Grace Francis - Piano
“Grace Francis’s recital at Wigmore Hall last month is closely followed by this equally remarkable debut disc. She has a prodigious technique, so the bravura demands of Brahms’s Paganini Variations and Liszt’s Tarantella hold no terrors for her, and she makes Liszt’s intricate filigree writing a thing of enchantment. She revels, too, in the rhythmic energy of the Brahms C major sonata, but sounds a deep, glowing note in its slow-movement variations. This early opus, written when the composer was barely 20, is revealed as a work of extraordinary confidence and structural strength and subtlety. Schumann, when Brahms played it to him, wrote in his diary: “a genius”. It’s tempting to say the same of Francis. She’s certainly a pianist to watch.”
“I am delighted to be with the PIANOWORKS initiative...I am familiar with Grace Francis’s excellent playing, from when I invited her to perform with me and the European Youth Orchestra at the Lugano Festival.”
Mitsuko Uchida was indeed so impressed with Grace Francis's playing that she gave a CD of her playing that she heard to the promoters at Carnegie Hall leading to her first performance there.
A ‘phenomenon … of uncommon fire and energy’, according to The Sunday Times, the British pianist who won the Chappell Gold Medal at the Royal College of Music has gone on to impress audiences with her technical command and musicality. Reviewing her ‘remarkable’ debut disc, David Cairns was tempted to call her a genius…
Grace has had various releases with Quartz which you can read about here
You can hear these discs on the Spotify lists below:
‘Sacred’ was featured across BBC Radio 3 throughout International Women’s Day week.
Grace Francis was born in London and attended the Yehudi Menuhin School before studying with Irina Zaritskaya at the Royal College of Music. There she won the Chappell Gold Medal, the highest award for a pianist. She continued her studies with a Wingate Scholarship, also receiving the Hattori Foundation Award and winning in international competition the Negrada Piano House Award at Zagreb.
Grace has given many concerts in the UK: Barbican; Reform Club, Pall Mall; Purcell Room; Wigmore Hall (for the Kirckman Society) and in 2023 with a booking confirmed for 2024. Grace has performed at St John’s Smith Square; Rosehill Theatre, Cumbria; Warwick University; and the City Music Society.
Broadcasts include Liszt’s ‘Hungarian Rhapsody’ with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and a BBC Radio 3 programme of works by Chopin, John Field and Viteslav Novak. Grace’s repertoire is wide-ranging: from Haydn to Chopin, Brahms, Liszt and Bartok. Grace’s album “Sacred '' which you can hear on the Spotify list was broadcast across BBC Radio 3 on International Women’s Day week.
Grace’s new CD, Brahms & Liszt, released by Quartz, features Brahms’ Variations on a theme of Paganini, Book II, Brahms Sonata No I, Liszt Funerailles, Ave Maria, Sonetto del Petrarca 104 and Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli. This recording is now available at HMV and online through Discovery Records, HMV.com and Amazon.co.uk.
For more information or bookings please contact her agent:
jonathan@hennesseybrownmusic.com
Mobile 07939 597760