Marc-André Hamelin & Gloria Chien: Virtuoso Pianos

“A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times), pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known worldwide for his brilliant technique and intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries – earning him legendary status as a true icon of the piano. In this concert from the stunning Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA, Hamelin will perform a solo piece and thrilling two-piano works with new Chamber Music Northwest Co-Artistic Director Gloria Chien including Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

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Program

Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.

LUTOSŁAWSKI Variations on a Theme by Paganini for Two Pianos

Before there were rock stars, there was Niccolò Paganini. At the apex of his popularity in the 1820s, Paganini sold out concert halls throughout Europe as people flocked to glimpse his unmatched talent on the violin – not to mention his flamboyant style and striking appearance. “What a man, what a violinist, what an artist!” exclaimed composer Franz Liszt after seeing Paganini perform. “God, what sufferings, what misery, what tortures in those four strings.”

Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A Minor has particularly captivated other composers since his lifetime, inspiring music by everyone from Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms to Sergei Rachmaninoff. In the early 1940s, Polish composer Witold Lutosławski continued that tradition by composing his own set of Variations on a Theme by Paganini. During those dark days, with concert halls closed due to the German occupation, Lutosławski and his friend Andrzjei Panufnik often performed together at a small Warsaw café. The two composer-pianists created over 200 new arrangements for their café performances, including these striking variations on Paganini’s 24th caprice for two pianos. In this brief, action-packed duo, Lutosławski puts a 20th-century spin on Paganini’s famous melody, deploying an enjoyable smattering of avant-garde melodic and harmonic innovations throughout.

–Ethan Allred

LISZT/BELLINI Réminiscences de Norma de Bellini – Grande fantaisie, S. 394

Back in the 19th century, before the invention of recording technology, composers could earn some extra money by arranging popular opera melodies into short chamber music pieces. Often for piano or violin, these arrangements allowed everyday people to recreate favorite opera melodies using instruments that might be available at home. Composers typically did little more than recreate the original melody and reduce the orchestration, but the arrangements greatly helped in spreading the most popular melodies beyond the confines of the opera house.

Franz Liszt’s 1841 composition Réminiscences de Norma de Bellini is something entirely different. A 15-minute fantasy inspired by Vincenzo Bellini’s 1831 tragedy Norma, Liszt’s music incorporates seven melodies from throughout the opera to capture its entire dramatic scope. Liszt beautifully evokes the “bel canto” (Italian for “beautiful singing”) style of the opera with delicately timed slides and ornamentation, making its performance into a virtuoso act for any pianist. This is no mere transcription; Liszt transcends his source material to create a brilliant musical snapshot of early Romantic opera.

–Ethan Allred

IGOR STRAVINSKY “The Rite of Spring”

For a moment, imagine you are a ballet dancer in France in 1912. You typically spend your days performing traditional ballets like Swan Lake and Giselle, or perhaps the latest premiere by Debussy or Ravel. But today you begin rehearsals for a new ballet by Igor Stravinsky with a mysterious-sounding name: The Rite of Spring.

The rehearsal pianist begins playing a melody that sounds a bit like a folk song. Unusual, but not overly harsh to the ears. Suddenly, he begins slamming his hands down on the keys, seemingly at random. There are no discernible chords or melodies, and the rhythms with which the pianist assaults his instrument seem entirely random. A combination of excitement and dread fills your body: clearly, you’re in for an unusual experience.

As the rehearsal process continues, things only get stranger. Your dance moves feel more like jumping jacks than pirouettes or pliés. Your costume looks more like a potato sack than a tutu. One day, the composer shoves the rehearsal pianist off his stool, yelling that the music should be twice as fast. Your fellow dancers start complaining that rehearsals are essentially math class at this point, with all the counting involved.

By the final rehearsal – Stravinsky will later estimate that there were 130 in all – an intense feeling of anticipation surrounds the ballet. But even then, you couldn’t possibly have anticipated what was in store on May 29, 1913.

As you wait to take the stage at the Rite’s premiere, you can already hear the audience laughing over the opening bassoon melody. Soon, shouting matches emerge between those who love the ballet and those who hate it. Fist fights break out in the aisles, and all manner of projectiles fly through the air in the general direction of the stage. Through much of Part I, you can’t even hear the orchestra over the din; the choreographer tries to yell out the beat to keep your ritualistic dance moves together. Amazingly, everything holds together through the end of Part II, and Igor Stravinsky takes the stage for a curtain call – proud of the extreme reaction his ballet had provoked.

Back in the year 2020, in our virtually distanced concert hall, The Rite of Spring no longer provokes such an extreme reaction. Yet Stravinsky’s music continues to shock and amaze, perhaps even more so in this rarely heard version for two pianos. When performed on pianos alone, the magnificently complex rhythms and harmonies that make Stravinsky’s music so revolutionary can be heard with crystal clarity. Far from a watered-down copy of the full orchestral score, it actually represents Stravinsky’s original conception of the piece – what dancers, critics, and others in Stravinsky’s circle might have heard in private even before its fateful premiere.

–Ethan Allred

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