Marc-André Hamelin – Bolcom: The complete rags (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:13:04 minutes | 2,04 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
Yet another unmissable release from Marc-André Hamelin. From the easy-going elegance of “Tabby Cat Walk” to the high spirits of “Eubie’s Luckey Day” (and the altogether wilder antics of “Brass Knuckles”), William Bolcom’s lifelong and affectionate homage to-and continuation of- this archetypal American genre is a guaranteed winner.
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Marc-André Hamelin, Pacifica Quartet – Ornstein: Piano Quintet & String Quartet No. 2 (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:46 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
The young pianist-composer Leo Ornstein went from wowing the ladies with his virtuosity to writing a Violin Sonata in 1915 of such atonal violence that it frightened even him.
By the time of the two works recorded here his style was more rounded. The mix of enfant terrible and Lisztian piano-slayer is now tempered by an intense lyricism, the rhythmic energy balanced by searing poetry.
In the exhilarating hands of Marc-André Hamelin and the Pacifica Quartet these performances fizz with exuberance. A real treat.
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Marc-André Hamelin – Albéniz: Iberia and other late piano music (2005)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 02:05:52 minutes | 582 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
The twelve extended pieces which make up Albéniz’ Iberia are not only the composer’s greatest work, but also the greatest piano work to come out of Spain. Fired by his discovery of the music of Ravel and Debussy, Albéniz transformed his earlier salon style, which essentially produced charming but slight ‘picture postcards’ of Spain, into a language which was much more complex—harmonically, texturally and pianistically—and which created a series of tone poems which capture the spiritual essence of Spain. The superabundance of the writing also makes the cycle one of the supreme virtuoso challenges, so who better to realize the beauty beyond the notes than Marc-André Hamelin who reveals here that the previous virtual monopoly of this work by Spanish pianists may have done more harm than good.
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