Last week Marc-André Hamelinperformed a solo recital at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, with a program featuring works by Mozart, Ravel, Busoni, himself, and Liszt.
“Mr. Hamelin, having spent much of his early career exploring pianistic showpieces on the fringes of the repertory, has a commanding technique. But there was no sense of slumming or condescension. As in his brilliant recordings of Haydn sonatas for Hyperion, Mr. Hamelin approached the relative simplicities [of Mozart’s Sonata in C Major, K.545] with warmth and affection.
From there, he upped the ante repeatedly… Much the same could be said of Liszt’s punishing B minor Sonata. Mr. Hamelin, summoning tremendous power, played it magisterially, without ever losing sight of the fine thread connecting its various episodes.”
– James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, Jan. 21, 2016