Hélène Grimaud – Woodlands and beyond…

Together with photographer Mat Hennek, French star pianist Hélène Grimaud, comes up with a multimedia concert project at the Grand Hall of Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. Grimaud’s virtuous piano performance is accompanied by Hennek’s highly praised photo series “Woodlands”, which depicts genuine portraits of trees, Grimaud’s piano recital includes works by romantic and impressionistic composers. They are connected by seven “Transitions”, written exclusively for Grimaud by British composer and DJ Nitin Sawhney.

The motives of Hennek’s Woodlands series create an extraordinary visual backdrop, which in combination with Grimaud´s pianistic “impeccable clarity and articulation” (Hamburger Abendblatt) and the Elbphilharmonie’s splendid acoustics grants a concert experience of a special kind.

Peter Waters & Barbara Hendricks: Fauré

Australian pianist Peter Waters and his jazz ensemble, the Treya Quartet, garnered widespread praise for their sensitive jazz arrangements of songs by the French composer Gabriel Fauré. This beautifully-shot music film compares these arrangements with the original versions, as sung by the internationally-acclaimed American soprano Barbara Hendricks. She is accompanied by Waters, who also plays in the Quartet with Paolo Fresu (trumpet), Tony Overwater (double bass) and Gilbert Paeffgen (drums/percussion). The performances are interspersed with answers to the question: “Why the songs of Fauré in a jazz setting?” Hendricks, meanwhile, contributes her thoughts on the power of song as a form of expression and means of communication.

Recital Diana Damrau

One of the warmest personalities on the opera and concert stage today, soprano Diana Damrau has put together a beguiling program for her recital at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. The selection of Romantic to fin-de-siècle pieces not only underscores her own vocal artistry, but also pays tribute to her accompanist Xavier de Maistre and, in particular, to the diaphanous delicacy of his instrument, the harp. The use of the harp to replace the piano in a voice recital is a truly unique and unexpected musical treat. De Maistre does more than simply transpose the piano part to his instrument; under the fingers of the Wiener Philharmoniker’s solo harpist, the ethereal sound of this instrument melds consummately with the soprano’s finely honed vocal part, so that the masterpieces by composers such as Schumann, Fauré and Debussy sound as if they had been conceived for voice and harp.