Marc-André Hamelin - Supervirtuoso Documentary Part 4/10

[awayfromallsuns]

Tarantella in a minor is one of the most beautiful godowsky studies

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

I like the tarantella! :D

[Naltino]

Hamelin is one of only 3 super virtuosos living today. The others are Martha Argerich and Evgeny Kissin. And out of the 3 of them, Hamelin is probably the most gifted pianistically. Even Argerich admitted this.

[alexmanzo19]

not really, there are more pianist who can play same way hamelin does. Some of them:

Boris Berezovsky, have recorded the godowsky´s estude apres chopin and liszt trascendental etudes including the first version. Lang lang, Patricia Garcia, Federico osorio, J.L Pratz, alex gavriliuk, VAlentina lisitsa, Ayako Uehara, Dimitri Sgourus, Alessio Bax, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lugansky, etc. I could add 15 0 20 more super virutuosos to the list. Anyway I think argerich is the best one.

[Naltino]

Sorry friend, I disagree with you. The pianists you named are great virtuosos, but not supervirtuosos. A pianist with the technical facility of Hamelin, Kissin, Argerich are not that common anymore. That was very common until the mid to late 20th century. I do agree that Argerich is the greatest overall pianist and artist. But, she thinks Hamelin is better technically. And Lang Lang does not fit the title of a supervirtuoso. He should be a circus clown. He's nothing but an actor at the piano.

[alexmanzo19]

Well, you should take a look to hamelin repertory and Berezovsky repertory, I think berezovky Is bigger and has more difficult piano pieces. But anyway, both are other world pianist. I know lang lang is a circus, I dont like his style, but you should watch him playing liszt - don juan pharaphrase at carnigie hall, I think that piece is one of the most dificult in the world and the technical facility he shows is as good as Hamelin one.

[skalkmusix]

techically the one you mentioned are indeed perfect...

But this man here with Volodos are the most expressive and musically(minded)PERFECT...

[anonymousQ45]

Ashkenazy is the man!!

[MoonMankkkkkk]

Argerich is not what she once was, and, (in my opinion), Valentina Lisitsa has surpassed Kissin.

[henseltetude]

Of course ! Kissin is not a Supervirtuoso.

[burobbi]

@MoonMankkkkkk nah not in my opinion. Kissin probably wouldn't make as many mistakes in his whole career as lisitsa does in a recital. She did a recital here and I was disgusted by the wrong notes. She played too recklessly.

[MrMorriz1]

@burobbi you clearly know nothing about piano playing

[burobbi]

@MrMorriz1 if you say so. i don't see a need to dispute you.

i've watched lisitsa live; pardon my arrogance, but i think even my islamey has less wrong notes than hers. no one has a right opinion and everyone is entitled to theirs. so there.

[MrMorriz1]

@burobbi it doesnot matter if there are some wrong notes , horwitz allways made mistakes it is the interpretation and ideas that makes a good pianist grate. you are a typical asian pianist.

[burobbi]

@MrMorriz1 horowitz is sui generis. i'm asian but i don't profess to be a typical asian pianist. i play many many wrong notes too. but there's a limit to how many wrong notes one can play. there were too many for my liking - even, i think, with a horowitzian "quota" of wrong notes. there's no need to make accusations like that.

perhaps she plays better, and that recital was an isolated incident. but it did truly put me off.

[hjiuhfhrehui]

arcadi volodos is missing in the top 3 Virtuosos :P ( my opinion )

[GreggaryPeccary]

There is something in Hamelin's playing that puts me off. Alright, he pulls off the notes flawlessly, but there is no real involvement, no emotional sensitivity. Too tepid, bland, mechanical, dry

[hellomate639]

Maybe its the piece here. You should hear his Un Sospiro and a lot of his Alkan.

[Yamsareverytasty]

Agreed those performances are undoubtably phenomenal. Also, the sound quality here is really low, which doesnt help. I disagree with greggary, i agree he doesn't move around on his seat as, say, lang lang would, but his music is wonderful. And of course emotional sensitivity - it comes from the emotions, which arent the same each day. Every pianist has his uninspired moments.

[joernbroeker]

I really like the a major transcription

and first of all the end of it^^

but all the studies are the works of 2 real geniuses

[DarkRaimundo]

People, common..Ok Horowitz, Gould and Hamelin are Great pianists, but there are also other pianists less known that are just as good or even better, such as John Ogdon, Evgeny Kissin, Arcadi Volodos, Yundi Li etc..

