Release Date: 05 October 2018
Label: Prima Facie
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 0712396065319
Genres: Classical Solo Instrumental
Description
Following his widely admired Back to Bach and Ronald Stevenson recordings, Kenneth Hamilton gives us Preludes to Chopin, the latest release in Prima Facie's Heritage series.
Kenneth Hamilton comments: "The inspiration for this recording is identical to the motivation for my book After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance: an abiding fascination with the styles of the "golden age" of piano-playing from Chopin to Paderewski, and how these approaches might enrich our performances today. I've used Chopin's thought-provoking Preludes as they were originally intended - as exquisite prefaces to longer pieces - and adopted a wide range of Romantic performance techniques. My aim was not a direct imitation of historical recordings, but to open myself up to the wider panorama of interpretative possibilities within this wonderful music."
The recording features the great Chopin Sonatas and the Barcarolle, along with two rarities: Busoni's dramatic reworking of the "Heroic" Polonaise, and a hauntingly nostalgic version of the Chopin/Liszt My Joys, played according to Liszt student Bernhard Stavenhagen's "personal memories of Liszt". The CD is accompanied by Hamilton's own detailed notes on the pieces and their performance.
Reviews "The phrase "joyous revelations" could perhaps sum up this release. One of the finest musical intellects around…Hamilton achieves what he sets out to do: to give modern performances absolutely in the line of their great forebears. Every single lover of the music of Chopin should hear this." Colin Clarke, Fanfare
Hamilton's approach to Chopin ignores the pianistic fashions of today's music-market, challenges the dogmas of historical performance-practice, and offers a whole palette of new and intriguing experiences. The recording shows that an enlightened spirit of inquiry and a subjective performance personality are not contradictory… played with flexible precision and captivating richness of tone-colour…Artistic Quality: 10/10 Stefan Pieper, Klassik Heute
"The commercial success of this release shows how strongly audiences hunger for fresh interpretations of mainstream repertory, and a fresh interpretation is exactly what you get." James Manheim, AllMusic
"There are several things that are new in Hamilton's recital, a lot that is innovative, and simply beautiful." Michael Ullman, Fanfare
Tracklisting
Xuefei Yang, Johannes Moser, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Or
Kenneth Hamilton
Michael Cretu
Laura Serra
Vladimir Miller, Neil Latchman, Keri Farish
Terence Charlston, Julian Perkins
John Turner & Neil Smith
I Solisti Di Londra & Aleksander Szram
Kenneth Hamilton
Kenneth Hamilton
Kenneth Hamilton
Kenneth Hamilton
Kenneth Hamilton, Gould Piano Trio, Philip Higham, Richard Lester, Alec Frank-Gemmill, Benjamin Frith & Alasdair Beatson
Kenneth Hamilton
Kenneth Hamilton
Kenneth Hamilton
