Alexandre Tharaud
Illustration — Tharaud performing in 2018 Alexandre Charles Martial Tharaud (born 9 December 1968) is a French pianist. He is active on the concert stage and has released a large and diverse discography.
Alexandre Tharaud
Bull-Doser · Own work. · Public domain
- Born
- 1968 · Paris.
- Nationality
- France
- Occupation
- pianist · actor · music arranger · writer · musician
- Fields
- classical music
- Education
- Conservatoire de Paris
- Honours
- Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres · Echo Klassik – Classical Music without Borders
- Languages
- French
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Tharaud performing in 2018 Alexandre Charles Martial Tharaud (born 9 December 1968) is a French pianist. He is active on the concert stage and has released a large and diverse discography.
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 1354770013 · wikidata · Q954028 · wikipedia · Alexandre Tharaud
In this article
Life and career
Life and career
Alexandre Tharaud studied at Conservatoire de Paris. The recorded working language is French. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are classical music. Distinctions recorded are Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and Echo Klassik – Classical Music without Borders.
Born in Paris, Tharaud discovered the music scene through his mother who was a dance teacher at the Opéra de Paris, and his father, an amateur director and singer of operettas. Tharaud thus appeared as a child in theatres around northern France, where the family spent many weekends. His grandfather was a violinist in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. At the initiative of his parents, Tharaud began piano studies at the age of five, and he entered the conservatoire of the 14th arrondissement, where his teacher was Carmen Taccon-Devenat, a student of Marguerite Long. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the age of 14 where he won first prize for piano in the class of Germaine Mounier when he was 17 years old. With Theodor Paraskivesco, he mastered the piano, and he sought and received advice from Claude Helffer, Leon Fleisher and Nikita Magaloff. In 1987, he won third prize at the Maria Canals International Competition in Barcelona and, a year later, the Senigallia Competition in Italy. In 1989, he was awarded 2nd prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. His career developed quickly in Europe as well as in North America and Japan. In 2009, he took part in a show devoted to Erik Satie with actor François Morel. Alongside the singer Juliette, he organised a Satie Day at the Cité de la musique, recorded for France Télévisions. He has also worked with the French composer Thierry Pécou, performing the première of his first piano concerto in October 2006 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and later recording it. In 2012, Tharaud appeared in a minor role in the film Amour by Michael Haneke where he played himself, alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert, although he said that it would not be the start of a film career for him. The New York Times described his Bach playing at a recital in 2005 as "crisply articulated and vividly etched". In 2015 Tharaud starred as the central performer at the Prinsengrachtconcert in Amsterdam. Following Piano intime: conversations avec Nicolas Southon (Philippe Rey, 2013), in 2017 Tharaud published a second book entitled Montrez-moi vos mains (Show me your hands) (Grasset, 2017), in which he recounts his career, methods of working, relationships with colleagues, variations in audiences around the world, and his personal feelings about a musician's life.
Filmography
Filmography
• 2012: Amour - himself (directed by Michael Haneke) • 2015: Bach Goldberg Variations (directed by Stéphan Aubé, Erato) • 2024: Boléro - Pierre Lalo (directed by Anne Fontaine)
Identity
Identity
Alexandre Tharaud is recorded as pianist, actor, music arranger, writer and musician.
Alexandre Tharaud03
Quincena Musical · Alexandre Tharaud03
Alexandre Tharaud02
Quincena Musical · Alexandre Tharaud02
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1968
Alexandre Tharaud born at Paris.
Method of work
Tharaud refuses to keep a piano in his residence because he believes he would begin to prefer the pleasure of improvisation to the necessity of rigorous work. He practises on different instruments at friends' residences. He composes, but usually privately. Before each recording, he lays flowers at the tomb of Emmanuel Chabrier at Montparnasse Cemetery. When asked what a camera would record at his recording sessions, he replied that he sings, shouts, dances, and argues with the piano ("absurd behaviour"—comportements ridicules).
