Marc-André Hamelin is such a treasure. Besides his obviously incredible abilities, he speaks about music in a way that makes me want to listen to him for hours.
The way he speaks about music and the way he speaks about his wife are beyond touching. He doesn't mention Cathy here but he has in many other interviews. The man is an absolute treasure of humanity, I love him so much.
“No self censorship” is the cutest thing you can say about a composer in either case whether or not you like one’s music:-)…”I find that refreshing” :-)beats the previous line
The fact he decided to go to a tangent just to show how beautiful Alkan's music can get really shows how much he appreciates Alkan, and I find that simply awesome.
IMO one first has to love the music you play, to play it properly and respectfully. If you don't first love it, it will never come put right. I think people should mainly play music they love, although I realize professional musicians may also have to play other music in order to make a living.
I literally laughed out loud at around 12:00 when he is asked, "What is that like" and he just looks at the interviewer and drops it like he's practiced it all day today. Just incredible personality.
Honestly that's what decades of growing yourself in the ways of music and playing the piano can do for you. It's truly your soul that can love the instrument though, and it's clear his does.
Good to see ives, alkan and Scriabin included, not just Beethoven, Liszt, Ravel, Rachmaninoff as always (no depreciation to these amazing composers), great video.
Totally agree! In fact, it would have been nice to include more unknown composers as well, such as Godowsky, Feinberg, Szymanowski and some others. Especially considering this is based on difficulty…
@@advikthepianokid4583 Don't forget about his original compositions. I rank Hamelin's piano pieces as highly as my very favorite pieces by Scriabin, Feinberg, Sorabji, etc. His "Twelve Etudes in All The Minor Keys" album on Hyperion is an absolute must own, it's my favorite set of etudes of all time, hands down. #12, the A-flat minor etude especially.
The 3 etudes that make up Allan’s Concerto for Solo Piano comprise one of my favorite pieces of all time, from the first time I was ever lucky enough to discover it many years ago on an FM radio broadcast. That anyone can actually perform it, is a wonder to me. (But I’m not as surprised that Hamelin can!)
The epithet “super virtuoso” is well-deserved in Marc-André Hamelin. He is one of a kind - a true piano wizard; the "Merlin" of piano. It’s like having a conversation with something which shouldn’t be possible.
Marc-Andre has developed all of his amazing gifts to the maximum. When one hears him speak of music, it is never from a lofty, privileged position - it always seems to come from a place of profound love for the work in question and a genuine desire to share his fascination with the wonders of composition. And then, he’s so down to earth - forgive the cliché. This is the kind of teacher we would like to see in the world’s great conservatories. A true genius who in my opinion, doesn’t seem to be as impressed with himself as we are!
This man is ridiculously good at the piano, I will never reach a tenth of his skill (or handspan lol). But he's also so knowledgeable, eloquent, likable; and I find he even looks better now than in the shown recordings! Amazing production quality on this one, thank you for providing it to us for free :)
When he played the opening measures of Ravel's Ondine exactly as he described --- ultra-pianissimo, incredibly even, the melody integrated fully into the texture while at the same time given expressive depth as a melody --- it seriously brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for this video --- it's really well-edited, and it's a pleasure to hear an artist as articulate and "super-virtuosic" (agree) as Marc-André Hamelin talk about his craft in such close detail!
What a delight and true privledge it is to have this video of Hamelin deposit such knowledge over these absolutely gargantuan pieces!!! Thank you Tonebase piano for bringing him to light once again!
Just jaw-dropping😱! I speak of the entire video, but the term popped into my head after the Scriabin White Mass syncopated and irregular LH under quintuplets etc. in RH; and he plays it so beautifully and with ease! I just love how, even with such natural talent and rare brain-power, he speaks of how this piece gave him quite a headache when he was learning it. Hamlin gives off no airs of superiority in these videos. He’s in awe of the music just like all the rest of us are. Many thanks!
I was fortunate enough to see him play the Hammerklavier just a few months ago in Chicago. I wouldn't say he made it look easy, because that would be impossible, but he was in complete command with a combination of power and grace that was difficult to believe.
Yeah he's singularly impressive. He's polite, pleasant, well-mannered, and totally unstoppable. Even the manner in which he speaks is precise and controlled. He basically made his career tackling pieces that were collecting dust because everyone else was too afraid to perform them. Somehow it wouldn't surprise me if, many years after his passing, it was discovered that he was a hugely prolific CIA assassin.
His live Gaspard is ridiculous and competes with studio versions by even Pogorelich... but he has also explored modern composers, played chamber, we don't realise how complete a musician he was, just the GOAT.
In Dante's "The Divine Comedy", the spirit of Virgil guides us through the 9 layers of Hell. Marc-André Hamelin now guides us through 9 layers of pianistic torment. A grand tour of piano purgatory that only the best can traverse. Bravo!
about a decade ago a guitar player friend of mine learned piano by teaching himself Scarbo by sight/ear since he didn't read music at the time, a true testament to his pure artistic brilliance!
For real! I started playing guitar around that age and while I was a "natural" and progressed well it took serious dedication and obsession. I can't imagine learning an equivalent on guitar at that age. That's not simply talent, work and intuition; it's gifted.
