Pianist Fights French Connection

Jean-Yves Thibaudet: The name sounds so cultured, so refined, so decidedly, inescapably, well, French.

But Thibaudet says the French connection “drives me crazy.”

“People think I can only play French music,” the young pianist said in a recent phone interview from his home in Washington.

“They put a sticker on you--is that how you say it?--’You’re a specialist in French music.’ I don’t like that. About 5 or 6 years ago, I was. . . . But afterwards, I got out of French repertory and really tried to play many different things . . . Mozart, Brahms, Schumann. As much German repertory as French.

“It’s important that you don’t do only one kind of music. I really play a lot of different things.”

That’s not to say that Thibaudet shies away from French music these days. In fact, he will play the Second Piano Concerto by countryman Camille Saint-Saens on Saturday in Santa Ana with the South Coast Symphony.

Anyway, Thibaudet added: “I’m not actually 100% French. My mother is German. Half of my family is German.”

To add insult to injury, Thibaudet’s native country is not even one of the places that has most warmly embraced him.

“I don’t play too much in France,” he said. “That is the place in Europe I play the least. Probably because I’m French. They’d rather have (outside) people coming in.”

Born in Lyon in 1961, Thibaudet began his studies at the Paris National Conservatory of Music in 1971. At 15, he won the Premier Prix du Conservatoire in both piano and chamber music. He later entered the 3-year master-class program at the conservatory to study piano with Aldo Ciccolini and chamber music with Jean Hubeau.

He launched his international career by winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1981. Subsequent appearances followed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, and the St. Louis, National and Indianapolis symphonies, among others.

He was last heard locally with the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa in June.

If it looks as though things have come fairly easy to him up to now, he agrees.

“I think I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “There are a lot of different factors in making a career: talent, practicing; luck is another big factor and a big part.

“There are so many . . . wonderful pianists around, it’s difficult to get your name out. There again, I’ve had the opportunities.”

Still, not every pianist gets the reviews that Thibaudet does. He has been praised for breathtaking technique and subtleties of tone both in his solo work and his chamber music.

Thibaudet said he spends about 10% of his career playing chamber music--and relishes it.

“Chamber music is a very important factor in every musician’s life and career for the development of your musicianship and musical feelings,” he said. “You learn a lot from other musicians.”

As his career has grown, Thibaudet has come to divide his time among Washington, Europe and Japan.

“The problem is traveling,” he said. “Most of the time on the road, restaurants, hotels--it’s tiring. I think you really need good health to make a career these days. There is so much struggle. You’re never at home. On the other hand, there is the chance to meet so many different and wonderful people. I feel that I’m lucky there, too.”

Nonetheless, Thibaudet tries to keep time for himself so that he can “go somewhere where there is no piano and where I can lead a normal life, with friends.”

A normal life for him includes driving his BMW in Paris. “I love driving cars,” he said. “And swimming and water-skiing.”

Thibaudet also takes off one month a year to practice and learn new works.

He averages 3 or 4 hours of practice a day, except when traveling precludes that. But he tries not to be a fanatic about practicing.

“I don’t think that if I don’t practice one day, I will lose something,” he said. “I do not believe in hours and hours of practicing. More important is concentration.”

Thibaudet described himself as a person who is easy to get along with. “I never had any big argument with a conductor or a presenter,” he said. “I have a good, easy character.

“As for the piano--that’s the real problem. You never know what you are going to find (on tour). Sometimes they are not too good. Sometimes you are very excited about a piano. When you have a beautiful instrument, you’re happier, you enjoy playing, you want to give more.”

Thibaudet expects to make his Hollywood Bowl debut next summer in the Saint-Saens Second Piano Concerto, the same work he will play Saturday with conductor Larry Granger and the South Coast Symphony.

“It’s a wonderful piece,” he said. “There are lovely things in it. It begins with two pages of piano, like a big solo, like a Bach cadenza, very classical. After that, it goes into the concerto . . . Saint-Saens once wrote, ‘It starts like Bach and ends like Offenbach.’ ”

Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will play Saint-Saens’ Concerto No. 2 with conductor Larry Granger and the South Coast Symphony at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday at Santa Ana High School, 520 W. Walnut St. in Santa Ana. Also on the program: works by Mendelssohn and Ravel. Tickets: $9-$21. Information: (714) 662-7220.