Books
• Piano intime: conversations avec Nicolas Southon (Philippe Rey, 2013) • Montrez-moi vos mains (Grasset, 2017)
Discography
• Bach, Italian Concertos, Harmonia Mundi, 2005 • Bach, Keyboard concertos, Virgin Classics, 2011 • Emmanuel Chabrier, Complete works for piano, Arion, 2007 • Chopin, Préludes opus 28, Harmonia Mundi, 2008 • Chopin, Journal intime, Virgin Classics, 2009 • Chopin, Intégrale des valses, Harmonia Mundi, 2010 • Couperin, Tic toc choc, Harmonia Mundi, 2007 • Grieg, Lyric pieces, Disques Dante, 1993 • Kagel, Æon, 2003; re-issued, Rewind, 2012 • Milhaud, Saudades do Brazil, La muse ménagère, L'album de Madame Bovary (with Madeleine Milhaud), Naxos • Thierry Pécou, Outre-mémoire, with the ensemble Zellig, Æon • Thierry Pécou, l'Oiseau innumérable, Harmonia Mundi, 2008 • Poulenc, survey of the chamber music (Sextet, Sonatas with piano for oboe, flute, violin, clarinet, cello), Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, works for two pianos and piano four hands, Le Bal masqué (with Franck Leguérinel, baritone), L'histoire de Babar (French version with François Mouzaya; English version with Natasha Emerson), L'Invitation au Château and Léocadia (with Danielle Darrieux)) for Naxos France • Poulenc, Debussy, Complete works for cello and piano, with Jean-Guihen Queyras, Harmonia Mundi, 2008 • Poulenc, Pièces pour piano, Arion, 2008 • Rameau, Suites en la et en sol, Harmonia Mundi, 2001 • Ravel, Complete works for piano, Harmonia Mundi, 2003 • Satie, Avant-dernières pensées, Harmonia Mundi, 2009 • Scarlatti, Alexandre Tharaud plays Scarlatti, Virgin Classics, 2011 • Franz Schubert, Moments Musicaux, Sonatas D. 664 and D. 783, Arion, 2000 • Schubert, Divertissement à la hongroise, with Zhu Xiao-Mei, Harmonia Mundi, 2003 • Schubert, Arpeggione Sonata, with Jean-Guihen Queyras, Harmonia Mundi, 2006 • Schubert, complete works for piano four-hands, with Zhu Xiao-Mei • Autograph (2013) • Boulez, Messiaen, Jolivet, Dutilleux, Varèse, Musique du XXe pour flûte et piano, with Philippe Bernold, Harmonia Mundi, 2008 • Soundtrack of the film Amour (film by Michael Haneke). Franz Schubert, Beethoven, Bach. Virgin Classics, 2012 • Milhaud, Le Bœuf sur le toit. With Juliette, Madeleine Peyroux, Natalie Dessay, Bénabar, Guillaume Gallienne, Jean Delescluse, Frank Braley. Virgin Classics, 2012 • Satie, Discoveries (27 new works discovered by Sato Matsui and James Nye), Erato, 2025 • Ramon Lazkano, Thierry Pécou, Alex Nante, Concertos. Erato, 2025
Recognition and collections
Where the work is held
Recognition and collections
Alexandre Tharaud received Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and Echo Klassik – Classical Music without Borders.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1354770013, Jeunehomme (Zusammenstellung, Alexandre Tharaud).
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
- VIAF cluster 79171997 for Alexandre Tharaud, aggregating national library name authorities.
General reference · OCLC
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q954028: Alexandre Tharaud
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Alexandre Tharaud”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Awards
• Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (2016)
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1354770013, Jeunehomme (Zusammenstellung, Alexandre Tharaud).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessauthority file
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,319 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Alexandre NajjarAuthor
- Alexandre O'NeillAuthor
- Alexandre Saint-Yves d'AlveydreAuthor
- Alexandre SoumetAuthor
- Alexandre VinetAuthor
- Alexandre-Étienne ChoronAuthor
- Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de LamethAuthor
- Alexandrina of BalazarAuthor
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