@@poindextertunesGuitar tabs made it easy. And easy to get accurate tabs now not like in the past. Those guys before the internet had to learn mainly by ear. I wanna see those same kids now compose something equivalent. At 16 I learned Eruption by van halen without even knowing where the notes on guitar were.
Marc-André Hamelin speaks about music in such a way that makes me want to play again. It's amazing and inspiring. Also his interpretation of Schnittke's concerto for piano and strings changed my life. What a wonderful musician.
I was lucky enough to see him perform the Paul Dukas piano sonata, several works by Faure, and his original work Suite à l’ancienne live last year. Out of the dozens of concerts I've been to in my life, it was by far the most transcendental and surreal of them all.
Awesome to see Marc Andre-Hamelin on here! Arguably the greatest piano virtuoso of the last 30+ years. He's also devoted a considerable time and effort to exposing audiences to unknown/overlooked composers. I'm especially appreciative of his Godowsky, Alkan, Busoni, and Medtner recordings. Besides his immense technical gifts he's also a superb interpreter of piano music; a player who always knows how to highlight the musicality of pieces rather than the technical fireworks. His Liszt Sonata is one of the most subtle of that amazing work.
@@kingconcerto5860 Such things are always arguable, and once you go all-time you're running into other virtuosic titans like Richter, Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, and Rubinstein.
@@jonathanhenderson9422 I hear you, I own a ton of recordings by all of these pianists... However, Marc Andre Hamelin is who I find myself listening to for recreational purposes far more often than any of the other 4 you mentioned.
He seems like a great guy. I had the pleasure of hearing him play one of my favourite pieces in Dublin a number of years back - Schumann's Fantasie in C. I was mesmerized.
If you haven’t listened to Alkan’s Concerto, just take a minute to check out the cadenza, around 6 minutes before the end of the first movement. Absolutely incredible music. Just an impossible onslaught of virtuosity, but brilliant and beautiful, so much more than sheer technical effects. The final statement of the theme in major is one of the most epic and well-earned phrases in the entire virtuoso reportoire.
Marc-André Hamelin is a gift to this world. Seriously is there any other pianist out there who can memorize such a quantity of diverse and often extremely demanding works??
He's right though. This like those require practice and patience, then you will play them wherever you want wherever you find them. The other examples in this vid are either too specific, like Hammerklavier, or require constant attention, like Scarbo.
That pick had me confused as well. Most serious pianists would at some point study Chopin 25-6 and after that you should know your chromatic thirds pretty well.
RH chromatic thirds were a requirement for grade 8 in one variety of Australian piano exams. Once you have the fingering down it's not so bad - of course, bringing it up to a fast tempo with the control of Hamelin is something else, but it's the least scary example from this video I daresay.
Badass. It's refreshing to hear a high level person talk about rhythm. As a musician who works in the popular music world but comes into contact with musicians in the "classical" world, I hear lots of talk about difficult pieces, but the conversation rarely if ever focuses on the rhythmic aspect, and often when I hear those musicians play while I'm looking at the music I think "what the heck are they thinking" - rhythmically speaking. They're so often not even close to accurately playing the rhythms on the page IN TEMPO.
This is so precious, thank you…such humility, wisdom and humor and it’s amazing to see someone with such unreal abilities break things down so slowly and accessibly…makes me almost believe I can do it too. 😅
I saw MAH in recital at Severance Hall 2 weeks ago. He played the Ives #2, Schumann's Forest Scenes and Gaspard de la nuit. For encores, he played C.P.E. Bach's rondo and Debussy Reflets dans l'eau. Absolutely epic in every respect. Who else would play a program like it ?
i love listening to true piano experts talking about gaspard de la nuit. it took me a good three years to get ondine and le gibet down, and i truly don't know if i'll ever get anywhere close with scarbo, but i'm always so happy to hear these pieces get the appreciation they deserve
I've played all those pieces (except for the Alkan) in concert. And I remember tears, cursing, and desperate frustration over many of those passages! I must say, it's very comforting to hear that we're all in the same boat.
I guess you are a professional pianist. I am just wondering how long does it take to learn a work of the difficulty and length of Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto if you had to learn it from scratch.
A great collection of "impossible" pieces! Hamelin's commentary on these pieces is fascinating and illuminating. Thanks so much to Tonebase for this great video.
Thank you very much for posting this. Marc-André Hamelin has contributed greatly to my love of the piano, especially these works of great substance & difficulty. I was pleased to observe that all of them are in my regular listening discography. Thank You very much.
Thanks, Ben, for dropping another gem into the mass of RUclips content! Even as a non-musician, I find your videos both instructive and celebratory - breaking down the music and showcasing the talent required to do it justice.
Oh, yes. His performances in Tokyo on Dec. 11 and 14, 1997 were "legendary" - legend of legends. Someone recorded Liszt (but why they excluded Apparition No. 1 (S. 155/1)??) and Scriabin from "Classic Hour" of NHK in Apr. 8, 1998 as far as I remember, and those "HQ" clips on RUclips are the fragments of the broadcast. We are so happy to listen to his Un Sospiro or so with extra-high mechanics and musicality on RUclips.
so fascinating.. the classical way of approaching music, reading the score and trying to really go inside the head of who wrote the piece is something the modern music is not doing for multiple reasons. You really need to dedicate your life to become a master, and this truly deserves the deepest respect.
