FanFaire VIDEOS:
Exclusive Interview with JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET
Each of the above videos is a segment of FanFaire’s interview with Jean-Yves held backstage at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on April 1, 2024 following his superb performance of Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with the LA Philharmonic conducted by Maestro Esa-Pekka Salonen.
JEAN-YVES takes us back to his childhood days and talks about his family’s influence on his artistic development.
He then recalls his early fascination with Ravel’s music and his first ever performance with an orchestra. He presents a picture of a precocious child, playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major in its entirety! Definitely NOT the obvious first choice even for a child of prodigious talent. It is quite a delightful narration.
Jean-Yves also walks us through the nuances of Ravel’s Left Hand Piano Concerto and why for the longest time it was the one piece for piano by Ravel that he shunned, only to become one of his favorite concert pieces.
In the interview, Jean Yves shares his elation at receiving what he considers the honor of a lifetime-France’s prestigious VICTOIRE D’HONNEUR-in a special ceremony held in February 2007 at the historic Salle Pleyel in Paris. The event opened with Thibaudet performing the last movement of Gershwin’s Concerto in F with an institutional co-awardee, the Orchestre National de France. It was a fitting piece for the occasion-American music was the dominant theme of the evening and Thibaudet, though a Frenchman, is regarded as one of today’s foremost Gershwin interpreters.
A film enthusiast, JEAN-YVES talks in one segment about his love of movies and the importance of movie music to the classical artist.
Finally, he gives us a glimpse of where he plans to take his career in the foreseeable future, including upcoming recordings, new commissioned works and collaborative projects with some of today’s most promising young composers.
The interview ends with a message to FanFaire viewers.
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LISTEN to Jean-Yves’ first message to FanFaire viewers (recorded in 1999):
1999 MESSAGE
