Frank Braley, Eric Le Sage, Sandrine Piau
Biography Frank Braley, Eric Le Sage, Sandrine Piau
Frank Braley
was born in 1968, and began his piano studies at the age of four. Six years later he gave his first concert with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, Salle Pleyel. In 1986 he decided to devote himself entirely to music and abandoned his studies in science. He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and was awarded unanimously first prizes for piano and chamber music three years later. In 1991, at the age of 22, he took part in an international competition for the first time: the Queen Elizabeth Competition of Belgium where he won the First Grand Prize. Public and press unanimously recognize him as a pianist with exceptional musical and poetic qualities.
Since then, Frank Braley has been regularly invited to Japan, Canada, the United States, and all over Europe, to play with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre de la Suisse-Romande, Orchestra della Swizzera Italiana, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier and Toulouse Orchestras, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Liège Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Den Haag Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony, Copenhagen Royal Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, BBC Wales Orchestra, the Royal Scottish Orchestra, the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, the Boston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Jean-Claude Casadesus, Stéphane Deneve, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Gunther Herbig, Christopher Hogwood, Eliahu Inbal, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson, Yutaka Sado, Michael Schonwandt, Walter Weller…
Frank Braley toured all over the world: in China with the Orchestre National de France under Charles Dutoit, Japan and China with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse under Michel Plasson, with the Orchestre Français des Jeunes under Emmanuel Krivine in France and Italy, and again Italy with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. He gave recitals with violinist Renaud Capuçon (Amsterdam, Athens, Birmingham, Firenze, Ferrara, New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna).
Frank also takes part in special projects, such as Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Cycles (La Roque d’Anthéron, Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Grenoble, Rome, Tokyo and Brazil).
He played in recital in Paris, Londres, Amsterdam, Bruxelles, Hanovre, Ferrare, in duo with Renaud Capuçon in Amsterdam, Athens, Birmingham, Brussels, Rome, Florence, Trieste, New York, Washington, Paris, Vienna… His chamber music partners are Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Maria Joao Pires, Augustin Dumay, Paul Meyer, Gérard Caussé, Eric Le Sage, Emmanuel Pahud, Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet…
For Harmonia Mundi he has recorded Schubert’s Sonata in A Major D. 959 and Klavierstücke D. 946 (for which he received the Diapason d’Or and has been compared to Claudio Arrau, Alfred Brendel, Radu Lupu, Andras Schiff…), Richard Strauss’ works for solo piano, Beethoven’s Sonatas Clair de lune op.27 n°2, Appassionata op. 57 and op. 110, Gershwin’s complete piano music. For BMG : Poulenc’s Double Concerto with Eric Le Sage (Diapason d’Or). For Naïve DVD Liszt- Debussy-Gershwin (Choc – Monde de la Musique). For Warner/Erato, he has recorded Ravel’s Chamber music with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Saint Saens’ Carnaval des Animaux and Schubert’s Trout, Schubert’s Trios with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Hungarian Dances with Nicholas Angelich.
After a Schubert/Debussy/Britten/Carter release, Frank Braley Frank and Gautier Capuçon recorded Beethoven's complete Sonatas for Cello and Piano. (Erato, 2016). Latest release: Beethoven's 'Ghost' and 'Archduke' piano trios with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon. (Erato, Febuary 2020)
Frank Braley teaches at the Paris Conservatory and was the Music Director of the Belgium Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie from 2014 to 2021.
Éric Le Sage
is established as the representative of the French piano school, regularly boasted for his very subtle sound, his real sense of structure and poetic phrasing. Already when he was 20 years old, the Financial Times had described him as “an extremely cultivated disciple of the great French tradition of Schumann piano”. In 2010, die Zeit, praised his “ideal French piano aesthetics and clarity”
Eric is invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras at the highest level such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra, Berlin’s Konzerthaus Orchester, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Bremer Philharmoniker, Dresden Philharmonie, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Münchner Kammer Orchester, Dresdner Philharmonie, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with conductors like Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Pablo Gonzalez, Fabien Gabel, Sir Jeffrey Tate, François Leleux, Alexander Liebreich, Kazuki Yamada, Alondra de la Parra, Lionel Bringuier, François Leleux, Michael Stern, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Sir Simon Rattle and Yannick Nézet-Seguin.
