| Marc-André Hamelin | Piano |
Marc-André Hamelin, living legend of the piano, performs a virtuoso recital headed by Beethoven’s great Hammerklavier Sonata.
A chance to hear the ‘breathtaking virtuosity’ (The Guardian) of Marc-André Hamelin in a musical journey from the most intellectually challenging to the hedonistically sensual.
Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, the largest of all the composer’s 32 sonatas, skyrocketed the troubled composer into the overwhelming originality that crowned the last stage of his life.
Next, Nikolai Medtner’s Sonata Reminiscenza transports us to another world as the Moscow-born composer, just before going into exile after the Russian Revolution, gazes back at his lost world.
Finally Hamelin performs one of the golden-age virtuoso Leopold Godowsky’s extraordinary transformations: his version of Johann Strauss’ much-loved waltz ‘Wine, Women and Song’, driving the solo piano, and its performer, to the outer limits of technical possibility.