If only I had been exposed to this wonderful music at an early age! I have never heard of any of these pieces before and I am now only slightly enlightened. I need to hear all of these from beginning to end!
I never cease to be amazed by Hamelin, who is kind of my musical hero. Such wisdom, fluency and charisma make him simply the best (for me). And what a delight to see Scriabin’s White Mass on that list. Awesome video!
If there's ever a sequel to this video, I'd love to hear Marc-André Hamelin discuss Frederic Rzewski's colossal "The People United Will Never Be Defeated". It's a favorite of mine (maybe the greatest piano work of the second half of the last century?), and it's a piece I always associate with Hamelin. That said, this video is quite a triumph, very entertaining.
Shame he didn't talk about sorabji with all his crazy rhythms. I'm very grateful that we have a channel like this, where we can better understand the best musicians of all eras
@@pavlenikacevic4976Not exactly, it was more that Sorabji wrote very long music, and he'd rather diversify his repertoire with other music than spend 2 years learning a major Sorabji work. Also for some reason the video creator decided there was no value in including works outside the standard repertoire.
The Scriabin was wild. Seems like one of those “Rain Man” abilities. I recently overcame the 8 on 3/4 in the left hand in Ravel’s La Valse and the 5-tuplet over an off-beat 3/4 in Scriabin’s Poème Op. 32 No. 1. Both are child’s play compared to White Mass. The difficulty with those polyrhythms is really the fact that they’re slow, ‘cause when you have to play them faster, they’re easier, in my opinion. That all said, Scriabin’s always seems to be doable after enough tries, so I’m sure Scriabin tested their “doability” out himself before submitting the work for publication. And once you get it, it’s soooooo satisfying. You feel like a circus monkey. Like “Do it again! Do it again!”
Scriabin is the hardest composer I've ever studied. Every piece I've learned by him was a mind fuck in one way or another. I'm currently learning his Fantasie and it's giving me nightmares. 😜😆😆😆 Once I learn it will be the hardest piece I've ever learned. It's not only technically difficult but to bringing out the many voicings played at tempo has been fiendishly difficult for me.
I have a piece I play that forces you to do polyrhythms very slowly. It uses many different polyrhythms. Polyrhythms are actually quite easy to execute. When I started learning them, I could not do 2 against 3. But this piece has never been written down, only in my head...
In the early 90s I went to a Pogorelich concert. He played Islamey as an encore. I was at the back of the smallish hall and noticed some very loud breathing which I thought was coming from near me. In fact it was Pogorelich himself doing some kind of yoga breathing he used to play Islamey without succumbing to tension. The breathing was really loud, even in the back of the hall. Strange moment. Thus was back when he could play and was a nice concert overall. He did a great job with the Rachmaninoff second piano sonata.
I wonder how much Liszt in his middle/later years would have appreciated a virtuoso like Hamelin. Liszt had virtuoso contemporaries like Chopin, Thalberg but also gifted students who were super virtuosos of their days (Tausig, von Bulow) and even Busoni was a teenager when Liszt was near the end of his life.
Marc-Andre Hamelin, while not always my favorite interpreter of music, is arguably the greatest virtuoso who has ever lived from a purely mechanical and technical point of view.
That is generally the consensus, but his musicality is something that is heavily underappreciated IMO. He's not just a technician like Lang Lang, and the more recordings (and especially interviews) of MAH that you listen to, the more evident that becomes.
Yes... this type of music goes through my head when I just let it rip on the keyboard... but the coordination just isn't there yet... I like watching this type of conversation... very useful... Thanks
MAH was the guest of my regional orchestra for a benefit concert. Several ensembles played that day. He had played the Quintet op. 44 by Schumann with the Alcan Quartet and then the Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2. Between his appearances, he was backstage reading a comic book. Truly a virtuoso down th earth, no big ego. Love him.
Marc André is a treasure. One of the greats and inspiring to watch. Love his Godowsky (whom I share a birthday with). Marc's first wife Jody and I share an interest in the performance of Berlin Cabaret music and both Marc and Jody were so attentive and helpful when I was doing performance research for MM in piano and musicology. I also have all of Marc's amazing transcriptions.
Hamelin is a super-super-virtuoso. If he says a piece is tough, then you better believe it, it's tough! As a pianist myself Ondine, Scarbo, Islamey and Scriabin 7 terrify me.
someone help me raise my jaw from the floor. Truly a peek into the intensity and depth and vaulting ceiling of past pianist composer virtuosos and yet we have those like Marc as a living archive of such pieces I didn't quite know Ravel had powerful piano pieces I am 10x more intrigued to know what transpired between Gershwin's visit with Ravel. George must have felt so undone ... in Ravels presence.
Super excited to see him talk about Scriabin's white mass sonata at the end there! Hoping tonebase releasing content covering Scriabin's vastly underrated corpus.
His italian pronounciation is also amazingly good. If you hadn't brought out at least one Alkan piece in the presence of the only human capable of playing it while giving it justice, I would have started a revolution.
This taught me that I will never go that deep in the rabbit hole of music and just follow what my teachers told me to learn. I have no desire in learning such difficult, unpleasant compositions.
I saw him play a concert recently. He really is stunning pianist. This is a great video.
