Customer Reviews

Marc-André Hamelin Live at Wigmore Hall

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This recital should stand as one of the great documents of live performance in the last twenty years. Had Hamelin essayed more popular repertoire - instead of headlining with "Alkan, who?" - he might have received wider notice. To the 19th Century truffle hunters who are his fans, his reputation is ever-burnished.

"Live at Wigmore Hall" is culled from three recitals presented in June 1994. The programs, designed by producer Ates Orga, bore fanciful titles: The Concert Room, Grand Opera and Song, and The Salon.

The music, much of it transcription, is by composer-performers who pushed the boundaries of their art. Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888), the reclusive French virtuoso and a Hamelin staple, figures largely. His massive conceptions challenge the listener's appreciation of music itself. Take for example the cadenza to Alkan's transcription of the first movement of the Beethoven Piano Concerto #3. Along with the typical recap of the main themes, Alkan maniacally conjoins Beethoven's Fifth symphony for even starker dramatic relief. It lasts six minutes, one third of the entire piece. Hamelin fills the hall with sound, his total control casting an icy glitter. Who is Alkan's audience? In the composer's day, few performers would even attempt these works in public. The rewards of playing them seemed apparent only to a few discerning artists, Franz Liszt among them. Busoni and Petri kept Alkan alive in the early part of our century; Raymond Lewenthal was the first to make extensive recordings in the Sixties; recent champions include pianist-scholar Ronald Smith and Hamelin.

After dispatching that monster, Hamelin relaxes with the fragrant Balakirev reduction of the "Romanza" from Chopin's Piano Concerto #1. It's the least removed from the original of the transcriptions played here. The main course is next: Alkan's "Tres Grandes Etudes" for the hands separately and united. The gauche etude precedes by sixty years the popularity of left hand works, and it's likely nothing written since has been as formidable. At one point, Hamelin negotiates what has to be two pages of leaps in bristling chords. When I first heard it I thought I detected some hesitation on his part; I now chalk it up to rubato! As the heroic chords draw to a close silence. Perhaps Hamelin takes a drink of water here. Then the right hand has its say in a fifteen minute novella of arpeggio studies and five-fingered counterpoint. The music becomes a test of will. As Hamelin lifts his hands from the keys, concluding yet another ringing coda, we can imagine him waving off first aid. He pounces again; beginning from a hush, the soft pedal fully engaged, the hands-united etude emerges, whirring like a dynamo. For some five minutes, the notes whip by at a speed that threatens to invoke relativity. The musical quotient dips a bit here, but in the blistering parallel scales, Alkan does his countryman Charles Hanon proud. Then, abruptly, it's over. The audience sighs with relief, and seeing that Hamelin is free of demonic possession, erupts in applause.

Dessert is sweet. Hamelin shows a beguiling tone in the Busoni "Carmen" Sonatina which treats some of Bizet's familiar themes with mordant éclat. Medtner's "Danza Festiva" closes the program with a whirl.

I hope this pseudo-correspondence gives a sense of the occasion and magnetism generated by these performances. Not all the music is inspired, but Hyperion is to be congratulated for staging this high-wire act. Bravo, Mr. Hamelin!

If you buy only one Hamelin recording, if you buy only one Alkan recording, if you buy only one piano recording, if you buy only one recording PERIOD...Get this one. This is the one recording I'd take to a desert island with me. This is the one recording I'd put in a time capsule to sum up all that is great about my generation. This is the one recording I'd put aboard a spacecraft lest it encounter alien beings intent on studying the music of humanity.

I've been listening to this disc weekly for the past two years and it never fails to amaze me. Every piece on this CD is an absolute gem and every performance a towering masterpiece of interpretation. Let's start with the opening Alkan transcription: Never have I witnessed a more supremely satisfying fusion of genius: The genius of Beethoven as composer, the genius of Alkan as transcriber, and the genius of Marc-Andre Hamelin as interpreter. Every time I listen I find more to praise. Any single track on this CD would be worth the price of the disc but with the mammoth Alkan transcription, the beautiful and well-placed Balakirev transcription, the epic 'Troise Grande Etudes', the highly original Busoni sonatine, and the brilliant encore - Medtner's 'Danza Festiva', this recording is an embarrassment of riches, an absolute feast.

If I'd ever dare to call a performance "perfect", I'd venture with this recital. If there are any flaws here, they're buried under the technical and musical greatness which overrides and

overwhelms.

