Sublime and so beautiful. As soon as he appears and a note of his appears, in the middle of the delicate candles that watch with us, in the here and now. Creator at heart, gifted artist, composer of genius, words fail to describe Franck Laurent-Grandpré, this virtuoso pianist who sets hearts on fire, and literally knocks down the halls with each of his concerts. What is his secret? An exceptional technique, a remarkable musicality, which he forged in a dazzling course, and by meeting giant mentors… Or his deep sensitivity, and this pure ingenuity which colors each of his interpretations and compositions, taking us into another time , and to the source within, where we remain speechless before so much grace.
Dedicated to the piano
Was he predestined? The youngest of three children, Franck was born into a family of lawyers; a father of Reunionese origin, a mother of Czech origin, and with a childhood in the flowery heights of Lyon. He never experienced any music because “the only one we listened to was current music, that of television shows”. A sign, however, was given, because his mother, pregnant with him, had this compelling desire to go and listen to sacred music in churches, with her CD player and headphones on her head ! Franck was a hypersensitive child, and we could find him in the playground chatting with his teachers, or within a small group of friends, playing Magic cards or Warhammer. “I loved escaping into the imagination, with epic adventures, fascinating characters and fantastic worlds.” One day, during a musical awareness class where the whole class had to bang pots and pans, the little boy came away so traumatized that he could no longer speak for several days. His parents then decided to send him to school in a more suitable environment, and it was around the age of 9 that he joined “Les Petits Chanteurs of the Primatiale Saint Jean in Lyon”. “My ear was educated there, with choral singing at a good level.” He also tours internationally, now immersed in the world of art music.
Then came this turning point around the age of 13. “There was a little synthesizer at home, put aside in a storage room, and I came across it at Christmas.” Immediately, as he improvised music, his parents offered him for the holidays, a keyboard with lighted keys. His mother remains speechless because, after three days, he was already playing the pieces without having to use the lights. “This is how the piano entered my life, and was an obvious partner for me. I then started taking lessons and everything went very quickly…”
The musical rise
It’s time for all the challenges. During a recital of Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, the young teenager approaches the pianist François-René Duchâble, known for having dropped his piano in a lake. “As he had a great international career, he will try to discourage me from doing this job, because of all the time lost in travelling. But it didn’t work!” A few weeks later, with only six months of intensive piano training, Franck Laurent-Grandpré will attempt to perform the third movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the piano. “It was very moving, because despite all my imperfections, the conductor didn’t want to believe that I was just starting to turn the piano, and he introduced me to Bruno Robillard, a professional pianist, who started help me.” The young musician then entered the National Regional Conservatory of Lyon, with this incredible potential. “The jury threw this sentence: the interpretation of the middle of the piece was exotic, but the performance of the impromptu is good. There, I really started playing the piano, and after three years, I won the medal at the regional conservatory.”
He obtained it with the best honors, and continued his studies at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva, taking doctorates in Florence, Catania and even at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire… And yet another revenge, since Franck will finalize his musical course, with First prize and Congratulations from the jury, at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, the “grail” in this profession. He is now in the big league and carrying in his hands and his memory, a pure treasure that he will continue to work on and develop, obtaining the highest awards in the most prestigious international competitions. “It is said that it takes 20,000 to 30,000 hours to master your instrument. So almost 10 hours of piano for 10 years, every day. And indeed, with the competition periods as an intense accumulation of work, that’s pretty much what I had to do, spread over all these years.”
The decisive encounters
At the beginning, the young student will look for teachers who will give him confidence in order to be accredited in this profession. Then through meetings and travels, some will lastingly shape his mode of expression. Like with Maria João Pires with this internship in a Buddhist institute, teaching an improbable mix between music seminar and spirituality.“We got up at 6 a.m. to go make improbable Buddhist vocalizations in their satsang, and then we played the piano in a family chalet, perched in the middle of the mountains.” There, he will remember that true music always has its absolute source deep inside, and within ourselves. Denis Pascal will also be in his wake to teach him how to dance the piano,“that is to say, to play music like a dancer”.And again Jean-Claude Pennetier, a somewhat austere Orthodox priest,“but an incredible musician, and of unparalleled kindness.” Until today, the pianist from Lyon has kept this discipline by working every day, Saturday and Sunday included, to keep in mind the approximately 15 hours of repertoire that he still wishes to develop.
