Haydn: Piano Sonatas

Haydn wrote keyboard sonatas for 'connoisseurs' and ''amateurs'' throughout his career. Alternating bread-and-butter work and rich terrains of experimentation, they bear the mark of endlessly renewed invention. For the music lover afraid of losing his way in this abundant output, Alain Planès proposes a personal selection of works. We can follow him with complete confidence.

"Planès is a lively and sensitive guide to these delightful works, whether in his eloquently drawn line in the Largo of the early B flat or his witty new inflections in the repeats of the A flat's opening movement."
BBC Music Magazine

From Indiana University to Pierre Boulez: that might be an apt summing-up of the early career of Alain Planès, who has since become one of the most noted pianists of his generation.

He studied at Lyons, where he gave his first concert with orchestra at the age of eight, then at the Paris Conservatoire. His mentor was Jacques Février. Alain Planès subsequently went on to further study in the United States. At Bloomington, Indiana, he worked with Menahem Pressler (the pianist of the famous Beaux Arts Trio), János Starker, György Sebök, William Primrose. He became the regular partner of János Starker and began a busy concert schedule in the USA and Europe. Pierre Boulez invited him to become the first solo pianist of the Ensemble Intercontemporain when it was founded, and he stayed with the Ensemble until 1981.

His solo career has taken him to the most important festivals (Aix-en-Provence, Montreux, La Roque d'Anthéron, la Folle Journée de Nantes amongst them). Having enjoyed a close relationship with Rudolf Serkin, he was one of the youngest 'seniors' of the prestigious Marlboro Festival.
In chamber music, Alain Planès has been the partner of Maurice Bourgue, Shlomo Mintz, Michel Portal, and the Prazák and Talich Quartets. Amongst the orchestras with which he has played are the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, and the orchestras of the Paris Opéra and of La Monnaie in Brussels. He was musical director of Claude Régy's production of Janácek's Diary of One Who Disappeared, which was the event of the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2001.