Memory

French pianist Hélène Grimaud started her career as a musician with a huge technique, capable of taking on some of the warhorses of the repertoire. She’s since moved on to recording solo albums with a story. This release explores music’s relationship to nostalgia and memory. Much of the material is French—by Satie and Debussy—but a trio of modern pieces by Valentin Silvestrov and Nitin Sawhney are woven into the texture, and they make the piano sing in a quite different, stirring way.