Jean-Philippe Collard returns to Chopin after 33 years of silence. It has taken him decades to feel comfortable with the composer. Today he is confident in his approach to this repertory and has no qualms about his interpretative options.

Jean-Philippe Collard sees this disc as a break, a renewal. All his previous records were released on EMI. Today he has changed labels, repertoire, sound engineer . . . These developments enable him to escape a certain routine, to put himself on the line. There are countless benchmark versions of these pieces but the French pianist has not sought to measure himself against them and his approach to the composer is honest and totally sincere. Chopin represents a genuine challenge, for which Jean-Philippe Collard has identified a style that is his alone.

With a discography of more than 50 titles under his belt, Jean-Philippe Collard is a regular visitor to the foremost musical venues of the old continent and the other side of the Atlantic – from Carnegie Hall to the Teatro Colón by way of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Royal Albert Hall. A well-known figure to the French public, a great favourite with audiences in the United States, he can boast of having played with the top conductors and orchestras all over the world.

Still as unaffected as ever, direct and jovial, he’s more likely to talk of his private happiness than his public successes: a fulfilling family life alongside his wife and five children, with close and loyal friendships . . A nature lover, a DIY enthusiast in his spare time, this gentleman pianist cultivates more than one secret garden.

"Whatever the repertory I tackle, my priority has always been piano sound. I look for what the pianist Samson François called the ‘Blue Note’, that is to say, the ideal note at the ideal moment. The note in all its plenitude. Once you gain control of the sound, you can control the discourse, the momentum of the musical phrase. The experience of recording allows you to go still further in that quest. Paradoxically, recordings are responsible for a certain uniformity of sound. When I was young, I could recognise the greatest pianists by their sound. Today, unfortunately, piano playing is dominated by a kind of linearity."

Jean-Philippe Collard