Quebec pianist brings spontaneity to classics
Charles Richard-Hamelin
(out of 4) Piano recital at Koerner Hall, Feb. 3
When Charles Richard-Hamelin won the silver medal at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, it was the first time a Canadian had reached the winners’ podium. He was immediately booked for concerts around the world.
His solo recital at Koerner Hall on Sunday afternoon confirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt that this 29-year-old native of Lanaudière, Que., has abilities to rival the world’s finest and most experienced pianists.
To all appearances, this was a classic recital. The young, slightly rumpled-looking pianist, dressed in black, strode out to the big, shiny, black Steinway concert grand. He sat down without fanfare and played for 90 minutes in front of a full house of attentive listeners.
Recitals like this are commonplace. In a city like Toronto, they happen several times a week at the height of the season. But few artists render music with such finesse.
Richard-Hamelin’s program was limited in historical scope but rich in musical possibilities. He dove into the heart of the Romantic-era repertoire with two pieces by Robert Schumann and four by Fryderyk Chopin — all of them written between 1831 and 1841.
Schumann’s music is the more difficult of the two composers. It demands that the interpreter think and plan the dramatic sweep of each piece. The opening Arabesque in C Major is a bit of a trifle, but Richard-Hamelin treated it with the same care as the sprawling, three-move- ment Fantasy in the same key.
It’s not about playing all the notes, which Richard-Hamelin dispatches with the ease the rest of us have with folding socks. This remarkable pianist shapes each phrase with careful attention, then links it to the next one in a way that tells a compelling story from beginning to end.
If there is one defining characteristic of Richard-Hamelin’s playing, it’s how he wields the tools of musical rhetoric — stretching time by slightly slowing down and speeding up, and playing with the silences be- tween notes — to ensure that the narrative tension never goes out of the piece he is playing.
All musicians are taught how to do this, but few achieve the level of nuance we heard on the Koerner Hall stage. And even fewer who attempt to go deeper manage to play with time without making their interpretations feel contrived or overwrought.
The four Ballades by Chopin are showcases of musical narrative, in many ways much more naturally coherent than the music of Schumann. Even here, in a situation where the composer has handed generations of interpreters all the instructions ready to go, RichardHamelin found ways to add his personal, intimate touch.
He played with tremendous insight and maturity, yet the Ballades never sounded calculated. Each chord and run and flourish sounded fresh and spontaneous.
Richard-Hamelin is about to release a recording of the Chopin piano concertos and there is a new solo Chopin album to come soon. If Sunday’s recital is any indication, these albums will be an excellent way to savour the fleeting pleasures of the concert hall over and over again.
CBC Radio 2 recorded Sunday’s recital for an upcoming broadcast. It’s worth checking their schedule to make sure you can hear a sample of the best kind of piano performance available to us today.
Classical music writer John Terauds is a freelance contributor for the Star, based in Toronto. He is supported by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Follow him on Twitter @JohnTerauds