Her name is Hlne Grimaud and to say I'm utterly objective about her music, would be--in the strictest sense--a lie.
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://media.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2006/oct/wild_harmonies/grimaud200x200.jpg" border="5"></div>
I was first tuned in to her by <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/popup.php?id=4625297&type=1&date=29-Apr-2005&au=1&pid=62016023&random=2237420264&guid=00069EEED9D8071A007AA7D261626364&uaType=WM,RM&aaType=RM,WM&upf=Win32&topicName=&subtopicName=&prgCode=ATC&hubId=-1&thingId=4625296&ssid=&tableModifier=&mtype=WM">an interview with her</a>, conducted by Robert Siegel on All Things Considered, in late May 2005. Solely on the basis of her intensity, she was able to win me over to checking out Rachmaninov and Chopin, based on the sheer intensity of her responses to Siegel. I've always been attracted to the superlative--as I imagine that we all are--but being amazing at something, and truly caring about that which you are amazing at makes for a stellar combination to me, especially when that passion becomes infectious and I begin to be moved. Mister Self-interested: that's me.
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.sfsymphony.org/images/press_lg/Helene_Grimaud_3.jpg" width="220" border="5" height="294"></div>
By mid June I had found and purchased her <a href="http://www.amazon.com/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne-Grimaud-plays-Chopin-Rachmaninov/dp/B00061H2UE/ref=pd_bxgy_m_text_b/104-6919082-1567927#moreAboutThisProduct">Chopin & Rachmaninov album</a> and was listening to it almost exclusively, focussing intently on Chopin's Marche Funebre (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B00061H2UE/ref=pd_krex_listen_dp_img/104-6919082-1567927?ie=UTF8&refTagSuffix=dp_img">found here</a> as track 3... notice the immaculate phrasing) I was hooked.
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:n7GY5JYy2d5LuM:http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/assets/92B1BC0E-17A4-F7CE-BFE02869BA73CF4F.jpg" border="5"></div>
By mid-August of that year my whole life had turned upside-down and I had pared down all my material possessions in the world to that which could be shoved into a duffel-bag and was working at sea doing <a href="http://www.seashepherd.org/">Marine Conservation</a>, but I brought Grimaud's Rachmaninov & Chopin w/ me. During my first Pacific crossing, I would wake up early in the morning - 2:30am or so, just to get into the Green Room aboard <a href="http://www.seashepherd.org/fleet/fleet.html">the Farley Mowat</a> so i could put her CD in the DVD player and hear it through half-way decent speakers undisturbed (all I had aboard was a donated boom-box). Amidst a stretch of 5 months or so that involved working in the engine room of a re-purposed 1957 Norweigian fishing trawler, Grimaud was--perhaps on one level--sole "epicurean" vestige, but also she was just <a href="http://www.harrisonparrott.com/artists/Helene_Grimaud.asp">so amazing at what she did,</a> her music was kind of a testimony to something not too far removed from something that I wanted my life to be about. Her music was evidence of the driven, something sorely lacking from the culture of the american south.
Tonight, I happened upon another CD of hers, <a href="http://www.grimaud-credo.com/special/?ID=fr/grimaud-credo">Credo</a>. I'm listening to it now. Totally amazed. Thrilled. Stoked. It's the first time I've heard her play since I left that ship in 2006, leaving the CD behind for someone else to stumble upon. And I'm just wishing I could find an interview of her speaking in English about what this music means to her. You can hear the intensity in parts, but for me what's really more interesting is the restraint--the tocuh--the softness of touch on particular keys for certain notes in the composition. That stems from an intensity too and I think it's evidence of a more mature sort of passion for the song, but I can't be certain--all i can do is listen ant think about it.
Also, Grimaud is a fellow conservationist, working for <a href="http://saintpaulsunday.publicradio.org/featured_artists/grimaud.html">wolf conservation</a> in N. America via <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/arts/music/05oest.html">the Wolf Conservation Center</a> which she apparently helped found. Add this to the list of reasons why I have a huge crush on her.
