Marc Andre Hamelin

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Seriously senior moment! Deleted!!
Thanks

Mine duly deleted, also - as (before I posted) were my appreciative comments yesterday about Hamelin's early work with Boulez, and his rather fine performances of the Beethoven Piano Concertos with Harnoncourt. Must be something in the air.

[Jonathan]

I also have many of his recordings - the Alkan ones on Hyperion as superb. His Liszt is amazing too (not just the sonata) and I rather like his Henselt concerto recording as well. I saw him live years ago playing the Schubert piano duo marches in the arrangement by Liszt and it was an amazing concert (this is on one of his Hyperion discs as well)! His Godowsky is phenomenal too. Not heard the Haydn yet but it is on my list of things to listen to. He's a superb pianist and I hope that he tours again soon as it's been far too long since I heard him live. He's also a thoroughly nice chap - I met him at a friends house a few years ago and had a very long and interesting talk with him, mostly about science fiction!

[silvestrione]

I would also strongly recommend the Grainger disc, which has a lovely, sumptuous performance of the Grainger/Strauss Ramble on Love, which Ronald Stevenson thought the finest of all piano transcriptions.

[ahinton]

I would also strongly recommend the Grainger disc, which has a lovely, sumptuous performance of the Grainger/Strauss Ramble on Love, which Ronald Stevenson thought the finest of all piano transcriptions.

And Ronald Stevenson certainly played it as though it's just that! - now there's another fabulous pianist if ever there was one and sorely missed by those who knew his work.

I've known Marc-André Hamelin for almost 30 years and followed his career with great interest; "a thoroughly nice chap", as Jonathan rightly describes his above. If I may be permitted a momentary "down the shameless plughole" moment, he'll be including my Vocalise-Reminiscenza in his recital at this year's Raritäten der Klaviermusik im Schloss vor Husum (Nordsee) Festival on 21 August.

[BBMmk2]

I also have many of his recordings - the Alkan ones on Hyperion as superb. His Liszt is amazing too (not just the sonata) and I rather like his Henselt concerto recording as well. I saw him live years ago playing the Schubert piano duo marches in the arrangement by Liszt and it was an amazing concert (this is on one of his Hyperion discs as well)! His Godowsky is phenomenal too. Not heard the Haydn yet but it is on my list of things to listen to. He's a superb pianist and I hope that he tours again soon as it's been far too long since I heard him live. He's also a thoroughly nice chap - I met him at a friends house a few years ago and had a very long and interesting talk with him, mostly about science fiction!

How good! We have failed to mention that monster of piano concertos: the Busoni!!! He makes it sound like child's play, which ofcourse, it definetely is not. The other one is the Scharwenka PC!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

We have failed to mention that monster of piano concertos: the Busoni!!!

Most of "we" have, Bbm but mahlerei mentioned it a couple of days ago. Admittedly, he wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about the performance as you are.

[ahinton]

How good! We have failed to mention that monster of piano concertos: the Busoni!!! He makes it sound like child's play, which ofcourse, it definetely is not. The other one is the Scharwenka PC!

Indeed; along with Ogdon's ground-breaking account of that inestimably great piano concerto from almost four decades ago, Hamelin's is one of the very best, I believe - and the orchestral playing on it is far superior to that on the Ogdon recording. Incidentally, Busoni participated in most of the 20 or so performances of that concerto that were given during his lifetime, either as soloist or as conductor; however, almost a century after his death, the work continues to divide audinces and musicians. The late, great Shura Cherkassky apparently learnt the solo part but declined to perform it becuase, in his view, the sheer amount of work involved was disproportionate when the piano spends an hour accompaying the orchestra only to spen the last five monutes also accompanying the choir(!) -and Marc-André Hamelin himself (who never loses an opportunity to perform the work) told me less than a fortnight ago that he played it not so long ago with a well known conductor who shall remain nameless who afterwards expressed to him the hope that next time they perform together it will be a piece of music...

Child's play it most certainly isn't although, had Busoni composed it a quarter century earlier when he was still a child, he might have found it to be so!

[aeolium]

ahinton, have you heard the recording of the Busoni concerto by Beecham, BBCSO and Noel Mewton-Wood from a live concert in 1948? I think this was probably the first recording of the work. Sadly, the soloist Mewton-Wood was to commit suicide only a few years later.

[Richard Barrett]

Most of "we" have, Bbm but mahlerei mentioned it a couple of days ago. Admittedly, he wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about the performance as you are.

The piece is pretty turgid and repetitive too if you ask me. I like M-AH's playing a lot, but some of his choices of repertoire seem more motivated by an interest in extreme virtuosity (which indeed interests me too) rather than anything else.

[ahinton]

ahinton, have you heard the recording of the Busoni concerto by Beecham, BBCSO and Noel Mewton-Wood from a live concert in 1948? I think this was probably the first recording of the work. Sadly, the soloist Mewton-Wood was to commit suicide only a few years later.

Yes; apart from the partial one done by Egon Petri in the 1930s and never released, this was the first one but, again, not released at the time or indeed until many years later, which is why Ogdon's was long regarded as the "first" one. I'm not convinced that the Mewton-Wood one brings to the work what Ogdon, Hamelin and certain others have done.

[ahinton]

The piece is pretty turgid and repetitive too if you ask me.

I don't find it so, although less than satisfactory orchestral playing can conspire to make it so.

I like M-AH's playing a lot, but some of his choices of repertoire seem more motivated by an interest in extreme virtuosity (which indeed interests me too) rather than anything else.

You're not alone in commenting as you have, but I don't believe that it's actually true, for all his espousal of Godowsky and Alkan in particular; his motivation has principally been to draw listeners' attention to repertoire that he considers important but under-represented rather than to explore extremes of virtuosity for its own sake. Also, more recently, he's recorded all the Haydn sonatas and other music that suggests that extreme virtuosity is by no means a primary interest (and he's always hated being tarred with the "supervirtuoso" brush).

[BBMmk2]

When I mentioned about child's play, I was meaning how MAH seems to play as though it was quite effortless.

[ahinton]

When I mentioned about child's play, I was meaning how MAH seems to play as though it was quite effortless.

Yes, I understood that; my remark was intended to suggest that Busoni himself might have conveyed a similar impression when he performed it.

[BBMmk2]

Yes, I understood that; my remark was intended to suggest that Busoni himself might have conveyed a similar impression when he performed it.

Indeed, yes, ahinton. Apologies. He must have been quite a virtuoso himself!

[Barbirollians]

I bought the Ogdon on EMI Encore rather cheaply . I am glad to have heard it but I do not have much of a compulsion to hear it again .