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"Twentieth-century music history cannot be recounted
without mentioning the works of Bartók," remarks
Pierre Boulez. This central role played by Bartók
is revealed through the stylistic breadth in his
works that Boulez habitually puts on display: "The
French composer pays homage to the Hungarian composer's
universal spirit, and that means that the impressionism
born of Bartók's fateful encounter with Debussy
and the unrelenting toughness of his Stravinskian
rhythms flow together to create a portrait of astonishing
unity", asserted the daily Tagesspiegel in reviewing
a Boulez conducting engagement in Berlin. Universal
spirit can even be found within a single CD, the
new release featuring Bartók's three piano concertos,
with three great pianists and three of the world's
great orchestras: Krystian Zimerman and the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, Leif-Ove Andsnes and the Berliner
Philharmoniker, Hélène Grimaud and the London Symphony
Orchestra. |
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"We went through a very rough period, the early
1950s. That was the time after the war, and we wanted
to make a brand-new start, a clean slate," says
Pierre Boulez, looking back over his "rebellious"
years with other enfants terribles like Stockhausen
and Berio. Boulez's three early piano sonatas give
a sense of just how hair-raising these years were
when the young Frenchman was experimenting with
serial and aleatoric techniques. That may explain
why the composer wanted an interpreter who now is
around the same age as Boulez when the sonatas were
written. After the young Finnish pianist Paavali
Jumppanen auditioned for him, Boulez recommended
him for the recording. His enthusiasm for Krystian
Zimerman's former pupil was shared by The New York
Times, which praised Jumppanen's playing after his
New York début in 2001 as "fresh and exciting .
. . he performs with immense power and an extraordinary
range of colors." |
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 Ever
since Hyperion started working with pianist Stephen
Hough in 1996, recording these concertos had been
on the agenda: it's probably been the project closest
to his heart. But it took several years before they
found the orchestra and conductor that they felt
would do justice to this important project. The
combination of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and
Andrew Litton offers a conductor who adores Rachmaninov
(he has recorded all the symphonies) and understands
the works from a pianist's perspective, an orchestra
with a glorious and old-fashioned string sound of
the kind with which the composer would be familiar,
a hall to record in which is one of the best in
the world, and Hough, who has already won two Gramophone
'Record of the Year' accolades for his concerto
recordings. Apart from the 'Paganini Rhapsody',
recorded after a concert performance, these are
essentially 'live' recordings. Over a period of
eighteen days eleven concerts were given, with each
concerto being played several times. From these
Hyperion has pieced together an 'ideal' performance
- free of coughs, noises and the few musical mishaps
which occurred, but still capturing the excitement
of what was, by common consent, a sensational series
of concerts. These days a new recording of the Rachmaninov
concertos has to be very special for it to be worth
doing at all and it was not lightly that Hyperion
proceeded with this project. Hough consciously returns
to the fast and lean performance tradition of the
composer himself, avoiding the sentimental 'Hollywood'
approach that has become so prevalent. |
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 A
showcase for Marc-André Hamelin, this disc focuses
on the work of a group of composers, all virtuoso
pianists themselves, who were fascinated by the
possibilities of sound and color inherent in the
piano which could be realized by the transcendentally-equipped
executant. Hamelin himself composes in this tradition;
the disc includes three brilliant studies of his
own. While much of the music is thrillingly virtuosic,
there is also much which is haunting, such as the
Berceuse by Samuel Feinberg. The emotional heart
of the recital is surely Busoni's Fantasia nach
J.S. Bach, written to commemorate the death of his
father. There is also a strong element of wry humour
(a characteristic of the performer!) which runs
from the Haydn/Alkan to the Rossini/Hamelin via
Sorabji. All in all, a kaleidoscopic recital that
has become a classic.
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Published by Amadeus Press [340 pages (hardcover);
ISBN: 1-57467-072-7]. In The Composer-Pianists:
Hamelin and The Eight, Robert Rimm portrays
eight legendary, enigmatic, and interrelated composer-pianists
of the instrument's golden age and goes on to consider
their present-day advocate, virtuoso pianist Marc-André
Hamelin. Rimm regards The Eight — Alkan, Busoni,
Feinberg, Godowsky, Medtner, Rachmaninov, Scriabin,
and Sorabji — as "the piano's aural sensualists"
and explores the relationships among their music,
their music-making, their ideas and ideals, and
their lives. Despite disparate backgrounds, cultures,
nationalities, and personalities, The Eight for
the most part knew one another personally, published
articles about each other, or played one another's
music. They communed daily with the piano; it was
the center of their creative lives. Rimm's long-standing
interest in The Eight led him to a collaboration
with Hamelin, which resulted in this book and the
bestselling Hyperion recording Marc-André Hamelin
Plays The Composer-Pianists. Readers will find
within these pages vivid and unusual portraits of
the enigmatic, iconoclastic men who conceived some
of the most challenging piano music ever written.
Chapters on music criticism, virtuosity, eroticism
and transcription further explore their ingenious
creativity. The volume includes rare photographs
and concludes with an extensive bibliography, listings
of the complete solo piano works of The Eight, and
discographies of their solo piano recordings. In
exploring the art of those who knew their instrument
both as composers and as pianists, this book serves,
in the words of pianist Stephen Hough, "both as
a fascinating, exhaustive study of the riches of
the past and as a stimulating inspiration for the
future."
This book is currently available in bookstores worldwide
and through amazon.com; a book individually signed
by Marc-André Hamelin and inscribed by the author
on an antique book label (requests from France,
Italy, Germany and Russia will be inscribed in their
respective languages) is also available through
88keys by sending a query to fete@88keys.com. |
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