Is Jean-Yves Thibaudet the classical pianist being overshadowed by Thibaudet the media sensation? His recent recordings have included arrangements of opera melodies, excerpts of film soundtracks, jazz, as well as more classical fare. His concert attire is designed by Vivienne Westwood, and he has homes in Paris and, of course, Los Angeles. In a recital sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society Saturday afternoon at the Kennedy Center, Thibaudet had the chance to show Washingtonians that he can still play serious music. Also, he looked fabulous.
About one-half of this recital was indeed devoted to some of the most challenging works for the piano, all of which Thibaudet performed with mastery. Concluding the first half was Liszt’s fantasia-sonata Après une lecture de Dante, a programmatic work based on Liszt’s reading of Dante’s Inferno. This is music for which Thibaudet’s theatrical style is perfectly suited, although the main theme based on the devilish tritone is a sign of torments to come for the pianist to endure. This performance was brash, with wild flair at times. If not always technically in place (those octaves in fast descents are a bitch), the concluding sections of the piece were a thrill to hear. The second half also featured three of Debussy’s virtuosic etudes, beginning with a mercurial and understated reading of Pour les degrés chromatiques. Some slight disjunction occurred as Thibaudet’s hands negotiated the shifts or register in that one, but he played with admirable fluidity on the second etude, Pour les arpèges composés, giving a mysterious quality to the melody amid those flowing arpeggios. The most challenging etude of the set was probably the last, Pour les octaves, which had a few minor glitches but was very technically impressive.
Thibaudet saved the most extraordinary playing for the final work, the last movement of Olivier Messiaen’s mind-blowing mystical vision, Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus. Described as the “Contemplation of the Infant Jesus by the church of love,” this dissonant music may have driven some listeners out of the hall mid-movement, but it was an unbridled, ecstatic rendition. One heard the masses of synesthetic color fused with distorted Gregorian chant, as well as the obsessive twitter of birdcalls on acid obsessively in the right hand over rumbles of left-hand thunder. It made one hope that Thibaudet will make a Messiaen recording soon.
Photo of Jean-Yves Thibaudet courtesy of Decca-Kasskara
