[Biography]
She is a frequent guest at such leading international festivals as Radio France-Montpellier, La Roque d'Anthéron, L'Orangerie de Sceaux, Piano aux Jacobins, Lille Piano(s) Festival, Festival International de Colmar, Consonances, and the La Folles Journées of Nantes, Bilbao, and Tokyo, where she performs each year. She also appears regularly with orchestra, notably with the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National d'lle de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre National de Lille, and Budapest Symphony Orchestra.
At the age of fourteen she entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where she was awarded a premier prix in chamber music in the class of Jean Hubeau, and the premier prix in piano by unanimous decision of the jury (Special Prize for the 1985 examination) in the class of Vensislav Yankoff. She was admitted to the postgraduate course in piano in the same year, then won a French Government scholarship for a year's study in Evgeny Malinin's class at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. On her return to Paris she entered the postgraduate course in chamber music, in the class of Roland Pidoux.
Claire Désert is a peerless chamber musician of rare artistry. Her partners of choice include the pianist Emmanuel Strosser, the cellist Anne Gastinel, the violinists Nemanja Radulovic, Philippe Graffin and Régis Pasquier, the Parisii and Sine Nomine Quartets, and the Moragues Wind Quintet
Her extensive discography includes a Schumann CD (her first recording, which won a '10 de Répertoire'), a disc of the Scriabin and Dvorák Concertos with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg which was awarded a Victoire de la Musique in 1997, and two recordings with Anne Gastinel, one devoted to Schumann, the other to Schubert. Her two most recent releases have been on Mirare: a Schumann programme including the Davidsbündlertänze and Dvorák's Slavonic Dances for piano duet with Emmanuel Strosser.
Claire Désert teaches piano and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and was awarded the Prix d'interprétation de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2020.
[Press]
Laure Mézan's favourites
Claire Désert once again captures us with Schumann, whose torments, mysteries and unspoken words she translates so well. Through the genre of the variation, the common thread running through this new album, the whole of Schumann's soul is expressed, in all its instability and contrasting moods. (translated from French)
Novembre 2021PianisteLaure MézanRead the articleClaire Désert at the Festival du Vexin, in the golden light of September
She flows naturally into this passionate music, without forcing either the piano or the expression, channelling the passion while letting it express itself without constraint. (translated from French)
7 septembre 2020BachtrackAlain LompechRead the articleClaire Désert, a rare pianist
Seeing her hands on the screen is a lesson: with a great economy of gesture that evacuates all unnecessary tension, Désert ‘takes the sound’ of the piano, modelling it as she pleases, a sound of admirable breadth and richness, right down to the pianissimo, always timbred, and the powerful fortissimo without a hint of metallic sonority. This is great art and great technique. (translated from French)
13 juillet 2020Crescendo MagazinePatrice LiebermanRead the articleRobert Schumann: Fantasy, Three Romances, Scenes from the Forest
Dramatic tension, gentleness or reverie... Schumann's fluctuating moods sublimated by Claire Désert's exceptional sensitivity. (translated from French)
Décembre 2018TéléramaSophie BourdaisRead the articlePoetic, sensitive, intense
French pianist Claire Désert proves an outstanding Schumann performer in these sensitive, often poetic and always in-depths readings. (translated from German)
9 novembre 2018PianisteRémy FranckRead the articleSchumann in majesty
She exposes a myriad of moods and paradoxes, where the warm cheerfulness of the outer rooms conceals the sinister interior of a man on the verge of madness. (translated from French)
Novembre 2018Revue "Pianiste"Melissa KhongRead the articleAt the heart of Schumann's imagination
In the first movement, the alternations between melancholy, despondency and bursts of passion and agitation, signs of the composer's depression, have rarely been negotiated with such intelligence and understanding of the text: the impression that the performer is literally slipping into the composer's skin and living with him all the torments and demons that inhabit him is truly seizing. (translated from French)
October 16th 2018Crescendo MagazineBernard PostiauRead the articleRobert Schumann: Fantasy, Three Romances, Scenes from the Forest
Schumann's ‘Waldszenen’ [...] are colourful character pieces for the French pianist [...], in which tension and suppleness are balanced in a particularly beautiful way. (translated from Dutch)
September 2018Opus KlassiekAart van der WalRead the articleSchumann
It is she who best conveys Schumann's ardour, made up of passionate lightness, feline suppleness and almost excessive outbursts. (translated from French)
January 1993–Jacques BonnaureRead the article