Davidsen had an excellent, eloquent partner in Baillieu. He has shown himself an able collaborator in New York to such different artistic personalities as Pretty Yende (Zankel, 2019) and Allan Clayton (Armory Board of Officers Room, 2023). At the Met, with the piano lid wide open, his playing was sensitive and revelatory throughout, not least in the judiciously gauged accompaniment to the Schubert and Strauss groups.
Classical Voice North America, David Shengold
Though he provided staunch undergirding in the program’s homophonic accompaniments, Baillieu proved himself a melodist first and foremost. Whether slinking through Schumann’s faux-chorale countermelodies, invoking Tippett’s birds, or wading through Britten’s harmonic mire, Baillieu’s touch was always light, his phrasing astute.
San Francisco Classical Voice, Emery Kerekes
Anything but an “accompanist,” Baillieu was at least Appl’s expressive equal. Again and again, a subtle shift of color, a chord exquisitely balanced, a telling hesitation before a pivotal downbeat shed new light on the music. I can’t recall another pianist so daringly delaying that magical shift from minor to major mode in the opening “Good Night,” before the words “I will not disturb you as you dream.” It was the stuff of chills down the back.
The Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell
Ms. Davidsen didn’t appear to shrink her voice, treating the room as if it were the Met, while Mr. Baillieu matched her with the grandeur of Liszt’s Wagner transcriptions. These are sensitive musicians, though, and they followed “Tannhäuser” with smaller, rending songs by Grieg and Sibelius, as well as Richard Strauss.
The New York Times, Joshua Barone
Baillieu, a very experienced pianist and long-time collaborator of Davidsen, accompanied the soprano with an outstanding sense for the vast boundaries of her voice. Baillieu played even the most demanding parts of the evening’s repertoire with true mastery, which provided a perfect background for an outstanding overall presentation of a very extensive program.
Opera Wire, Dejan Vukosavljevic
Yende’s partner for this recital, fellow South African James Baillieu, was extraordinary, showing all the makings of an exceptional vocal accompanist: his vivid playing never upstaged his partner, and he followed her beautifully, his choices responding to hers in real time.
Baillieu brought a gorgeous variety of tone and natural freedom in his phrasing: he offered a gossamer touch in “Der Nussbaum,” dreaming sighs in Donizetti’s “Le crépuscule,” and rippling breezes in Tosti’s “Aprile.” In Strauss’s “Zueignung” he played with concerto-like virtuosity, contrasting with the airy glitter of “Ständchen.” If Wednesday was indicative of his usual playing, Baillieu might become one of the few pianists to achieve real fame as a vocal accompanist.
New York Classical Voice, Eric C. Simpson
The strength of the performance — which ended with two encores, Grieg’s little-known “To the Fatherland” and Schubert’s well-known “Die Forelle” — was due in no small part to the gifts of Baillieu, the pianist. In the opening Schubert set, I noted what I thought was sometimes excessive rubato, but that proved a facile judgment about a musician so supportive and nuanced and distinctive that he was truly an equal partner. At the end of “Dichterliebe,” the singer falls silent and the piano takes over, and it was a testimony to Baillieu’s gifts that after an impressive performance by a charismatic singer, the piano so effectively, and so tellingly, had the last word.
The Washington Post, Anne Midgette
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Discography
Described by The Daily Telegraph as ‘in a class of his own,’ James Baillieu is one of the leading song and chamber music pianists of his generation. He has given solo and chamber recitals throughout the world and collaborates with a wide range of singers and instrumentalists including Benjamin Appl, Jamie Barton, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Annette Dasch, Lise Davidsen, the Elias and Heath Quartets, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Adam Walker, and Pretty Yende. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Ulster Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, and the Wiener Kammersymphonie.
James Baillieu is a frequent guest at many of the world’s most distinguished music venues including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vancouver Playhouse, Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Musikverein, Barbican Centre, Wiener Konzerthaus, Bozar Brussels, Pierre Boulez Saal, Cologne Philharmonie, and the Laeiszhalle Hamburg. Festivals include Aix-en-Provence, Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Festpillene i Bergen, Edinburgh, Spitalfields, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Bath, City of London and Brighton Festivals.
