Frédéric Vaysse-Knitter's piano opens doors, creates universes, and establishes climates. With a few chosen composers as guides – Szymanowski, Debussy, Chopin, Schumann, etc. – the pianist becomes one with his instrument to answer the call of dreams and take the listener with him into his worlds of enchantment. A powerful musical experience, sensory as well as spiritual, tending towards transcendence.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Become one with the instrument

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Frédéric Vaysse-Knitter is one of those pianists who dare to venture onto untrodden paths without fear of being pushed into their entrenchments. A champion of introspection, in close combat with his instrument, he finds his balance in an approach that is both instinctive and analytical. Feeling the music, but also understanding its architecture to better free oneself from it, and making it invisible to the listener's ears, leaving only the emotions.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Refocus on the essentials

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First Prize winner of the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris (piano and chamber music), the pianist has been enriched by a wide variety of teachings: his meeting, as a teenager, with Krystian Zimerman was founding and led him to other masters, at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg, then with György Sebök, Alexis Weissenberg, Alicia de Larrocha and Leon Fleisher, at the prestigious International Piano Academy of Lake Como.

"All these experiences have nourished me," says Frédéric Vaysse-Knitter , "and have allowed me to find myself. This journey has allowed me to refocus on what is essential."

This essential consists in not wanting to play everything. If the piano repertoire, notably from the Romantic era and especially Chopin, to which Frédéric Vaysse-Knitter's Polish origins are sensitive, holds no secrets for the pianist, he has retained a few figures: those of Schumann or Liszt, tending towards a certain symbolism, but also Debussy and especially Szymanowski.

"A composer attracts me," he says, "if he makes me enter a world where I have the capacity to dream, to physically feel his music. When I work on a piece, it inhabits me permanently, daily, in each of my actions. This interaction between the concrete world and the dream world is extraordinary."

He finds it particularly with Szymanowski, who inspires him in his search for sound as well as in his fusional relationship with the instrument. The spiritual quest of the Polish composer, the inner fire animating his music, the sensuality of his approach to the piano and his rich career make him a model for Frédéric Vaysse-Knitter, who never tires of making him his own on the piano.

"Szymanowski is constantly questioning himself, he has defined his own language while drawing from many sources. His music is also imbued with dreams, mystery, and a very powerful oneirism."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Experience music naturally

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In his personal approach, Frédéric Vaysse-Knitter meets up with some chamber musicians, with whom he willingly shares the stage. He notably forms a duo with the violinist Solenne Païdassi with whom he recorded a Szymanowski/Stravinsky album in 2014.

“We live music naturally, we have a real pleasure in evolving together, freely, in a common direction.”

Frédéric Vaysse-Knitter also released a solo album this year under the title "Tempêtes", which will add to a discography already marked by Satie, Haydn, Brahms, Dvořák, Chopin, Liszt and Stravinsky. He notably recorded Beethoven's sonata "The Tempest", Franz Liszt's Obermann Valley and Frédéric Chopin's first Ballade.