MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN
Marc-André Hamelin is a visionary pianist. A long-standing pioneer, he has devoted much of his career to the rarities of the repertoire (Godowsky, Alkan, Liszt’s paraphrases…) while offering personal readings of celebrated landmarks of the piano. In recital, Hamelin reveals the quintessence of his gifts.
Programme
MIECZYSŁAW WEINBERG (1919-1996)
Sonata No. 5 Op. 58
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor Op. 35
Interval
GEORGE ENESCO (1881-1955)
Carillon nocturne Op. 18 No. 7
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Images, Book 2
EARL WILD (1915-2010)
Seven Virtuoso Etudes on Gershwin Songs
Marc-André Hamelin plays Godowsky: “The Gardens of Buitenzorg” from “Java Suite” at Verbier Festival
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Do you like Weinberg? Only a few years ago, the question might have seemed odd even to a well-informed music lover. Long relegated to the shadow of his friend and mentor Shostakovich, the Polish-Soviet composer’s work is now being rediscovered in earnest, as shown by soloists of Hamelin’s calibre who champion his feverishly lyrical sonatas. Likewise, the Montreal-born pianist never shies away from stepping outside the strict classical framework, as shown by Earl Wild’s irresistible études, dazzling transcriptions of jazz-inflected Gershwin songs. With the erudite Hamelin, there is also the promise of unexpected bridges between the works. Thus, one of the threads running through his recital is the idea of the bell: funereal in Chopin (as in the famous March of the Sonata No. 2), poetic in Debussy (Cloches à travers les feuilles) or startlingly modern in Enesco (the remarkable and too rarely heard Carillon nocturne of 1916).
