Hélène Grimaud, keeper of wolves and globe-trotting pianist, is returning to perform in Philly

Concert pianist Hélène Grimaud has evolved so far from her origins at the Paris Conservatory that any observations made about how she has remained a French artist at heart do not come as a compliment.

“That hurts!” protested Grimaud, 54, whose addresses have included Florida, Switzerland, New York, and California, and who is now returning to New York. She is her own nationality.

Long known to Philadelphia Orchestra audiences, she has been a highly individual presence over numerous visits, such as the forthcoming concerts alternating between Mozart and Ravel on Dec. 7, 9, and 10 at the Kimmel Center. Never as conservative or typical as her famous French predecessors, Grimaud’s searingly clear finger work and flexible, rubato-prone tempos mark her as coming from a Continental tradition. But her playing also has a disquieting rumble in its foundation, and her repertoire mixes in living composers such as the Estonian mystic Arvo Pärt and the Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov.

The very charismatic Grimaud is a figure that the public is open to hearing on subjects beyond music — a responsibility she considers seriously, as do many current classical artists. It’s not quite enough to be a brilliant pianist these days.

“As much as I believe … in the redemptive quality and value in what we do,” she said in a phone interview, “artists share social responsibility and have to use their voices and express opinions. I’ve always struggled with that fact.”

While German Russian pianist Igor Levit has taken political stands on social media — and has also faced death threats — Grimaud doesn’t discuss the pro-Palestinian protesters who interrupted her concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra on tour in Brussels in 2018. Her priorities are education and the environment. Her recordings are, as it turns out, not just fresh readings of standard repertoire but high-concept learning experiences. On the environmental side, she founded (in 1999) the Wolf Conservation Center in upstate New York.

Her love of wolves is detailed in her book Wild Harmonies: A Life of Music and Wolves, explaining her belief that this apex species is essential to overall ecological balance. In conjunction with the federal Species Survival Plan, near-extinct breeds of wolves are raised and released into the wild.

Having made recordings ever since she was an Aix-en-Provence teenager giving dazzling-though-agitated performances of romantic-era repertoire while at the Paris Conservatory, she does acknowledge admiration for French pianists Samson François and Alfred Cortot. But after a successful transition into adulthood both as a concert and recording artist — she loves taking chances in the studio — the prestigious German label Deutsche Grammophon offered her what would be an artistic turning point: the opportunity to mix music of all kinds under a central concept.

The 2004 Credo featured a major new work of the same title by Pärt, whose meditative music has captured a young international audience. The Dec. 9 Kimmel concert celebrates the 125th anniversary of DG, which is also a coproducer on the documentary on Grimaud’s life, Between the Notes. The film will premiere in New York on Dec. 5.

Recent Grimaud albums appear to be in step with reviving neglected female composers and promoting Ukrainian culture — though a closer look reveals that she has her own way of expressing those objectives. Other DG albums included the 2014 Hélène Grimaud: Water, played live in a wading pool at New York’s Park Avenue Armory. This year’s For Clara: Works by Schumann & Brahms stops short of promoting Clara Schumann’s own compositions but explores what pieces this pianist wife of Robert Schumann inspired — teaming up with baritone Konstantin Krimmel for Brahms’ great-but-rarely-heard Lieder und Gesänge Op. 32 that expresses the composer’s frustrated love for her.

“Clara is the reason for why some of the most beautiful music was ever created,” said Grimaud. “She brought eight children into the world. She was a concert pianist. It was an amazing life and career.” In other words, Grimaud celebrates what Clara was rather than what she might’ve been.

This year’s Silvestrov: Silent Songs with Krimmel was planned well before the composer’s country was invaded by Russia — originally with a Russian bass player who didn’t work out. With the German Romanian Krimmel, the songs have low-key eloquence — the composer has described his music as “an echo of what already exists” — that’s daringly contrary to what Grimaud does best. She finds the music authentic and poetic, though its spareness is so singular that it’s “outsider music.”

After Silvestrov, one wonders how Mozart’s mainstream Piano Concerto No. 20 fits into her psyche for the Dec. 7 and 10 concerts at Kimmel. The world premiere of Argentinean composer Esteban Benzecry’s MUYUY, The circle of life, commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Florence Price’s Symphony No. 4 are also part of the Kimmel program.

Grimaud came late to Mozart — when she realized the music was not what so many have said that it is. “None of these compositions were there to decorate or to soothe,” she said. “I hear a fantastic borderline mania to that music. It’s extremely sophisticated … but there’s madness.”

Therein lies one of Grimaud’s primary entry points to great music: “All of these composers were madmen. Even when the music is happy ... it sometimes borders on instability.” So it stands to reason everything she plays acquires an outsider quality that, like her, takes on its own nationality.

The Philadelphia Orchestra, “Yannick and Hélène Grimaud Reunite,” Dec. 7, Dec. 10. Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, 300 S. Broad St., Phila. https://www.kimmelculturalcampus.org/events-and-tickets/2023-24/the-philadelphia-orchestra/verizon-hall/yannick-and-helene-grimaud-reunite/