Год назад+2
I remember working on Scriabin 6... Exactly the same things... - first to get the priorities to voices, than the rhythms... and after, he's just adding and adding.... Anyway - it's like a poison. And once you get poisoned and it "clicks", than the poison becomes an extasy... And that's exactly how to describe Scriabin's music - poisonious extasy. Love the video. Marc is a great pianist. I wish that one day, he will take a look at the piece which I sent him a couple months ago. But I fully understand that he must be a "pretty busy fella"...
Marc-André is amazing! His dynamics and tremendous feel for the tempo, makes it sound so elastic and fluid, like the piano is alive. That was far more impressive to me than his crazy gymnastics, although some of that looked painful lol.
Really great!! I love that it isn’t just romantic virtuosity. However, in regards to impossibility, new complexity must be mentioned (Ferneyhough, Finnissy, Xenakis).
I smiled a little when he said very gravely, "your eye really has to be able to travel a lot..." to play Scarbo. I heard a blind pianist perform that as an encore after a Beethoven concerto performance in Caracas @1983. It was an absolutely stunning performance by any measure.
The Chopin Opus 25 #6 is an exquisite piece and though I once played it at mm=138 I really love playing it mm=86 for sheer aesthetic enjoyment and haven't played it fast in years.
Marc-André Hamelin is possibly the greatest pianist of our time, or is definitely among the top five, in my opinion. His memory, technique, hyper-virtuosity and breadth and width of his repertoire are just staggering.
Marc-André Hamelin is such a treasure. Besides his obviously incredible abilities, he speaks about music in a way that makes me want to listen to him for hours.
The way he speaks about music and the way he speaks about his wife are beyond touching. He doesn't mention Cathy here but he has in many other interviews. The man is an absolute treasure of humanity, I love him so much.
He's also super humble for someone with his abilities, and that makes him very approachable
Yeah also he is very funny lol
He is wonderful
“No self censorship” is the cutest thing you can say about a composer in either case whether or not you like one’s music:-)…”I find that refreshing” :-)beats the previous line
The fact he decided to go to a tangent just to show how beautiful Alkan's music can get really shows how much he appreciates Alkan, and I find that simply awesome.
And 345k people now know more about Alkan!!
I really loved this part
I love Alkan, and the best interpreter of his work is Hamelin by far. And i have heard many
IMO one first has to love the music you play, to play it properly and respectfully.
If you don't first love it, it will never come put right.
I think people should mainly play music they love, although I realize professional musicians may also have to play other music in order to make a living.
I literally laughed out loud at around 12:00 when he is asked, "What is that like" and he just looks at the interviewer and drops it like he's practiced it all day today.
Just incredible personality.
The interviewer has to visibly swallow after seeing that performance... look at him ...
Honestly that's what decades of growing yourself in the ways of music and playing the piano can do for you. It's truly your soul that can love the instrument though, and it's clear his does.
HAHAHAH Same Wave Lenght! Here i was thinking OOoOOOOHHHHH!!!! WOW!!!! Anyone else think that was LEGIT amazing! What a display!
SCARBO at that, bro!😭💀
He plays things he played 40 years ago like nothing. Incredible. He truly completely gave himself to music.
Good to see ives, alkan and Scriabin included, not just Beethoven, Liszt, Ravel, Rachmaninoff as always (no depreciation to these amazing composers), great video.
Totally agree! In fact, it would have been nice to include more unknown composers as well, such as Godowsky, Feinberg, Szymanowski and some others. Especially considering this is based on difficulty…
@@advikthepianokid4583 Don't forget about his original compositions. I rank Hamelin's piano pieces as highly as my very favorite pieces by Scriabin, Feinberg, Sorabji, etc. His "Twelve Etudes in All The Minor Keys" album on Hyperion is an absolute must own, it's my favorite set of etudes of all time, hands down. #12, the A-flat minor etude especially.
He has pioneered the recording of so much incredible music that might have otherwise been entirely forgotten by history.
@@kingconcerto5860Sorry I totally forgot! And yes you’re right, his etudes are amazing!
The 3 etudes that make up Allan’s Concerto for Solo Piano comprise one of my favorite pieces of all time, from the first time I was ever lucky enough to discover it many years ago on an FM radio broadcast. That anyone can actually perform it, is a wonder to me. (But I’m not as surprised that Hamelin can!)
That story of Rachmaninoff practicing that Chopin étude slowly had me dying. What a great channel.
The original story was him playing the Hungarian Rhapsody 2
The epithet “super virtuoso” is well-deserved in Marc-André Hamelin. He is one of a kind - a true piano wizard; the "Merlin" of piano. It’s like having a conversation with something which shouldn’t be possible.
Yes 🙌 amazing piano machine
Cziffra still >>>
Met him once, lovely guy. And yeah his technique is absolutely uncanny, almost impossibly skilled
If someone asked me who I'd put on a list of "super virtuosos" the first name I'd offer is Hamelin's.
@@thypie He is absolutely a fine pianist, but in technique as well as range of repertoire he comes nowhere near Hamelin
Marc-Andre has developed all of his amazing gifts to the maximum.
