Pianist Alexandre Tharaud inspires in Berlin: When the small makes it big

The evening begins with an explosion. And yet it is only: a trill. The first movement of the Suite in A minor from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Nouvelles Suites de Piéces de Clavecin offers some of these, gleaming from the Allemande’s delicate weave of voices. The great art consists in giving the small ornaments the most differentiated expression: the arabesques of Alexandre THaraud’s wonderfully lightly drawn lines intertwine in explosively electric, melodic, rhetorically nonchalant or even brooding ornaments.

In the best sense of the word, entertaining

Rameau composed the pieces for the clavecin, i.e. for the harpsichord. Tharaud naturally knows how to transfer the expressive music of the French music theorist and baroque composer to the modern concert grand piano. Without shying away from pithy fortissimo or lush pedaling, it always remains elastic and narrative. The 20-minute selection of a few movements from Rameau’s suite is entertaining in the best sense of the word.

As a child, Tharaud wanted to be a magician. What amazing magic he puts into the repeated notes of the Allemande today: one almost thinks one hears rapid fluttering echoes, reflections on the water surface, which, right at the beginning of the recital, carry one away into surrealistic dream worlds. The freely selected “Lyric Pieces” by Edvard Grieg that follow are no less fantastic. Even in the “Arietta” from the first volume, the grand piano sounds completely different than it did with Rameau. Tharaud presents himself as a virtuoso of orchestration, who knows how to interpolate finely polished layers of sound in a wonderfully polyphonic way and impressively shows the compositional sophistication of the twelve little pieces.

Amazingly sophisticated

A mistake, however, is the choice of the piano transcription of the “Adagietto” from Gustav Mahler’s 5th symphony, which he procured himself. How uprooted the movement seems, snatched from the entirety of the elemental symphonic world. The fact that there is no shortage of repertoire for pianists gives reason to hope that the trend towards individual Mahler movements in piano recitals will not become established.

In general, the term “transcription” does not seem very appropriate, as the impression remains of a piano reduction, a makeshift way of presenting the score. The sterile, rigid piano sound must inevitably disappoint anyone who has the rich sensuality of the original in their ears. This does not belong in the concert and, moreover, seems out of place next to Grieg’s pieces, which are so well set, and “Miroirs” by Maurice Ravel, one of the instrument’s most visionary sound artists. One can only say about Tharaud’s “mirror images”: You have to experience it! The sovereign mastery of this world-class pianist leaves you speechless. Keno David Schüler