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/11/05/arts/600_oest.jpg" border="5">
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://media.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2006/oct/wild_harmonies/grimaud200x200.jpg" border="5"></div>
I was first tuned in to her by <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/popup.php?id=4625297&type=1&date=29-Apr-2005&au=1&pid=62016023&random=2237420264&guid=00069EEED9D8071A007AA7D261626364&uaType=WM,RM&aaType=RM,WM&upf=Win32&topicName=&subtopicName=&prgCode=ATC&hubId=-1&thingId=4625296&ssid=&tableModifier=&mtype=WM">an interview with her</a>, conducted by Robert Siegel on All Things Considered, in late May 2005. Solely on the basis of her intensity, she was able to win me over to checking out Rachmaninov and Chopin, based on the sheer intensity of her responses to Siegel. I've always been attracted to the superlative--as I imagine that we all are--but being amazing at something, and truly caring about that which you are amazing at makes for a stellar combination to me, especially when that passion becomes infectious and I begin to be moved. Mister Self-interested: that's me.
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.sfsymphony.org/images/press_lg/Helene_Grimaud_3.jpg" width="220" border="5" height="294"></div>
By mid June I had found and purchased her <a href="http://www.amazon.com/H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne-Grimaud-plays-Chopin-Rachmaninov/dp/B00061H2UE/ref=pd_bxgy_m_text_b/104-6919082-1567927#moreAboutThisProduct">Chopin & Rachmaninov album</a> and was listening to it almost exclusively, focussing intently on Chopin's Marche Funebre (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/recsradio/radio/B00061H2UE/ref=pd_krex_listen_dp_img/104-6919082-1567927?ie=UTF8&refTagSuffix=dp_img">found here</a> as track 3... notice the immaculate phrasing) I was hooked.
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:n7GY5JYy2d5LuM:http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/assets/92B1BC0E-17A4-F7CE-BFE02869BA73CF4F.jpg" border="5"></div>
By mid-August of that year my whole life had turned upside-down and I had pared down all my material possessions in the world to that which could be shoved into a duffel-bag and was working at sea doing <a href="http://www.seashepherd.org/">Marine Conservation</a>, but I brought Grimaud's Rachmaninov & Chopin w/ me. During my first Pacific crossing, I would wake up early in the morning - 2:30am or so, just to get into the Green Room aboard <a href="http://www.seashepherd.org/fleet/fleet.html">the Farley Mowat</a> so i could put her CD in the DVD player and hear it through half-way decent speakers undisturbed (all I had aboard was a donated boom-box). Amidst a stretch of 5 months or so that involved working in the engine room of a re-purposed 1957 Norweigian fishing trawler, Grimaud was--perhaps on one level--sole "epicurean" vestige, but also she was just <a href="http://www.harrisonparrott.com/artists/Helene_Grimaud.asp">so amazing at what she did,</a> her music was kind of a testimony to something not too far removed from something that I wanted my life to be about. Her music was evidence of the driven, something sorely lacking from the culture of the american south.
Tonight, I happened upon another CD of hers, <a href="http://www.grimaud-credo.com/special/?ID=fr/grimaud-credo">Credo</a>. I'm listening to it now. Totally amazed. Thrilled. Stoked. It's the first time I've heard her play since I left that ship in 2006, leaving the CD behind for someone else to stumble upon. And I'm just wishing I could find an interview of her speaking in English about what this music means to her. You can hear the intensity in parts, but for me what's really more interesting is the restraint--the tocuh--the softness of touch on particular keys for certain notes in the composition. That stems from an intensity too and I think it's evidence of a more mature sort of passion for the song, but I can't be certain--all i can do is listen ant think about it.
Also, Grimaud is a fellow conservationist, working for <a href="http://saintpaulsunday.publicradio.org/featured_artists/grimaud.html">wolf conservation</a> in N. America via <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/arts/music/05oest.html">the Wolf Conservation Center</a> which she apparently helped found. Add this to the list of reasons why I have a huge crush on her.
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/11/05/arts/600_oest.jpg" border="5">
anjuli:
... i like derrick jensen too. i just read a language older than words... it was great! i'll keep running... hopefully my whole life .
... i like derrick jensen too. i just read a language older than words... it was great! i'll keep running... hopefully my whole life .