Customer Reviews

Grainger: Piano Music

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Hamelin's Percy Grainger, presenting not only old favorites but should-be favorites (absolutely delightful discoveries for many of us), played with breathtakingly deceptive and natural sound ease, in its superb control and subtle artistry, is perhaps one of the most riveting and satisfying to date -- a real delight. What marvellous melodic voicings, and such a gorgeous mastery of the pedals! Don't be hesitant in acquiring this; you should do so by any means necessary!

Strangely enough, there have not been too many recordings of Grainger's piano music. Martin Jones did a four disc set on Nimbus. But this set is good because it has his famous arrangements (Country Gardens, Irish Tune From County Derry, Shepherd's Hey) which makes this disc irresistible for someone looking for a one-disc survey. I was utterly surprised when this disc came out-Hamelin keeps on surprising me with his choice of repertoire! He is on his toes throughout, and in the lyrical music he is superb! My favorites are In Dahomey, which is Granger's version of Scott Joplin (he puts two tunes together) and the "MacGuire's Kick" from the Stanford Irish Dances (a transcription of a transcription!)Utterly fascinating, and beautifully recorded.

Grainger is soulfully direct engaging music. You cannot toss it off as simple,playful disarming bits of snap and pop for the musical imagination. Grainger was a deadly serious musician,and scoured countless musical genres,the piano,our fortune was his most cherished and sought after timbral center. Ample degrees of pure refined,tailored piano timbre you'll discover in this music,fine bits of grace notes to help colour a downbeat,or a flourish.Fine voicings of chords,and it is the ultimate mark of genius when you cannot imagine another realization of these finely wrought piano solos,even though their source was the voice. I think Hamelin needs this music to help deepen his own musucianship.Picasso said this of art, the problem is not becoming an artist,but remaining one,and,his fan club claims he sometimes plays a bit robotically passive,all furioso technique without an engaged soul,or emotive mannered bombast like Horowitz I suppose. Yet Horowitz knew how to create excitement without sacrificing deep musical committment,as the Carmen Variations.

Hamelin has been scouring the neglected piano repertoire,for quite some time, Alkan,Sorabji,Catoire,Medtner,Busoni,late Listz,Roslavets, Villa-Lobos,and quite recently Frederic Rzewski's political/mural ,the Variations on the powerful Chilean folk tune.I wish other pianists had this vision. The Jutish melody here did have a reference to a political situation, the Jute Mill was the site of rebellion in 19th century agrarian British culture.

Whether Hamelin puts off the overtly emotional is a matter of taste and judgement. I tend to get excited about clarity first,and Grainger's music begs for clarity,for if you ever heard excessive rubatos,and durational liberties, the content of the wonderfully simple melodies, their charm and reverie would have escaped into mediocrity and sacrificed at the head-block of performative indulgence. I think Hamelin treads a fine line,between what should emote and what should remain within the refinement of pianistic timbral clarity.

Listening to Percy Grainger's music always strikes me as something of a guilty pleasure; the music is generally a little cheesy and unfashionably good-old-timesy - in addition to the fact that Grainger himself was a character of, shall we say, questionable ideological bent. Yet it is always delightfully inventive, fascinating and variegated, and when played like it is played here, one cannot help but being mesmerized and, well, smitten. One could, conceivable, question whether Marc-Andre Hamelin's approach is the most idiomatic on record, but one cannot really question his control and his artistry, the riveting sheen of the textures and the glittering colors he realize, both in the more familiar works and the relatively unknown ones (the Stanford arrangements, for instance). Despite the fact that many of the pieces are - to an extent - easy listening does not mean that they are easy to play (even though they are almost made to sound that way in Hamelin's hands), and Hamelin's wonderful phrasing and ability to bring out the melodic lines in all their fascinating details and nuances makes this disc a sheer delight from start to end (the Ramble on themes from Der Rosenkavalier is just one highlight). The recorded sound is excellent, and this is - even if you have some reservations about the music - really an irresistible proposition.