At the invitation of John Gilhooly CBE OSI, James Baillieu has presented his own programming series at The Wigmore Hall with Adam Walker, Jonathan McGovern, Ailish Tynan, Tara Erraught, Henk Neven, Iestyn Davies, Allan Clayton, and Mark Padmore amongst others. This series was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Chamber Music and Song Award for an outstanding contribution to the performance of chamber music and song in the UK. An innovative programmer, he has stewarded many song and chamber music series for the Brighton Festival, BBC Radio 3, Verbier Festival, Bath International Festival, and Perth Concert Hall.
Appearances of the current season include an international recital tour with his frequent collaborator, the acclaimed Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, with performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, and The Wigmore Hall; a recital tour to Japan with German baritone, Benjamin Appl; and gala concerts with Ms. Davidsen and the British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and Osterfestspiele Salzburg. A tour schedule with other distinguished artists brings the pianist to premier venues in England, Northern Ireland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, and the United States.
During the 2022-23 season James Baillieu appeared with violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen in a program of C.P.E. Bach presented by San Francisco Performances, with baritone Benjamin Appl in Detroit, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, and Vancouver, and he gave a pair of recitals with tenor Allan Clayton at the Park Avenue Armory, New York. European highlights of the season included recitals with Lise Davidsen at the Bergen International Festival, a European tour of an all-Hahn program with Veronique Gens, performances in the United Kingdom and Spain with violist Timothy Ridout, and a fully-produced staged presentation of Winterreise with Benjamin Appl at the Gran Teatre del Liceu designed by Spanish painter and sculptor Antonio López.
Highlights of the recent past include a series of recitals at The Wigmore Hall probing the songs of Hugo Wolf and, under his direction, he invited many of the premiere Lieder singers to appear with him including Benjamin Appl, Florian Boesch, Ema Nikolovska, Christoph Prégardien, and Fatma Said. James Baillieu was Artist in Residence of the Lied Festival Victoria de los Ángeles where he presented Schubert’s three main cycles – Die schöne Müllerin, Winterreise, and Schwanengesang – in a week-long festival along with three tenors of luxury and reference in the genre: Julian Prégardien, Mark Padmore, and Jan Petryka.
Recording projects with Benjamin Appl include ‘Forbidden Fruit’ and Winterreise (Alpha), ‘Heimat’ (Sony Classical), and a collection of Lieder upon texts of Heinrich Heine (Champs Hill Records), the complete works of CPE Bach for violin and piano with Tamsin Waley-Cohen (Signum Classics), a collection by Brahms for clarinet and piano with Julian Bliss (Signum Classics), French Works for Flute with Adam Walker (Chandos), and several other albums on the Opus Arte, Rubicon, and Delphian Record labels as part his critically acclaimed catalogue.
James Baillieu is Senior Professor in Ensemble Piano at the Royal Academy of Music, a coach for the Jette Parker Young Artist Program, a course leader for the Samling Foundation, and is head of the Song Program at the Atelier Lyrique of the Verbier Festival Academy. He also is International Tutor in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music. Highly sought after for masterclasses worldwide, recent sessions of learning have brought him to the Aldeburgh Festival, Cleveland Institute of Music, Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Friends of Chamber Music, Portland, Oregon, Vancouver Academy of Music, Canada, and to the University of Waikato, New Zealand.
James Baillieu with Lise Davidsen
James Baillieu with Lise Davidsen
James Baillieu with Benjamin Appl
James Baillieu with Iestyn Davies and Allan Clayton
James Baillieu with Timothy Ridout
James Baillieu with Louise Alder
James Baillieu with Mark Padmore
James Baillieu with Peter Moore
James Baillieu with Adam Walker
Contact
Management (The Americas)
Bill Palant, Étude Arts
Ansonia Station,Post Office Box 230132
New York, New York 10023
Tel: 929.777.0775
Email: bp@etudearts.com
Management (Europe)
IMG Artists
Isabella Pitman, Artist Manager
Email: ipitman@imgartists.org
www.imgartists.com