Every few years, for a couple of decades now, Marc-André Hamelin has appeared in the area with a new program of unexpected and often astoundingly difficult music. The streak continued Friday night when the Canadian-born virtuoso gave a daring recital at the Library of Congress, centered on one of the pinnacles of the 20th century, the Piano Sonata No. 2 (“Concord, Mass., 1840-60”) of Charles Ives.
Read MoreHamelin’s brand-new album, ‘New Piano Works’, is a recording made up entirely of his own compositions. Below, you can find out more about the background of each work, plus links to where you can purchase the sheet music for yourself.
Read MoreThe great pianist-pedagogue Heinrich Neuhaus reportedly asked his disciples for: “steel fingers, a cool head, and a warm heart”; some of his pupils ruefully added “plus a litre of blood”. Add to all that a deadpan facial expression and you have something like the phenomenon of Marc-André Hamelin.
Read MoreThe Toronto Symphony Orchestra decided to record Turangalîla-Symphonie, the only symphony of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), with its new music director Gustavo Gimeno as a special event to mark its 100th anniversary. Besides an enormous symphonic apparatus, this powerful work also requires a piano soloist (Marc-André Hamelin) and an ondes Martenot player (Nathalie Forget).
Read MoreFor Marc-André Hamelin, Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata is virtually a calling card. One of the first works he recorded in his now vast discography, it was significant enough to record again some years later and it has continued to be a regular fixture in recital. Among the most innovative of piano sonatas, its full subtitle reads “Concord, Mass., 1840-1860” and, accordingly, each of the four movements portrays a New England writer from that fertile period of American literature. It’s an essay that embodies Ives’ unique musical language, uncompromisingly innovative and fearsomely complex – a work that all but demands Hamelin’s legendary technique.
Read MoreMarc is proud to announce the launch of a new technique course with tonebase Piano, where he demonstrates special warm-up patterns and practice devices he has adapted and developed from lesser-known piano manuals written by great pianists and composers of the past.
The first lesson on Symmetrical Inversion is free to watch here. Learn more and sign up for the complete course here.
Read MoreDelve into Marc’s marvelous, curious mind with this Tiny Desk concert.
Read MoreMarc-André Hamelin is thrilled to announce his next Hyperion Records release - a double-disc featuring the extraordinary rags of American composer and pianist, Dr. William Bolcom. Pre-orders available now.
Read MoreThe New York Times has featured Marc-André Hamelin’s new album of C.P.E. Bach’s work and an interview with him!
Read MoreMarc-André Hamelin has been appointed to join the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory for the 2021-2022 year! Provost and Dean of Faculty Benjamin Sosland says of Marc and his fellow appointee Jonathan Bliss that “it is an exceptional honour to welcome them to our community, where they will inspire our students and build on NEC's legacy of pianistic excellence."
Read MoreWatch the exciting world premiére of Marc-André Hamelin’s newest (and so far longest) piano piece, commissioned and played by 2008 Gilmore Young Artist Rachel Naomi Kudo on February 21 at 4PM EST.
The performance of Suite à l'ancienne (Suite in the old style) is available here through March 23, 2021.
Read MoreCongratulations to Marc-André Hamelin who has been nominated for not just one, but two Gramophone Awards – for his Dohnányi piano quintet album with Takács Quartet and his album of Samuil Feinberg’s piano sonatas 1-6.
Read MoreToday, Marc-André Hamelin releases Liszt & Thalberg: Opera Transcriptions & Fantasies, Hyperion’s Record of the Month.
If, as Liszt himself dubbed it, Hexaméron is ‘a monster’, it’s a monster which certainly holds no terrors for Marc-André Hamelin, and the encounter between them makes for some thrilling pianism. The remainder of the recital—high-octane transformations of nineteenth-century operatic favourites—is every bit as electrifying, from a musician who never ceases to astonish whatever the repertoire.
Read MoreCongratulations to Marc for his latest album of Samuil Feinberg’s first six piano sonatas being selected as an editor’s choice for April 2020!
Read MoreMarc’s latest album of solo piano works, Feinberg’s Piano Sonatas, has been selected as Album of the Month by International Piano. Bryce Morrison of their Critic’s Choice states, “This is a major addition to Hamelin’s unique discography . . . Few pianists would or could embrace such repertoire.”
Read MoreMarc's new album (Feinberg's Piano Sonatas 1-6) is being released by Hyperion on February 28.
One phenomenal composer-pianist’s homage to another. The music of Samuil Feinberg is championed by Hamelin, whose performances are sensitive to all its shadows and anxieties while being - of course - fully equal to the prodigious technical demands.
Read MoreThis month, Marc’s latest album with the celebrated Takács Quartet has been chosen as the chamber album of the month for BBC Music Magazine's Christmas issue. According to BBC Music Magazine’s Freya Parr, it is “a treasurable disc.”
Read MoreMarc’s latest album with the Takács Quartet, just released today, is Hyperion’s recording of the month. It includes both piano quintets by Ernő Dohnányi alongside his second string quartet, marking an important milestone in the critical re-evaluation of the composer’s works. While possessing an undeniable Brahmsian influence, Dohnányi’s works exude the composer’s own exuberant and distinctive voice. Watch a trailer here. The album is available on Amazon and Apple Music.
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