Alexandre Tharaud

Alexandre Charles Martial Tharaud (born 9 December 1968) is a French pianist. He is active on the concert stage and has released a large and diverse discography. His grandfather was a violinist in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. and, a year later, the Senigallia Competition in Italy. In 1989, he was awarded 2nd prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. His career developed quickly in Europe as well as in North America and Japan.

In 2009, he took part in a show devoted to Erik Satie with actor François Morel. Alongside the singer Juliette, he organised a Satie Day at the Cité de la musique, recorded for France Télévisions. He has also worked with the French composer Thierry Pécou, performing the première of his first piano concerto in October 2006 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and later recording it.

In 2012, Tharaud appeared in a minor role in the film Amour by Michael Haneke where he played himself, alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert, although he said that it would not be the start of a film career for him.

The New York Times described his Bach playing at a recital in 2005 as "crisply articulated and vividly etched".

In 2015 Tharaud starred as the central performer at the Prinsengrachtconcert in Amsterdam.

Following Piano intime: conversations avec Nicolas Southon (Philippe Rey, 2013), in 2017 Tharaud published a second book entitled Montrez-moi vos mains (Show me your hands) (Grasset, 2017), in which he recounts his career, methods of working, relationships with colleagues, variations in audiences around the world, and his personal feelings about a musician's life.

Method of work Tharaud refuses to keep a piano in his residence because he believes he would begin to prefer the pleasure of improvisation to the necessity of rigorous work. He practises on different instruments at friends' residences. He composes, but usually privately.

Before each recording, he lays flowers at the tomb of Emmanuel Chabrier at Montparnasse Cemetery.

Discography Bach, Italian Concertos, Harmonia Mundi, 2005 Bach, Keyboard concertos, Virgin Classics, 2011 Emmanuel Chabrier, Complete works for piano, Arion, 2007 Chopin, Préludes opus 28, Harmonia Mundi, 2008 Chopin, Journal intime, Virgin Classics, 2009 Chopin, Intégrale des valses, Harmonia Mundi, 2010 Couperin, Tic toc choc, Harmonia Mundi, 2007 Grieg, Lyric pieces, Disques Dante, 1993 Kagel, Æon, 2003; re-issued, Rewind, 2012 Milhaud, Saudades do Brazil, La muse ménagère, L'album de Madame Bovary (with Madeleine Milhaud), Naxos Thierry Pécou, Outre-mémoire, with the ensemble Zellig, Æon Thierry Pécou, l'Oiseau innumérable, Harmonia Mundi, 2008 Poulenc, survey of the chamber music (Sextet, Sonatas with piano for oboe, flute, violin, clarinet, cello), Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, works for two pianos and piano four hands, Le Bal masqué (with Franck Leguérinel, baritone), L'histoire de Babar (French version with François Mouzaya; English version with Natasha Emerson), L'Invitation au Château and Léocadia (with Danielle Darrieux)) for Naxos France Poulenc, Debussy, Complete works for cello and piano, with Jean-Guihen Queyras, Harmonia Mundi, 2008 Poulenc, Pièces pour piano, Arion, 2008 Rameau, Suites en la et en sol, Harmonia Mundi, 2001 Ravel, Complete works for piano, Harmonia Mundi, 2003 Satie, Avant-dernières pensées, Harmonia Mundi, 2009 Scarlatti, Alexandre Tharaud plays Scarlatti, Virgin Classics, 2011 Franz Schubert, Moments Musicaux, Sonatas D. 664 and D. 783, Arion, 2000 Schubert, Divertissement à la hongroise, with Zhu Xiao-Mei, Harmonia Mundi, 2003 Schubert, Arpeggione Sonata, with Jean-Guihen Queyras, Harmonia Mundi, 2006 Schubert, complete works for piano four-hands, with Zhu Xiao-Mei Autograph (2013) Boulez, Messiaen, Jolivet, Dutilleux, Varèse, Musique du XXe pour flûte et piano, with Philippe Bernold, Harmonia Mundi, 2008 Soundtrack of the film Amour (film by Michael Haneke). Franz Schubert, Beethoven, Bach. Virgin Classics, 2012 Milhaud, Le Bœuf sur le toit. With Juliette, Madeleine Peyroux, Natalie Dessay, Bénabar, Guillaume Gallienne, Jean Delescluse, Frank Braley. Virgin Classics, 2012 Satie, Discoveries (27 new works discovered by Sato Matsui and James Nye), Erato, 2025 Ramon Lazkano, Thierry Pécou, Alex Nante, Concertos. Erato, 2025

Filmography 2012 : Amour - himself (directed by Michael Haneke) 2015 : Bach Goldberg Variations (directed by Stéphan Aubé, Erato) 2024 : Boléro - Pierre Lalo (directed by Anne Fontaine)

Books Piano intime: conversations avec Nicolas Southon (Philippe Rey, 2013) Montrez-moi vos mains (Grasset, 2017)