was the most confounded of all composers and could never get a clear message from his creations but always knew they were among the best compositions of all the composers.
This piano sonata is Beethoven doing what he does best: walking us into the darkest of depressions, and then showing us the way out "poi a poi di nuovo vivente." To my ear, Grimaud's performance here more than does this magnificent piece justice. What a treasure.
I've heard performance of this wonderful sonata by 15 to 20 different pianists, and Ms Grimaud's performance may be my favorite. It is elegant, articulate, and beautifully-scaled emotionally. So I'm happy to join the chorus - Brava!!
