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Biography
" Olivier Chauzu, the master of colours " (Le Monde,
21 November 2006)
" Much more than a good pianist: a true musician
" (Gérard Gefen, Lettre du musicien n°93).
" ... has managed to see through the picture
postcard surface of this music to find its daring, and very modern,
not to say, revolutionary, heart... Book III has more than any, with
a chunky, if measured, El Polo, and an outstanding Lavapiés
" (Tom Deacon).
" Davidsbündlertänze: a wonderful
recording of perhaps Schumann's greatest piece. " (Tom Deacon).
" The tempo follows the feeling of the music, rather than
some preconceived notion of the music as a strict tempo indication.
Here again this is very authentic Schumann, whose music is almost
pure feeling or character, translated into sound. " (Tom
Deacon).
A disciple of Gabriel Tacchino, Théodore Paraschivesko,
Jean-Claude Pennetier, Christian Ivaldi and Gyorgy Sebok, Olivier
Chauzu was trained in the Conservatoire National Supérieur
de Musique in Paris at the end of the 1980s.
Discovered and encouraged from the age of fifteen by
Yvonne Lefébure, Chauzu is drawn to those works where his interpretation
brings to light a unifying musical idea. He is one of the few pianists
to perform the complete Iberia of Isaac Albéniz, the complete
works for piano of Paul Dukas, as well as the works of Maurice Ravel.
He brought out a recording of Isaac Albéniz's
Iberia under the Calliope-Harmonia Mundi label in January 2007 that
received the Diapason d'Or for the outstanding recording by a new
artist, was awarded four stars by the musical review Monde de la Musique,
and which was described by Le Monde as " one of the most moving
interpretations ever, for its depth, its mastery of timing, rythms
and tone. " He has also brought out a recording of the complete
piano works of Paul Dukas under the same label.
He brouht out also a recording of Dukas piano pieces,
and another one of Schumann, which was awarded five diapasons, four
stars by the Monde de la Musique, "key of the year 2008"
by Resmusica.
" Master of the keyboard, [Chauzu] extracts from
the depths of his instrument a totality of expression of such variety,
so appropriate to his object, so rigorous and impeccable in both form
and style, that one uncovers less the mark of a musician of ordinary
gifts than one of the select few for whom a natural gift leads to
nothing less than a redoubling of idiomatic mastery and of artistic
vigilance. " (Resmusica, 31 March 2008).
Musical Training
Olivier Chauzu was born 18 December 1963 in Libourne
(France). He received in 2000 his Doctorate in Iberian Studies.
His studies at the Conservatoire Supérieur de
Musique in Paris were crowned with the First Prize for Piano in the
class of Gabriel Tacchino (1987), followed by First Prize in Chamber
Music in the class of Jean Mouillère and of Jean-Claude Pennetier
(1988). He was awarded a scholarship to study at the Banff School
of Fine Arts in Canada, where he gave a number of concerts and attended
classes by such renowned musicians and teachers as Richard Goode,
Paul Badura-Skoda and Anton Kuerti.
Upon his return to Europe in 1988, he entered the Conservatoire
National Supérieur de Musique in Paris as the top candidate
in the Cycle de Perfectionnement in the piano class of Theodore Paraschivesko,
where he also attended classes with Leo Fleisher, Vitaly Margoulis
and Dimitri Bashkirov. During this period he gave concerts in Paris
at the Salle Gaveau, the Théâtre du Jardin, the Musée
d'Orsay, the Salle Cortot. He came to the notice of the pianist Catherine
Collard, who invited him to her first festivals.
One encounter proved decisive in this period of the
pianist's formation: Gyorgy Sebok, who, in one of the master class
sessions organized as part of the summer cycle of the Banff Center
in 1990, completed his training.
Olivier Chauzu was awarded prestigious distinctions
in the Maria Canals international competition in Barcelona (1989)
and the Yvonne Lefébure competition in Saint-Germain-en-Laye
(1990), where he was awarded the Prix Claude Debussy.
