Bios & promo — benchmark artistes

PHILIPPE CASSARD, piano Considéré par ses pairs, la critique et le public comme un des musiciens les plus attachants et complets de sa génération, Philippe Cassard a été formé par Dominique Merlet et Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux au Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Il y a obtenu en 1982 les premiers Prix de Piano et de Musique de Chambre. Il approfondit ses connaissances pendant deux ans à la Hochschule für Musik de Vienne et reçoit ensuite les conseils du légendaire Nikita Magaloff. Finaliste du Concours Clara Haskil en 1985, il remporte en 1988 le Premier Prix du Concours International de Piano de Dublin. Invité dès lors par les principaux orchestres européens (London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestres National de France et Philharmonique de Radio France, Capitole de Toulouse, Philharmonie de Budapest, Orchestre de la Radio Danoise etc), il joue sous la direction de Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Roger Norrington, Marek Janowski, Thomas Hengelbrock, Charles Dutoit, Pascal Tortelier, Armin Jordan, Jeffrey Tate…. Philippe Cassard présente, à partir de 1993, le cycle intégral de l'oeuvre pour piano de Debussy en une journée et 4 récitals : il a joué ce cycle à Paris, Londres, Marseille, Dublin, Singapour, Sydney, Tokyo, Liège, Toulouse et Vancouver, rencontrant à chaque fois un immense succès. Son goût de la musique de chambre et sa passion pour le chant le conduisent à jouer avec des artistes tels Christa Ludwig, Angelika Kirchschlager, Karine Deshayes, Wolfgang Holzmair, Cédric Pescia, Michel Portal, David Grimal, Anne Gastinel, les Quatuors Ebène, Modigliani, Voce et Hermès. Le duo qu'il forme avec la soprano Natalie Dessay à partir de 2011 triomphe plus de 140 fois sur les scènes les plus prestigieuses : Carnegie Hall de New York, Musikverein de Vienne, Barbican de Londres, Salle Tchaikovsky à Moscou, Suntori Hall à Tokyo, Palais Garnier à Paris… Deux albums de Mélodies françaises (Erato), des Lieder de Schubert (Sony), Mozart et des airs américains (La Dolce Volta) marquent leur collaboration au disque. Au sein d'une discographie riche de plus de 30 titres, on retiendra ses enregistrements consacrés à Schubert salués dans le monde entier. En 2020, le CD des Trios de Beethoven, avec David Grimal et Anne Gastinel, obtient le Diapason d'Or, le Choc de Classica et les FFFF de Télérama. Le Trio fête ses 20 ans en 2003. Il a présenté près de 1000 émissions sur France Musique : "Notes du Traducteur" (2005-2015), Prix SCAM de la "meilleure oeuvre sonore 2007". Et "Portraits de famille" depuis 2015. Il est également chroniqueur à L'OBS ("Le classique de Cassard"). Philippe Cassard a publié deux essais sur Schubert et Debussy (Actes Sud), un livre d'entretiens sur le cinéma et la musique ("Deux temps trois mouvements", Capricci), un autre de souvenirs ("Par petites touches", Mercure de France). Il a fondé les Estivales de Gerberoy (1997-2003) et a été directeur artistique des Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget (1999-2008) puis du festival de Fontdouce (2014-2018).