Eric has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in major venues across the world such as Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, Paris Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Radio France, Cologne Philharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, Dresden Philharmonie, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Salzburg Mozarteum, Ludwigsburg Festival, Prague’s Rudolfinium, Taipei National Concert Hall, Konzerthaus Vienna, Dublin’s celebrity series, Edinburgh International Festival, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, la Roque d’Anthéron Festival, Potsdam Sanssouci, Brussels’ Bozar, Berlin’s Boulezsaal, Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin Philharmonie.
In 2010 Eric Le Sage released Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano for the composer’s 200th anniversary. He has been invited to perform in this context in major venues around the world. These recordings for the French label Alpha (Outhere) were awarded in the summer 2010 the very prestigious Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Reviewers from the world over have written elated comments about what is already cited as a reference in the history of Schumann recordings. Following this successful project, Eric Le Sage recorded later a bundle of 5 CDs dedicated to Gabriel Fauré’s complete works for chamber music with piano, all covered with awards.
In 2018 he started recording Brahms ’complete chamber music for B Records. The cycle’s 9 th volume was released in May 2021 In 2019 he released Fauré’s Nocturnes on Alpha, as well as Schumann’s Dichterliebe with tenor Julian Pregardien. Both albums won international critical acclaim.
In 2020 and 2021 Eric also released two chamber music albums on Alpha: Vienne 1900 featuring works by Schoenberg, Mahler, Zemlinsky, and Berg, and Nino Rota with Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Daishin Kashimoto, Aurélien Pascal and more.
A true chamber music lover, Eric regularly plays with friends like Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Quatuor Ebène, François Leleux, les Vents Français, François Salque, Lise Berthaud, Daishin Kashimoto, Olivier Latry and many other musicians.
Most of Eric Le Sage’s recordings on RCA-BMG, Naïve, EMI and now Alpha were highly acclaimed and awarded the most sought after awards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Choc de l’Année Classica, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique.
Born in Aix en Provence, Eric Le Sage was the winner of major international competitions such as Porto in 1985 and the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau, in 1989. He was also a prize-winner at Leeds International competition the same year, which allowed him to perform under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.
Sandrine Piau
After initially gaining a reputation in Baroque music, Sandrine Piau now sings a broad repertory and has confirmed her outstanding position in the operatic world.
She has distinguished herself in numerous roles in the leading international opera houses, including Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) and Morgana (Alcina) at the Opéra de Paris, Dalinda (Ariodante) at the Salzburg Festival, Alcina, Mélisande, Sandrina (La finta giardiniera), Sister Constance (Dialogues des carmélites) at La Monnaie, Alcina and Dalinda in Amsterdam, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Sister Constance at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and Despina (Così fan tutte) and Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
Sandrine Piau appears regularly in concerts with orchestra and as a recitalist, notably in New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, Munich, Zurich and Salzburg.
She previously made four solo discs of Handel and Mozart arias and recorded two recital programmes, Après un rêve and Évocations, attesting her close partnership with Susan Manoff, with whom she appears regularly on the concert platform (Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Tours of the United States and Japan).
The operatic recital Desperate Heroines, with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg under Ivor Bolton, received unanimous critical acclaim. Sandrine Piau now records exclusively for Alpha Classics. Her first disc on the label was a recital programme with Susan Manoff entitled Chimère.
Her recital Si j’ai aimé, with Le Concert de la Loge under the direction of Julien Chauvin, received a Diapason d’Or, a Choc de Classica and a Gramophone Award.
In 2019 Alpha released Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Les Talens Lyriques directed by Christophe Rousset.
The 2019/20 season saw her take part in a major tour to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Les Arts Florissants, a european tour with Teodor Currentzis, and concert performances of Debussy’s Le martyre de Saint Sébastien conducted by Valery Gergiev.
Among her projects for the 2020/21 season are concert tours of Europe with a number of ensembles including Kammerorchester Basel and Il Giardino Armonico, and the premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence at Aix-en-Provence.
Sandrine Piau was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2006 and voted Vocal Artist of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique 2009.
