Program

Brahms :                    1ère rhapsodie op.79

Saint-Saëns:            – Etudes op.135 no.1 et 5 pour la main gauche ( prélude et élégie)

                                  – Romance sans paroles

                                  – Souvenir d’Italie op.80

                                  – Paraphrase sur la Mort de Thaïs (d’après Massenet)

Saint-Saëns/ Liszt :       – Danse macabre op.40

Entracte

Liszt:

                                     – Sposalizio

                                     – Sonnet 104 Del Pétrarca

                                     – Cloches de Genève

                                    – Paraphrase sur Rigoletto (d’après Verdi)

                                    – Méphisto-valse no.1

Jean Dubé, piano
Born in December 1981, internationally recognized as one of the most important young pianists of our time, Jean Dubé is appreciated for his musicality and power.
« He can play everything with absolute understanding, not to mention his phenomenal piano technique » (Normunds Šnē, Conductor and Director of the National Orchestra of Riga, Latvia, 2003)
A child prodigy in music, he has been performing around the world since the age of four and won a Steinway piano at the age of nine in the national competition « Jeunes Prodiges Mozart à Paris ». That same year, he performed as a soloist at the Maison de la Radio with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, live on France Musique.
His discography already includes some thirty recordings, including twenty CDs, in particular for Syrius, Bnl, Naxos and several DVDs of concertos for French television and other foreign radio and television stations.
Very comfortable in all repertoires, including that for the left hand, he is one of the rare pianists in the world capable of playing Gÿorgy Ligeti’s Piano Concerto and of giving Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus in one recital.
He likes to combine other arts with music (painting, sculpture, film, literature) and to give themed recitals (bells, birds, love, dance, waters and gardens). His performance of Turangalîlâ was awarded the title of Best Performance of the Year in Riga in 2000 and his performance of Franz Liszt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody was the fastest rebroadcast in the history of Radio Chicago (WFMT) in 2002.
First Prize at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris at the age of fourteen with Jacques Rouvier, he studied with Jacqueline Robin, Catherine Collard, Vladimir Krainev, Rudolf Buchbinder, Murray Perahia and attended the classes of John O’Conor during a year in Dublin thanks to the Yvonne Lefébure scholarship. Winner of the European Piano Competition « Ouistreham Riva » in 2009, which also awarded him the Chopin Association Prize in Nohant, he also won the First Grand Prize and the Audience Prize of the Franz Liszt Competition in Utrecht in 2002 as well as other international competitions (« Francis Poulenc », « Bucarest », « Messiaen », « Bourse Yvonne Lefébure », « Orléans XXe siècle »).
Invited as a jury member for international competitions (« Pinerolo » 2004, « Poulenc » 2008, « Chang Chun » 2009, international pre-selections for the « Franz Liszt » competition in Utrecht 2020), he also gives masterclasses (in Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Ecuador, Ethiopia, South Africa, China, Malta…).
He has performed on all continents as a soloist, in chamber music ensembles and with many major orchestras. His latest recordings for Syrius include an album of genre pieces (le Violon fantasque) with the violinist Frédéric Pélassy and another in homage to the Amerindians.
He regularly collaborates with opera specialist Julia Le Brun (http://www. levoyagelyrique.com) on concert-conferences. He is also one of the artistic directors of Concertino (www.concertino.fr).