On May 1, pianist Genevieve will begin to delight the audience at the annual Piano Days at the Kunsthalle Kühlungsborn.
The pianist and composer Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) recognized and demanded that "there is no art without imagination". A motto, a realization that also determines the artistic world view of Swiss pianist Genevieve. Her enthusiasm for Liszt's piano music characterizes her repertoire. Time and again, this music is a central aspect of her programs, and her first CD also dealt with Liszt's compositions. She is particularly fond of the rarities. But Genevieve is far removed from specializing and being pigeonholed. She is enthusiastic about the Romantics and can discover and interpret classics such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven in new and different ways through Liszt's arrangements.
The colorful sound of Scriabin's music also fits in with her repertoire interests. There is no room in her thinking and feeling for a fixation on just one composer, just one epoch. For this pianist, virtuosity is neither an end in itself nor self-expression. "Music is my creativity," says Genevieve about herself, "my passion, my story, my inspiration, my spiritual hovering between heaven and earth." Her repertoire ranges from Mozart sonatas to Ravel's "Gaspard de la Nuit", from Brahms piano concerto to Albeniz.
Genevieve received her first piano lessons at the age of five. She comes from a musical family and received important musical impulses and encouragement from artists such as Krystian Zimerman, Alexis Weissenberg, Shura Cherkassky, Pierre Amoyal and Rudolf Baumgartner. She studied in Switzerland, Imola and Florence. In Imola, she intensively studied Liszt's playing technique, i.e. the idea of touching the keys with one's entire body weight and using the fingers as an extension of the arms. Her numerous competition successes include a 1st prize with distinction at the Swiss Music Competition and the Concorso Internazionale Citta di Senigallia. Genevieve was also a prizewinner at the Steinway Competition in Hamburg and is a Steinway Artist. She has given numerous performances in such renowned concert halls as the Vienna Musikverein, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Sala Mozart in Bologna and the Hamburg Laeiszhalle.
Her solo debut was released by RCA in 2015: the 3-C box "On Wings of Song" is a fascinating collection of Liszt transcriptions: Paraphrases on excerpts from Wagner operas meet fantasies on originals by Rossini, rounded off with song arrangements by Romantic composers, with Genevieve deliberately omitting the expected greats and instead presenting mainly worthwhile discoveries from Liszt's catalog of works. Expectations that are dutifully fulfilled do not appeal to her. She wants to make new experiences, take new risks and be surprised by the music again and again. It is precisely this desire to take risks, combined with her impressive pianistic skills and great respect for the respective composition, that defines Genevieve's character as an interpreter and storyteller. "Music inspires, music is real feeling, pure truth."
