Hong Kong Sinfonietta will welcome acclaimed French pianist Alexandre Tharaud for two concerts on 2 and 4 November at Hong Kong City Hall: HKS Recital Series: Alexandre Tharaud Piano Recital and Great Piano Concertos: Alexandre Tharaud Plays Ravel.

Ahead of his concerts, the pianist shared with us his musical journey, his unique working method and his enthusiasm to come back to Hong Kong.

Alexandre Tharaud by Marco Borggreve

Born in 1968 in Paris, France, Alexandre Tharaud grew up in a family of artists. His grandfather was a violinist, his mother a dancer at the Opéra de Paris and his father an operetta singer. His parents made him take piano lessons at the age of five and the instrument soon became his favourite. “This instrument was my playmate, and as I entered adolescence, it became my confidant. It has remained my lifelong best friend”, Tharaud shares.

He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of fourteen and won first prize in his class at seventeen years old. When asked about his career as a pianist, Tharaud explains:  “When you’re a child, you see the profession of a pianist as something fun, but it is only in adulthood that you realise that it is an extremely challenging career that requires a lot of sacrifices and discipline”.

Alexandre Tharaud at Château de Versailles

In a career spanning twenty-five years, Alexandre Tharaud has become a unique figure in the classical music world and a key exponent of French pianism. He has played as a soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, such as Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, Cincinnati Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

In addition, Tharaud also recorded fifty-seven albums featuring a wide repertoire ranging from Couperin, Bach and Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, and Rachmaninov to the major 20^th century French composers. His discography reflects his affinity with eclectic musical styles, with recent recordings including Versailles, which pays tribute to composers associated with the courts of the French kings Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI, a tribute to French singer-songwriter Barbara, a Brahms duo album with Jean-Guihen Queyras – a regular chamber music partner for twenty years – and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2. 

Alexandre Tharaud with French actress Juliette Binoche, by Gilles Vidal

Collaborations are an important aspect of the pianist’s career, including collaborations outside the field of classical music, with theatre and film makers, comedians, dancers, choreographers, writers, and contemporary singers.

In 2012, he even played himself in the French film Amour by Michael Haneke, awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, alongside renowned French actors Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva.

As Tharaud says, “it’s always a great lesson to work with artists who don’t have the same way of expressing themselves as me. For example, working with Michael Haneke was a real music lesson. We talked a lot about the piano, and his way of directing the actors is very musical (the intonation of the voice, the breathing). Moreover, I participated in a second film, Boléro by Anne Fontaine, which will be released next spring. It’s about the life of Maurice Ravel, and I play the role of an extremely mean music critic. It was very exciting to play”.

Alexandre Tharaud on set for “Amour’ by Michael Haneke

When asked about the role of music and musicians, Tharaud explains: “Music is essential today. Being a concert musician is about sharing. It’s being available to an audience, calming them, showing them the world from different perspectives, helping them forget their problems, and allowing them to stop time. Most importantly, it’s about enabling people who don’t know each other to experience a shared emotion together. Being a musician means doing a lot of good for those around you!”

Tharaud has also a very unique working method. He chose not to have a piano at home as a way of not being overwhelmed by the instrument and making room for a more balanced life. “I practice in various locations in Paris, places where I am alone and can draw inspiration. It’s much healthier than being cooped up at home all the time”, he says.

In HKS Recital Series: Alexandre Tharaud Piano Recital on 2 November, Tharaud will be playing an all-French programme, opening with a sparkling suite by the monumental French Baroque composer Rameau, before plunging into a celebration of the heights of French Romanticism with the beloved works of Debussy, Satie and Ravel.

In the second concert on 4 November, Great Piano Concertos: Alexandre Tharaud Plays Ravel, he will join hands with Hong Kong Sinfonietta and conductor Roberto Forès Veses to present his authoritative interpretation of Ravel’s radiant, jazz-inspired “Concerto in G”.

“I will be performing Maurice Ravel’s “Concerto in G,” a piece I have been playing since I was 14, and I haven’t stopped playing it since. I believe it is the concerto I have played the most. I love performing Ravel’s music all over the world to make it better known and interpret it with a style close to what he heard in his time. From the very first measures, you hear something very lively, like a glass of Champagne. And then there’s the pervasive jazz influence in this concerto,” Tharaud explains with enthusiasm.

His new album recorded with Orchestre National de France and conductor Louis Langrée – which is dedicated to Ravel’s two piano concertos – has just been released on 13 Oct.

The programme on 4 November will also feature the Asian première of award-winning English composer Christian Mason’s mesmerising An Ocean of Years, as well as Shostakovich’s “First Symphony” written in teenage years, which propelled him to international recognition and bore all the hallmarks of his unmistakable voice and vision.

These concerts will mark Tharaud’s return with Hong Kong Sinfonietta after twelve years, and the pianist is thrilled to reunite with the orchestra: “I have visited Hong Kong several times, and I am so happy to return after several years. I am looking forward to dining at my favourite Hong Kong restaurants and seeing my Hong Kong friends. Very excited!”

More details on the two concerts can be found below:

HKS Recital Series: Alexandre Tharaud Piano Recital. Tickets at https://www.urbtix.hk/event-detail/10646/

Great Piano Concertos: Alexandre Tharaud Plays Ravel. Tickets at https://www.urbtix.hk/event-detail/10647/