Star pianist quits European tour with Covid infection
OrchestrasThe French soloist Hélène Grimaud has been replaced on both of the past two nights with the Basel Chamber Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival and the Swiss Tannay Festival.
She will also miss the rest of the tour to Luxembourg and Poland.
Her management says: ‘Due to a recent Covid-infection Hélène Grimaud is unfortunately unable to continue the tour concerts in August 2024’.
Whenever I see her face I remember how she treated the elderly Claudio Abbado.
she did nothing wrong. they had an artistic disagreement and he sacked her.
You mean because she decided to play Busoni’s Cadenza to the Mozart K.488 Piano Concerto instead of Mozart’s rather tepid one? That was the soloist’s call and only her call – no matter how old and venerated the conductor is. Whether due to dementia or hubris, Abbado overstepped his bounds and, when Grimaud refused to cave to his demands, he dropped her.
Addado’s dead and, aside from this bout of COVID, Grimaud is doing just fine.
Exactly right, Norman and Piano Fan. This episode really soured me on Abbado – not that I ever thought much of him as a conductor before. Even the supposedly egotistical Lenny, when he fervently disagreed with Gould, still went ahead with their performance of Brahms 1 and followed Gould’s lead, as he should have. And herein lies the problem with the many who have fallen under the spell of HIP, which Abbado had – they think they know better than anyone how the music “should” go, and any deviation from their idea of literalist stylistic fidelity, in particular anything they regard as anachronistic, is downright sacrilege. This sort of musical fundamentalism is deadly for music, which shows up in how deathly dull, for instance, so many Abbado performances were. What was it Mahler said, that tradition is not the worship of ashes but the preservation of fire? Yeah…
Well said, and best wishes to Ms. Grimaud for a speedy recovery
I am with you on the soloist’s right to the cadence, but you are grossly misreprenting what historically informed performance is, not to speak of the diversity of opinions. Here is an interesting classic on the subject.
https://www.amazon.com/Musical-Dialogue-Thoughts-Monteverdi-Mozart/dp/1574670239/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2RVC2TTRHZBOW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qvmSUAxvYyPJN3qQ5WysA7dvxntTSHvN5i3EMEYCm7IP4ShpwjQ7WJp-giPWzxonVTcKyFWH0HXkizQW0ZRnPo9WBLh11ETn5YE-qwhtzlbq14HbQJFfj8uONlhiUnWweWfxmzqgUd5dS-ZXPewg3z-SV6FFNdpRoppzvTnbNR2LLhEvRU0HuTxprQtCYAJtU1EoQzAnbdk4lw7iCz4XpWN7Zth8k1IeHHbP2cVzx4Y.1_KGsEfatCh9pT4VLeU894Q627Q4o3jkaai0pGli2_A&dib_tag=se&keywords=harnoncourt&qid=1724418279&s=books&sprefix=harnoncourt%2Cstripbooks%2C95&sr=1-2
Since when does a conductor decide which cadenza a soloist should play?
https://s9.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/1/1a/IMSLP19487-PMLP45734-Busoni_(Mozart)_-_Cadenzas_to_Mozart's_Piano_Concerto,_K.488.pdf
The concerto belongs to the soloist…..
Remembering the scene in the movie “The
Competition”…where the “maestro” responds to a repertoire change: “Well…what if I don’t feel like conducting Prokofieff?”
Read Gregor Piatigorsky’s autobiography for his amusing recounting of a dispute at rehearsal over Haydn Cello Concerto cadenzas — his own –that he had with conductor Richard Strauss. I’m relying on my memory for this, but Strauss handled it perfectly — he grabbed a sheet of music paper and quickly scribbled out something, gave it to Piatigorsky saying something like “now THIS is a cadenza.” It turned out to be a passage from Till Eulenspiegel …. the orchestra laughed and Piatigorsky ended up playing his cadenzas after all.
She wanted to play a cadenza that Abbado did not like. It was her project with the Deutsche Gramophone, and it is the soloist’s prerogative to choose the cadenza. During Mozart’s time, it was entirely at the discretion of the soloist to improvize on the spot, and the conductor had no say in that. As Helene Grimaud says:
“It would have been for me a sort of sellout,” Ms. Grimaud said. “It would have been going with the flow to avoid making waves, and keeping things comfortable and uneventful. I couldn’t do that. That kind of compromise is nothing I want to do with. And neither does he. That’s maybe why we worked together for so many years.”
She always expressed great respect and admiration for Abbado, before and after this incident.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/arts/music/helene-grimaud-and-claudio-abbado-part-ways.html
Wishing Helene a speedy recovery. Covid levels are very high in the U.S. right now – presumably elsewhere too.
Lol if you believe that then pigs have got wings and slipped disc is ad free.
Why is it committed ideological leftists seem to contract “COVID” and not psychologically and intellectually balanced individuals? They, on the other hand, catch a cold, or the flu and recover, unless, of course, they are elderly or frail. And please don’t lecture me about tests. I once swabbed an overripe banana, and it tested positive for your favorite election season disease.
With all due respect, are you a psychologically and intellectually balanced individual who suffers from ignorance, or stupidity? Oh, and assuming you have the reading comprehension of an 8 year-old, maybe make of habit of reading enclosed instructions, so you won’t contaminate and compromise your swab, sample and test results.
Here is a US map of covid death rates by state.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Map_of_cumulative_COVID-19_death_rates_by_US_state.png
You may not need a Covid test but you may want to consider a cognitive one. You’ve lost your marbles. If you ever had any, that is.
Are you a good example of an “intellectually balanced individual”?
Doug, that’s like saying I tried to measure the temperature of lava with a thermometer and it only went up to 200 degrees celsius so the thermometer is not working! Every equipment is designed to be used in specific conditions. Otherwise, the results will not be reliable. You should’ve learned this in middle school science. And for the record, more people from the Republican states that denied the efficacy of vaccines and masks died from Covid. So no, “intellectually balanced” people did not just catch the cold and recover. Your kind also caught Covid and died more. Just check excess death statistics. The facts are in the numbers Doug, it’s time to live in reality.
Because they happen to care about the health of others. Seems this says more about you than about them.
And the “unless they are elderly and frail” means, in short – unless they die. Seems to me trying to not kill people is a perfectly reasonable position.
(as a side note, if you have a bad “mere” flu, it’s still proper to try to avoid infecting a whole touring orchestra).
Does anybody still worry about covid?
Yes.
People who’ve had rather brutal cancer treatments do.
Yes, when you bury people it sort of grabs your attention.
Athletes certainly do. As does anyone with sense. If you have trouble breathing, you should worry.
My wife and I recently got Covid – again – and she was unwell for a couple of days and I was all but asymptomatic. Everyone reacts differently to this thing, I suppose. I am, however, concerned for Grimaud – one of the few truly interesting pianists around today – as she may be immunocompromised as a result of her recent cancer battle. Wishing her well.
Yes, I’m worried as well, since canceling that many concerts in advance would imply that she’s suffering. I hope she is just taking a precaution.
Absolutely love her. I hope she recovers soon. Please come back to San Francisco!
She’s performing with the San Francisco Symphony and playing a recital in Palo Alto in November.
She’s likely immunocompromised due to her other illness, and Covid can be deadly in that situation. Try being compassionate and kind. Why would she give up lucrative contracts to lie on bed sick if she didn’t have to?
….just wondering if Busoni could imagine a discussion like this when writing this cadenza…..