[derefis]

Those still have a long way to be EVEN with Horowitz, Gould and Hamelin and there is a great possibility they will never reach such a level, en believe me Arcadi Volodos and Evgeny Kissin are quite well known but they are not yet prepared to fit in the shoes of these "Super Virtuosi"

[laqin007]

Arcadi Volodos, I would say, is much much much better than any other pianists, because he, not only plays virtuosic pieces, he also plays Schubert beautifully. Pianist who plays Schubert, Schumann, Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart beautifully, they will have no problems playing any other over-virtuosic pieces. Arcadi Volodos is the one, and his tone, I can say, is much beautiful and much thicker than any other pianists, even better than Hamelin.

[kage1369]

Hamelin has worked through the well known classical stuff, he's actually recording rare compositions. Find a pianist who can record an equal quantity of pieces with equal quality too, within the time he needs to do this.

[shinobi1311991]

Gould wasn't interasted in the composers hamelin is playing...Although I dont' want to diminish gould's greatness as a personality in piano and not only(maybe an even greater than hamelin), I think that hamelin demonstrates an ewven greater technique and a musicality as good as gould's.

horowitz on the other side had one of the greater techniquyes of the 20th century and i doubt that he wouldn't be capable of performing Alkan Sorabji Godowski or Medtner...

[shinobi1311991]

sorry but...why do you keep putting gould and horowitz in the sentence....comparing them to hamelin... Hamelin is a great musician and bares a great great technique.

Gould and horowitz play different repertoire...I love Gould for his control in gradations and his musicality in contrapuntctive pieces(bach, scoenberg, and beethoven's hammerclavier of course). He has shown great technicality especially in the hammerclavier and the art of the fugue...

[OverFjell]

Yes, Kastle is a disgrace to the name of Pianist.

[PianoStudent7]

Kastle?? Clayderman?? Are you serious? You are obviously not a pianist! Because you'd know the piano community doesn't consider them "pianists". They are entertainers that happen to play a piano. Clayderman can't even play the first Chopin Etude.

[rvn10rvn17]

wow, your comment strikes to the very point..

like a head-shot..

[Bulacanos]

his span is C - F

[jre58591]

ive shook hands with him. his hands are MASSIVE. i can span an 11th, and his hands were still big compared to mine.

[brianCIM]

i shook hands with him on two occasions. i think the MASSIVE part is the thickness and fleshiness of his palms and fingers. a trait many great pianists have.

[mauriciostarosta]

Horowitz had hands probably as big as Hamelin's. Glenn Gould didn't have hands as big as Horowitz or Hamelin's!

[mauriciostarosta]

His hands are amazing, increadibly big. Of course, it doesn't always help. But in Hamelin's case everything works juuuuust fine.

[mrozomir]

he has normal hands, maybe you have small hands :))

[StrivetobeDust]

Gould and Horowitz both had much bigger hands. It didn't help them though neither had this level of technical skill.

[brianCIM]

i am pretty sure if glenn gould or horowitz wanted to do this they could. in fact i know it sounds strange but if you thinl about gould's polyphonic playing it would be quite interesting. also michelangeli, richter, bolet, cziffra. you cant measure technique of this kind.

[StrivetobeDust]

Don't get me wrong. I think Gould and Horowitz had better interpretive skill, but they didn't have the clarity Hamelin achieves at this speed. His accuracy is uncanny. Gould and Horowitz let their sound get a little blurred when things got really fast. It's hard to tell with Cziffra. If there's a difference it can't be judged comparing the pieces they've both recorded. But, I've never heard a recording of Cziffra playing some of the really hellish pieces Hamelin performs.

[brianCIM]

well i guess in the final analysis we will never know but i must say that i dont know of a pianist who could play with more clarity than a gould or even michelangeli. i am not saying they are better in this respect just that all these guys had the kind of reflexes that if they set their mind to it they could pretty much achieve it.

[radurak]

argh. I hate those my composer vs your composer discussions, but still...gould is definately not comparable to anyone. He played whatever he wanted with perfection, theres not one single thing he couldn't have done if he wanted to. Few, if anybody reached his level of clarity and transparency (combined with any speed).

[brianCIM]

i agree with you. for instance listen to michelangeli's bach-busoni chaconne and then listen to hamelin's version. hamelin's is very good for sure but michelangeli's has to be heard to be believed. in my opinion michelangeli's is technically better because of his sense of structure, pedaling, beauty of tone and dynamic gradations.

[GeorgeMaxwellDuPre]

You can't judge these things on one or two piece. Hamelin is excellent and because music keeps getting harder with subsequent generations (because they build on the technical accomplishments of past generations), it would be easy to say he's better technically than Michelangeli. But Hamelin for some reason seldom moves me.

[lxr0913]

those biiiigggg hands....

[luganskymichelangeli]

my favourite canadian