From track 1 on, it is clear that Hamelin is one of piano music's most meteoric talents ever to blaze the pianistic firmament. He dispatches Beethoven as if driven by the very fires of Hell. Surprising, as elements of wry humour are often a characteristic of this artist. But with that aside, this is a brilliantly successful recital.

Hamelin has no equal as an interpreter of Alkan; he inhabits the overheated world of this strange proto-Lisztian figure with a completeness that combines a total mastery of its fearsome technical challenges with an innate understanding of its sometime elusive emotional content.

A huge achievement...and not only technically but musically as well. Hamelin delivers on every level: this recording had me gasping in disbelief, and then laughing out loud at the sheer audacity of it all. Hamelin is a revelation. Where was I before I discovered Him? I might as well have been unconscious.

Marc-Andre Hamelin is the most exciting piano talent to come along in years! His playing of the Alkan etude Op. 76 #3 has to be heard to be believed. I have never heard anyone play that fast and clearly and evenly as well. The closest I can think of is Horowitz on his best day. The other two Alkan etudes, one for the left hand along and one for the right hand alone, are amazing as well. It's hard to believe one hand can do all that. The Alkan version of the Beethoven 3rd, with Hamelin playing the role of both orchestra and soloist is a tour de force. The cadenza is preposterously long, but so inventive that it makes others seem dull. Listen to what Alkan does to the harmony in the last cadenza section, the one with all the trills. Beethoven might be rolling over in his grave, but it's one of the most inventive things to come out of the 19th century piano literature. The Chopin/Balakirev demontrates that Hamelin is poetic as well as virtuosic. By the way, the track listing here is incorrect. No Godowsky on this album. The Busoni Sonatina, really a "reminiscence" of Carmen, is great fun, and the Medtner Danza Festiva makes a nice encore. After hearing this album, I ordered everything else Hamelin has recorded. Definitely a major new talent!

Any doubts about Marc-Andre Hamelin's amazing gifts will be swept away by this spectacular recital. He recorded this live and still manages to turn in the finest recording - bar none - that I have ever heard of Charles-Valentin Alkan's three incomparable Etudes, Op. 76. Etude #1 is a Fantasy in A flat for the left hand alone. It is a gorgeous work. Ravel's well none Concerto for the Left Hand would not be possible without this glorious piece. Hamelin gives a ravishing performance of the it. Etude #2 is a murderous Introduction, Variations, and Finale in D for the right hand alone. I had never heard an entirely satisfactory performance of this piece until I heard Hamelin. Hearing his wonderous traversal of this made me mindful of Berlioz's raves for Liszt's performance of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata. Yet again we have (to use Berlioz words) a "new Oedipus" solving "the riddle of the Sphinx". The D major study seems to stop the few pianists courageous enough to attempt it. Hamelin swallows it whole. It is the definitive rendering. Hamelin also plays Alkan's unbelievable transcription of the first movement of Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto in C minor. Here Alkan asks the soloist to play a ruthlessly faithful and full transcription of both the orchestra and piano parts! It is capped by the most audacious, original and witty cadenza that I have ever heard. The cadenza alone would have marked Alkan as a major creative intelligence in the 19th century. That Hamelin plays it in a live performance with such infallible panache and brio is a testament to his nonpareil gifts. This marvelous CD includes several other treasures, but the pieces discussed more than qualify it for your serious consideration as a purchase. You will not be sorry.

I think these reviews say it all. I've been listening to Hamelin since his first Alkan recording and he continues to astound me with his mix of musicianship and virtuosity:

PENGUIN GUIDE ROSETTE GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE / CRITICS' CHOICE

'The most dazzling piano disc of the year' (The Guardian) 'Terrifying virtuosity, scorching pianism, ineffable beauty and a mind equal to his fingers, Hamelin is one of 19th-century piano music's most meteoric talents ever to blaze the pianistic firmament' (Soundscapes, Australia) 'Titanic... awe-inspiring... truly phenomenal... A disc I cannot recommend too highly. Buy it!' (Gramophone) 'An exceptional disc by one of the keyboard phenomena of today... Jaw dropping... An awesome display of virtuoso pianism' (Classic CD) 'A feast for lovers of titanic piano playing' (American Record Guide) 'Superlatives fail me: just go out and buy it!' (Hi Fi News) 'This is amongst the most spectacular piano issues of the decade' (Penguin Guide to Compact Discs) 'Une fois de plus des pages extrêmement difficiles soulignent une maîtrise digitale impressionante' (Diapason, France) 'Every Hamelin recording is an Event, and this is not to be missed by anyone who cares for genuinely transcendental playing' (Fanfare, USA) 'Some of the most astonishing playing of the decade' (BBC Music Magazine Top 1000 CDs Guide)

