As WQXR celebrates Powerhouse Pianists throughout January, we spotlight a pianist who is known to give the keyboard a workout. Hélène Grimaud is frequently admired for her enormous technical command and her keen musical curiosity, two qualities that inspire her latest album, "Resonances."
This solo recording takes a musical journey through sonatas by Mozart, Liszt and Berg, along with the Romanian Dances by Béla Bartók. Grimaud is also an author whose memoir is called Variations Sauvages, and she’s the founder of the Wolf Conservation Center, an educational facility in Salem, NY. She recently sat down with Jeff Spurgeon.
♦ On the notion of being a “Powerhouse Pianist":
♦ On "Resonances," Grimaud’s new concept album that traces a musical-geographic journey through the former Austro-Hungarian Empire:
♦ On making conceptual recordings, the fact that Schumann is the "worst-selling composer," and her 25-year recording career:
♦ On the Wolf Conservation Center, a sanctuary she co-founded in 1999:
View the Trailer for "Resonances":