Franz Liszt - Marc-André Hamelin plays Liszt

Information

Composer: Franz Liszt

1. Apparition No. 1 in F sharp major, S. 155 No. 1
2. Waldesrauschen, S. 145 No. 1
3. Un Sospiro, S. 144 No. 3
4. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10 in E major, S. 244
5. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 in A minor, S. 244
6. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C sharp minor, S. 244
7. Nuages gris, S. 199
8. En rêve - Nocturne, S. 207
9. Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418

Marc-André Hamelin, piano

Date: 1997

Label: Hyperion

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Review

This richly inclusive recital examines Liszt’s genius from every multifaceted angle. Whether you are hypnotized by the strange hallucinatory light playing across the First Apparition, the erotic ebb and flow of Un sospiro, the gloriously inauthentic gipsy abandon of the Hungarian Rhapsodies, the most magniloquent of all the operatic paraphrases, or the spiritual desolation of Nuages gris, you will find your particular poetic concern represented here. And, as if that were insufficient, Hamelin offers his own witty and outlandish cadenza to the Second Rhapsody; one to make even Rachmaninov’s famous offering pale into insignificance.

Not since Simon Barere has anyone so effortlessly negotiated every daunting hurdle in Don Juan (APR, 12/85) or spun off the Rhapsodies (APR, 12/89) with such a happy disregard for their difficulties. But whether you are in the presence of a “super virtuoso” (Harold Schonberg) is open to question. If you agree with Liszt that a virtuoso is one who “creates passions he will call to light in all their brilliance” who “makes emotion speak and weep and sing and sigh” then you may well feel short-changed. Hamelin is a superlative pianist but he leaves intensity and high voltage to others. In this sense his Don Juan is lightweight and attenuated when it should be gargantuan, menacing and overwhelming, and in the Rhapsodies his very fluency can blunt his involvement with their more interior qualities; with their wit, sparkle and vivacity. On the other hand he responds to the opening of the Thirteenth and finest Rhapsody with a nice sense of its con grazia and melancolico, and his way with the enigma at the heart of En reve and Nuages gris (much admired by Bartok and Stravinsky) is uncannily sensitive and precise. A quirky ossia to Liszt’s repeated note variation on the Thirteenth Rhapsody’s Friss and the alternative ending to Un sospiro contribute to this disc’s interest, and so does Francis Pott’s essay regarding Liszt’s outer, bird-of-paradise flamboyance and inner torment; his uncertain, lifelong quest for his own identity.

The recordings are admirable and even when Hamelin only meets Liszt’s poetic fullness half-way you can’t help marvelling at his nonchalant resolution of every teasing, technical conundrum.'

— Bryce Morrison

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Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886) was a prolific 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, and music teacher. Liszt gained renown in Europe for his virtuosic skill as a pianist and in the 1840s he was considered to be the greatest pianist of all time. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent composers of the "New German School". Some of his most notable musical contributions were the invention of the symphonic poem, developing the concept of thematic transformation as part of his experiments in musical form, and making radical departures in harmony.

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Marc-André Hamelin (born 5 September 1961 in Montreal) is a distinguished Canadian pianist and composer renowned for his exceptional technique and distinctive interpretations of the classical repertoire. Internationally acclaimed, he has earned 11 Grammy Award nominations and has recorded extensively with the Hyperion label. Hamelin is particularly noted for his commitment to exploring and performing works by lesser-known composers, especially from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as pieces by pianist-composers. He has composed several works himself, including a set of piano études in all the minor keys.

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