Introduction
Cédric Tiberghien is a French pianist who has established a truly international career. He has been particularly applauded for his versatility, as demonstrated by his wide-ranging repertoire, interesting programming, an openness to explore innovative concert formats and his dynamic chamber music partnerships.
Concerto appearances in the 2020-21 season include the Orchestre National de Lyon, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Cédric has a very strong relationship with the Wigmore Hall in London, and throughout the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons he is performing a complete Beethoven Variation cycle there, in addition to several chamber projects. Other recitals include continuing collaborations with Antoine Tamestit and Alina Ibragimova with concerts in Berlin, Dresden and Madrid. Recent music theatre projects include the premiere of Zauberland (Magic Land). In this music theatre project staged by Katie Mitchell, Schumann’s Dichterliebe is performed alongside a new work by Bernard Foccroulle, setting a text by Martin Crimp. Cédric collaborated on this project with soprano Julia Bullock and further engagements have included New York, Moscow, London and Brussels.
Cédric recently presented a major focus on the music of Bartok, culminating in a three-volume exploration of his solo piano works for the Hyperion label. He has been awarded five Diapason d’Or, for his solo and duo recordings on Hyperion. He also has many concerto and recital discs released on Harmonia Mundi.
He is a dedicated chamber musician, with regular partners including violinist Alina Ibragimova, violist Antoine Tamestit and baritone Stéphane Degout. Cédric’s passion for chamber music is reflected in numerous recordings: his discography with Alina includes complete cycles of music by Schubert, Szymanowski and Mozart (Hyperion) and a Beethoven Sonata cycle (Wigmore Live).
Video & Audio
From The Green Room
Online Performances
Press
- More info 16 Oct 19 Zauberland Linbury Theatre
“Played with wonderful clarity and poise by the pianist Cédric Tiberghien.”
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, October 2019
“Two outstanding performances, by the soprano Julia Bullock and pianist Cédric Tiberghien.”
- More info 29 May 19 Musikkollegium Winterthur Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1
“The now 44-year-old pianist combines in the most ideal way a youthful exuberance with an intelligently employed gift for musical shaping… Tiberghien always found the right inflection in each of the three movements, rising to the top of the swells of dramatic progression, only to dive in deep once more. To the work’s quieter waters, he lent an air of magic with the sensuousness of his sound.”
- More info 01 Feb 19 Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, troisième année & other late piano works Hyperion disc
“Tiberghien is once again consummately subtle, and he misses no opportunity for virtuoso display where the opportunity arises – as in the Bagatelle sans tonalité and the fourth Mephisto Waltz. Generously filled and beautifully recorded…”
David Fanning, Gramophone magazine, February 2019
“Tiberghien never flaunts his total command of those [technical] challenges and with an exemplary range of touch and keyboard colour, concentrates instead on these pieces purely as musical statements.”
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, February 2019
“Tiberghien’s quasi-improvisatory approach works marvellously with works which would otherwise risk sounding directionless and self-indulgent. His range is breathtaking, carefully terraces even in the thickest of textures, never harsh, abrupt, metronomic or bombastic, even when rumbling in the murkiest depths of the piano’s range.”
Performance *****
Recording *****
‘Instrumental Choice’Natasha Loges, BBC Music Magazine, February 2019
“The stylistic command with which the French pianist brings off the balancing act between analytical coolness and restrained fervour is nothing short of breathtaking.”
Bayerischer Rundfunk BR-KLASSIK, May 2019
- More info 26 Jan 19 Beethoven Woche recital Tabea Zimmermann
“Following the phenomenally intense conclusion to Johannes Brahms’ Op.9, came the rarely heard Op.10 by Joseph Joachim and Tiberghien’s crisp, concise rendition of Beethoven’s Eroica Variations.”
Guido Krawinkel, General-Anzeiger, January 2019
- More info 02 Dec 18 Armistice Recital Chicago Symphony Center
“Tiberghien was again impressive in these short sketches [Bridge: Three Improvisations for the Left Hand], demonstrating remarkable control at the piano’s softest dynamics… In Tiberghien’s hands the cycle [Debussy Etudes] sounded like one episodic unity, the Frenchman expertly pacing the mercurial episodes.”
