Jul 08 U.K.: Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham: Promoted by the Cheltenham Festival of Music: 6pm: Ives Concord Sonata, 8pm: Schumann Fantasy in C & Alkan Concerto for Solo Piano
FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK ANY NEWZ/REVIEWZ/WTFLASDHSAFL
da taniwha now says:
the music came into sharp focus, with its sweeping lyricism, originality and dissonances that would have delighted Ives.
da taniwha now says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA da ive ztylee dizzonancez a bit queztionable :rape:
music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/ … 67,00.html
Marc-André Hamelin
Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham
Rian Evans
Wednesday July 11, 2007
The Guardian
The French-Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin has earned acclaim as a virtuoso in the 19th-century mould, a reputation justified by a performance of epic proportions at the Cheltenham festival.
The first record that Hamelin bought as a 13-year-old prodigy was apparently Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata, and the sheer dynamic force of his delivery of it at Cheltenham suggested he wanted the audience to share that early exhilaration and awe. The lucidity and instinctiveness of Hamelin’s interpretation aptly reflected Ives’ grand intentions in the four massive movements, in which Ives honours the so-called transcendentalist philosopher-writers from Concord, Massachussetts: Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts and Thoreau. The vast scale and momentum was brilliantly sustained throughout, but perhaps most compellingly when Ives’ great explosions of sound collapsed into more poetic reveries, only to reignite furiously.
Article continues
Hamelin matched the Ives with an equally mind-boggling performance of Alkan’s Concerto for Solo Piano, Op 39. Few pianists are capable of such feats of stamina, yet the fiendish difficulties were despatched with minimum fuss, and the music came into sharp focus, with its sweeping lyricism, originality and dissonances that would have delighted Ives.
Between these two marathons, Hamelin played Schumann’s Fantasy in C major, Op 17. While his approach seemed too big and blustery, it could hardly detract from an overall tour de force.
i was there… it was incredible (i even heard him rehearsing beforehand - he flipped between practising pieces unusually quickly!). I’m still under the effect it had on me almost a month later. He really went for it in the first movement with fast tempos, after getting over an obvious wrong note in bar 4 (!), but I think we can forgive him. It definitely is a piece to see live. I was laughing to myself at times when it amazed me, and the person in front of me was almost standing up to see his hands.
The second movement was no less phenominal. It sounds much more virtuosic live than on cds, and the third movement was perfect - fistfulls of notes played with incredible accuracy. I was expecting lots of wrong notes, because of the difficulty of the piece, but hardly any came.
There were microphones set up, but I don;t think Hamelin agreed to air it on radio 3 because others were broadcast from the festival, but not his.
He also gave an after-concert talk where he mentioned that he hadn’t played it in public for 7 years. Martyn Brabbins who he talked to joked and said “so you had a quick read-through friday night?”…
He also related a tale of sorabji, I copied it down to my best from my memory: "There’s this old Sorabji quote which rather infrequently gets told from a recording he made - a voice recording. He wrote this symphonic mass 1001 pages long, the score, and the interviewer asked him “If you were given the oppertunity to hear, just across the street, a performance of the symphonic mass with all the wonderful soloists from Europe?” and he said this, honestly [Hamelin talks in a very deep and strained voice, sounds a bit like Yoda from Star Wars] “I would not cross the road… [In an even raspier voice] honestly”
He released his new alkan concerto cd early and I got my copy signed. I’ll scan the notes if you want.
I also asked him about the Godowsky rumors and he said he has to re-record the CD he did in december of the Symphonic metamorphoses because of a recording equipment fault. Someone also mentioned Gnattali and he said he’d try to get round to recording some - it seems he’d record everything he performs if time and money permits!
Anyway, the new cd is much better than the old one (you can hear him breathing in some of it too - much like the growls he made at the concert, and the scraping of his nails on the keys at the end of the first movement - this makes it sound more human). The sense of “drive” is so much more powerful than in the previous recording, which sounds a bit midi-ish, and he manages to personalise it, in my opinion, much more than on the Yamaha recording.
The op 65 is just as good, although not as pyrotechnical.
This really is a fantastic CD.
The Ives was also amazing, though I think most people were there just for the Alkan later. Extremely energetic 2nd movt. and moving 3rd movt. Those are the only two movement’s which I am familiar with.
The Schumann, as in the review from the paper, sounded big and bustly, although I think this suits this piece.
Overall, the most memorable day of my life so far.
Thanks,
Tom
FFFUYFUFUUUUCCKCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!1
and WTF diz CD only releaze at thiz concert?
n TRU TP…pozz zcan tha notez n pozz tha art??
september i think for official release…
Tom
here’s the cd:
mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product/NR … A67569.htm
FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
HAHAHAHAHAHAH da covah wtf!!!
n da tompilkah did u MART diz concert? 
of curze tracktymz iz often BZ compared wiz sdctymz
but hahahaha
Concerto for solo piano Op. 39 Nos. 8–10 [49’35]
1 Allegro assai [28’14]
2 Adagio [11’51]
3 Allegretto alla barbaresca [9’18]
compared wiz da :
zhud we expect da improvin 0.75% ovahall…
…by zpeedin da moizt?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i think zum mofo already zuggezt diz but tiz look lyk we cud expect
a raw HATTO of hiz old rec
haha fuckkkkkkkkkkk 
fuckkk, da disgraceful improvement.
as my dad now has my scanner, i can’t scan. But there is a rave review of the new cd in the September issue of BBC Music Magazine. If any of you really can’t get hold of a copy I can type it up for you…
it’s released now by the way if you buy from mdt… it is a definitive recording…
here’s the cd now available with sound clips from hyperion’s site…
hyperion-records.co.uk/hyper … w%20issues
Recorded in Various dates
Various recording venues
Produced by Various producers
Engineered by Various engineers
ahahahahaha fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk 
haha da 3rd mvmt availalbl on da Hyperion zite