Search - William Bolcom, Stefan Wolpe, Marc-Andre Hamelin :: Works by Bolcom and Wolpe: Twelve New Etudes/Battle Piece

One of the 20th century's great set of piano etudes.

12/24/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Bolcom 12 New Etudes are wild wonderful pieces. They should be considered one of the great sets of piano etudes written in the 20th century along with those by Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, and Debussy. Hamelin was the composer's new inspiration after the project was shelved following the death of the original dedicatee, Paul Jacobs, who died in 1983. Hamelin does incredible things with these pieces. He understands them fully, and overcomes their cruel and unusual demands with astonishing ease. In literature that is unusual, rarely played, and exceptionally difficult, Hamelin has no equal. The Wolpe piece didn't do much for me (though I respect Hamelin's advocacy of it), but the Bolcom Etudes take up most of the playing time and are easily worth the price of the disc."

Hamelin always mesmerizes and excites

04/08/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hamelin likes to scour the countryside looking for piano music no one else would touch. It could be because of marketability or lack of understanding. So,if you have followed his recordings you've seen all the neglected piano geniuses he has presented, as the post-romantic Russian Medtner, or the Berlioz contemporary Alkan(a recluse). And here with Wolpe, we have a creativity hardly known. Well Wolpe was inconsistent without a focused agenda, and his piano music, there is( for my money) only the "Passacgaglia" and this work. I had hoped he would have performed the "Passacaglia" which is more problematic. Hamelin, whatever he touches turns into a high dramatic affair. His consummate technique always allows him to run past ahead of the music. And here in the Wolpe, the piano is shattered,full of abandonement yet always controlled. Bolcom is not so neglected, an eclectic by comparison and temperment who has made the popular strains of expression work for him while maintaining some semblance of intellectual manipulation. The trick is to keep both within the pit of play. These Etudes do just that and are nice and easy listening yet engage a structural musical imagination, bound by texture and register. Like good etudes they say what needs to be said and are off onto another excursion."

Great recording

11/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you like Bolcom's piano works, this CD is for you. Really an astonishing performance!!"