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‘Madame Schumann’
at the Palais de Béhague
The combination of all these elements was leading inevitably towards this
project of a complete recording. But one of the final elements that triggered
it off was my fourteen-year collaboration (from 2001 to 2015) with Jean-
Pierre Derrien on France Musique. In his programmes ‘L’atelier du musicien’
and later ‘Le matin des musiciens’ we discussed, played and dissected most
of Schumann’s works. Jean-Pierre very often introduced me to listeners as
‘Madame Schumann’!
So I took the plunge. My idea was to record a series of concerts live, spread
out over several years. In all, the sessions lasted four and a half years, from
March 2012 to October 2016 to be precise. One of the challenges was to find
a venue suitable for this long introspection. And the Embassy of Romania,
which is located in the Palais de Béhague, was enthusiastic at the idea of the
project. I couldn’t have hoped to find a better environment: it’s a nineteenth-
century mansion that originally belonged to the Comtesse de Béhague, a
very fashionable hostess rather like the Princesse de Polignac. It possesses
a splendid garden, and it has gargoyles and marble statues. The atmosphere
that reigns within its walls is mysterious and inspiring.
SCHUMANN_LIVE COMPLETE SOLO PIANOWORKS