MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN IN A STATE OF JAZZ

 

1 FRIEDRICH GULDA (1930–2000) Exercise No 1 from Play Piano Play [1'45]

NIKOLAI KAPUSTIN (b1937) Sonata No 2 Op 54 [21'49]

2 Allegro molto [9'03]

3 Scherzo: Allegro assai [3'52]

4 Largo – Allegro [5'14]

5 Allegro vivace [3'30]

6 FRIEDRICH GULDA (1930–2000) Exercise No 4 from Play Piano Play [3'58]

ALEXIS WEISSENBERG (b1929) Sonate en état de jazz [19'26]

7 Evocation d’un tango [4'51]

8 Réminiscence d’un charleston [3'02]

9 Reflets d’un blues [5'12]

10 Provocation de samba [6'10]

11 FRIEDRICH GULDA (1930–2000) Exercise No 5 from Play Piano Play [2'20]

12 FRIEDRICH GULDA (1930–2000) Prelude and Fugue [3'42]

ALEXIS WEISSENBERG (b1929) Six arrangements of songs sung by Charles Trenet [14'13]

13 Coin de rue [3'26]

14 Vous oubliez votre cheval [1'24]

15 En Avril, à Paris [3'23]

16 Boum! [1'48]

17 Vous qui passez sans me voir [2'50]

18 Ménilmontant [1'00]

19 GEORGE ANTHEIL (1900–1959) Jazz Sonata [1'30]

 

Total Duration: 69'07

 

Marc-André Hamelin - piano

 

Marc-André Hamelin’s technical and interpretative brilliance over an extraordinarily wide range of repertoire has placed him firmly in the top rank of living pianists. His recent recordings of Alkan and Haydn were universally acclaimed in the highest terms. In this latest recording, Hyperion presents Marc-André Hamelin ‘in a state of jazz’, as he turns his attention to the music of Kapustin, Antheil, Gulda and Weissenberg—all composers who felt keenly that there was a fundamental desire on the part of the concert-going public to hear something different. This wonderful disc is full of surprises—as Hamelin writes in his entertaining yet scholarly liner notes, ‘There is no jazz in this recording. At least not in the traditional sense … There is much to be enjoyed here, and much to be amazed by’.

 

Praise for ALKAN CONCERTO FOR SOLO PIANO / TROISIÈME RECUEIL DES CHANTS: Marc-André Hamelin CDA67569

‘A performance of the Concerto of such brilliance and lucidity that one can only listen in awe and amazement. Scaling even the most ferocious hurdles with yards to spare, he is blessedly free to explore the very heart of Alkan’s bewildering interplay of austerity and monstrous elaboration … You can only marvel at such a unique mix of blazing if nonchalantly deployed virtuosity and poetic conviction … All of this is superly recorded and presented, prompting some not unreasonable conjecture: if Liszt feared Alkan’s mastery as a pianist he may well have feared Hamelin’s’ (Gramophone) ‘The sheer keyboard brilliance of Hamelin’s playing is exceptional. The breathtaking clarity with which he articulates even the most ferocious passages, while unerringly projecting melodic shapes that are often obscured under welters of notes, never fails to dazzle, and the way in which he sustains the huge first movement of the Concerto so that each discursive paragraph seems a natural consequence of what precedes it is a triumph of pure musical will’ (The Guardian *****) RECORD OF THE MONTH

 

Hyperion CDA67656