{"id":50430,"date":"2018-01-17T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T11:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=50430"},"modified":"2018-01-18T11:24:04","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T16:24:04","slug":"zero-in-charles-richard-hamelin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/01\/17\/zero-in-charles-richard-hamelin\/","title":{"rendered":"ZERO IN | Charles Richard-Hamelin Finds His Stride"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Charles Richard-Hamelin Photo: Yamaha Japan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto Symphony Orchestra\u2019s Mozart celebration continues<\/a> this week, and Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin<\/a> returns to Toronto, to perform perhaps one of the most loved Mozart Piano Concertos, K.488.\u00a0 Since his major breakthrough at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, Charles has performed over 200 concerts around the world, and it is quite touching to hear how this self-professed introvert has seen the world during his remarkable spurt of growth.<\/p>\n

Within the continuous flux of concert, travel and practice days, Charles finds it impossible to define a typical <\/em>day.\u00a0 Even after numerous international tours (he just finished the Warsaw Philharmonic\u2019s Japan Tour, last Friday, performing the Chopin Piano E Minor Concerto, Op. 11), concert days are always different:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Having played with the same orchestra and conductor at the final round of the Chopin Competition about two years ago, I can\u2019t help but realize how much has happened since then, not only for me, but in the world as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenged to learn a lot of repertoire very fast, especially concertos, Charles became more in tune with himself:\u00a0 <\/em>\u201cI know a lot more about my weaknesses and my strengths [\u2026] I sometimes miss the more relaxed attitude that I had before \u2014 before there was a real expectation around my performances, but that\u2019s always the price one pays with more experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with the continuous ups and downs, Charles considers himself lucky to have an active solo career; since 2015 Warsaw competition, his highlights have included being chosen to replace Maurizio Pollini at the Prague Spring Festival, performing on a piano that survived the atomic bomb in Hiroshima; and playing \u00a0in George Sand\u2019s estate in Nohant, France, where Chopin composed. However, the most memorable concert for him was at his hometown in Joliette at the Festival de Lanaudi\u00e8re in the summer of 2016, performing Brahms\u2019 D minor Concerto with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Kent Nagano: \u201cIt felt like a big homecoming, and I will remember that evening forever.\u201d
\n<\/em>
\nCharles continues to nurture his Canadian roots. He regularly collaborates with Montreal-based pianist Jean Saulnier, and in addition to an extensive Canadian concert schedule for 2018 spring with record company Analekta, Charles is planning to record his third solo album, as well as the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Andrew Wan, a project that will span three years.<\/p>\n

In preparation for this week, Charles quotes Artur Schnabel: \u201cThe sonatas of Mozart are unique; they are too easy for children, and too difficult for artists,\u201d as he, like many others before him, faces the eternal Mozart<\/em> challenge:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Playing Mozart on the modern piano gives us too many tools of expression that were not available in the 18th<\/sup> century \u2014 both a blessing and a curse\u2026 To me, a successful Mozart performance lies in the balance between the contradicting elements.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

It reminded me of Paul Griffiths\u2019 article on the youthfulness of Mozart<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause\u00a0the sophistication of feeling in music depends on the presence of an underlying simplicity. Sophistication in this sense is the algebra of simple emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mozart, composing in unequal turning<\/a>, often associated certain emotions to musical keys<\/a>, as each key would have had its own sonic colour palette.\u00a0 K.488 is set in A major \u2014 a key of warmth, tenderness and joy, and the concerto is scored quietly<\/em>, without oboes, trumpets or timpani.\u00a0 As the temperature drops again, perhaps it is a good thing to go hear this tender music composed long ago by a young man, performed by one of today’s most sensitive and thoughtful young musicians.<\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

TSO and Peter Oundjian present all Mozart program with soloists Charles Richard-Hamelin (Piano) and Adrian Anantawan (Violin). January 19, 20, 21, 2018. Tickets<\/a>: 416.598.3375<\/p>\n

LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i>
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Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Since his major breakthrough at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2015, we catch up with Charles Richard-Hamelin ahead of his appearance with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as part of the Mozart @262 Festival. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":50431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,4557,63],"tags":[4678,15666,3360],"yst_prominent_words":[7140,13803,15469,11969,15838,7781,7202,7261,6738,10361,15869,15839,7859,6616,7943,8980,7141,15473,6741,12016],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/01\/ph_C.Richard-Hamelin_Yamaha.portrait02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-d7o","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50430"}],"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\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50430"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50454,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50430\/revisions\/50454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50430"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=50430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}