Creating a masterpiece with all the colours of the music
French conservationist, author and pianist says nature is an ‘endless source of inspiration’
Pianist Hélène Grimaud sees flashes of colour when she plays music.
“An F sharp is red, C minor is blue, Gmajor is green and B flat is yellow,” explains Grimaud, who has a condition called synesthesia.
The fusing of two senses isn’t uncommon, says Grimaud, 45, adding that the visual effects are “more of an idea of a colour than the colour itself. It’s abstract. I see it in my mind’s eye.”
As interesting as that is, this is not the only remarkable thing about Grimaud, who presents her program Water Musicat Koerner Hall on Sunday as part of an international tour.
The French-born virtuoso made her first recording at 15; she is the first woman of the 21st century to record Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 and No. 2 and was made a Chevalier dans l’Orde National du Merite by the French government in 2008.
She is a stomach cancer survivor and the author of three acclaimed books including an autobiography.
She studied animal behaviour as well as music at the Paris Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique and co-founded the Wolf Conservation Centre in New York state, which has more than 100,000 visitors a week. She lives at the conservation centre in South Salem, N.Y.
Grimaud, who is performing in a fundraiser for the centre after her Toronto appearance, says humans’ fear of wolves is irrational and she is not worried about spending time in their midst.
“Wolves are controversial by nature. They are wide-ranging predators and an important part of our biodiversity,” she says. “We have to learn how to cohabitate with large predators. There are many misconceptions about wolves.”
The biggest misconception, she says, “is that they will think of humans as prey. They see people as just that, people.”
Yes, wolves kill other animals, she says, but that is part of the cycle of nature.
“Predator and prey: each have their own cycles. It is knee-jerk to say we want them (wolves) gone.”
A recent decision to move from South Salem to Paris didn’t last long after she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, which was caught quickly. It is then that Grimaud decided she wanted to live again in the midst of wolves and continue her dedication to conservation.
“I’m fine, doing well,” she says in an interview from Vienna where she was performing.
Known for her emotional engage- ment in her musical performances, Grimaud puts it all out there for the audience.
“Part of you feels empty, there is totally nothing left to give.”
The Water Music program includes Leos Janacek’s “In the Mists 1,” Claude Debussy’s “La Cathédrale engloutie” and Johannes Brahms’ “Piano Sonata No. 2 in F-sharp Minor.”
Grimaud chose the water theme because of its relationship to the natural world from “the violence of an electric storm and the thunderbolt” to the light reflecting off its surface.
“Nature is the muse, an endless source of inspiration.” Hélène Grimaud plays Koerner Hall on Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets and info at performance.rcmusic.ca