Many of the less imaginative people in the field of classical music have declared its imminent death for years. Citing the end of innocence brought about by World War Two, as well as the supposed inferiority of postwar works, these false Cassandras chirp endlessly that doom is coming--or has already come. I do not agree. There have been many wonderful composers since the last great war. More importantly, of late there have been many exceptional artists. Marc-Andre Hamelin is one example. His ability to breath life into old favorites, as well as buried gems speaks powerfully to open vistas of classical music's future. This disc is a case in point:

It is a thrilling live performance that plays to Hamelin's strengths. Hamelin owns the music of Alkan--his playing of Alkan's reworked Beethoven affims his mastery. The same could be said of Hamelin's Medtner. Though very different bests, these pieces show Hamelin's range and virtuosic power. The other pieces form a very pleasing and dynamic performance. Highly recommended.

If this disc doesn't blow your top, I don't know what will! First) The Alkan arrangement of Beethoven's First Piano Concerto, First Movement, is absolutely outstanding, and as if that weren't enough, he writes a cadenza which will make the more educated ladies blush and the more open-minded gentlemen holler, positively in exasperation! Second) the Balakirev, very well programmed, which will drive many (non-)Chopin(eqsue in spirit) devotees (if they ever come out of their little rooms to hear this) bonkers, sends chills up my spine and tears to my eyes everytime I hear it. Third) The Alkan composition. The first movement is for left hand, the second for right hand, and the third for both hands re-united. Alkan really had no pity for performers, very similarly to Sorabji who would later follow him -- writing such things as a concerto titled 'for myself alone.' Although Hamelin cheats in the third movement (NON-LEGATO), which only the most devoted of fans will ever notice, everybody will leave thoroughly satisfied. I only wish I were in the audience to witness this major event! Fourth) Busoni's Super Carmen Fantasy. I still don't know whether to laugh or wave my arms in triumph with this piece, but it's thoroughly enjoyable, and it only gets better the more you study it. Busoni was a great master, and his miniatures really are the place to develop a life-long appreciation. Fifth) Medtner's Festive Dance isn't the greatest performance I've heard (that goes to Petri), but the Chops shown are quite impressive, and everything done within really serves as a great conclusion to a disc already winning so many superlatives. This is a disc every owner will cherish. Bravo, Hamelin. Heck -- Hamelin, Hamelin!

If you buy only one Hamelin recording, if you buy only one Alkan recording, if you buy only one piano recording, if you buy only one recording PERIOD...Get this one. This is the one recording I'd take to a desert island with me. This is the one recording I'd put in a time capsule to sum up all that is great about my generation. This is the one recording I'd put aboard a spacecraft lest it encounter alien beings intent on studying the music of humanity.

I've been listening to this disc weekly for the past two years and it never fails to amaze me. Every piece on this CD is an absolute gem and every performance a towering masterpiece of interpretation. Let's start with the opening Alkan transcription: Never have I witnessed a more supremely satisfying fusion of genius: The genius of Beethoven as composer, the genius of Alkan as transcriber, and the genius of Marc-Andre Hamelin as interpreter. Every time I listen I find more to praise. Any single track on this CD would be worth the price of the disc but with the mammoth Alkan transcription, the beautiful and well-placed Balakirev transcription, the epic 'Troise Grande Etudes', the highly original Busoni sonatine, and the brilliant encore - Medtner's 'Danza Festiva', this recording is an embarrassment of riches, an absolute feast.

If I'd ever dare to call a performance "perfect", I'd venture with this recital. If there are any flaws here, they're buried under the technical and musical greatness which overrides and

overwhelms.

Hamelin is probably one of the greatest pianists ever, and his courage in championing such unusual and technically demanding material as Godowsky's Études turns him into one of the most interesting musicians today. As for this particular recording, it's needless to say that his playing is superb, as usual, and his technique is unassailable and immaculate. His choice of material is bold, to say the least. He starts off with a wonderful reading of Beethoven's third piano concerto and then goes on to overwhelm the listener with effortless and sublime renditions of works by Chopin, Medtner, Busoni and - oh my! - Alkan. I never thought I would ever come to like Alkan's works, but Hamelin's rendition of the Études are so effective and engaging that I began to take some interest in it. It's by far the best live recording I've ever heard and it certainly helped me redefine my ideas about what's possible for a human being to do on the piano.