- More info 20 Nov 18 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 CD Enrique Mazzola, Orchestre national d'Île-de-France
“Highly expressive but never Romantic and always very clear, this Beethoven remains well and truly Classical… The keenly communicative musical partners constantly risk extremes of dynamic and tempo, and their daring pays off. In the Lento, Tiberghien seems to waft a perfume bottle over the keys, lending the ear many fragrant overtones.”
Stuttgarter Zeitung, November 2018
“His is a very classical Beethoven, which speaks with the simple, sparkling elegance of Mozart and the humour of Haydn. Tiberghien and the orchestra have devoted themselves intensively to the Beethoven concertos and their performance over the last five years. The details of tone colour and expression are finely-tuned. Their reading is lively and colourful, with greatly varied dynamics and transparency of sound throughout… This is a Beethoven interpretation seldom heard to which one listens spellbound.”
NDR Kultur, CD of the week, November 2018
- More info 10 Nov 18 Armistice Recital Wigmore Hall
“[the Debussy Etudes] arrive with irresistible warmth, vigour and the sort of insight that comes with a deep identification with the music on the back of a stupendous technique.”
Peter Reed, Classical Source, November 2018
“Tiberghien’s light and sensitive touch was most brilliantly in evidence in Debussy’s Etudes, each emerging fresh and original, which were the guiding thread through the programme.”
****
- More info 08 Sep 18 Berliner Philharmoniker debut Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand Berliner Philharmonie
“Cédric Tiberghien made a dazzling Berlin Philharmonic debut with Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, which was poetic without being sentimental, and powerful without disturbing the transparency of his playing. His two-handed début with the orchestra is hotly anticipated.”
Clemens Haustein, Berliner Zeitung, September 2018
“Almost bursting with energy, pianist Cédric Tiberghien lent Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand an infinite grandeur.”
- More info 26 Aug 18 West Australian Symphony Orchestra Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 Perth Concert Hall
“Cédric Tiberghien drew every ounce of warmth from Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto in a performance that seemed as effortless as it was sublime”
- More info 08 Jun 18 Aldeburgh Festival Bernstein Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety Snape Maltings Concert Hall
“Age of Anxiety, its solo piano part played here with headstrong virtuosity by Cédric Tiberghien”
- More info 17 May 18 Chopin's Piano Brighton Festival Brighton Pavilion
“Tiberghien created worlds even out of the shortest Preludes… He can move from a whisper to a roar in seconds, completely organically, making the beautiful room resonate in thundering octaves, and he combines forward movement with the necessary space.”
- More info 14 Feb 18 Chopin: Préludes, Piano Sonata No 2 & Scherzo No 2 Hyperion disc
“As his Préludes abundantly demonstrate, he’s a Chopin player of real class. There’s absolutely no grandstanding in this set, even in the most extrovert numbers… this disc as a whole is a potent new addition to the Chopin library.”
Harriet Smith, Gramophone Magazine, December 2017
“Tiberghien concluded his disc with Chopin’s Second Scherzo in B flat minor which was written in 1837. The startling dynamic contrasts of the opening were closely observed and there was beautiful shaping of Chopin’s melodies and judicious use of rubato. The quavers in the trio’s Presto section were played with quicksilver lightness of touch and Tiberghien allowed the music to build in a thrilling way. The coda was a real adrenaline rush and provided a fitting conclusion to a very fine disc.”
- More info 25 Jan 18 Debussy - Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra, François-Xavier Roth Barbican
“The pianist Cédric Tiberghien splendid at the piano; nimble yet robust, dreamy yet forthright.”
Repertoire
Please note: this repertoire list is for reference only. The choice of repertoire for a particular project remains at the artist’s discretion.
