SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet made his public debut at the age of 7, and 56 years later, he made his debut on the fourth floor of NPR's headquarters.
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JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET: (Playing piano).
DETROW: Thibaudet is one of the world's most celebrated pianists. He is well known for his interpretations of the French repertoire, but his musical taste cuts across genres and time periods. This frantic piece is by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
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THIBAUDET: (Playing piano).
DETROW: And Thibaudet's most recent album takes on a piano concerto by Aram Khachaturian, a prolific Armenian composer from the middle of the 20th century. I sat down with Thibaudet at NPR's Tiny Desk recently after he played a few of his favorite pieces, including one by Ravel called "Pavane For A Dead Princess."
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THIBAUDET: (Playing piano).
DETROW: I wanted to start by talking about the pieces you played today, but something you said about the Ravel piece jumped out to me. You were...
THIBAUDET: Yes.
DETROW: ...Talking about how he liked his pieces played and the feedback he gave. And I'm wondering how much you think about what the composer saw a piece as. How much are - is that in your head versus what you want to do with it?
THIBAUDET: I think it's terribly important. I mean, that's the difference between classical music maybe and jazz. I mean, one of the difference is that we have a score that a composer wrote very specifically with hundreds of millions of details, versus jazz - there's no score. You make it up as it go. And it's phenomenal, but it's so difficult for us classical musicians because we're trying to just have something in front of you that you follow. It still leaves lots of room for interpretation. That's why you can hear the same piece played by many different instrumentalists, and they all do what is written on the score, but at the same time, it's very different, so there is plenty of room.
But so - to answer your question about Ravel, I was very lucky because one of my teachers in Paris at the Conservatory was Lucette Descaves, and Madame Descaves was a friend and collaborator of Ravel, which is amazing. So I feel I have this direct somehow link through her with Ravel, and she was speaking about him at the present, like if he was going to come up at the door and - next time of the next lesson. So I heard a lot about Ravel, a lot of stories about him as a person also but also specifically about what he wanted and he did not want in his music.
DETROW: And do you stick to that? Do you think about that?
THIBAUDET: Absolute - oh no, I always think that "Pavane" - he had a very particular tempo he liked it in. Everything - he wrote everything he wanted. It's not difficult. What I always tell the student - I always said, do what is written on the score. If the composer wrote something, why are you going to change it? You don't know better than he or she did. I mean, they are very specific, and Ravel was extremely specific. Almost a - it was almost an obsession with him, every little detail he wanted to write on the score, so you have to do it.
DETROW: Our producers feel that way about the questions they wrote as well.
THIBAUDET: Good - yes, yeah (laughter).
DETROW: Sure.
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THIBAUDET: (Playing piano).
(APPLAUSE)
DETROW: And with the Brahms piece that followed...
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THIBAUDET: (Playing piano).
DETROW: ...How do you approach a piece by someone who's such a big titan of classical music? Do you think about it differently? Do you approach it differently?
THIBAUDET: I'm actually half German. I know I'm very French, but I'm actually half German. My mother was German, and I do have a half heritage of German and actually from Hamburg, which is where Brahms was from. And it's very interesting that for some composer - to me, I think when you go to a place, there is a relation between either the nature or the weather, the location.
And there is something in Hamburg that really - to me, when you go to Hamburg and when you think of Brahms, there is something about - it's always kind of gray. The winters are very long. You have this low ceiling. It's never really - doesn't have that sunshine that you - if you go to Rome, for example. It's a real very special characteristic of Brahms' music.
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THIBAUDET: (Playing piano).
DETROW: I want to spend the rest of that time talking about somebody whose work you didn't play today, but somebody who's very much in your head right now, and it seems like for a very long period of time, and that's Aram Khachaturian, an Armenian composer. You have a new album out featuring his work. I know that you've been fascinated with him for a very long time. Why is that?
THIBAUDET: Yes, and this piece in particular - I mean, I have to say that - everybody know the "Sabre Dance."
(SOUNDBITE OF CINCINNATI POPS ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF KHACHATURIAN'S "SABRE DANCE")
THIBAUDET: But that piano concerto, I think, is just one of the most fascinating pieces.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET PERFORMANCE OF KHACHATURIAN'S "PIANO CONCERTO IN D-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 38: II. ANDANTE CON ANIMA")
THIBAUDET: It is fascinating because it's just not performed, and I don't understand why. Everybody played Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff. All - and when you think of Russian composer - and poor Khachaturian is kind of a little bit forgotten.
DETROW: They seem to have a moment and then fade.
THIBAUDET: Yes, exactly. Yes. Why is complicated. The political situation in Russia in those days and all - it makes it all very complex. We don't really know what was going on and what was going on in the composer's head.
But probably 30 years ago, something like that, I was performing every summer at Saratoga at the concert with the Philadelphia orchestra in the summer, a series, and Charles Dutoit was the music director. We had played already Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky. We just had played it, and he always had a Russian night there. And he said, OK, what are we going to play this year? I said, I don't know. And he said, wait, you have to learn something new. He said, how about Khachaturian? I said, what? He said, the Khachaturian concerto. I said, I don't know it. Well, he said, learn it.
And I looked at the score. I listened to the fabulous Kapell recording, which is, I think, really the model recording. And I said, that's a great piece. And I started immediately working on it, and I just fell in love with it, and we played it, and I played it quite a few times after that. And I was just so excited about the piece. The energy that is in that piece is incredible.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET PERFORMANCE OF KHACHATURIAN'S "PIANO CONCERTO IN D-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 38: II. ANDANTE CON ANIMA")
THIBAUDET: So I tried to play it as much, to program it as much as I could, and a lot of people were not interested. And then I started going to my record company to Decca, and say, OK, let's record the Khachaturian. And they never said, no. It's just that it was never a priority. And for some reason, it took virtually 20 years.
DETROW: Wow. Did you have to just insist on it?
THIBAUDET: Oh, I - every meeting, I would bring it back again and say, how about Khachaturian?
(SOUNDBITE OF JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET PERFORMANCE OF KHACHATURIAN'S "MASQUERADE SUITE, OP. 48A (TRANSCR. DOLUKHANIAN FOR SOLO PIANO): V. GALOP")
THIBAUDET: So we finally did it. It was recorded in November 23 live, two live concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, and we had a great time. And I'm so happy that finally, this piece, now - I was able - I've recorded it. And now I play it - I will play it even more now that the recording is out, so I'm going to champion - continue championing the piece.
DETROW: Jean-Yves Thibaudet, thank you so much for joining us.
THIBAUDET: Thank you. Pleasure.
DETROW: And you can see the whole Tiny Desk concert from Jean-Yves Thibaudet at npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET PERFORMANCE OF KHACHATURIAN'S "MASQUERADE SUITE, OP. 48A (TRANSCR. DOLUKHANIAN FOR SOLO PIANO): V. GALOP") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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