Sunday, July 20, 2014

Hyperion artists on Spotify Marc-Andre Hamelin

Hyperion has a strict policy on the availability of their recordings on youtube and spotify.

#njet

Which also means that some artists are not, or hard, to find on both these media platforms.
Maybe not the best idea if you want to promote yourself as an artist these days, but that’s the responsibility of Hyperion and the choice of the artists performing on that label. One of these artists that is under-represented on spotify is the Canadian piano virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin, who made some splendid recordings for Hyperion, ranging from Haydn to Busoni and even some fine compositions of his own. It’s interesting to see and hear earlier recordings on other (or live) labels on spotify.

To start with, a recording of Hamelin as a… harpsichordist! A somewhat forgotten but attractive piece of chamber music by the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu. Then, a more recent, live, recording of Saint-Saens 5th piano-concerto, reflecting the composers travels through northern-Africa, and after that 1990’s recordings of composers he is closely connected to Hamelin, Liszt, Godowsky and Alkan.
Last items are recent live recordings again, Liszt’s Totentanz and Hamelin’s own arrangement of Bert Kaempfert’s song Strangers in the night. 
Hope you will enjoy this selection!

Bohuslav Martinu: Promenades for flute, violin and harpsichord H 274 (1939)
Recorded 1993

Camille Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 in F major, Op. 103 (1896)
Bochum Sinfoniker, Steven Sloane, conductor
Recorded live Klavier-Festival Ruhr 2007

Franz Liszt: Réminiscences de "Don Juan" de Mozart – Grande fantaisie S. 418 (1841)
Recorded 1991

Leopold Godowsky, studies after Chopin (1894–1914)
No. 7 in G♭ major after Op. 10 No. 5
No. 8 in C major after Op. 10 No. 5
No. 19 in D major after Op. 10 No. 10
No. 31 in A minor after Op. 25 No. 4
No. 45 in E major after Nouvelle étude No. 2
Recorded 1988 (Hamelin’s debut record)

Charles-Valentin Alkan: Concerto for piano solo (Nos. 8-10 from Douze Études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39, 1857)

Franz Liszt: Totentanz - Paraphrase über "Dies irae", S.126 (1849-1859)
Bochum Sinfoniker, Steven Sloane, conductor
Recorded live Klavier-Festival Ruhr 2007

Bert Kaempfert: Strangers in the night (arr Hamelin)
Rarities of Piano Music at 'Schloss vor Husum' Festival 2011 - Live





http://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/251oylVDKOKRm9D0TbrWkD
(HTTP link)