Marc-André Hamelin

Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809)

Sonata per pianoforte n. 50 in re maggiore, Hob. XVI:37

Allegro con brio

Frank Zappa (1940 – 1993)

Ruth is Sleeping

Stefan Wolpe (1902 – 1972)

Passacaglia (da Four Studies on basic Rows). op. 23 (1936, rev. 1971)

John Oswald (1953)

Tip

*

Nikolai Medtner (1879 – 1951)

Sonata reminiscenza in la minore, op. 38 n. 1

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943)

Sonata n. 2 in si bemolle minore op. 36 (1931)

For a piano recital to grab the attention of listeners, excite them and remain implanted in their memory, exceptional creativity is often required from the performer in their choice of the menu du jour. This must have been going through the mind of Marc-André Hamelin (a performer in a similar mould to the late Glenn Gould, in terms of his assured, highly virtuosic performances and the seemingly effortless way he has released over 50 records) when putting together this programme, where myriad ideas accumulate almost as if by magic. A glimpse of the work of rock musician Frank Zappa, Wolpe's incredibly challenging Passacaglia, Oswald’s dreamy Tip and Sonata Reminiscenza by Nikolai Mendtner – an eccentric composer who is now being widely rediscovered – are bookended by the sublime chivalry of a Haydn sonata and the virtuoso lyricism of Rachmaninov's op.36.