Hélène Grimaud on The Messenger

Mozart and the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov (b.1937) might not, on the face of it, seem like the most obvious of bedfellows, but French pianist Hélène Grimaud’s The Messenger – released towards the end of last year on Deutsche Grammophon – underlined some unexpected connections between the two, and I found myself returning to the album time and again throughout the long winter evenings thanks to its peculiar atmosphere of melancholy tinged with hope.