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The French pianist, Éric 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.
Éric Le Sage is recognised as a musician of rare musical sensitivity. He is now established as one of the leading pianists of his generation and a famous 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, 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”. A highly acclaimed performer of Robert Schumann's piano music and of chamber music in general, his deep interest in unknown works has earned him a catalogue of over fifty concertos, from J.S. Bach to Jolivet and Gershwin to Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, Benjamin Britten or Arnold Schoenberg. He is also, with clarinettist Paul Meyer and flutist Emmanuel Pahud, the founder and artistic director of the Salon-de Provence "Musique à l'Empéri" international chamber music festival.
Éric Le Sage has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in such major venues as Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, la Roque d’Anthéron, Carnegie Hall, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Dublin’s celebrity series, Evian, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, London’s Wigmore Hall, Louisiana Museum of Arts, Ludwigsburg Festival, Festival International de Menton, Radio-France Montpellier, Paris’ Salle Pleyel, Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet, Potsdam Sanssouci, Sarrebrücken Festival, Strasbourg, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, as well as various venues in Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, South America, the USA, Japan.
Éric Le Sage has been invited to perform as a soloist with leading orchestras such as the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Kölner Kammerorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Lisbon Radio Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester, Netherlands Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Zwickau Symphony Orchestra, with conductors like Armin Jordan, Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Louis Langrée, Michel Plasson, Michael Stern, Sir Simon Rattle…
In 2010 Éric Le Sage very successfully came to the end of a project that he had cherished and prepared for a long time: recording Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano He has been invited to perform in this context in various venues around the world including the Louisiana Museum of Arts in Denmark for a 10-concert series until 2010, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Salle Pleyel for a carte blanche in 2008, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées for a recital in 2010, the Schumann Festival in Düsseldorf, La Roque d’Anthéron, la Folle Journée, St Magnus Festival, the Warsaw Beethoven Festival for the Robert Schumann year, among other venues throughout the world. These recordings for the independent French label Alpha 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 Robert Schumann recordings.
Most of Éric Le Sage’s recordings for RCA-BMG, Naïve, EMI and now Alpha were highly acclaimed and awarded the most sought after rewards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, 10 de Repertoire, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique. |
