Paw? Little hand?

Hélène Grimaud smiles mysteriously on the cover of the CD box, as if she is trying to evade clear judgment. The Frenchwoman, who lives in Weggis, is not so easy to grasp. This can be impressively experienced in the six CD recordings released by Erato and Teldec between 1996 and 2001 and now reissued in a slipcase by Warner Classics. She has the soloistic paw for Brahms' full-bodied piano writing in the first piano concerto, but also a fine hand for the lyrical, melancholy intermezzi of his late work. She is both an expressive artist and a structuralist. She avoids extremes without becoming boring. Occasionally, as in Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 109, one might wish for a somewhat more discreet use of the pedal, because some things are obscured that one would have liked to hear more precisely. In the 1995 recording, Grimaud shows herself to be a master of characterization, giving each of the variations in the finale "full of song, with the most heartfelt feeling" a very special note, an individual tone. In the A major Sonata op. 110, she does not slavishly adhere to the musical text in the Moderato by not playing the climax of the phrase as a sforzato as notated, but instead withdrawing into the piano, thereby achieving a special effect. She also takes these small liberties in Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under David Zinman, but this only makes the interplay even more exciting. Grimaud also shows agogic flexibility in Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto (Philharmonia Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy) without losing herself in the process. In the solo pieces such as the G minor Prelude, she proves herself to be a great storyteller.

As far as the orchestras are concerned, the studio recordings are also of very good quality. Only the live recording of Brahms' First Piano Concerto with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Kurt Sanderling lacks precision in the interplay and an exact tonal balance. Hélène Grimaud shows a different face with the piano concertos by Gershwin (F major) and Ravel (G major). With an almost percussive touch, she makes the motor skills vibrate here. And in the bluesy interludes, she shows that she is also completely at home far from the Romantic period.

Hélène Grimaud (piano): The Complete Warner Classics Recordings. Beethoven, Brahms, Gershwin, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Schumann, R. Strauss, 6 CDs, Warner Classics/Erato 2564622737