"I dream of singing on the piano"

French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet has been performing with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich for twenty years, and in 2016 they went on tour together - now a new adventure follows: after his concert in the Grosse Tonhalle, he will also sit behind the piano at tonhalleAIR in the Münsterhof and play Aram Khachaturian's piano concerto under the direction of Paavo Järvi.

The excursion into the city suits him; Thibaudet likes to interact with the audience. He also speaks openly and unpretentiously to the media, and not just about music, as the following collection of quotes from various interviews shows.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet on ..

... Aram Khachaturian's piano concerto

"I'm surprised that it's so rarely played. It is very powerful, a stroke of luck in its inspiration: whenever I have played it so far, the audience has been fascinated because it is so intense. Especially in the second movement, you can really feel Central Asia with all its smells, plants and colours. Of course, there was more modern music than this at the end of the 1930s, but at the same time the work is very instinctive and natural, straight from the heart, as it were. It is music that is fun and simply makes people happy." (Concerti, 2015)

... the singing

"I dream of singing on the piano. The voice, that's the real music, everything else is an imitation of it. Anyone who has never worked with singers is therefore only half a musician." (Tages-Anzeiger, 2016)

... Arthur Rubinstein

"I met him when I was five and met him again when I was seven. The last time I sat on his lap for about 15 minutes. He was the nicest, warmest man, so kind and generous. He asked, 'What do you really want to do?' and I said, 'I want to be a pianist and give concerts all over the world, like you And he said: 'Remember, the most important thing is the audience. Without them, we don't exist. They buy the tickets, they buy the recordings, you have to make time for your audience Those things still resonate with me today, and every time I play I like to meet everyone who's there because they're all important to me." (The Gilmore, 2023)

... Cars

"My favourite cars are from Ferrari. Even as a 3-year-old, I knew what a Ferrari was and said that I would drive one when I grew up. It's always a wonderful experience for me to drive a Ferrari. I always buy my Ferraris in Basel, by the way." (Classicpoint.net, 2015)

... Doubts

"Am I good enough? You always ask yourself this question. The more you progress in your life and career, the more people expect. The pressure increases and, on the one hand, you have to put on a kind of armour so that you don't break. But on the other hand, it's the fragility that makes an artist unique. If you think 'Oh, I'm the best! ', then it's going to be a boring concert." (Podcast Living the Classical Life, 2016)

... other arts

"I like reading, I like going to the cinema. And if I'm travelling somewhere, I'll visit a museum if I have an hour to spare. Preferably one that I don't know yet. If I already know it, I go straight to my favourite works. It's like visiting friends." (WRTI, 2018)

... Fashion

"As a teenager, I got to know a lot of designers, went to a lot of shows - and fashion became a part of my life. I think fashion is also important because classical music is seen as rigid and old-fashioned. Why do men have to wear tailcoats while women can change their dresses at every interval? Why should I look like a stupid penguin? Rigid clothes just give the wrong impression of classical music, dusty, old and boring. People can relate to you more if you wear clothes they can relate to." (The Rapidian, 2018)

... the practising

"I practise more and more. I love practising because I discover new things and say to myself: 'How could I not have seen this all these years? I've been playing this wrong for 30 years and nobody told me' You have to learn something new all the time - it keeps everything fresh." (Classical Voice, 2019)