The Composer Pianists [Import]

Leopold Godowsky (Composer), Marc-Andre Hamelin (Composer), Samuel Feinberg (Composer), Charles-Valentin Alkan (Composer), Ferruccio Busoni (Composer), Sergey Rachmaninov (Composer), Alexander Scriabin (Composer), Nikolay Medtner (Composer), Kaikhosru Sorabji (Composer), Marc-André Hamelin (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Marc-André Hamelin
• Composer: Leopold Godowsky, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Samuel Feinberg, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Ferruccio Busoni, et al.
• Audio CD (July 14, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Hyperion UK
• ASIN: B000009PZ3
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,856 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #88 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Composers > Scriabin, Alexander

Track Listings

1. Godowsky, Toccata In G flat Major

2. Scriabin, Poeme Tragique

3. Hamelin, Etude No, 9 D'apres Rossini

4. Hamelin, Etude No. 10 D'apres Chopin ('Pour Les Idees Noires')

5. Feinberg, Bach Schubler Chorale No. 6 (Transcription)

6. Alkan, Andante From Sym. 94 (Transcription) From Esquisses Op 63

7. Alkan, No 46: Le Premier Billet Doux

8. Alkan, No 47: Scherzetto

9. Busoni, Fantasia Nach J S Bach

10. Rachmaninov, Moment Musical In E Flat Minor

11. Rachmaninov, Etude-Tableau In E flat

12. Scriabin, Deux Poemes, Op. 71. No. 1 Fantastique

13. Scriabin, Deux Poemes, Op. 71. No. 2 En revant...

14. Feinberg, Berceuse

15. Medtner, Improvisation No. 1 in B flat minor

16. Sorabji, Pastiche On Hindu Merchant Song From Sadko

17. Hamelin, Prelude And Fugue

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars (No title)., December 6, 2000

By 

offeck (New York, NY -- United States of America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Composer Pianists (Audio CD)

Hamelin is probably the most (constantly) remarkable pianist of our time. A real marvel is his pianism, impassioned, maintaining a Line within the most deafening and hectically whirling complexities. The more difficulties you give him, the more he shines! Never leaving anything out, making light of every demand, he eases his way through the most horrific of music in spades and with a white hot intensity, adding in little, his every release is a standard by which others will long be judged... This disc is pretty much a staple for pianists and lovers of the piano. Here is featured a cunning and potent mix of every conceivable form of pianistic (and musical) intricacy. Everything is of the absorbing interest and impeccably performed. Hamelin gives us a wondful recording of Godowsky's lanyrinthine, wickedly complex Toccata, three of his own insanely complex and ferociously witty, not to mention dark, etudes, a sinister and teasingly perverse Alkan-Haydn andante from the Surprise symphony, a strange and haunting Berceuse from Feinberg, some very romantic Scriabin and Mahler, and, finally, the highlight of the program, a personal favorite, a cloudy, awe-inspiring, profoundly expressive, Fantasia Nach Bach by Busoni.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for all Pianophiles, July 2, 2000

By 

Jason M. Gillespie "matthiasrat" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Composer Pianists (Audio CD)

This collection of so-called "calling cards", though the word does not do it justice, is a brilliant display of pianism on the part of Hamelin and by all the ocmposers who are represented here, even in three delightful selections of the performer's own oeuvre. From the bright Godowsky Tocatta and Rachmaninov selections, to the dark Scriabin poems, and riotous Hamelin Prelude and Fugue, this is a collection that should be owned by every lover of piano music. Though I have only possessed this album for a scant week, I have enjoyed the élan at least three times a day each day. In fact, Hamelin's own works make me wish that he would finish his series of minor key etudes and record them so that we might rejoice in their splendour! This record is another gem in Hyperion's starry crown!

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A most unusual musical feast, August 19, 2000

By 

Thomas C. Marshall (Scarsdale, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Composer Pianists (Audio CD)

This CD contains a marvelous selection of short piano works, seldom heard; many were a discovery for me in the best sense of the word. The outstanding "jewel" is the Poeme Tragique by Scriabin, which in its intensity and instability reminds one of Dostoevsky or Van Gogh. How could one listen to music for fifty years, as I have done, without hearing it until now? Mr. Hamelin is both a fine musician as well as a dedicated scholar of the musical literature.