Helene Grimaud

This week’s Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert re-broadcast brings us a performance from early March, which saw the return to Philadelphia of pianist Hélène Grimaud, who performs a concerto close to her heart, the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2

Unlocking the secrets in music is a joyful enterprise for pianist Helene Grimaud. WRTI’s Susan Lewis has more on Grimaud’s approach to music and life. On Sunday, October 2nd at 1 PM on WRTI, Helene Grimaud performs Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 with The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Quite a few classical composers have found artistic inspiration in one of the planet’s most important natural resources. WRTI’s Susan Lewis reports on pianist Helene Grimaud's new recording of a collection of works reflecting on...water.

A symphonic self portrait that premiered in 1830 has become one of the most-performed works in the orchestral repertoire. WRTI’s Susan Lewis discusses this epitome of romantic program music with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

Explore an interactive feature about the Berlioz's work here.

This Sunday afternoon it's a concert from last December at Verizon Hall, with guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas  and pianist Hélène Grimaud in a performance with The Philadelphia Orchestra featuring the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Symphonie fantastique of Hector Berlioz. The concert had been performed only days earlier at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and the reviews were sensational.

This Sunday on The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert on WRTI, Helene Grimaud performs the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas filling in for Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

As WRTI’s Jim Cotter reports, the French pianist was originally scheduled to play the second Brahms piano concerto, but changed the program when Yannick dropped out.

Animals and nature are as big a part of Hélène Grimaud’s world as playing concertos with the great orchestras of the world. For years, the concert pianist's earnings went into the creation of the Wolf Conservation Center for endangered species in upstate New York. Then, after seven years of living in Switzerland, she's living back in North Salem, New York where the Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns befriended her German Shepherd Chico.

It was around 2008 when virtuoso pianist Helene Grimaud thought about adding the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 to her repertoire. Seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, she calls her love of Brahms "intimate." So intimate that she performs almost every work he composed for piano, solo or otherwise.  And her relationship with his first piano concerto runs very deep.

The French-born pianist Helene Grimaud is among the most gifted pianists of her generation. The forty-something-year old is not only blessed with great musical ability, but also with some extraordinary mental powers. 

She experiences synesthesia, a condition that causes the physical senses to overlap. In Grimaud's case, this manifests itself as an ability to see and touch music.  In practice, this makes it possible for her to rehearse without a piano and still fully experience the music.