JEAN YVES THIBAUDET

Opera Without Words

1. Saint Saens (arr.Thibaudet/Kerber)

Medley on themes from Samson et Delilah

2. Richard Strauss (arr. Percy Grainger)

Fantasia on the love duet from Der Rosenkavalier

3. Puccini (arr. Yvar Mikashoff)

O mio babbino caro (Gianni Schicchi)

4. Korngold (arr. Thibaudet/Kerber)

Marietta's Lied (Die Tote Stadt)

5. Johann Strauss II (arr. A.Grunfeld)

Soirée de Vienne - paraphrase de concert sur Fledermaus (Die Fledermaus)

6. Puccini (arr. Yvar Mikashoff)

Vissi d'arte (Tosca)

7. Bellini (arr. Yvar Mikashoff)

Casta Diva (Norma)

8. Gluck (transcribed G. Sgambati)

Mélodie from Orpheus ed Euridice

9. Puccini (arr. Yvar Mikashoff)

A Portrait of Madama Butterfly (Madama Butterfly)

10. Wagner (arranged Louis Brassin)

Der Ritt der Walküren ['The Ride Of The Valkyrie'] (Die Walküre)

French piano virtuoso Jean Yves Thibaudet brings a lifelong passion for opera to his new album of irresistible operatic melodies: Aria - Opera Without Words.

`Aria' is a collection of opera's most enduring music in piano arrangements from touching simplicity to thrilling virtuosity. `Poet of the piano' Jean Yves Thibaudet again brings his uniquely accessible artistry to the widest classical audience with an album that combines the intimacy of the piano recital with the drama and romance of the opera house.

The album showcases the full palette of `sound colours' for which Jean Yves Thibaudet is internationally renowned. These performances are not just arrangements of popular classics, they are also piano works in their own right. Bellini's Casta Diva, in which the heroine of his opera Norma sings to the moon-goddess, becomes a Romantic nocturne which could almost have come from the pen of Frédéric Chopin.

The album includes arrangements of many of the best-loved arias of opera including Puccini's Vissi d'arte (from Tosca) and O mio babbino caro (from Gianni Schicchi), and the sparkling 'jewel song' from Gounod`s Faust.

For this recording Jean Yves Thibaudet explored both established transcriptions and new arrangements. The Puccini arias are performed in versions by the American pianist Yvar Mikashoff who Jean Yves Thibaudet met before his death in 1993. As a tribute a large part of the album is devoted to Mikashoff's four part `sonata-fantasy' which paints a portrait of Puccini's tragic heroine Madama Butterfly.

Two of the most evocative tracks have been arranged by Jean Yves Thibaudet himself (working with acclaimed composer/arranger Randy Kerber - best known for his film scores, including a Grammy nomination for The Color Purple). Thibaudet's understanding of French style lies at the heart of his arrangement of music from Saint Saens' Samson et Dalila and the setting of Marietta's Lied from Korngold's Die Tote Stadt showcases the fluid, vocal quality of his playing.

A highlight of the disc is Thibaudet's piano evocation of the most spectacular moment in all opera - `The Ride of the Walkyries' from the second opera in Wagner's mighty Ring Cycle. To music that everyone will recognise, the Walkyries - warrior daughters of Wotan, King of the Gods - ride through the sky on winged horses. Music which Wagner wrote for massive orchestral forces loses none of it's power in Thibaudet's gloriously virtuosic performance of Louis Brassin's formidable transcription.

As well as performing in recital with the World's greatest opera stars, including Cecilia Bartoli and Renée Fleming, Jean Yves Thibaudet has appeared in a stage role at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, alongside Mirella Freni and Placido Domingo in Giordano's Fedora.

Decca 4757668