Hélène Grimaud on her tiff with Claudio Abbado

Hélène Grimaud and conductor Claudio Abbado's falling out over the choice of cadenza is elaborated on by Grimaud, one of the top pianists in the world, in a lengthy profile this week in the New Yorker.

There's a little bit of a parent-child relationship, where the parent always sees the child, no matter how old you get.”

she says, adding,

Compromise, it has to be said, was never my forte.”

The New Yorker underlines some of her unconventional behaviour in the past, including her personal passion for wolves: “Grimaud does not relish the stiffness of the classical world. In a 2004 photograph of her, prized on the Internet, she is rehearsing with an orchestra wearing what looks like a wife beater; more recently, she apologized to a music reporter for showing up for an interview smelling of deer meat.”

I bet that was the first time he's heard that one.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.