MALCOLM ARNOLD
Concerto for Four Hands Op.32
BACH
Concerto in D minor BWV 1052
Concerto in F minor BWV 1056
Concerto in C minor BWV1062
Concerto for 3 piano in C major (I)
Concerto for 4 pianos in A minor (I and IV)
BARTOK
Concerto n°2
Concerto n°3
BEETHOVEN
Concerto n°1
Concerto n°2
Concerto n°3
Concerto n°4
Concerto n°5
Choral fantasy op.80
Triple concerto
BERNSTEIN
Symphony No.2 “The Age of Anxiety”
BOESMANS
Capriccio for two pianos and orchestra
BRAHMS
Concerto n°1
Concerto n°2
CHOPIN
Concerto n°1
Concerto n°2
DEBUSSY
Fantasie for piano and orchestra
Th. DUBOIS
Concerto Capriccioso
Concerto No.2
Suite for Piano and Strings
DE FALLA
Nights in Spanish Gardens
FAURE
Ballade for piano and orchestra Op.19
FEDELE
De li duo soli e infiniti universi for 2 pianos and 2 orchestras (world premiere)
FRANCAIX
Concertino
FRANCK
Symphonic Variations
Les Djinns
GERSHWIN
Concerto in F
Rhapsody in Blue
GRIEG
Concerto in A minor
HAYDN
Concerto in D major
LISZT
Concerto n°1
Concerto n°2
MARTINU
Toccata e Due Canzone
MENDELSSOHN
Concerto n°1
Concerto for violin and piano
MERNIER (Benoit)
Piano Concerto (premiered in Brussels 01.06.08)
MESSIAEN
Concert á quart
Couleurs de la Cite Celeste
Des Canyons aux étoiles
Oiseaux Exotiques
Trois petites liturgies de la Présence Divine
Turangalila Symphonie
MOZART
Concerto n°9 K.271 in Eb major ‘Jeunehomme’
Concerto No.11 K.413 in F major
Concerto n°12 K.414 in A major
Concerto No.13 K.415 in C major
Concerto n°17 K.453 in G major
Concerto n°20 K.466 in D minor
Concerto n°21 K.467 in C major
Concerto No.22 K482 in Eb major
Concerto n°27 K.595 in Bb major
PROKOVIEV
Concerto n°1 16’
Concerto n°2 31’
Concerto n°3 27’
RACHMANINOV
Concerto n°3
RAVEL
Concerto in G major
Concerto for the left hand
SAINT-SAENS
Concerto N°2
Concerto No.5
SCHUMANN
Concerto
Introduction and allegro appassionato
SCRIABIN
Prometheus (Symphony No.5)
SHOSTAKOVICH
Concerto n°1 for piano, strings and trumpet
Concerto No.2
SZYMANOWSKI
Symphony No.4, Op.60 (Sinfonia Concertante)
TCHAIKOVSKY
Concerto No.1 Op.23
WISENBERG
Concerto for piano, oud and orchestra
Discography
- More info Liszt: Années de pèlerinage, troisième année & other late piano works
- More info Histoires naturelles (Live at Théâtre de l'Athénée)
- More info Chopin: Préludes, Piano Sonata No 2 & Scherzo No 2
- More info Bartok: Sonata for two pianos and percussion
- More info Bartok: Mikrokosmos 5 and other works
- More info Bartok: Works for solo piano
- More info Dubois
- More info Szymanowski
- More info Franck
- More info Debussy, Faure
- More info Chopin
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Release Date: 01 Oct 10
Mazurkas, Scherzo no.1, Nocturne Op48/1, Polonaise-Fantasie
- More info Brahms
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Release Date: 01 Aug 08
Hungarian Dance; Walzes Op.39, Klavierstucke Op.36
- More info Martinu
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Release Date: 01 May 08
Toccata e Due Canzoni
Prague Philharmonia, Jiri Belohlavek, conductor - More info Brahms
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Release Date: 01 Oct 07
Piano Concerto No.1
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek - More info Chopin, Brahms
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Release Date: 01 Sep 06
Ballades
- More info Bach
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Release Date: 01 Aug 05
Partitas No.2,3,4
- More info Beethoven
- More info Debussy
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Release Date: 01 Sep 00
Estampes, Images, Masques, L’isle Joyeuse