Elizabeth Sombart on Mozart and philanthropy

Since the 1990s French pianist Elizabeth Sombart has been combining her performing career with philanthropic work, centred on bringing classical music to settings where it might not normally reach - hospitals, prisons, refugee camps and more.

Her latest recording of Mozart - coming from a very relaxed motivation of simply wanting to set down some of her favourite works - gave me an opportunity to talk to her not just about Mozart's music but about her work with the Fondation Résonnance.

This is your second volume of Mozart piano concertos with Pierre Vallet and RPO - are intending to develop this into a full cycle?

The original idea was to record my eight favorite Mozart concertos—just a few days ago, I recorded the final two. For now, I feel I have recorded enough, and certainly those concertos that resonate most deeply with me—those I believe they bring the best out of me in the recording studio. But who knows what the future holds? 

After focusing mostly on Romantic repertoire in your previous recordings, what’s drawn you to record these Mozart concertos?

Mozart’s music has been an endless source of joy and inspiration throughout my life. Perhaps one day, I will feel the urge to return to the studio and record more of his sublime works.

The soloist’s early entry in the Jeunehomme (not waiting for an extensive orchestral introduction) is often held up as a precursor of later concertos by Beethoven and others. What do you think inspired Mozart to take this new approach?

While I understand why Mozart’s innovation in the Jeunehomme Concerto was groundbreaking and paved the way for later piano concertos, I don’t believe he intended to make a deliberate statement with this particular change. My reasoning is that, following Jeunehomme, the only other concerto featuring an early piano entry is No. 19—a rare occurrence, given that he composed 27 concertos! As with all creative geniuses, I don’t think Mozart’s inspiration can be classified as a calculated shift in compositional approach. Throughout music history, all great composers have expanded the boundaries of their craft by introducing fresh, unheard ideas.

I can only imagine young Mozart at work, receiving a stroke of divine inspiration—he was, after all, deeply spiritual—and feeling compelled to put it on paper. The rest is history!

The concerto No. 12 is part of a set of three relatively lightweight works where the wind parts are optional - do you get a sense of them being closer to chamber music than Mozart’s other piano concertos?

I imagine those three works were commissioned by someone who required a flexible orchestral ensemble. Beyond that, I believe all of Mozart’s concertos are, at their core, chamber works, in which the pianist exists in perfect osmosis with the ensemble—a partnership of equals.

The wind parts, in particular, hold great significance. In Mozart’s time, the pianist also served as the conductor, seated in a way that directly faced the wind section. Some of the most sublime moments in his concertos are the dialogues between the pianist and the wind players. In this sense, the chamber music element is integral and should never be overlooked.

Away from the concert stage you’re known for the Fondation Résonnance organisation, which you set up in the 1990s. How has the Fondation developed over the decades since, and has its mission evolved over time?

The Fondation has spread its wings across the world, with branches in seven different countries and a strong spirit of collaboration and exchange between them. Its mission remains unchanged: to bring music where music does not typically go.

Together with the pianists from our local branches—most of whom have been my students—we have performed over 5,000 free concerts in prisons, refugee camps, orphanages, and other places of social need. This work has been complemented by free lessons for aspiring piano students. While the mission remains the same, I hope its impact has only deepened over time.

Bound up with the Fondation is the unique approach of Résonnance Pedagogy - which among other things involves no exams at all, despite being technically rigorous and demanding. How did you develop this, and what sort of results have you seen from implementing it?

The Résonnance Pedagogy is more than a teaching method—it is the distillation of Sergiu Celibidache’s legacy, under whom I had the privilege of studying for ten years. At its core, everything stems from and returns to the same principles: that all things exist in relation, and all things are reduced to unity. These are not merely pianistic principles; they are lessons about life itself.

« This great conductor and thinker taught us that music is an absolute manifestation of the cosmos. With this in mind, our pedagogy transforms piano lessons into something much greater—lessons about living, about the essence of life itself. »