DISCOGRAPHY

“In 2018, the prestigious label Warner Classics signed Alain Lefèvre as an exclusive recording artist, releasing this year its first title, My Paris Years, recipient of a Trophée Radio-Classique in France.

Lefèvre made glorious debuts on disc in 1994, with John Corigliano’s, Piano Concerto (Koch International Classics). The reviews were raving: “Alain Lefèvre is spectacular. He has an enormous sound and a prodigious technique” (Fanfare). His recording of this incredible work continues to this day to be the benchmark version according to BBC Music Magazine. During an interview in New York, while both artists were discussing the musical approach to this work, John Corigliano took the opportunity to express his enthusiasm, declaring that Alain Lefèvre was a “gem” for composers.

After this early recording success, almost 40 CDs have followed, many on top of the best-selling classical charts for weeks, and all of them high points, in recital or with orchestra. JUNO Award winner for Best Classical Album of the Year (2010) for his recording with the London Mozart Players, Lefèvre is also recipient of ten Félix (ADISQ), plus an Opus Prize and was featured in Gramophone’s Editor’s Choice for André Mathieu’s music (2011). He also received a Classical Internet Award in the “Discoveries” category (2004), for his recording of Mathieu’s Concerto de Québec, whose memory he rehabilitated. This CD had an outstanding success, being in the Top 5 and Top 10 on the Canadian Classical Best-Selling CDs for more than 69 weeks after it came out, which, for a forgotten composer at the time, proved to be quite an accomplishment in the classical recording industry.

His discography covers an extensive repertoire, encompassing, amongst others, works by Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Franck, Gershwin, Liszt, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Rameau, Ravel, Scarlatti, Shostakovich, Schubert, Scriabin and Soler. Alain Lefèvre’s very personal way of giving each composer the quintessence of the text he interprets, never ceases to amaze. This virtuoso pianist, mindful and respectful of the score, offers himself with the same passion and the same rigour, be it in Mozart’s Concerto No. 23, for which he won a prize, or in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini recorded with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, also a prize winner.

His recording of the Liszt Transcriptions of the works by Bach and Wagner, was chosen as a “ Télérama event” in France and Audiophile Audition asserted that: “ This brilliant, spaced-out recital of Liszt transcriptions (…) is as groundbreaking an illumination of Liszt's' transformational art as Gould's was of Bach’s pure art nearly half a century ago.” His CD Rhapsodies came highly recommended by BBC Music Magazine as an “essential purchase”, saluting Lefèvre’s “greatest passion and excitement”. His album of André Mathieu’s Piano Concerto No.4, described as “truly a work of genius” by Fanfare magazine, topped the Canadian and American charts when released. On this occasion, he appeared on the then acclaimed Charlie Rose Show on PBS, sharing his passion for Mathieu.

Alain Lefèvre’s recording world would not be complete without mentioning the composer he has become over the years, with six CDs featuring his own works, Lylatov, Carnet de Notes, Fidèles Insomnies, Jardin d’Images, Rive Gauche, Sas Agapo and to be released on Warner Classics, Opus 7. “Intimate letters at the piano” (La Presse), his compositions, much like snapshots of life, are tonal and their pianistic writing, “absolutely gorgeous and musically sophisticated” (Times Argus).