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In the wake of Charles Richard-Hamelin’s second prize at the 2015 competition in Warsaw, the Chopin Institute released an impressive two-disc set, demonstrating the breadth and depth of his interpretations of the Polish master. This new Analekta release affords us the pleasure of hearing Richard-Hamelin in both Chopin concertos with the expert collaboration of Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, recorded live in concert last October.

Richard-Hamelin’s overriding concern is the life of the phrase, achieved by replicating Chopin’s expressive gestures through precise observance of every detail in the score. His playing never sounds routine or exhibitionistic. In his hands, Chopin’s bravura passagework is imbued with meaning, its purpose the preparation or embellishment of a lyrical moment. High-flown fioritura seems informed by what a great singer could accomplish with the utmost taste and refinement. Unusually for a musician with Richard-Hamelin’s focus on detail, his imaginative grasp of the larger musical architecture remains secure. Supported at every juncture by Nagano and the Montreal musicians, and beautifully captured by the Analekta engineers, these are Chopin concertos of extraordinary originality and distinction.

Both rondos suggest a festive celebration of the dance. Neither is especially fast, yet both describe movement with the grace and precision of an expert corps de ballet. The Romanze of the E minor Concerto speaks with delectable sweetness, poised and restrained, creating a genuine dialogue between soloist and orchestra. Liszt described the incomparable Larghetto of the F minor Concerto as ‘of an ideal perfection, its feeling radiant and passionate by turn’, in which ‘joy is tempered and sorrow is sweetened’. Here it evokes an eloquence of the sort with which one imagines Talma and Bocage held Parisian audiences in thrall nearly 200 years ago.

I would suggest that, even if you have a dozen recordings of the Chopin concertos on your shelf, you won’t regret adding this one.

The Classic Review

Chopin’s youthful Piano Concertos are well-liked by the public, asking from the pianist superb control along with authentic imagination, coping with the sometimes rigid structure of these pieces and the amateurish orchestral accompaniment.

In his new albums, Charles Richard-Hamelin, silver medalist of the 2015 Chopin competition, presents an assured, calm and rather unsentimental view of the concertos. He is accompanied, like Martha Argerich in her famous 1998 version, by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano, which brings out some intriguing woodwind lines not often coming to the fore.

On both concertos, the slow movements are the highlights, and the finales are played with a relatively slow tempo, that though diminishes the virtuosic element of the piano part, never sounds sluggish. Overall, when finishing listening to these performances, one is left with a feeling they had been executed just right, without exaggeration and with attractive straightforwardness. Nice, atmospheric recording, taken from a series of concerts at the orchestra’s new home, the “Maison symphonique de Montréal”.

La Scena Musicale

This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French)

After almost four years, a major project has come to fruition with the release of Chopin’s two Piano Concertos as played by Charles Richard-Hamelin and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano. “It’s one of the five best recordings that Analekta has ever produced,” exclaims the label’s president, François-Mario Labbé. Almost 32 years after the record company’s establishment, this landmark recording reminds the wide world of the excellence of musicians from Quebec.

“After Charles Richard-Hamelin’s win at the 2015 Chopin Competition, I thought of recording those concertos and brought it up with Kent Nagano, who was immediately interested,” Labbé recalls. In October 2018, the principals came together for three concerts in the Maison symphonique. “I felt real passion listening to the master,” Labbé said. Nothing more was needed to solidify an exceptional collaboration.

Twenty years later ….

In 1999, the OSM, whose conductor at the time was Charles Dutoit, issued these concertos with none other than Martha Argerich. The recording had taken place at the Church of Saint-Eustache in October 1998, precisely 20 years before the one with Charles Richard-Hamelin. One generation later, this encounter between Chopin and Quebec sounds like a curious echo. It was not, however, created overnight.

After learning about this ambitious project, the Montreal pianist confesses that he quickly went from enthusiasm to an understandable anxiety. Although he had just played the Concerto in F Minor with an orchestra for the first time at the Chopin competition, he now had to record it with one of the world’s best orchestras. “The two concertos took up almost all my time for many months,” Richard-Hamelin says. “They were on my concert programs and, over a three-year period, I had performed the E minor about 25 times and the F Minor more than 60 times.”

From tour to tour, the two pieces were his tireless, daily companions. As time passed, he gained confidence and sought to express through his playing the depth of understanding he had of those concertos. “I knew many versions, but during the preparation work for the recording, I left them aside, I needed little help. I just wanted to trust myself.”

Photo : Antoine Saito – OSM

Elasticity of Time and Chopin

Before I met Richard-Hamelin, I had the chance to listen to the recording many times and to compare it to the previous versions that I knew quite well, by Krystian Zimerman, Martha Argerich and also Maria João Pires. On first hearing, I was surprised by the time Richard-Hamelin took to interpret certain passages, suffusing each note with clarity and an astonishing meticulousness. I was surprised by the orchestra, always discreet, somewhat austere, far from the energy and impetuousness heard in some recordings. And yet this version showed an incredible beauty, not in the lyrical flights or in an exaggerated romanticism, but through the symbiosis of a hybrid language, midway between classicism and romanticism, a transitional language that appears in Chopin’s writing when the composer was only 19.

On second hearing, guided by the first, came a real moment of jubilation, of ecstasy. Each line espoused a carefully developed curve, no fuss, sincere and communicative. Each stroke was a graceful dance step, with appuis, tension and elasticity. The orchestra seemed to emerge as a slow and profound inspiration, coming from the piano itself, giving the soloist the restraint, lightness and transparency inherent in the musical text. The symbiosis between soloist and orchestra was masterful.

Photo : Benjamin Goron

“There is a wonderful tension in Chopin’s Concertos between the tutti of classical orchestras and the more whimsical piano part,” Richard-Hamelin explains. “The two cannot be approached in the same way. With Kent Nagano, we sought a contrast between the austerity of the orchestra and the freedom of the piano.”

Chronologically, the Second Concerto was composed first, in 1829, which could explain its lead position on the album. It is dedicated to Countess Delfina Potocka, one of Chopin’s close friends and a confidante who stayed by his deathbed in 1849. The Concerto No. 1, written in 1830, is dedicated to the German pianist Friedrich Kalkbrenner.

“Chopin wanted us to savour each detail in the piano part,” Richard-Hamelin says. “His concertos are like arias with orchestra that last 40 minutes. This is pretty much unique in the repertoire.”

The pianist took the time to analyze each passage of these wordless melodies, in which, as often is the case in Chopin, the 40 to 50 notes of irregular contours appear: “I really made the effort to feel the points of tension in each of the notes, since they’re not made to be played all the same way, same speed or same vivacity. There are dissonances and contours that need emphasis. Time has to be elastic with Chopin.”

Photo : Antoine Saito – OSM

The world can now enjoy this made-in-Quebec success. You need only acquire this jewel and expand your own time to savour, on a calm weekend, the waves of romance of the First Concerto, or the will-o-the-wisps in the finale of the second. Listen to the orchestra and pianist breathing as one, in each line, each movement; take the time to feel the delicate, vulnerable music of Chopin placed in the hands of one of its most stirring interpreters. This album is an offering, a balm and an embrace.

Voir.ca

Quand le fruit est mûr!

La Presse, Alain Brunet