# Marc-Andre Hamelin in Vancouver–UBC Chan Centre



## SpanishFly

Did anyone attend this concert?

I was lucky enough to go, and enjoyed it a great deal. Student tickets were only *$13.75!* 
I am not able to provide an insightful and in-depth review that a more accomplished pianist would, nonetheless, a musician is a musician and musically speaking, it was a phenomenal experience.

The overall physical and tonal control, musical finesse, and fluidity that Mr. Hamelin demonstrated, coupled with an intriguing program, was enough to ably 'wow' the most uninformed and most well-versed musicians alike.

We, as a modern society, do not experience enough live word-class classical music, and when opportunities such as this arise, we must seize them!


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## Vaneyes

"The overall physical and tonal control, musical finesse, and fluidity that Mr. Hamelin demonstrated...."

You passed, except for a slight omission.

*Program**Alban Berg*: Piano Sonata, Op.1
*Gabriel Fauré*: Impromptu No. 2 in F minor and Barcarolle No. 3 in G-flat major, Op. 42
*Claude Debussy*: Images, Book I and L'Isle joyeuse
*Marc-André Hamelin*: Variations on a theme by Paganini (2011)
*Sergei Rachmaninoff*: Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 (1931 version)


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## SpanishFly

What was the omission? 

(Bear with me, I am a guitarist )


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## clavichorder

Vaneyes said:


> "The overall physical and tonal control, musical finesse, and fluidity that Mr. Hamelin demonstrated...."
> 
> You passed, except for a slight omission.
> 
> *Program**Alban Berg*: Piano Sonata, Op.1
> *Gabriel Fauré*: Impromptu No. 2 in F minor and Barcarolle No. 3 in G-flat major, Op. 42
> *Claude Debussy*: Images, Book I and L'Isle joyeuse
> *Marc-André Hamelin*: Variations on a theme by Paganini (2011)
> *Sergei Rachmaninoff*: Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 (1931 version)


Holy cow! That must have been an awesome concert! I have never seen him perform in a solo recital; closest is an encore after a concerto. I have seen him perform concertos at two different concerts. One was great, one of the Chopin concertos, but another, Ravel's left hand, was not as inspired a performance.


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## KenOC

Hamelin did a tremendous performance of the first movement of Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto, as arranged by Alkan for solo piano (on his Wigmore Hall album). This arrangement has probably the most outrageous and over-the-top cadenza ever written, quoting several other Beethoven works -- even the Op. 111 piano sonata! You gotta hear this. Really.


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## Ukko

KenOC said:


> Hamelin did a tremendous performance of the first movement of Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto, as arranged by Alkan for solo piano (on his Wigmore Hall album). This arrangement has probably the most outrageous and over-the-top cadenza ever written, quoting several other Beethoven works -- even the Op. 111 piano sonata! You gotta hear this. Really.
> [...]


I have the Wigmore recording. I don't listen to it more than once in a year, but when I do, that piece causes delighted laughter. Alkan composed a great joke, in so difficult a manner that only a virtuoso could 'tell' it properly.


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## Lukecash12

Hilltroll72 said:


> I have the Wigmore recording. I don't listen to it more than once in a year, but when I do, that piece causes delighted laughter. Alkan composed a great joke, in so difficult a manner that only a virtuoso could 'tell' it properly.


Alkan did excel in the use of the musical parody.


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## moozentertainment

@SpanishFly: live word-class classical music, and when opportunities such as this arise, we must seize them!. So very rare to seen the concerts in classical? is it?


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## millionrainbows

Not to be a stick in the mud, as I have some of Hamelin's recordings, but after hearing his CHANDOS recording of Samuel Barber's Sonata Op. 26, I was very disappointed that he took it at such a breakneck tempo. True, his technique is impeccable and may allow him to pull this off, but I have heard several pianists play this piece (John Browning, Van Cliburn, Horowitz) and with Hamelin's fast tempo, it loses all meaning for me.


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## Ukko

millionrainbows said:


> Not to be a stick in the mud, as I have some of Hamelin's recordings, but after hearing his CHANDOS recording of Samuel Barber's Sonata Op. 26, I was very disappointed that he took it at such a breakneck tempo. True, his technique is impeccable and may allow him to pull this off, but I have heard several pianists play this piece (John Browning, Van Cliburn, Horowitz) and with Hamelin's fast tempo, it loses all meaning for me.


Hamelin, being mortal, does not possess my perfection of judgement. Some of the things he does work better in his mind than they do in mine. But Sokolov and Mustonen and Pletnev are in the same boat, so Hamelin is in good company.


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## millionrainbows

Hilltroll72 said:


> Hamelin, being mortal, does not possess my perfection of judgement. Some of the things he does work better in his mind than they do in mine. But Sokolov and Mustonen and Pletnev are in the same boat, so Hamelin is in good company.


Agreed. I just happened to have pulled Pletnev's Scarlatti for listening. I heard that his conducting is where the real weirdness shows up.

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## Ukko

millionrainbows said:


> Agreed. I just happened to have pulled Pletnev's Scarlatti for listening. I heard that his conducting is where the real weirdness shows up.
> 
> ---------------------------->
> View attachment 10152


Hah. Some folks consider that Scarlatti to be objectionably weird. Including me, until I listened to it a couple times. Apparently there is a level of 'good taste' separating his Scarlatti from Horowitz's.


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## millionrainbows

Hilltroll72 said:


> Hah. Some folks consider that Scarlatti to be objectionably weird. Including me, until I listened to it a couple times. Apparently there is a level of 'good taste' separating his Scarlatti from Horowitz's.


There is probably no hope for me, then; my penchant for the unusual and garish condemns me to listening to Pletnev, Glenn Gould, Ervin Nyiregyházi, and other anomalies.


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## Ukko

millionrainbows said:


> There is probably no hope for me, then; my penchant for the unusual and garish condemns me to listening to Pletnev, Glenn Gould, Ervin Nyiregyházi, and other anomalies.


That's why I put _good taste_ in quotes. In music it's 'whatever floats your boat', as long as those who find it punishing can escape.


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