Hamelin: Etudes

Recording of the Month Gramophone Magazine November 2010
2010 Grammy Award Nomination - Best Instrumental Soloist (without orchestra)

"Marc-André Hamelin has long been astonishing the musical world with his superhuman performances of the great virtuoso pianist/composers. Here he plays pieces he's composed himself in the same style. The simpler pieces are affecting" The Telegraph, 2nd September 2010 ***

"Hamelin the composer has the same kind of tact and imagination that Hamelin the pianist does...there's so much harmonic and contrapuntal interest in these works, so much sheer joie de vivre, such evident love for the instrument and its history, and such consistent wit...that even music lovers who disdain virtuoso excess are likely to be seduced." International Record Review, October 2010

"Hamelin's original etudes...with their blend of tasteful lyricism and striking textures and harmonies, are as enjoyable as his homages...While brashly flaunting his influences (Gershwin, Poulenc, Rachmaninov), he sounds utterly individual. Of course, the composer makes all the technical difficulties sound easy to play in these vividly recorded performances." BBC Music Magazine, November 2010 *****

My series of 12 Études in all the minor keys should be seen as a contribution towards perpetuating the art of the pianist-composer. Unfortunately, there are few of us today who are compelled to practise it, even though it has enjoyed a considerable resurgence, and a growing acceptance, within the last couple of decades.

Despite the fact that these études were written completely out of sequence, and over a period of almost twenty-five years, I have tried to shape this cycle into a satisfying whole. Since the études can be separated into two halves according to composition date (on either side of a span of twelve years when I wrote none) it might be tempting to look for stylistic differences between these two periods, but I can assure you that this would be a waste of time.

In addition to the publication of Étude No 12 many years ago, more than half of this collection has been previously available, circulating among pianists and interested parties for a number of years. However, previous incarnations of some of the earlier études (Nos 1, 3, 9 and 12) are now obsolete, since I have made a significant number of changes and improvements. Some of these changes were motivated by a wish for greater playability and pianistic comfort, while others are of a purely compositional nature. The collection is evenly divided between original pieces and arrangements.

Many pianists will inevitably regard these études purely as virtuoso challenges, but I must say emphatically that I intended every single one of them to be a great deal more than that. To me they are, first and foremost, character pieces; reducing them to pure exercises would bring about a meaningless result. As for listeners, my hope is that they hear much more than merely the deployment of pianistic proficiency.