Marc-André Hamelin – Schumann – Kinderszenen, Waldszenen / Janacek – On the overgrown path I (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Marc-André Hamelin – Schumann – Kinderszenen, Waldszenen / Janacek – On the overgrown path I (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:14:23 minutes | 1,11 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records

Marc-André presents a fascinating juxtaposition of two composers who are not obviously musically related, but who are proved on this album to be a felicitous combination.

Schumann’s well-loved Kinderszenen (‘Scenes from childhood’) cycle is a masterpiece: each piece is as deftly and exquisitely crafted as anything in his more outwardly sophisticated mode. From the haunting beauty of the opening ‘From foreign lands and people’ (‘Von fremden Ländern und Menschen’), via the spare eloquence of the central ‘Dreaming’ (‘Träumerei’), to the quiet rhetoric of ‘The poet speaks’ (‘Der Dichter spricht’), the listener is taken through nuances of emotion whose effects are heartrendingly poignant.

Waldszenen (‘Forest scenes’) is another collection of miniatures, and Schumann’s last major cycle for solo piano. This deeply ‘Romantic’ work in the most psychological sense of the word is no objective foray into the woods, but a very personal reaction to an imagined landscape; and equally striking is the sense that each piece represents just a shard of a larger experience. On the whole it is the more bucolic aspect that Schumann explores, though these pieces are not without darker shadows. And while they may be technically fairly straightforward, their changeability calls for the quickest of reactions and a wealth of subtle nuance.

Over half a century separates Schumann’s nature-inspired Waldszenen from the first book of Janáček’s On the overgrown path. The subject matter is darker and more oblique and the piano writing is deceptively treacherous, many of the difficulties far from overt. The title of the overall cycle refers to a Moravian wedding song, the bride lamenting that ‘The path to my mother’s has become overgrown with clover’. The sequence of ten pieces that comprises Book 1 constitutes, as the scholar John Tyrrell has written, some of the ‘profoundest, most disturbing music that Janáček had written, their impact quite out of proportion to their modest means and ambition’.

Setting aside a 2000 Danacord release featuring four movements from the first book of On the Overgrown Path, this is Marc-André Hamelin’s first extended exploration of Janáček’s piano music. It proves to be a totally compelling experience confirming Hamelin’s strong empathy for the composer. The hushed tone of the opening piece ‘Our evenings’, with its asymmetric phrase structure and ambiguous harmonies that hover apprehensively between major and minor tonalities, sets the scene for the whole cycle, one suffused with unease and growing anxiety. Hamelin negotiates this emotional trajectory from carefree innocence to utter dejection through a masterly control of timbre and atmosphere. Deceptively simple melodic and chordal figurations are subverted as a result of Hamelin’s deliberately introverted playing and astonishingly delicate touch. Even in the more ostensibly upbeat pieces such as ‘Come with us!’ and ‘They chattered like swallows’, Hamelin creates a feeling of uncertainty as he disrupts the flow of lively dance rhythms with moments of hesitation and gloomy introspection. The seventh piece ‘Good night!’ is particularly evocative. It begins almost inaudibly as if transfixed in a dream. But this tranquillity proves illusory, as a warmly expressive melodic line, inflected by Hamelin’s subtle manipulation of rubato, builds up to a climax of heart-wrenching poignancy. Notice too how vividly Hamelin depicts the claustrophobic nature of the chromatic harmonies in ‘Unutterable anguish’ and projects a sense of numbed grief in ‘In tears’. Following this, the violent flourishes that punctuate ‘The barn owl has not flown away!’ sound all the more terrifying, given the relative restraint in the earlier pieces.

Hamelin has already made several fine recordings of Schumann’s piano music, focusing on big virtuoso pieces. He proves to be equally adept at exploring the more intimate side of the composer’s character and the two Schumann cycles here are absolutely magical. Hamelin draws us into inner worlds of the forest (Waldszenen) and childhood (Kinderszenen) with playing of haunting sensitivity. I have seldom heard a more mesmeric account of ‘Vogel als Prophet’ from Waldszenen, and Hamelin invests the ubiquitous ‘Träumerei’ from Kinderszenen with great warmth, avoiding any possible hint of sentimentality.

In contrast to the Janáček, there are more opportunities in these works for displaying unbounded joy and exhilaration (eg ‘Herberge’ and ‘Jagdlied’ in Waldszenen and ‘Wichtige Begebenheit’ from Kinderszenen) and Hamelin’s impulsive approach, supported by excellent recorded sound, perfectly captures their moods. –BBC Music Magazine

Tracklist:
Leoš Janáček (1854-1928)
Po zarostlém chodníčku ‘On the overgrown path’ JW VIII/17
1 Book 1 No 1, Our evenings: Naše večery [4’02]
2 Book 1 No 2, A blown-away leaf: Lístek odvanutý [3’13]
3 Book 1 No 3, Come with us!: Pojďte namí! [1’43]
4 Book 1 No 4, The Frýdek Madonna: Frýdecká Panna Maria [3’17]
5 Book 1 No 5, They chattered like swallows: Štěbetaly jak laštovičy [2’51]
6 Book 1 No 6, Words fail!: Nelze domluvit! [2’16]
7 Book 1 No 7, Good night!: Dobrou noc! [3’33]
8 Book 1 No 8, Unutterable anguish: Tak neskonale úzko [3’49]
9 Book 1 No 9, In tears: V pláči [3’34]
10 Book 1 No 10, The barn owl has not flown away!: Sýček neodletěl! [3’46]

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Waldszenen Op 82
11 Eintritt [2’28]
12 Jäger auf der Lauer [1’25]
13 Einsame Blumen [2’25]
14 Verrufene Stelle [2’42]
15 Freundliche Landschaft [1’10]
16 Herberge [2’07]
17 Vogel als Prophet [3’46]
18 Jagdlied [2’25]
19 Abschied [4’07]
Kinderszenen Op 15
20 Von fremden Ländern und Menschen [1’59]
21 Kuriose Geschichte [1’01]
22 Hasche-Mann [0’33]
23 Bittendes Kind [1’08]
24 Glückes genug [1’12]
25 Wichtige Begebenheit [0’56]
26 Träumerei [2’51]
27 Am Kamin [0’54]
28 Ritter vom Steckenpferd [0’38]
29 Fast zu ernst [1’56]
30 Fürchtenmachen [1’36]
31 Kind im Einschlummern [2’13]
32 Der Dichter spricht [2’50]

Personnel:
Marc-André Hamelin, piano

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