Hélène Grimaud plays Fauré, Ravel, Liszt, and Janáček — With Mat Hennek (visual artist)

Hélène Grimaud transforms the genre of the recital, integrating a performance of solo piano works by Romantic and Impressionist composers with a multimedia experience. Her recital is interwoven with the recorded music of composer Nitin Sawhney, and set against the backdrop of visual artist Mat Hennek's photography. The film presented here takes the live experience to the next level by interpreting the original performance through the birds-eye view of the filmmakers, more directly connecting the viewer with the artists and their creations.

In 2016, Hélène Grimaud released Water, an album inspired by one of nature's most potent forces that weds water-themed works by composers like Fauré, Ravel, Liszt, and Janáček with newly-composed musical "transitions" by Nitin Sawhney, the British Indian DJ, musician, producer, and composer. In 2017, she took the album on tour, and incorporated an additional artistic layer into the performance: the nature-themed images of her partner Mat Hennek, an art photographer whose artistic vision is dedicated to natural landscapes. Thus transforming Water into a multimedia experience, Grimaud takes her audience on a "fascinating intellectual journey...delightfully stalked by an uncontainable power far greater than we humans could ever fathom." (Thomas Swan, Classicalite)

Hélène Grimaud appears courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon.

Photo: © Claudia Hoehne