When one hears him speak of music, it is never from a lofty, privileged position - it always seems to come from a place of profound love for the work in question and a genuine desire to share his fascination with the wonders of composition. And then, he’s so down to earth - forgive the cliché. This is the kind of teacher we would like to see in the world’s great conservatories. A true genius who in my opinion, doesn’t seem to be as impressed with himself as we are!
This man is ridiculously good at the piano, I will never reach a tenth of his skill (or handspan lol).
But he's also so knowledgeable, eloquent, likable; and I find he even looks better now than in the shown recordings!
Amazing production quality on this one, thank you for providing it to us for free :)
His technique and musical understanding are both incredible!
Don't feel bad, I'm still at one finger 80s synth player level.
Most humble gifted pianist I have ever seen or heard
When he played the opening measures of Ravel's Ondine exactly as he described --- ultra-pianissimo, incredibly even, the melody integrated fully into the texture while at the same time given expressive depth as a melody --- it seriously brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for this video --- it's really well-edited, and it's a pleasure to hear an artist as articulate and "super-virtuosic" (agree) as Marc-André Hamelin talk about his craft in such close detail!
Marc-Andre is a national Canadian treasure. His analysis and technique in difficult piano repertoire is unmatched !
What a delight and true privledge it is to have this video of Hamelin deposit such knowledge over these absolutely gargantuan pieces!!! Thank you Tonebase piano for bringing him to light once again!
Just jaw-dropping😱! I speak of the entire video, but the term popped into my head after the Scriabin White Mass syncopated and irregular LH under quintuplets etc. in RH; and he plays it so beautifully and with ease! I just love how, even with such natural talent and rare brain-power, he speaks of how this piece gave him quite a headache when he was learning it. Hamlin gives off no airs of superiority in these videos. He’s in awe of the music just like all the rest of us are. Many thanks!
I was fortunate enough to see him play the Hammerklavier just a few months ago in Chicago. I wouldn't say he made it look easy, because that would be impossible, but he was in complete command with a combination of power and grace that was difficult to believe.
Calling MAH a super-virtuoso is quite fitting. He legitimately scares me sometimes with how good he is.
Yeah he's singularly impressive. He's polite, pleasant, well-mannered, and totally unstoppable. Even the manner in which he speaks is precise and controlled. He basically made his career tackling pieces that were collecting dust because everyone else was too afraid to perform them. Somehow it wouldn't surprise me if, many years after his passing, it was discovered that he was a hugely prolific CIA assassin.
@@paulmayerpiano his manner of speech makes him incredibly attractive
I put him and arcadi volodos as the best pianists alive today
His live Gaspard is ridiculous and competes with studio versions by even Pogorelich... but he has also explored modern composers, played chamber, we don't realise how complete a musician he was, just the GOAT.
Same. Similar feel to Irvine Arditti, though he might scare me even more 😂
In Dante's "The Divine Comedy", the spirit of Virgil guides us through the 9 layers of Hell. Marc-André Hamelin now guides us through 9 layers of pianistic torment. A grand tour of piano purgatory that only the best can traverse. Bravo!
MAH has such a commanding voice. I could listen to it for hours let alone his excellent playing
about a decade ago a guitar player friend of mine learned piano by teaching himself Scarbo by sight/ear since he didn't read music at the time, a true testament to his pure artistic brilliance!
My jaw hit the floor when Hamelin admitted to memorizing the Concord Sonata at 13
...by ear!
For real! I started playing guitar around that age and while I was a "natural" and progressed well it took serious dedication and obsession. I can't imagine learning an equivalent on guitar at that age. That's not simply talent, work and intuition; it's gifted.
@@CynHickstheres 12 year olds knocking out Polyphia tunes nowadays. This is a direct result of growing up with RUclips at your disposal 💯
@@poindextertunesGuitar tabs made it easy. And easy to get accurate tabs now not like in the past. Those guys before the internet had to learn mainly by ear. I wanna see those same kids now compose something equivalent. At 16 I learned Eruption by van halen without even knowing where the notes on guitar were.
;)
How wonderful to listen to such an articulate speaker on his subject and what a fabulous pianist.
Thank you to Hamelin for breaking these pieces down and thank you tonebase for making this video!
Marc-André Hamelin speaks about music in such a way that makes me want to play again. It's amazing and inspiring. Also his interpretation of Schnittke's concerto for piano and strings changed my life. What a wonderful musician.
Marc-André Hamelin… Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I'm obsessed with these videos. This is the new Medici for me... and it's free!
Ben, you surpassed yourself with this one.
I was lucky enough to see him perform the Paul Dukas piano sonata, several works by Faure, and his original work Suite à l’ancienne live last year. Out of the dozens of concerts I've been to in my life, it was by far the most transcendental and surreal of them all.
Very well edited! Golden moment at 7:23.
Very nice video. Thank you!
What happened there? I still don't get it
Passionnant ! Quelle maîtrise, et sans précipiter le tempo !
Awesome to see Marc Andre-Hamelin on here! Arguably the greatest piano virtuoso of the last 30+ years. He's also devoted a considerable time and effort to exposing audiences to unknown/overlooked composers. I'm especially appreciative of his Godowsky, Alkan, Busoni, and Medtner recordings. Besides his immense technical gifts he's also a superb interpreter of piano music; a player who always knows how to highlight the musicality of pieces rather than the technical fireworks. His Liszt Sonata is one of the most subtle of that amazing work.
not to mention his HANON 'The Virtuoso Pianist' [3-DISC SET]
not to mention his HANON ‘The Virtuoso Pianist’ [3-DISK SET]
It's not arguable, and change "last 30+ years" to "all time".