Two memorable encounters, polar opposites of each other, will also mark him forever. First Elisso Virsaladze, the great sacred monster of the Russian Soviet piano, who agreed to give him lessons in Fiesole. Obviously, with little room for fantasy, since she embodies absolute authority,“ but she is in truth an incredible teacher, coupled with an adorable person, who speaks 9 languages, and who teaches everyone in their language, setting an example of discipline to be maintained.”A perfect technique therefore, and a military pedagogy which the pianist will confront, and from this discomfort allow magic,because being terribly framed by it, with its very specific requirements, I was forced to look far in my creativity to find my space of freedom.”It is also there that he will integrate sensual touch into his art, and playing piano, very small, very fine, with perfect mastery of pianissimos and agogic.
The second meeting will be with the Cuban pianist, José Luis Prats,“one of the living pianists I admire most in the world.He came to Lyon when I was at the Conservatory, and it was the most beautiful recital of my entire life, because there was a sound that filled the entire auditorium, and even at the back of the hall, I delighted every each of his notes, and of his improvised playing.” There again, he will find himself face to face with the mentor, during a prestigious competition. ”An imposing man, with his dark and intimidating gaze, and he hit me on the chest and shouted: Of course I remember you. You played like garbage! because he didn’t vote for me.” But he will allow me 15 hours of personal lessons on the sidelines of the competition, and offer me a timeless moment… to play immense, to play free, enormous and with the indirect transmission of the precious advice of Arthur Rubinstein who had trained him, in particular on the mastery of time and how create a colossal sound.“He completely freed me from the way one could touch a piano, and exploded the frameworks of what I could have conceived!”
Creativity without limits
Multi-potential, Franck is also keen on philosophy, religions and spirituality, passionate about alternative medicine, evolutionary astrology, Latin music and capoeira… which allows him to explore many possibilities, and create new with his full visions, assembling so many different things that bring out outsider creativity. “These are always cycles, contexts, associations of ideas which will generate a creative imperative.” His many projects are therefore under construction, like an adventurer’s saga. In 2017, he started a work for piano entitled“The Sagrada Familia”.“I decided to try to build a kind of musical cathedral, hence the name, with an infinite variation of an initial motif, on which everything is built.” It is a hymn to life, and all the influences are present, in an odyssey in three parts, whose main trinitarian motif is varied in three themes: E Flat, D major and B minor, which are respectively the Mystery, Tenderness, and Creation. This somewhat mysterious work already includes 3 hours of composition, with a breathtaking palette and diversity of colors, and, good news, the first chapter will finally be revealed in full this summer, on the occasion of the 2024 Olympic Games.
The pianist is also an extraordinary performer, with nearly 200 solo recitals given around the world over the past 4 years, and he is currently traveling the cities of France, to delight the public with his revisited interpretations: Chopin, Hans Zimmer, Beethoven, Mozart, Einaudi, Tiersen… and his paraphrases and piano transcription of film masterpieces. Perhaps one day he will find enough time to transmit his art,“certainly from what I would do at that time, since the best teachers are those who practice what they teach.” And always design musical experiences, thinking outside the box.
Franck Laurent-Grandpré is a generous and humble artist, and for sure a comet in the world of classical music, surprising with the audacity, purity and excellence of his projects. And giving himself without measure, in an overflowing creativity that rises to the firmament! But what deeply marks us about this prodigy, whose career is on the rise, is his sincerity, the clear vision that he carries within him, and the true love that is offered in everything he does. This is probably why we experience an interior journey at each of his concert, where creative music is transformed into curative music, and in mediator between the deep silence that he listens to, and that which he awakens in us, source and origin of all sounds. It is from this beauty that a better world will come! Let us therefore follow with delight the luminous trail that he leaves in our consciences at each of his passage…
Texts and photos are the personal creation of ©Carine Mouradian following an exclusive interview with Franck Laurent-Grandpré on May 26, 2024 – All rights reserved.
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