Frédéric Chopin - Préludes; Andante spianato & Grande polonaise brillante (Charles Richard-Hamelin)

Information

Composer: Frédéric Chopin

• (01) 24 Préludes, Op. 28
• (25) Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante, Op. 22

Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano

Date: 2021

Label: Analekta

https://www.analekta.com/albums/chopin-24-preludes-andante-spianato-grande-polonaise-brillante/

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Review

It is not always a good sign that, when listening to a new recording of familiar music for review purposes, one reaches for the score within the first minute. Yes – I was right: the first Prelude is marked agitato. The reason for checking this is that Richard-Hamelin’s opening C major salvo – a prelude to the Preludes, if you like – is, rather than agitated, more a reluctant debutante dragged out to a party against her will. The A minor Prelude that follows sounds like ‘Bydło’ from Mussorgsky’s Pictures, its ‘grotesque and discordant harmonies’ (Huneker) more striking than usual. No 3 – the clouds lift, its babbling semiquavers dispatched with exemplary clarity. The miniature masterpiece that is No 4 in E minor (played on the organ at Chopin’s funeral by Lefébure-Wély) follows – and already some characteristics of the pianist’s view of the cycle have emerged.

In the hands of earlier pianists such as Cortot (1926) and Moiseiwitsch (1949), the babbling semiquavers of No 3 and repeated left-hand pattern in No 4, though well-articulated, are secondary to the melodies in the left hand and right hand respectively. Richard-Hamelin gives equal importance to both. Everything is more deliberate, less liberated. Another difference: the piano tone is bright, the acoustic verging on the empty-assembly-hall; the elderly mono sound, conversely, lends a more mellow hue to proceedings – and acres more charm. Where Richard-Hamelin is particularly good is in the more forthright numbers – the whirlwind No 16, the declamatory F minor (No 18) and especially the concluding D minor Prelude, with its last three bottom D minims superbly hammered out fff with relish.

After the Preludes, Richard-Hamelin makes their perhaps surprising companion the Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise brillante. The solo version is heard not so frequently that one has become tired of hearing it – and certainly not in such a poised, beautifully phrased, judiciously paced Andante as here or with such a sparkling, magisterial account of the Polonaise, its improvisatory filigree runs tossed off with the fluency of an Art Tatum. It is again an fff final bar that wraps up the performance which, for this listener, is the undoubted highlight of the disc.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

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Frédéric Chopin (22 February or 1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era who wrote primarily for the solo piano. He gained and has maintained renown worldwide as one of the leading musicians of his era. Chopin's music, his status as one of music's earliest superstars, his association with political insurrection, his love life and his early death have made him a leading symbol of the Romantic era in the public consciousness. His works remain popular, and he has been the subject of numerous films and biographies of varying degrees of historical accuracy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frédéric_Chopin

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Charles Richard-Hamelin (born 17 July 1989 in Lanaudière, Quebec) is a Canadian concert pianist. He is a graduate from McGill University, the Yale School of Music, the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal and has studied with Paul Surdulescu, Sara Laimon, Boris Berman, André Laplante et Jean Saulnier. After reaching the final stage in piano competitions held in Montreal and Seoul, he participated at the XVII International Chopin Piano Competition (Warsaw, 2015), where he received the second prize and the Krystian Zimerman Prize for the best performance of a Sonata.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Richard-Hamelin
http://www.charlesrichardhamelin.com/

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