@@kingconcerto5860 Such things are always arguable, and once you go all-time you're running into other virtuosic titans like Richter, Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, and Rubinstein.
@@jonathanhenderson9422 I hear you, I own a ton of recordings by all of these pianists... However, Marc Andre Hamelin is who I find myself listening to for recreational purposes far more often than any of the other 4 you mentioned.
He seems like a great guy. I had the pleasure of hearing him play one of my favourite pieces in Dublin a number of years back - Schumann's Fantasie in C. I was mesmerized.
What a stunning experience. Got into the video out of curiosity, stayed through it because of sheer appreciation. Thank you!
If you haven’t listened to Alkan’s Concerto, just take a minute to check out the cadenza, around 6 minutes before the end of the first movement. Absolutely incredible music. Just an impossible onslaught of virtuosity, but brilliant and beautiful, so much more than sheer technical effects. The final statement of the theme in major is one of the most epic and well-earned phrases in the entire virtuoso reportoire.
Marc-André Hamelin is a gift to this world. Seriously is there any other pianist out there who can memorize such a quantity of diverse and often extremely demanding works??
Yes
Who? You?
Don't know if any could but also don't know of any that have attempted.
Most concert pianists. I, an amateur, had to memorize 3 h of pieces for school recitals at tye end of secondary school.
@@yetao5801No way. In comparison to MAH most pianist have a smaller repertoire than him.
Ben: This part makes me close the book
Hamelin: Why? The chromatic thirds?
Ben: Yeah
Hamelin: It's easy. Look!
Ben (probably) and definitely me: 😐
He's right though. This like those require practice and patience, then you will play them wherever you want wherever you find them. The other examples in this vid are either too specific, like Hammerklavier, or require constant attention, like Scarbo.
Chromatic thirds - in right hand - are in Chopins Berceuse which many non-virtuoso pianists play - I can myself after a fashion.
That pick had me confused as well. Most serious pianists would at some point study Chopin 25-6 and after that you should know your chromatic thirds pretty well.
RH chromatic thirds were a requirement for grade 8 in one variety of Australian piano exams. Once you have the fingering down it's not so bad - of course, bringing it up to a fast tempo with the control of Hamelin is something else, but it's the least scary example from this video I daresay.
Badass. It's refreshing to hear a high level person talk about rhythm. As a musician who works in the popular music world but comes into contact with musicians in the "classical" world, I hear lots of talk about difficult pieces, but the conversation rarely if ever focuses on the rhythmic aspect, and often when I hear those musicians play while I'm looking at the music I think "what the heck are they thinking" - rhythmically speaking. They're so often not even close to accurately playing the rhythms on the page IN TEMPO.
You would love the work of Edna Golandsky - check out her DVDs "Rhythmical Expression" and "The Forgotten Lines"
I met Marc in New York many years ago and he was a complete gentleman, signed everybodies programs etc. Class act
A staggering genius of a musician. Awe inspiring!
This is so precious, thank you…such humility, wisdom and humor and it’s amazing to see someone with such unreal abilities break things down so slowly and accessibly…makes me almost believe I can do it too. 😅
He’s so calm, and utterly brilliant.
I saw MAH in recital at Severance Hall 2 weeks ago. He played the Ives #2, Schumann's Forest Scenes and Gaspard de la nuit. For encores, he played C.P.E. Bach's rondo and Debussy Reflets dans l'eau. Absolutely epic in every respect. Who else would play a program like it ?
i love listening to true piano experts talking about gaspard de la nuit. it took me a good three years to get ondine and le gibet down, and i truly don't know if i'll ever get anywhere close with scarbo, but i'm always so happy to hear these pieces get the appreciation they deserve
I love how he talks 🤔. It’s like talking to a master of something. Confident, knowledgeable, respectful
Apart from his phenomenal playing ability, he's made a point to record pieces that never had recordings. Very cool
I've played all those pieces (except for the Alkan) in concert. And I remember tears, cursing, and desperate frustration over many of those passages! I must say, it's very comforting to hear that we're all in the same boat.
Busoni piano concerto as well? Wow, respect!
I guess you are a professional pianist. I am just wondering how long does it take to learn a work of the difficulty and length of Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto if you had to learn it from scratch.
Very entertaining to see such a craftsmen speaking joyfully about these complex works. Quality content.
A great collection of "impossible" pieces! Hamelin's commentary on these pieces is fascinating and illuminating. Thanks so much to Tonebase for this great video.
Thank you very much for posting this. Marc-André Hamelin has contributed greatly to my love of the piano, especially these works of great substance & difficulty. I was pleased to observe that all of them are in my regular listening discography. Thank You very much.
Thanks, Ben, for dropping another gem into the mass of RUclips content! Even as a non-musician, I find your videos both instructive and celebratory - breaking down the music and showcasing the talent required to do it justice.
