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Track Listings
| 1. Six Grandes Etudes de Paganini - Liszt, FranzHamelin, Marc-André |
| 2. Franz Schuberts Märsche für das Pianoforte übertragen - Liszt, FranzHamelin, Marc-André |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
It was the 21-year-old Liszt's encounter with Paganini in concert that first set him on the path of becoming an instrumental virtuoso himself, and what better material to show off his skills than his transcriptions for piano of some of the works with which the violinist stunned his public. Schumann, who had already done some Paganini transcriptions of his own, wrote admiringly that the Liszt works were "probably the most difficult ever written for the pianoforte". No problems there for Marc-André Hamelin, whose quicksilver technique is well up to the task. But the artistry in this music is not just in being able to play it but in throwing it off with a light hand, and here Hamelin is really in his element, beguiling the ear with wittily delicious playing worthy of Paganini himself. Try "La campanella" and be prepared to be delighted. There is weightier material in the three Schubert marches, which Liszt loved so much that aside from these transcriptions he also arranged them for orchestra and for piano duet. Again it is the great subtlety of Hamelin's understated playing which lifts the music, and as ever with Hyperion discs the piano rings out with marvellous clarity. –-Keith Clarke
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Audio CD
This is another Hyperion CD which displays Marc Andre Hamelin's belief-defying pianism of astounding virtuosity and technical refinement. He actually makes these fiendishly taxing scores sound easy, but listen to his performance with the score in your hand. Then you realise the brilliance and the transcendent quality of his playing to the full extent. Beautifully recorded.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Amazing really - the Liszt Paganini Etudes don't usually 'do it' for me, and the Schubert Marches never do. Hamelin, however, sells us the music as only a true artist can. His technical abilities are faultless, he's a mega virtuoso, but, strangely enough, never at the expense of the music. I'd go so far as to say that, despite his fabulous facility, Hamelin is a thoughtful and almost reserved pianist. The playing never gets out of control or feels on the brink. It's all just tastefully measured playing, musical, passionate and totally convincing.
Of the Etudes, of note, are numbers 2, 3 and 4 - these these feel like true living performances. Not that the others are unsatisfying, I just happen to personally prefer the renditions of 2,3 and 4, where I felt a particular intensity and clarity. I've heard many recordings of pianists whisking through these works, making them into ego showpieces. None of that with Hamelin: he comes across as a wonderfully honest musician and his Liszt playing puts the likes of Leslie Howard (who bombastically struts through each work, sometimes very distastefully) to shame.
Schubert rarely agrees with me, so my review is based almost solely on the Liszt. However, the Schubert was not at all unpleasant and worked in the context of this CD as an amiable antidote.
Of the Etudes, of note, are numbers 2, 3 and 4 - these these feel like true living performances. Not that the others are unsatisfying, I just happen to personally prefer the renditions of 2,3 and 4, where I felt a particular intensity and clarity. I've heard many recordings of pianists whisking through these works, making them into ego showpieces. None of that with Hamelin: he comes across as a wonderfully honest musician and his Liszt playing puts the likes of Leslie Howard (who bombastically struts through each work, sometimes very distastefully) to shame.
Schubert rarely agrees with me, so my review is based almost solely on the Liszt. However, the Schubert was not at all unpleasant and worked in the context of this CD as an amiable antidote.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Stunning Virtuosity! Magnificent!
7 July 2005
Format:Audio CD
I have enjoyed this music, performed by Leslie Howard as part of his exhaustive Liszt repertoire, for many years. Marc-Andre Hamelin takes the six Paganini Grand Etudes to new heights of glory and inspiration. Bravo!
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful
superb recording of rare repertory
30 July 2003
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
after enduring the disappointingly arid experience of hamelin's medtner compilation, it is refreshing and revealing to hear him in more mainstream keyboard pieces.
good recorded versions of the paganini etudes have been hard to come by, as they tend to get overshadowed by the transcendental etudes. hamelin is entirely up to the technical challenges, though i found an imbalance in his approach: the delicate works or passages, in particular the "campanella" etude (adapted from a paganini violin concerto) are utterly ravishing, with a delicacy and fluency of touch that is like nothing i've heard in these works before. but the beefier and more dramatic passages, for example the opening of the first etude, seem relatively restrained and even lackluster. odd, as similar passages in the medtner works are enunciated with plenty of spit.
i found the schubert marches less appealing musically, though if you don't like what you're hearing just wait for a minute or two and the themes will change. i hear in these works a schubert vacillating between the poetic sonata composer and the more virtuosic "wandererfantasie" composer, and not coming down on either side.
until hamelin gets around to recording the transcendental etudes, i can strongly recommend the boris berezovsky version on emi, or the old ashkenazy recording -- if you can find it.
12 of 18 people found the following review helpful
formidable liszt playing
17 Sep 2002
Format:Audio CD
Marc-André Hamelin, returns again to the recording studio to make an exquisite disc of the Liszt Pagannini Etudes, with complete control, dynamic range and feroceous fingerwork which will make any advanced pianist, let alone the common listener's jaw drop to the ground. He puts to use his unbelievable technique which has proved itself in the past in discs such as the Busoni Piano Concerto, Kaleidascope (Unbelievable Encores) and Godowsky-Chopin Studies, Sonata and Passacaglia. Here, he spins each Liszt etude inspired by the immense virtuosity he witnessed of Pagannini with complete ease and confidence. For the most breath-taking performance, listen to Hamelin play "La Campanella" with complete disregard for the technical challenges which would make any college professor of piano think twice about playing it. He conveys a complete joy and love for the etudes, and still shows the raw power of all of the peices. Hamelin next release should be a disc of Symaniowski peices followed by more discs of Schumann, Kapustin and Schubert sonatas. Hopefully he will move on in the liszt piano music to the trancedental etudes which are in need of a modern benchmark, which surely Hamelin will most likely be up to. This reccording is highly reccomended.
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