 Photo courtesy philippeentremont.com |
By Teresa Davidian
The classical pianist and orchestra conductor Phillipe Entremont is a living legend, not just in France but also worldwide. He is in fact one of the most recorded artists in history, with hundreds of recordings to his name. Yet, there is more to know about Entremont. Offstage, he is an important teacher and mentor, one who has been inspiring generations of young musicians. His extensive teaching career, which dates back to the mid-70s, is hardly new information, but no one has paused to examine his pedagogy in any detail. This article will show the various ways he is communicating his musical and pianistic knowledge to his students, knowledge that is not only steeped in the French performance tradition, most directly from his teacher Marguerite Long, but also enhanced by his later experiences as a conductor. Thus, this article is situated at the intersection of music history, culture, and pedagogy.
Many of Entremont’s educational ideas and practices will hardly come as a surprise to a few scholars, but the efforts made by his students for this article offer a closer, more granular perspective of this great tradition as well as insights into his artistry. To the many American musicians of today who are less familiar with Entremont and the French style of piano playing, the techniques and interpretations accumulated here may open up new avenues of thought and practice.
Throughout his 75-year career, Philippe Entremont has performed on the international stage as both a pianist and as a conductor. Born in 1934, he was a piano prodigy who entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 12. He quickly rose to fame in the mid-1950s when he achieved an array of successes, all before the age of 25. Over the next few decades, he solidified his reputation as an outstanding pianist with performances and recordings that were often as exceptional as the musical achievements of his youth. Then, in the mid 1970s, he began a second career in conducting, joining a long list of pianists who have turned to the podium. Here too, in the role of orchestra conductor, he made his mark, touring extensively with various orchestras around the world and making even more recordings. From the 1970s onward, he has enjoyed two careers as conductor and pianist concurrently.
His contributions are considerable. By his own estimate, he has given approximately 7,000 performances across six continents, and he has secured his legacy with approximately 250 recordings.
The prolific quantity and variety of his output, while impressive, are perhaps beside the point. The true accomplishment is that the quality of his work is consistently excellent. Listen, for example, to any track from his complete solo recordings for CBS Masterworks, which Sony released as a 34-CD set in 2019.
Chances are, you will agree with the many critics who have praised Entremont for his refined yet sparkling sound, and for the way he executes the most complex passages with ease and finesse.
Yet there is more to know about Philippe Entremont. Offstage, he is an important teacher and mentor, one who has been inspiring generations of young musicians. His extensive teaching career, which dates back to the mid-1970s, is hardly new information, but no one has paused to examine his pedagogy in detail. This article will identify and discuss some of the key aspects of his piano teaching, which includes specific approaches to technique and interpretation. This information may not only be of interest to students, educators, scholars, and professional musicians, but also lead to a fuller understanding of Entremont’s legacy and his transmission of the centuries-old French piano tradition to 21st-century students.
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Photo courtesy Spotify |
I first became aware of Entremont during the 1980s, when I was working on a dissertation on Debussy at the University of Chicago. Entremont’s recordings played a significant role in shaping and expanding my understanding of Debussy and his contemporaries’ music. The more immediate impetus for this article dates to 2019, when I studied piano with Entremont at a Summer Piano Residency in Fontainebleau, France. My week-long residency was a transformative experience that changed me. I have attended decades of great piano recitals and I have been fortunate to study with many wonderful piano teachers. At Fontainebleau, however, I could see and hear up close what great playing could be.
There is one moment that is especially memorable. Usually, my day began with a simple breakfast and conversation with Entremont in the kitchen of the mansion where the residency took place. But one day I overslept and missed the breakfast hour. As I slowly descended the stairs from my second-floor bedroom suite, I could hear perfect tones rolling out and filling the entire mansion. It was Entremont performing on the Steinway grand piano in the main living room. He was playing one of the fast movements of a Bach keyboard suite. Just a simple piece really, but in Entremont’s hands it was performed perfectly. I was struck by both his sound and technique. The sound was firm and clear. All the notes of the scalar passages were evenly matched with unerring precision, gliding smoothly into each other. There was nothing forced or jagged. I now understood more acutely what it means to be a professional pianist of the highest caliber.
My studies with Entremont prompted me to seek more information about his pedagogy. Thierry Vagne’s recent book, Philippe Entremont: 70 ans de carrière international [Philippe Entremont: 70 years of an international career], offers tips on Entremont’s working, listening, and playing habits, especially in the chapters entitled “The Recitalist,” “The Concertos,” and “Teaching.” But performance technique is not the sole focus of Vagne’s book; rather, it covers the many facets of Entremont’s career, his opinions on a wide range of topics (e.g., specific composers, pianos, other pianists, and other conductors), and his personal experiences in the world of music entrepreneurship.
But I wanted more information centering on Entremont’s craft and his thinking behind it. With Entremont’s permission, as well as assistance from his other students, I contacted a few of the many young pianists he has taught and helped over the years: Sayaka Kimura (Japan), Dmytro Sukhovienko (Ukraine), Tal Walker (Israel and Belgium), Gen Tomuro (Japan), Olga Chelova (Ukraine), and Siyue Kong (China). While I had taken just a week of daily lessons with Entremont, these six students studied with him for much longer periods of time. They were in an ideal position to provide more detailed information about his approach to technique, interpretation, and other matters that were revealed to them over time. I view their firsthand accounts of their time studying with Entremont as a primary source of information that offers a rare glimpse into the mind of an exceptional performer. Their respective essays are included in the Appendix; however, for the sake of convenience to the reader, I will provide relevant excerpts within the body of this article. For context, I will begin with a review of Entremont’s development as a pianist and teacher, with special references to his training and the tradition of piano pedagogy in France, his early career accomplishments, and the various teaching posts he has held throughout his life.
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Philippe Entremont was born in Reims, to parents who laid the foundations of his musical expertise.
His father was a violinist and conductor at the Strasbourg Opera while his mother was a noted pianist who taught at the Reims Conservatoire. She provided his initial lessons in piano, which took place after he spent a year learning solfège, a mixture of theory and ear training that included how to read music. Such an approach, which was common in France at the time, stands in contrast to the more popular kinds of music education methods today, whereby students initially learn by doing. In the United States, for instance, children generally learn how to sing or play an instrument first and their teachers gradually introduce music theory concepts into lessons. Decades later, Entremont would state that his parents had made the right decision:
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First published at College Music Symposium, April 11, 2025
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