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Also this issue: Once More, With Feeling Beat Box The Gig They Survived Philly Kelly Slusher |
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May 9-15, 2002
music
One of the greatest living piano virtuosos calls Philly home.
Sometimes, while wandering the streets of South Philly, you may hear the grand clangor of Alkan, Scriabin or Liszt emanating from some nearby residence. Or at least you can imagine it. Born in Montreal, piano virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin has made Philadelphia his home for some time now, but his connection is even deeper. His undergraduate and graduate degrees are from Temple University, where his teachers included Harvey Wedeen and Russell Sherman.
Hamelin's recordings include works by nearly 80 different composers, ranging from Mozart and Beethoven on through the romantic piano titans Chopin, Liszt, Alkan, Henselt and Busoni, to Schonberg. This spring Hamelin will release his take on the music of Leo Ornstein, who died in February at age 109 and who spent years in Philly as the founder of the Ornstein School of Music.
Recently concertizing in Europe, Hamelin will return to Philadelphia in time to give a recital at the Kimmel's Perelman Theater on Friday. The evening's program features Haydn's piano sonata in C major of 1794; Robert Schumann's wonderful Fantasiestücke, Op. 12 of 1837; the pianist's own Con Intimissimo Sentimento (2000); and the overwhelming one-hour-long symphony for solo piano of 1857 by Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888). Alkan was generally ignored as an eccentric piano virtuoso until recently. One old (probably apocryphal) story is that he died when his copy of the Talmud fell on him. Through his recitals and recordings on the Hyperion label, Hamelin has generated new interest in this composer and others lesser known. The concert, presented by the Chamber Music Society, is just about sold out, but you should storm the barricades and stand or lie down, if necessary, to hear this extraordinary pianist.
The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents Marc-André Hamelin, Fri., May 10, 8 p.m. Perelman Theater, The Kimmel Center For The Performing Arts, 260 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, www.kimmelcenter.org.
