Search - Carl Maria von Weber, Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann :: Les Rarissimes de Thierry de Brunhoff: Weber, Chopin, Schumann

A Quiet Visonary of the Keyboard

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 10/12/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Thierry de Brunhoff trained under the great French pianist Alfred Cortot, who had many years earlier also taught Brunhoff's mother. The son of the immortal creator of "Babar the Elephant", Jean de Brunhoff, Thierry never really knew his father, who died of tuberculosis when Thierry was only three years old. Under the influence of his mother he studied the piano, and was accepted at a very early age - nine - into Cortot's class at the Ecole Normale de Musique. His career developed into that of a concert pianist, and between 1964 and 1968 he made these recordings - two full Cds worth of Romantic piano music. Thierry was involved in a bad automobile wreck, and although still able to play - he recorded the Schumann selections here after the accident - he soon withdrew from further recording, and turned to teaching. In 1974 Thierry left society and joined the Benedictine Order. He was still alive in 2003 when his mother passed away at the age of 99.



Brunhoff's playing might be said to be imbued with much of the imaginative and searching qualities of Cortot. Yet his playing rarely is as excessive - nor as exciting or original. Rhythms and loud passages seldom intrude or break the line - with Brunhoff melodic elements are carefully presented and rarely overshadowed by volumes of forte attacks. He has ideas about what he wants to say, and does so in such ways and with such a manner as to win you over, however little there may be of the overtly virtuoso in his style. Each time I play one of his selections I find myself appreciating Brunhoff's playing more for what he has to say than how he says it. This is not a pianist who seeks to wow us, but rather one who deferentially invites listners to join him in his vision of the music.



The musical selections are quite full - we have Weber's rarely played but excellent 2nd Sonata in A flat major, along with three other of that composer's overlooked piano music - The Rondo Brilliant; The famous Invitation to the Dance; and The Polacca brillante - to use the French. Of these I liked the sonata best. The work was a favorite of Brunhoff's teacher Cortot, and he also has left us a fine recording. It is a work usually given a rousing free-for-all reading, full of rollicking high spirits and booming chords - here we find it also works very well within the framework of Brunhoff's more intimate music-making.



Brunhoff in Chopin will never set the world afire, there is nothing splashy or narcisstic here, but there is much to recommend. The music is played with a lovely ear for the composer's magical cantilena, and as is ever the case with French pianists, the refinement and that touch of aristocracy common to almost all of Chopin, comes across quite naturally. I had thought when first listening that the Nocturne would be the best of these Chopin works, lending itself to Brunhoff's steady searching, his poetic sensibility, yet with relistening I must admit how taken I was by how he does the 4th Ballade in F Minor.



Brunhoff's teacher Cortot was noted for his performances of the endless changing, complex and imaginative piano music of Robert Schumann, and the younger pianist plays Schumann with a good share of Cortot's remarkable flair for this music. Brunhoff demonstrates an easy access to Schumann's world - he seems quite at home with it all, and not at all out of place - something I cannot often say about most pianist's ventures into this treacherous realm! Possibly it is Brunhoff's steady sense of joy and discovery, for he seems to respond to Schumann's music as idea first, and piano notes second. Perhaps some of his father's gift for fantasy rubs off? In the end I cannot say these are my favorite recordings of these two Schumann works, but they are a pleasure to listen to, and offer yet another entry way into that infinite marvelous universe that is the Schumann piano music.



Listening to Brunhoff's recording of Chopin's daydreamy Bacarolle gives perhaps the best sense of the French pianist's gifts - what is usually played as a large-scaled glittering traversal of the keyboard becomes here a deeply felt quest, not merely a voyage on the surface, but a recognition of subtle and more involving currents at work. Rubinstein's tremendous reading is toned down and humanized, the grand heroic becomes the poetic and the very personal.



French EMI did a good job on these recordings originally, the transfers to Cd are well done. There are short notes in French and English. Since this recording is now out of print it may be more difficult to locate. Don't forget - there are not one but two Cds included.



Perhaps it's not a coincidence that Jean Brunhoff's three boys grew up to be, 1). Laurent, an artist who took over from his father and created a wealth of new Babar books for children; 2. Mathieu, whose stomach ache prompted his mother's story of the baby elephant, became a Pediatrician, a doctor who of course treats children for illness, and 3). Pianist Thierry, who was most at home creating music, like his mother who taught piano, and excelled in composers such as Schumann, whose home as we all know was overrun by children.



"