Thursday, July 22, 1999
Pianist combines concert career with love of wolves
BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
You'd hardly expect that a petite pianist who explores the cerebral beauty of Beethoven would be someone who also runs with wolves.
Being a wolf owner and advocate in New York state is one side of pianist Helene Grimaud that the public rarely sees. But for Ms. Grimaud, 28, her educational work with wolves and her work with Brahms and Beethoven give her the best of two worlds.
“I got to know wolves totally by chance,” Ms. Grimaud says. “What I thought was interesting was the discrepancy between the true nature of the wolf and the way people imagine them.”
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IF YOU GO
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• What: “Viennafest '99,” Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, conductor; Helene Grimaud, pianist.
• When: 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
• Where: Riverbend.
• Tickets: $15-$31; $10 students; children 12 and under free to the lawn. 381-3300. CSO tickets ordered via the Web site receive a 25 percent discount: www.cincinnatisymphony.org
• The program: Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major; Johann Strauss Jr.: Jubilee Waltz, Overture to The Gypsy Baron, the Pleasure Train Polka, Artist's Life Waltz, Persian March, Russian March, Spanish March, Voices of Spring Waltz and the Overture to Die Fledermaus.
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Ms. Grimaud makes her Cincinnati debut in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at Riverbend on Saturday.
If raising wolves seems like an unconventional pastime, individuality has always been part of Ms. Grimaud's persona.
Born in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, Ms. Grimaud might have become a biologist or an ethologist (one who studies animal behavior), were it not for her impressive talent at the piano. Her career takes her around the world to play with the most prestigious orchestras. She'll be profiled on CBS Sunday Morning soon.
And, at a time when the recording industry is in a slump, she has a contract with Warner Music Classics. Her recording of Beethoven's Fourth with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic will be released on Teldec in September.
But for a time, she studied animal behavior, and was interested in primates. Five years ago, she met someone who had a wolf. She became intrigued with the wolf's behavior, becoming attached to it in the process.
“I found it particularly interesting how they are much more similar to us in their social structure than primates are,” she says.
Soon she was contacting wildlife foundations, and now champions education about wolves. She acquired her three wolves when they were pups.
“A lot of people have irrational fears about them, which leads to attempted destruction,” she says. Nevertheless, Ms. Grimaud warns that wolves do not make cute pets.
“They are not man's best friend, but they are an important balance tool for the eco-system.”
Balancing act
Now a resident of the United States, Ms. Grimaud lives with her companion, photographer J. Henry Fair, on a two-acre enclosure in Westchester County. Their educational facility is open to the public by appointment. The wolves have federal and state permits.
How does she juggle 60 concerts a season and her work with wolves?
“I'm fortunate, that I'm not alone in this. It's not a private thing — we have many volunteers, three veterinarians, and it's on the way to being nonprofit,” she says.
She speaks as passionately about the piano as she does about her wolves. It is perhaps because of this individuality and passion that her piano playing has been compared to that of great pianists such as Annie Fischer and Martha Argerich.
Born to two language professors with no musicians in the family, Ms. Grimaud started piano lessons at the late age of 9. Within two years, she was playing advanced piano pieces by Schumann and Beethoven.
At 11, her parents took her to Pierre Barbizet, a Chilean pianist who directed the Marseilles Conservatory. She became so enchanted with her lessons, her parents worried that her practicing distracted her too much from school work. Mr. Barbizet convinced them she should continue to play.
At age 12, she entered the Paris Conservatory. In her second year, she went through “a phase of rebellion.”
“I only wanted to work on big pieces,” she says, referring to virtuosic piano concertos and sonatas. She was required to learn all styles of music. Her teacher told her that until she was willing to play those “other” pieces, she should not come back to class.
“I didn't (go) for a few weeks,” she says. “During that time, I learned the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2, and was having a fantastic time.”
She played the concerto with an orchestra in Aix, France, and gave a tape of the concert to her teacher, hoping to convince him that she was not wasting time. He played the tape for a record producer, and the result was her first recording contract. She was 15.
Teen prodigy
At 16, she rebelled again when she entered the famous Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow — against the wishes of her teacher. Although he did not feel she was ready, she made it to the semi-finals, and was the highest-placing French contestant.
“It was a fantastic evolution for me. I was not expecting anything at all,” she says.
That led to a Paris recital, broadcast on radio, which in turn led to her debut with the Orchestre de Paris.
Juggling her concert career with raising wolves is difficult, Ms. Grimaud admits. She tries not to be away for too long.
“I certainly don't want to give up either interest,” she says. “The ideal would be to keep as much freedom in the musical profession as possible. As far as the wolves, the idea is that (the program) continues to grow and reach people.”
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