Dan Grigore, encore!

There's a common expression today (which has been around for more than fifty years) saying that an exceptional pianist no longer says much. Wanting to synthetically express a fact related to the large number of very valuable pianists, it is assumed that at least technically; this finding is confined to a type of quantitative assessment. Maybe that is why it becomes derisory.

Recital - Dan Grigore 16.06.2011- Foto. Alexandru Dolea

The existence of a talent in Romania (underlined) such as that of pianist Dan Grigore invalidates the expression above. At the age of full artistic maturity and haloed with the risky light of local sacred monsters, Dan Grigore continues to impress audiences regardless of age through the size of course his talent, and especially his artistic personality. A personality that transcends the visual, without being impaired by it and that gains intensity and sound content, where Dan Grigore is unmistakable. Unmistakable in the international and strictly Romanian sense of the term at the same time, Dan Grigore gathers, unites and subordinates the pluses and minuses of a particular type of brilliance which became a mark of his concert and / or studio versions.

Whether it is a dynamic or agogic break in the discourse or both, a stunning ideatic solution, a suspension or anticipation, we are faced with an artistic act which subscribes to the highest sense of performing arts.

I began with these considerations because they, as far as artist Dan Grigore is regarded, are enveloping and cannot and should not be circumscribed to an album title or another, especially if it is a live recording made in Romania.

Recital - Dan Grigore 16.06.2011- Foto. Alexandru Dolea

Bis, Encore, Bis! is the title of the record project that engendered the lines above, a project which was extended to the concert hall in the recital at the Radio Hall. Looking to illustrate the artistic path ran so far through musical jewellery normally offered to the audience as an encore within concerts held, pianist Dan Grigore repeats in Bucharest the program that included works by Chopin, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Mozart, Enescu, Schubert, Bach, Brahms, Skriabin, Debussy and MacDowell, after the recital held in London in the series of "Enescu Concerts" where he was as special guest and the concert at the Romanian Embassy in Paris which he will present it in July at the Radio France Festival in Montpellier.

The idea of this project is a successful one and deserves to be immortalized in professional terms of the highest quality. In this repertoire, the musician's pleasure to play music favours our meeting with Dan Grigore, the artist who can go from playful to serious or from giusto to rubato and vice versa, with swing and especially charm, "just like that..." Namely, in an ineffable manner, leaving words far behind, and meeting with metaphor.

A review to a record release is compelled to also make references to... the object. A sad duty, in this case. Because the object in its aesthetic-visual data and recording quality does not step into the new millennium, even if we are talking about Romania. The quality of pianist Dan Grigore's artistic personality is what can make the listener forget about these issues, in the hope of great meetings with dream record projects. A type of meeting that society and the artist still owe to us.