The conversation has barely begun and Jean-Yves Thibaudet wants to address two particularly touchy points. One is that he is tired of being typecast as a ”French pianist.” Two, he thinks the conventional wisdom that young pianists must win gold medals at major competitions or forever forfeit important careers is so much-what is the French word for it?-hogwash.
”People have very cliche ideas about what it means to be a `French pianist,` ” says the 30-year-old Lyon native, the son of a German mother and French father, now a resident of the U.S. ”French pianists are supposed to have not very good technique, to be superficial and not be deeply musical. It makes me really mad. That`s why I have tried to be very careful about my repertoire, not playing too much French music, much as I adore Debussy, Ravel and Faure.”
True, the friendly, outspoken Thibaudet (pronounced Tee-boh-day) offered audiences the Ravel G-Major Concerto as his Chicago Symphony calling card last summer at Ravinia, but that work is a sentimental favorite, since it gave him his orchestral debut at the tender age of 12. Normally, one would encounter Thibaudet playing Liszt and Brahms and Schumann at least as often as Gallic composers.
Until very recently his range of musical sympathies has not been reflected in his discography. London/Decca, for which label he records exclusively, has released Thibaudet recordings of chamber works by Chausson, Faure, Debussy, Ravel and Franck (with his frequent chamber partner, violinist Joshua Bell, and the Takacs Quartet), also the D`Indy ”Symphony on a French Mountain Air” (with the Montreal Symphony under Charles Dutoit).
Last month, London came out with a Liszt program (Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, Hungarian Fantasy and ”Totentanz”), again with Dutoit and the Montreal orchestra. In June he is scheduled to record an album of Liszt operatic paraphrases, including a rarely performed fantasy on Mozart`s ”The Marriage of Figaro.” Awaiting release is a collaboration with mezzo-soprano Brigitte Fassbaender in songs by Liszt. So Thibaudet may not have to worry much longer about being stereotyped.
Nor does he have to worry that never having taken the gold at any major competition-he holds second-prize medals from the Viotti, Casadesus and Busoni competitions-will somehow impede his career progress. Averaging 80 concerts a season, in both the U.S. and Europe, Thibaudet is securely launched. Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have praised the refinement, dash and poetic musicality of his playing-a combination of virtues that is very much in evidence on his new Liszt concerto recording.
Thus Thibaudet may be excused a certain smugness when he declares,
”Winning major competitions doesn`t prove anything. At the time I entered the Viotti, Casadesus and Busoni, you really had to go through a couple of them just to get your name out. But now people are getting away from competitions. I think they are realizing it`s actually dangerous for pianists to win competitions before they are ready to win. All of a sudden the winners, many of them no better than good students, find themselves playing 200 concerts a year with major orchestras; no one can deal with such pressure.”
Thibaudet, by comparison, traveled a less precipitous route. He started piano studies at age 5, the same age when his parents (both university teachers and amateur musicians) took him to an Artur Rubinstein recital. From then on, everything ”built progressively.” Before reaching his teens he was playing with the French Radio Orchestra in Paris.
Graduating from the Lyon Conservatory with a gold medal, he entered the Paris Conservatory, where his teacher was Lucette Descaves, a pupil of Marguerite Long, dedicatee of the Ravel concerto. In 1977, at 15, he was awarded the conservatory`s first prize in piano and chamber music, a signal honor for one so young.
More so than any of the competitions he went through, Thibaudet credits his winning New York`s Young Concert Artists competition in 1981 for opening the doors of opportunity for him in the U.S. and Europe.
”Young Concert Artists is not so much a competition as an audition for a panel of different people-musicians, conductors, managers and other pianists. Susan Wadsworth founded it 30 years ago. What makes it unique and wonderful is that it gives you the right to start your career when your peers feel you are completely ready. It gave me my first contacts, my first experience. I recommend it to anyone who wants a musical career.”
It`s frequently been asserted that the French vocal style had already disappeared by the end of the second world war. Has the same fate, one wonders, also befallen the French piano school, as exemplified by Long, Robert Casadesus, Alfred Cortot, Yves Nat and others?
”I think (the 1990s are) not a very progressive period for French piano style,” Thibaudet admits. ”There were a lot of interesting French pianists in the generation preceding mine, but there hasn`t been very much happening in (recent) years.” Part of the fault, he says, lies with the internationalization of today`s musical life, part with the worldwide decline in musical pedagogy.
”In Paris most of the great teachers have either died or are retired. Aldo Ciccolini, my former teacher at the Paris Conservatory, left the conservatory two years ago because he couldn`t take it anymore.” Thibaudet sighs, looks pensive. ”But I`m not really worried, because, you see, these things go in cycles. In one generation there will be a couple of really great pianists, then there will be no one for the next 10 or 20 years. The French school will come back.”
Thibaudet does not hesitate to admit he has been influenced by recordings of certain master pianists of the past, although he declines to name specific artists.
”My recording producer says I shouldn`t listen to piano recordings, but I think one should really listen to a lot of other pianists. It`s not that you will imitate them: It`s just good to absorb different interpretations and to make them a part of your musical bloodstream.”
Even so, the pianist holds his own recordings in relatively little awe, and, indeed, says he hardly ever listens to them once he has approved a master tape for release. ”Even when they turn out wonderfully, and you`re happy with the results, you find later on that you have changed your interpretation so much that you don`t play the same piece at all like that anymore.
”The funny thing is that, while I can recognize a lot of other pianists when I hear their recordings over the radio, I hardly ever recognize my own recordings. Or, I will start to criticize everything about the performance, and only later will I discover that it`s me.”
For the future, the New York-based Thibaudet says he wants to continue playing chamber music, to which he has enjoyed virtually a lifelong dedication; as a chamber musician he will be making his 10th annual appearance at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. this spring. He also hopes to branch out into more contemporary repertoire. This week in Amsterdam he will perform and record Olivier Messiaen`s ”Turangalila Symphony” with Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The pianist says that, as a performer, he finds the 80-minute behemoth as overwhelming musically as it is physically exhausting.
For the present, Thibaudet is keeping close track of the number of performances he gives, well aware of the temptations fame offers ambitious young performers but determined to avoid overextending himself.
”I need time off between concerts to learn new scores or just vacation,” the pianist says. ”You cannot just hop from concert to concert, airport to airport, and maintain the excitement and freshness night after night.” Thibaudet`s formula for survival: Maintain a reasonable balance of career and personal life while keeping your repertoire varied. ”How can you enjoy yourself, playing the same piece the 300th time? Then it becomes routine. It certainly doesn`t raise the level of your performance.”