As a guitar player, I feel I learned so much from this relatively short video. A truly insightful teacher who is a master of his craft. Bravo!
hamelin's performance of un sospiro is my favorite music performance ever
Oh, yes. His performances in Tokyo on Dec. 11 and 14, 1997 were "legendary" - legend of legends. Someone recorded Liszt (but why they excluded Apparition No. 1 (S. 155/1)??) and Scriabin from "Classic Hour" of NHK in Apr. 8, 1998 as far as I remember, and those "HQ" clips on RUclips are the fragments of the broadcast. We are so happy to listen to his Un Sospiro or so with extra-high mechanics and musicality on RUclips.
Perfect mix of knowledge and skills. Merci Énormément M. Hamelin.
so fascinating.. the classical way of approaching music, reading the score and trying to really go inside the head of who wrote the piece is something the modern music is not doing for multiple reasons. You really need to dedicate your life to become a master, and this truly deserves the deepest respect.
What a God. Thank you for doing this interview.
If only I had been exposed to this wonderful music at an early age! I have never heard of any of these pieces before and I am now only slightly enlightened. I need to hear all of these from beginning to end!
I never cease to be amazed by Hamelin, who is kind of my musical hero. Such wisdom, fluency and charisma make him simply the best (for me). And what a delight to see Scriabin’s White Mass on that list. Awesome video!
If there's ever a sequel to this video, I'd love to hear Marc-André Hamelin discuss Frederic Rzewski's colossal "The People United Will Never Be Defeated". It's a favorite of mine (maybe the greatest piano work of the second half of the last century?), and it's a piece I always associate with Hamelin. That said, this video is quite a triumph, very entertaining.
That is indeed an incredible piece and Hamelin's performance is monumental!
This is absolutely amazing! Please do it again! I could listen to MAH talking about pianism for hours!
Lovin' the "impossible" music reference, and this video!
well look who it is
Look it’s the guy who has no idea who any of these composers are
@@Medtszkowskibruh 😂
@@ryzikx lmfao
True@@Medtszkowski
Glad to hear the Hammerklavier fugue mentioned. EASILY the hardest piano piece Beethoven ever wrote.
Most excellent video. Thank you!!!
Mr Hamelin comes across as a humble, super knowleageable respectful person. He is alone on the podium👏👏👏
I grew very fond of Scriabin and his music in the last year and it’s always good to hear it played on such a nice channel. Congrats
Shame he didn't talk about sorabji with all his crazy rhythms. I'm very grateful that we have a channel like this, where we can better understand the best musicians of all eras
I think he stopped playing Sorabji a long time ago and claimed that it just isn't worth it
@@pavlenikacevic4976Not exactly, it was more that Sorabji wrote very long music, and he'd rather diversify his repertoire with other music than spend 2 years learning a major Sorabji work.
Also for some reason the video creator decided there was no value in including works outside the standard repertoire.
@@pavlenikacevic4976 Luckily we have the incredible Jonathan Powell who is pioneering the most amazing recordings of so much of Sorabji's music.
@@imdarealanialkan, busoni, and ives isn't really standard repertoire tbh
@@SofiAmadeus
Very true, Wolfie.
The Scriabin was wild. Seems like one of those “Rain Man” abilities. I recently overcame the 8 on 3/4 in the left hand in Ravel’s La Valse and the 5-tuplet over an off-beat 3/4 in Scriabin’s Poème Op. 32 No. 1. Both are child’s play compared to White Mass. The difficulty with those polyrhythms is really the fact that they’re slow, ‘cause when you have to play them faster, they’re easier, in my opinion. That all said, Scriabin’s always seems to be doable after enough tries, so I’m sure Scriabin tested their “doability” out himself before submitting the work for publication. And once you get it, it’s soooooo satisfying. You feel like a circus monkey. Like “Do it again! Do it again!”
Scriabin is the hardest composer I've ever studied. Every piece I've learned by him was a mind fuck in one way or another. I'm currently learning his Fantasie and it's giving me nightmares. 😜😆😆😆 Once I learn it will be the hardest piece I've ever learned. It's not only technically difficult but to bringing out the many voicings played at tempo has been fiendishly difficult for me.
I have a piece I play that forces you to do polyrhythms very slowly. It uses many different polyrhythms. Polyrhythms are actually quite easy to execute. When I started learning them, I could not do 2 against 3. But this piece has never been written down, only in my head...
@@Hervinbalfour Op.28? What an absolute masterpiece.
The genius is apparent. Not many like this walk the Earth. What a treasure. Can't fathom having a superhuman ability like that.
Mr Hamelin is not only a remarkable pianist but also has a remarkable voice. He would have made a fine bass baritone.
Excellent. A true joy to listen to. Insights upon insights upon insights.
Great professor! How he shakes difficult pieces out of his sleeve!
This is super great, I admire this pianist a lot. Glad to see Alkan included!
In the early 90s I went to a Pogorelich concert. He played Islamey as an encore. I was at the back of the smallish hall and noticed some very loud breathing which I thought was coming from near me. In fact it was Pogorelich himself doing some kind of yoga breathing he used to play Islamey without succumbing to tension. The breathing was really loud, even in the back of the hall. Strange moment. Thus was back when he could play and was a nice concert overall. He did a great job with the Rachmaninoff second piano sonata.
That is the best tonebase piano video ever!
Definitely
What an absolute privilege you have provided for us! Thank you!