PHILIPPE CASSARD, piano Philippe Cassard has established an international reputation as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician since giving a joint recital with Christa Ludwig in Paris in 1985. The same year he was finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition and in 1988 he won the First Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition. His concerto appearances include performances with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Wales, Orchestre National de France, Hungarian State Opera Orchestra… He has worked with many conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Jeffrey Tate, Sir Roger Norrington, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Charles Dutoit, Armin Jordan, Marek Janowski, Thomas Hengelbrock, Vladimir Fedosseiv… His performance of the complete piano works of Debussy (four recitals in a single day) received extremely enthusiastic press and media coverage. He has presented the cycle in London Wigmore Hall, Dublin, Paris, Lisbon, Sydney, Vancouver, Singapore and Tokyo. He also visits China, Australia, South America and Canada regulary. Philippe plays a huge repertoire of chamber music, he appearead with such artists as Wolfgang Holzmair, Stéphanie d'Oustrac, Karine Deshayes, Donna Brown, Paul Meyer, Jörg Widmann, Matt Haimovitz, Isabelle Faust, the Ebene, Takacs, Vanbrugh, Danish, Chilingirian string quartets. In 2012, Philippe becomes soprano Natalie Dessay's exclusive pianist. They have performed more than 140 times in France, England (Barbican and Wigmore Hall in London), Japan, South Korea, Russia, Austria (Musikverein Vienna), Canada, Italy and USA (Carnegie Hall in New York)… The duet has recorded Debussy Songs and a French Mélodies album for Erato, Schubert Lieder for Sony Classical, Mozart and American arias for La Dolce Volta. Philippe Cassard has been artistic director of the festival « Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget » (1999-2008), and since 2005, he has presented over 900 live weekly programmes on France Musique Radio dedicated to piano interpretation (awarded Prix SCAM in 2007 as "Best radio programme"). His last CD's releases include Beethoven's Trios with David Grimal and Anne Gastinel (awarded Diapason d'Or and Choc de Classica), Beethoven's Symphony n°9 in the transcription for 2 pianos by Liszt, with Cédric Pescia.

Philippe Cassard has established an international reputation as concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician since giving a joint recital with Christa Ludwig in Paris in 1985. The same year Philippe Cassard was finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition and in 1988 he won the First Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition. His concerto appearances include performances with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Wales, Orchestre National de France... He has worked with many conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Jeffrey Tate, Vladimir Fedossejev, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Raymond Leppard, Charles Dutoit, Armin Jordan, Marek Janowski, Emmanuel Krivine, Thierry Fischer… His performance of the complete piano works of Debussy (four recitals in a single day) received extremely enthusiastic press and media coverage. He has presented the cycle in London Wigmore Hall, Dublin, Paris, Lisbon, Sydney, Singapore and Tokyo. His Debussy's recordings on a well-preserved 1898 Bechstein published by Decca have been awarded Grand Prix du Disque Français in 1994. Philippe Cassard plays also a huge repertoire of chamber music, and he appearead with such artists as Natalie Dessay, Angelika Kirchschlager, Wolfgang Holzmair, Paul Meyer, David Grimal, Anne Gastinel, Matt Haimovitz, Isabelle Faust, the Ebene, Modigliani, Takacs, Auryn, Vanbrugh, Danish and Chilingirian string quartets. His recording of Schumann's Humoresque and Fantasiestücke op.12 was awarded Gramophone Editor's Choice and FM Magazine « Best Buy » (2005). Philippe Cassard's releases (Schubert 8 Impromptus, Brahms op.116 to 119) have been received very warmly.

Philippe Cassard studied with Dominique Merlet and Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. In 1982 he won first prizes in piano and chamber music. He continued his studies for two years at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, where he was a pupil of Nikita Magaloff. He was a finalist in the 1985 Clara Haskil Competition and won first prize in the 1988 Dublin International Piano Competition. Since then, he has been invited by the leading European orchestras, playing under Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Roger Norrington, Marek Janowski, Thomas Hengelbrock, Charles Dutoit, Pascal Tortelier, Armin Jordan and Jeffrey Tate. Since 1993, Philippe Cassard has presented the complete cycle of Debussy's piano works in one day and 4 recitals. His love of chamber music and his passion for singing have led him to perform with artists such as Christa Ludwig, Angelika Kirchschlager, Karine Deshayes, Wolfgang Holzmair, Cédric Pescia, Michel Portal, David Grimal, Anne Gastinel and the Ebène, Modigliani, Voce and Hermès quartets. The duo he formed with Natalie Dessay in 2011 has performed at New York's Carnegie Hall, Vienna's Musikverein, London's Barbican, Moscow's Tchaikovsky Hall and Tokyo's Suntori Hall. Two albums of French melodies (Erato) and a programme of Schubert songs (Sony) mark their collaboration. Philippe Cassard has published two essays on Schubert and Debussy, a book of interviews on cinema and music, and a memoir. He founded the Estivales de Gerberoy (1997-2003) and was artistic director of the Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget (1999-2008) and the Festival de Fontdouce (2014-2018). He has presented 430 episodes of 'Notes du Traducteur' on France Musique, which was awarded the SCAM prize for best recording in 2007. 'Portraits de famille' has been broadcast since September 2015 and he is also a columnist for L'OBS.