{"id":34594,"date":"2016-02-26T15:50:33","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T20:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=34594"},"modified":"2016-03-26T17:49:31","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T21:49:31","slug":"scrutiny-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/02\/26\/scrutiny-14\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Marc-Andr\u00e9 Hamelin And TSO Delight At Roy Thomson Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Louis
Louis Langre\u0301e, Marc-Andr\u00e9 Hamelin (Photo: Malcolm Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marc-Andr\u00e9 Hamelin (piano), Louis Langr\u00e9e (guest conductor). Roy Thomson Hall, Thursday, Feb. 25.<\/h3>\n

[Originally published in the Toronto\u00a0Star<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Montreal-born Marc-Andr\u00e9 Hamelin has earned a lot of respect by those who understand that he could have easily grown into a ubiquitous virtuoso pianist in the shark-skin suit hawking the Flight of the Bumble Bee as an encore. His fingers are Olympic gold medal winners, but with his reputation, it’s the music that matters.<\/p>\n

Hamelin has come a long way from his early days of championing esoteric repertoire and seems to be mellowing over the recent years.<\/p>\n

This more dulcet side was on display last night for a rather curious TSO programme with Hamelin at the bench and Louis Langr\u00e9e at the podium. The audience would have to wait for Hamelin’s Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 as the filling between the Beethoven and Schumann sandwich.<\/p>\n

Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony, Louis Langr\u00e9e marked the evening as his TSO debut.<\/p>\n

While most of the concert was a delight, it started with a rather laboured performance of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 2. The TSO musicians seemed confused and unsure of Langr\u00e9e’s direction. Entrances were staggered; cues were missed. Even the off-stage trumpet couldn’t save it.<\/p>\n

After the opening misfire was Hamelin’s compensatory Mendelssohn first Piano Concerto. The nuances of his playing brought to light the astonishing craft in Mendelssohn’s work. Langr\u00e9e rose to the occasion, as did the TSO, who matched Hamelin’s shifting focus between heart-melting melodies and sweeping rambles across the keyboard.<\/p>\n

Hamelin returned to play Gershwin’s Etude No.6 Liza. Again his abilities were in full service to the music, which transformed Roy Thomson Hall into a New York Cabaret (I saw the fellow beside me doing a little Charleston from his seat.)<\/p>\n

\"Louis
Louis Langre\u0301e (Photo: Malcolm Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Schumann’s heavily revised Symphony No. 4 closed the evening. Conducting from memory, Langr\u00e9e inspired an intense sound, especially from the strings. While Schumann was never the best of orchestrators (often cited as the worst) his Symphony No. 4. has its moments. The trick is, as Leonard Bernstein learned, to play the movements without pause. Langr\u00e9e followed this good advice; it redeemed the second movement Romanze<\/em> from its lingering nature and kept it moving through to the eye-popping Scherzo<\/em>, which reveals so much about Schumann’s troubled mind at the time.<\/p>\n

The programme repeats Saturday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. Tickets and details found at tso.ca<\/a> or 416-598-3375.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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“Langr\u00e9e rose to the occasion, as did the TSO, who matched Hamelin’s shifting focus between heart-melting melodies and sweeping rambles across the keyboard.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,76,19,52],"tags":[2061,3360,3403],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/02\/Louis-Langree-Marc-Andre-Ha-melin-Malcolm-Cook-photo.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-8ZY","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34594"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34601,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34594\/revisions\/34601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34594"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}