David Dalle
Thursday January 30th, 2025 with David Dalle
Marc-André Hamelin, where it all began. Amjad Ali Khan and Zakir Hussain. Mdou Moctar.

Certainly the best classical pianist to regularly visit Ottawa is Marc-André Hamelin. He will be in town next Wednesday and Thursday to perform Beethoven's 5th piano concerto with the NAC Orchestra. I believe this will be the first time I have heard Hamelin perform Beethoven and, as his Mozart and Haydn are perfection, I would expect his Beethoven to be exceptional. I love the 5th concerto of course, just thinking of it, I will play the whole work in my head with enormous pleasure. However, a young Hamelin burst into the music world by playing extremely virtuosic and extremely obscure music. Hamelin's father, an amateur pianist (of no small talent I am certain!) introduced him to obscure corners of the piano world such as Sorabji, Godowsky, and French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. Hamelin's debut recording in 1988 was music and transcriptions by Leopold Godowsky, but it was his recording of Alkan's "Concerto for Solo Piano" in 1991 which launched him to the stratosphere of concert pianists. This extraordinary, wonderful, fiendishly difficult work was virtually unknown. It had been recorded before (by no less a pianist than John Odgon), but Hamelin's came at the right time, just when the music world was becoming a lot more interested in forgotten composers. This work was perfectly suited to Hamelin's ability as well. It is an incredible recording, and was one of the first I picked out in 2024 for my 30 for 30, but somehow, I didn't get the opportunity to feature it. So we will hear it today. This work is a huge concerto, with both orchestra and piano represented, but all played by the one piano of course. Alkan was fascinating, this huge, 50 minute concerto was included in a set of 12 etudes in all the minor keys. These etudes also included a symphony for solo piano. The concert next week will fill feature the Beethoven concerto, as well as Elgar's "Enigma Variations" and a short symphony by Ukrainian composer Victoria Polevá which I am eager to hear. https://nac-cna.ca/en/event/36131