File name: Cécile Chaminade - Thème varié, Opera 89
File author: Gennarino
File uploaded: 20 Jan 2012
File category: Sheet Music
Marc-André Hamelin is a fifty-year-old Canadian pianist and composer. He began studying the piano with his father, an amateur pianist, who introduced him to the great piano repertoire and his beloved lesser-known composers, such as Charles-Valentin Alkan, Leopold Godowsky and Leon Dudley Sorabji.
His career began with a victory at the American International Music Competition at Carnegie Hall and continues with a prominent activity - performing as a soloist, in chamber groups, and with orchestras - in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan, receiving great acclaim everywhere. For his musical merits, he has been awarded several honors, including Officer of the Order of Canada, presided over by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
Hamelin is known for his virtuosity and his enormous repertoire, which includes, among the greats: Albeniz, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Haydn, Liszt, Mozart, Scarlatti, Schumann and numerous lesser-known ones, including: Alkan, Busoni, Godowsky, Kapustin and Sorabji.
He often includes gems from such lesser-known composers in his programs, and today I propose to you the: Thème varié, Opera 89, in A Major, composed in 1898 by the beautiful and unfortunate Cécile Chaminade, whom I have spoken to you about in the past and will certainly return to in the future, to propose some other gems (right now I have in mind the ballet Callirhoê).
We are now in the period in which, mysteriously, Cécile renounces large-scale works and takes refuge in melodies (over one hundred), with clear writing and a simple structure; sharp attacks that we find, for example, in Liszt, and with an inspiration that is always elevated, often imbued with melancholy and strong rhythms, which are widely personal.
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