He tours France and the world playing as a soloist
and in chamber music: he plays in Paris salle Gaveau, Théâtre
de l’Athénée, Musée d'Orsay, Grand Salon
des Invalides, salle Cortot, Théâtre du Jardin. He is
included in the programs of big musical seasons (like Dijon Opera,
Angers Theater, Nice, Royan, Tours, Le Mans…) and numerous provincial
musique festivals : the Nuits du Suquet in Cannes, Festival Musique
et Vin in Clos Vougeot, the festival of Perthuis in Provence, Musique
en Côte Basque, the Debussy Festival of Saint-Germain-en-Laye,
May Musical of Saujon, the Piano Festival of La Charité-sur-Loire,
the Festival of La Dame des Aulnes, the piano festival of Châteauneuf-le-Rouge,
piano festival of Wesserling, Festival d’Art Sacré in
Dax... He also took part in festivals in Spain (Alteneo de Madrid,
Teatro Palacio Euskalduna de Bilbao, Barcelona, Pamplona, Saint Sebastien),
in Portugal (with the Radio National Antena 2), in Germany (festival
of Nürenberg, Stuttgart, Schumann Festival in Bonn), in Sweden
(Stockholm), in the Czech Republic (Prague), in Asia (Dubai, Abu Dhabi)
and America (festival Music and beyond in Ottawa, Wolf Performance
Hall in London), in Mexico.
He played with prestigious orchestras like the Calgary
Philharmonic Orchestra (Canada), la Orquesta Filarmónica de
Mexico, the Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy, l'Orchestre Régional
de Bayonne-Côte Basque, with conductors Jérôme
Kaltenbach, Kirk Muspratt, Victor Puhl, Philippe de Chalendar, Philippe
Hui, Vincent Barthe, Robert Delcroix, Jean-Marc Burfin, Xavier Delette,
José Miguel Rodilla, Marco Parisotto, Jean-Sébastien
Béreau. Michel Tabachnik invites him to play with the the Mediterranean
Youth Orchestra.
He has performed chamber music with pianist Nicolas
Angelich, violinists Cho Liang Lin, Pierre Amoyal, the soloists of
New York Metropolitan Opera, David Chan, Roland Daugareil, cellists
Raphaël Perraud, Raphaël Pidoux, floutist Emmanuelle Ophèle,
altist Claire Merlet, oboist François Leleux, clarinetist Staffan
Martensson. singer Michèle Penna.
Olivier Chauzu is noteworthy for the extent and eclecticism
of his repertory, which includes piano works from all periods of musical
history, from Bach, Scarlatti and Padre Soler to the classical composers
Mozart and Haydn, the nineteenth century (Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert,
Chopin, Liszt, Brahms), twentieth century (Debussy, Ravel, Albéniz,
Granados, Stravinsky) to contemporary music by Stockhausen, Boulez,
Ohana, Mompou and creations of actual pieces by Lucien Guérinel
and Philippe Forget.
He currently offers a piano class in the Conservatoire National de
Région de Bayonne
Reviewers' Comments :
" Dukas's Piano Sonata… it is an uneven
work: some fine pages and others less memorable. Olivier Chauzu plays
it commandingly and he is delectably enticing in the engaging Minuet
on which the Rameau Variations are based. Chauzu characterises them
most felicitously, but he is at his most sensitive in La plainte,
which moves into a Debussian impressionistic world and even quotes
from the composer. " Gramophone Magazine, July 2008
" How does this devil of a pianist achieve
a sound so full, so round, so rich and of such clarity? "
" ...has placed himself alongside de Larrocha. " (Alain
Lompech, Diapason no. 543 S)
" Not one to pursue the effect, he searches
for a much deeper truth. " (Jean Roy, Le Monde de la Musique,
February 2006).
" (Iberia) An uncontestable success equally
in poetic faculty, shadows and brilliance. " (Carter Chris
Humphray, Classiquenews)
" ...a standing ovation by the enthusiastic
audience for his execution of the concerto of Beethoven. "
(Philippe Barrère, Sud-Ouest, January 1995)
" ...such technical mastery (in the 24 etudes
of Chopin) as to surmount technique in his focus on the music. "
(Ouest-France, 29 January 1992)
" (Dukas) played superbly well by (one) supremely
gifted young French musician with a love for the music. "
(Roger Steptoe, April 2008)
" Grund zur Freude ! Der französische
Pianist Olivier Chauzu spielt Dukas' so unnostalgische wie intelligente
Liebeserklärung an Jean-Philippe Rameau mit der notwendigen doppelbödigen
Distanz und geistigen Tiefenschärfe "
" Chauzu präsentiert sich hier als genuiner Klavierkünstler
" (Michael Pitz-Grewenig).
" ...possesses the refinement and fluidity of touch, but equally
the power and virtuosity of fingering. " (Jacques Bonnaure,
Classica Répertoire, April 2008)
" Much better than a good pianist: a true musician.
" (Gérard Gefen, Lettre du musicien no. 93)
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