Alexandre Tharaud

Using his immense expressive palette, Alexandre Tharaud composes an itinerary in which the freedom of Debussy's Préludes converses with transcriptions by Bach and Dukas: all we ask is to follow him on this path where homage is combined with the spirit of improvisation.

A pianist-transcriber, Alexandre Tharaud follows in the footsteps of the great Wilhelm Kempff when he takes on the world of Bach, with a mixture of piety and independence that would certainly not have displeased the Leipzig Cantor. As we know, Bach himself did not always conceive his music for a specific instrument, so the transparency of the lute and the warmth of the flute can be reborn, intact, on the keyboard. The moving aria Aus Liebe will mein Heiland Sterben, in which the voice intertwines with the flute, conveys the theological meaning of Christ's death with an intensity that only Bach is capable of. As a counterpoint to these Bachian ecstasies, Alexandre Tharaud leafs through the album of the first book of Debussy's Préludes, where the fantastical antiquity of 'Danseuses de Delphes', the magnetic minimalism of 'Pas sur la neige', the dreamlike landscape of 'La Cathédrale engloutie' or the epic zephyr of 'Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest' seem to guide the fingers, note by note, into a world of fantasy. And finally, another daring transcription: Dukas's famous Sorcerer's Apprentice, whose frenetic 'enchanted broom' moves from orchestral animation to the power of a transfigured piano.