Marc-Andre Hamelin Plays Godowsky

[mangoslicedancer]

Well, Hamelin is a great technician, but his interpretations are always a little uninspired in my opinion. Great guy though --- very down to earth.

[doneplayalmada]

ulala

[s900203]

Quite possibly the greatest technician since Godowsky? Or is he even better?

[marcushm]

Marc-André, s'il te plaît, stop playing so darn darn well, so breathtakingly virtuistically fantasmagorically well that it makes us all look like darn dummies stomping on the white and black keys...at least that's how I feel...back to my lessons...I need to change professions...I should've taken the trombone instead, damn it!

[proyectocms]

Cuántos dedos tiene en la mano izquierda???

[marcxopoco]

Good balance between melody and accompaniment.

[wborgstro]

Hamlin just comes up a winner every time. So versatile and perfect. Real talent

[antoinezygfryd]

Je proposerais à Godowsky de transcrire Mozart pour le music hall,-ainsi le ridicule de sa renommée serait complet.

[sagalat]

VERY clever photo-cropping, apparently fooling everyone but me. This piece, written for THREE hands, was photo-redacted to look like TWO of Hamelin's hands were out-of-play. (I figured it out by myself)

[exponentu]

the difference between Hamelin and most other pianists who play these Godowsky pieces is that he convinces you that the music is worth the prodigious effort.

Zimerman had scheduled to play some of Godowsky's pieces in London a few years ago, but the whole recital was cancelled. I think he would have been amazing in this repetoire.

[PiaNonuTT]

this man's left hand is one to envy ... not too many professionals have one like this!

[tomekkobialka]

Where does he find the time to learn all these pieces?!

[Aul1kki]

I've thinked that too. Because he says he sit front of the piano about 2-3 hours per day at these days. It would be interesting to hear how many hours he had practised.

[tomekkobialka]

I think that probably Hamelin practises loads of hand exercises, and then he gets a difficult piece and sort of puts all those exercises together (like some Hanon exercises). That way he can learn pieces very fast, and not worry about learning different technical passages, because he's practised them separately. Or maybe Hamelin is just mega-talented and can learn all these pieces very fast!

[OrangeSodaKing]

I've heard he's a monster sight-reader.

[hailkayy]

No doubt.

[demosj]

He sights reads like other people read newspapers, the wretch. He's goddamn Hamelin.

[jojoereturns]

Yeah, if you look at a picture of one of his library, it will blow your mind. He has a tremendous ability to absorb material very quickly. On a DVD I have of him, he site reads a classical sonata (mozart I think) and plays it like it's performance ready.

[ChrisWatch]

Hamelin should have added his right hand in with Godowsky. It would have been like hearing Godowsky and hamelin sitting next to eachother play together. lol. I think Chopin first labeled these etudes as excercises. So this would be a pretty heavy work out for the left hand.

[bluematrix109]

holy crap!! all that with one hand!??! that sounds like 2!! damn!!

[siamco]

Godowsky was studying Chopin's etude when he realized it can be played much more efficiently, using only your left hand, leaving the other hand free to hold your ice cream.

[Aul1kki]

I think this is even more interesting than the original.

[FaustianKnight]

lol...

[trigalg693]

lol that's a nice explanation :D

Although you might accidentally drop the ice cream on the beautiful piano :(

[Toxxic88]

it sure would be interesting if Chopin had lived to see Godowsky's studies.

[KeithWhalen11]

Personally I think Chopin would be very intrigued by Godowsky's seemingly limitless vision for these pieces. I think he'd be pretty shocked by the left hand etudes and would probably sweat over them as most pianists do. It's a great compliment to Chopin as a matter of fact, but most people think Godowsky was trying to win some sort of race here, very far from the truth.

[Ho0chie]

i totaly agree, i think chopin would be flattered

[vincecharus]

Or just to wank with the right hand.

[danielito1979]

INCREDIBLE!!!

[mikhailasanovic]

its crazy howmuch more complex this sounds than the original AND its only one hand playing it.. unbelievable. I freakin love hamelin, he's just so musical.

[rvn10rvn17]

it's not hamelin you should actually love, but godowsky

[Aul1kki]

Why? Because without godowsky there aren't this piece, and without hamelin we couldn't have this amazing performance. So I think both are important. Or maybe you wanted to say that.

[sfkcbf]

Godowsky's praphrases of the Chopin Etudes vary in musical merit but all present remarkable technical difficulty. Hamelin succeeds in making the most music possible out of them ... and does make it appear to be easy.

[Bordcla]

I think that, in the case of this particular etude, the Godowsky version is, actually, even MORE musically interesting than the original Chopin etude. One rare example technical intricacies actually improving the musical content.

[radurak]

They never do. You don't think godowsky just added a few difficult chrmoatic swirls and suddenly a beautiful contrapunctual romantic piece popped up, do you?

Of course he worked on the actual musical content besides the technical difficulties. Technique never makes music.

[fdaltrey]

Spellbinding

[VIDE0DR0ME]

radurak, a few difficult chromatic swirls may not produce a contrapunctual romantic piece, but you may have given Godowsky less credit than he deserves. true, Godowsky had good material to work on since the original Chopin etude was melodic. But Godowsky, whilst setting up challenging hurdles that implores technique, can create the most wonderous, and lyrical, pieces. Have you heard Java Suite?

[busoniliszt]

Cherkassky, Bolet, and now Wild, Hamelin, Libetta, Berezowsky...Godowsky lives! Remember what Harold Schonberg wrote in 1963: "...music for the sake of the piano. Chances are that these transcriptions will be entirely forgotten a generation from now unless there will be a complete esthetic turnabout in the 20 th century." There was one obviously and nobody noticed it.

[busoniliszt]

Sorry, I quoted wrong there, they are paraphrases of course, not transcriptions.

[lovesGenet]

Hamelin is amazing .I havent heard Grante or hobson in these but i guess they must be brilliant.He makes glorious music.these god studies are so gorgeous sometimes like 3 or 4 difficult pieces at ionce and he is never an ugly sound.I have a film of Libetta playing some but god I m so glad to see this genius.Has anyone hears dePachmann in the left hand reolutionary?

[exlex]

Hameline, Richter, and Gould... My favorite pianists. Hameline sometimes sounds too "practiced," though.

[pian000]

i don't get the difference between a professional and virtuoso pianist

[jbaxt]

1)professionals get paid

2) Hamelin is the definition of a virtuoso (just look at his freakin left hand). but there are many others ofcourse. they can attempt the most difficult passages with so much ease that they make their hands look like they're floating over the keys...and at incredible speeds while at the same producing beautiful sounds...

[jbaxt]

btw that's not even the half of what they can do...

[nightblade37]

i damn agree with you jbaxt.

[disquedur235]

Can you give me some example of pianists and their video who "make their hands look like they're floating over the keys"? (your description is exciting but i never saw such pianists!)

[monelleny]

This is just beautiful. Thank you for the post. Horowitz was pretty "floaty," whether you like him or not!

[etwade]

Try Pogorelich.

[seanrcollins]

This is incredible playing. It almost sounds easy

[AbsoluteXenocide]

Godowsky's etudes are ridiculously hard...and I find them a little bit ridiculous, period...just because of how gratuitously virtuosic they are, but nevertheless, Hamelin is amazing.

[sebdale]

It depends on what the reasons were for him to write them - Godowsky was very careful to defend his transcriptions and he introduces the sheet music to the etudes with a long explanation.

[emtube]

To play this transcendentally difficult piece just to get the notes right, and then to make it sound as beautiful as this -- Mr. Hamelin, my hat is off to you!  Godowsky would have been so pleased.