Brigitte Engerer

"I need the transparency of the French piano — and, more important, the rationality of French philosophy. But I needed some of the Russian craziness in my playing. I still do."

In 1980, her career took a decisive turn when Herbert von Karajan invited her to play with the Berlin Philharmonic. She subsequently received engagements with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim, and she was a favourite of conductors such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Zubin Mehta. Her subsequent career was divided between giving recitals and teaching at the Paris Conservatoire. Her last recital (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, 12 June 2012), featured the work of Schumann.

She was married to the writer Yann Queffélec, with whom she had a daughter, Leonore. She later married Xavier Fourteau, and together they had a son, Harold Fourteau. She died of cancer in Paris in 2012.

Brigitte Engerer images appear repeatedly in Sophie Laloy's film Je te mangerais (released 11 March 2009), in which she is admired by Mary, the main character. She also plays the classical piano pieces heard in the film.

Born in Tunis, French Tunisia, Engerer started piano lessons at the age of four, and by the age of six was performing in public. When she was 11 her family moved to France and she entered the Paris Conservatoire to study under Lucette Descaves. In 1968, aged 15, she was unanimously awarded a first prize in piano, and the following year she won the Concours International Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud. Engerer was subsequently invited to undertake further training at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she joined the class of Stanislav Neuhaus, who said she was "one of the most brilliant and most original pianists of her generation"; though her scholarship was originally for one year, she loved Russia so much that she studied there for nine years.

Brigitte Engerer (French: [ɑ̃ɡəʁɛʁ] ; 27 October 1952 – 23 June 2012) was a French pianist.