Marc-André Hamelin - Supervirtuoso Documentary Part 2/10

[anonymousQ45]

i love this piece 

[flatulatingfetus]

he plays the sonata like a supervirtuoso would... it seems to lack feeling and emotion in parts because he is playing it too fast to stun the audience.

[trevjr]

Get a grip people, better, best? who knows, its all opinion. I love Horowitz in many things, Hamelin is a different pianist in a different time. He plays many difficult pieces very well, and I find him quite musical. Many people say Glenn Gould had a perfect technique, but you don't hear about it because he didn't play the repetoire to be a virtuoso. But you tell me how you can play a 5 part Bach fugue (a minor book 1), hear every voice, and have no technique.

[PianoStudent7]

Idiot confirmation!

[77katsumoto]

I don't want to disturb the discution, but I want to show my opinion: Horowitz's interpretation have more emotion, and Hamelin's interpretation have more virtuosity.

[zkool5]

That doesn't make any sense. Look up virtuosity in the dictionary, and you'll come to understand that artistry inseparable from technique.

[jsphweid]

If by emotion you mean more arm and body movement, then you are right. Hamelin posture is quite contained, but if you focus on the sound alone, it is simply brilliant!

[zkool5]

Read carefully before you reply. I neither implicitly nor explicitly wrote anything about emotions, more arm, and more body movement. And, with all due respect, what you believe to be brilliant is obviously your own opinion, while others find it to be excruciatingly bland when judged against thousands of other renditions of this work.

[jsphweid]

Ha! My mistake! I meant to reply to 77katsumoto's response for the lack of definition of emotion. Obviously, I replied to yours instead! My apologies.

[brianCIM]

technique is more than just playing alot of notes real fast. i think on a purely technical level hamelin is amazing but try listening to michelangeli playing the chaconne, brahms-paganni variations or gaspard de la nuit. there is no difficulty know to man that michelangeli couldn't overcome.and with incredible tone, colors, astounding crescendi and the most amazing pedaling i have heard.

[Lukecash12]

However much everyone else disagrees, i'm going to have to admit i love Arturo Michelangeli too.

[brianCIM]

well it is nice to know someone is sympathetic to the point i was making. it was not meant to be derogatory at all. i still love hamelin for his pianistic curiousity and yes , his technique is phenomenal. i have seen him in recital 3 times and i learned much from it. the last time i saw him he played the schubert b-flat sonata which is probably my favorite sonata ever and it bored me. it wasn't bad it was just sort of hum-drum. he doesn't project particularly well emotionally or tone-wise.

[brianCIM]

i invite anyone to listen to hamelin's chaconne side by side with michelangeli's and then render an opinion. to play that piece the way michelangeli does is just as hard as playing the chopin-godowsky etudes as hamelin does. of course i can do neither but i find that when i do get someone to listen to that michelangeli recording they cannot believe a human is capable of playing that way. please visit my channel and listen to the michelangeli. you won't believe what you are hearing.

[rvn10rvn17]

yes.. hamelin is my fav pianist but the chaconne belongs to ABM and so dones Ondine.. no one plays it like him

[Lukecash12]

Hamelin does have his moments, though...

[brianCIM]

most definitely. he is a courageous and fearless performer of a repertoire that the public might not know otherwise. i own the chopin-godowsky etudes, medtner sonatas, all of his alkan, scriabin sonatas really almost everything he recorded and there is some incredible playing in all of them. i am a huge fan and like i said my comments were in no way intended to be derogatory towards him. he also happens to be a really friendly, warm-hearted person.

[brianCIM]

to be fair horowitz was on alot of prescription medication when he made his recording in the late 70's. he also had franz mohr(head piano technician at steinway) lacquer the hammers going against mohr's advice. he was afraid the piano wouldnt sound brilliant enough. the resulting sound was quite ugly and not representative of horowitz's beautiful tone and gradations. i dont think its fair to judge horowitz on that particular recording.

[IAMLISZT]

definitely agreed

[thewayup]

mpaton2006 - haha i love that "horowitz was rubbish", i love how people like you think you know everything, do you actually believe horowitz was rubbish? most pianists would disagree with you

[KevinFromSD]

He plays like a high-speed computer.

[hailkayy]

LOL somewhat right !

[tcphilosopher]

Hamelin has no feeling for it. Horowitz's fire and passion and virtuosity, coupled with his sheer understanding made this particular section absolutely kinetic and manic in it's energy. Hamelin is all virtuosity, but no understanding, no linking. In Horowitz's hand this section was a continuous crescendo. In Hamelin's hands it's like a bunch of different sections. The intensity and CONTINUITY is completely lacking.

[volodya2]

horowitz do this sonata much better...

listen pirate recording in 1968....

[LongDriveChamp03]

hameling has a deep voice. i didn't expect that

[tastenmensch12]

i think that horowitz never was as great as hamelin.

[orpheus63]

Hamelin nearly reaches the intensity and virtuosity of Horowitz

[cowheadcow]

omg, I love you for uploading these. you are my hero.

[afertyus1000]

plays without pedal first then with?

[rea082151]

Rachmininoff 2nd piano sonata 3rd movement

[nonnon86]

Thank you! :)