About two weeks ago, I went to a concert by Paul Lewis. He played a lot of Schubert which put me to sleep...
The following night after the concert, I was checking out what concerts were coming up in the next while with the Vancouver Recital Society and lo and behold, it was the pianist Mark-Andre Hamelin, a pianist I know a tiny bit about.
He’s a Canadian pianist that probably deserves a lot more recognition. If there are notes on a page, he can play it, meaning that there’s nothing that he can’t tackle as far as “difficult” repetoire. He records for the Hyperion label and has a pretty impressive discography especially of “minor” composers (“minor” might not be the best word -- composers that don’t get enough recognition anymore).
Roughly about eleven years ago, Marc-Andre Hamelin was an adjudicator at a competition in Richmond, BC (my ex-girlfriend participated in this...) and the following day after his performance, there was an autograph signing session at the now-no-longer-remaining Virgin Megastore. I had him sign a few things and I asked him a couple of things. One was how he prepares for a concert... his answer was that he makes sure he eats enough beforehand. I also asked him whether I could see how large his hand is. While not abnormally large, his thumb tends to stretch like a Gumby figure... I guess that must help when playing all that late-romantic stuff which requires a huge reach.
I had a few drinks when I bought the ticket online at one of those online ticket service sites that has to charge you stupid service charges... and the next morning I checked out where my seat was. Front row and slightly on the right... I was expecting to see Mr Hamelin’s face for two hours (no view of hands).
Well, at the concert, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had the best seat in the house... when he was bowing I was about a meter and a half away from him. I could see his facial hair while he was playing. And during the first half of the concert I could see a small fly that was flying around the gorgeous Steinway piano.
The program included many pieces.
The first half was Berg (Sonata), Faure and various pieces by Debussy. It might be just a strange coincidence but my ex-girlfriend played one of the pieces on the program when she performed for him during that competition (L’isle joyeuse)... I shouldn’t think too much about this.
Wonderful playing in the first half! I can’t complain about much... besides not really understanding the music by Berg (c’est la vie).
The second half included a lot of virtuoso pyrotechnics. It started off with one of Mr. Hamelin’s own tunes based on a theme by Paganini. After then it was all Rachmaninoff for the rest of the program (two preludes and sonata no. 2).
I thought Mr. Hamelin’s composition was entertaining enough but I wouldn’t want to hear a whole concert of that kind of stuff. The Rachmaninoff was performed extremely well. Mr. Hamelin sure knows how to “ring out” those notes... and for the number of notes that he played in that final piece, I believe I got my money’s worth.
The encore was... the first movement of a Mozart sonata (C-E-G-B-C-D-C). I guess Mr. Hamelin wanted to prove to the audience that he can keep things simple if he wants to.
Just a side note... this concert was recorded by the CBC. It’s really amazing how many people have to “cough, cough” during pieces. Well, if you listen to those old recordings from the Soviet Union, the rate of “coughs” is much higher, so I shouldn’t complain too much. Luckily, you won’t be hearing me “cough, cough” on the CBC if you listen to this performance.
I enjoyed this concert very much and I hope to see Marc-Andre Hamelin return to Vancouver to perform courtesy of the Vancouver Recital Society again.