I wonder how much Liszt in his middle/later years would have appreciated a virtuoso like Hamelin. Liszt had virtuoso contemporaries like Chopin, Thalberg but also gifted students who were super virtuosos of their days (Tausig, von Bulow) and even Busoni was a teenager when Liszt was near the end of his life.
Marc-Andre Hamelin, while not always my favorite interpreter of music, is arguably the greatest virtuoso who has ever lived from a purely mechanical and technical point of view.
great comment dude, couldnt agree more...
That is generally the consensus, but his musicality is something that is heavily underappreciated IMO. He's not just a technician like Lang Lang, and the more recordings (and especially interviews) of MAH that you listen to, the more evident that becomes.
Art Tatum might like a word ...
@@patrickmeyer2598 certainly a personal opinion of yours alone. Tiger Rag is waiting, you must be unfamiliar
@@patrickmeyer2598 These people are clueless, don't even bother trying to make them understand.
Yes... this type of music goes through my head when I just let it rip on the keyboard... but the coordination just isn't there yet... I like watching this type of conversation... very useful... Thanks
Merci pour cette vidéo extraordinaire ! Merci Marc-André Hamelin d'être si généreux!
MAH was the guest of my regional orchestra for a benefit concert. Several ensembles played that day. He had played the Quintet op. 44 by Schumann with the Alcan Quartet and then the Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2. Between his appearances, he was backstage reading a comic book. Truly a virtuoso down th earth, no big ego. Love him.
I don't know if there's anything more satisfying than listening to master pianists discussing music.
Marc André is a treasure. One of the greats and inspiring to watch. Love his Godowsky (whom I share a birthday with). Marc's first wife Jody and I share an interest in the performance of Berlin Cabaret music and both Marc and Jody were so attentive and helpful when I was doing performance research for MM in piano and musicology. I also have all of Marc's amazing transcriptions.
Hamelin is a super-super-virtuoso. If he says a piece is tough, then you better believe it, it's tough! As a pianist myself Ondine, Scarbo, Islamey and Scriabin 7 terrify me.
Gripping. Awesome beauty. Exciting yet soothing. Please feel free to revisit this theme again, sometime.
someone help me raise my jaw from the floor. Truly a peek into the intensity and depth and vaulting ceiling of past pianist composer virtuosos and yet we have those like Marc as a living archive of such pieces I didn't quite know Ravel had powerful piano pieces I am 10x more intrigued to know what transpired between Gershwin's visit with Ravel. George must have felt so undone ... in Ravels presence.
honestly this truly made me step back and remember I need to do hours and hours more of slow practice
Super excited to see him talk about Scriabin's white mass sonata at the end there! Hoping tonebase releasing content covering Scriabin's vastly underrated corpus.
His italian pronounciation is also amazingly good.
If you hadn't brought out at least one Alkan piece in the presence of the only human capable of playing it while giving it justice, I would have started a revolution.
This taught me that I will never go that deep in the rabbit hole of music and just follow what my teachers told me to learn.
I have no desire in learning such difficult, unpleasant compositions.
I saw him play a concert recently. He really is stunning pianist. This is a great video.
I remember working on Scriabin 6... Exactly the same things... - first to get the priorities to voices, than the rhythms... and after, he's just adding and adding....
Anyway - it's like a poison. And once you get poisoned and it "clicks", than the poison becomes an extasy... And that's exactly how to describe Scriabin's music - poisonious extasy.
Love the video. Marc is a great pianist. I wish that one day, he will take a look at the piece which I sent him a couple months ago. But I fully understand that he must be a "pretty busy fella"...
When MAH says something is "fiendishly difficult" you _know_ it's difficult! I was expecting Prokofiev's piano concerto no.2 to feature.
I am one of those that thought "Liszt was just for pure display". Zimerman's recording of the B-minor sonata completely changed my mind
That Scriabin selection is amazing!
Marc-André is amazing! His dynamics and tremendous feel for the tempo, makes it sound so elastic and fluid, like the piano is alive. That was far more impressive to me than his crazy gymnastics, although some of that looked painful lol.
When I saw the term "Super Virtuoso" I already knew who they were gonna show. Only one man gets called that.
I’m a guitar player, and this video was amazing to watch. I feel like I learned a lot in just a small amount of time.
Really great!! I love that it isn’t just romantic virtuosity. However, in regards to impossibility, new complexity must be mentioned (Ferneyhough, Finnissy, Xenakis).
I smiled a little when he said very gravely, "your eye really has to be able to travel a lot..." to play Scarbo. I heard a blind pianist perform that as an encore after a Beethoven concerto performance in Caracas @1983. It was an absolutely stunning performance by any measure.
Talented people are such a blessing.
The Chopin Opus 25 #6 is an exquisite piece and though I once played it at mm=138 I really love playing it mm=86 for sheer aesthetic enjoyment and haven't played it fast in years.
Incredible how he knows all of these pieces and I know 1 or 2 tops. That's a real professional pianist
Marc-André Hamelin is possibly the greatest pianist of our time, or is definitely among the top five, in my opinion. His memory, technique, hyper-virtuosity and breadth and width of his repertoire are just staggering.
He's remembering Scriabin from 40 years ago and I can barely come back to (at same quality) a piece I worked on last year!