The Opera Tattler

* Notes *
Pianist Marc-André Hamelin (pictured, photograph by Sim Cannety-Clarke) gave a recital full of contrasts at Herbst Theatre last night at SF Performances. His playing is technically superb, very fluid, efficient, and springy.

Hamelin started the program with Hadyn’s Piano Sonata in D Major, Hob. XVI:37, which he played with straightforward clarity. It was a good foil for all that followed. I really liked the percussiveness and different colors in Stefan Wolpe’s Passacaglia. It was great fun to hear John Oswald’s Tip, which references all sorts of famous pieces, and it’s pretty incredible how little of a work you need to hear to be able to identify it.

Hamelin ended the performance with Rachmaninoff’s Etude-Tableau Op. 39 No. 5; Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 (1931 version), which seems extremely virtuosic and difficult as a piece. He plays with a minimum of movement and with impressive rapidity. His encores were his own composition titled Music Box that he wrote as a student and a delightfully flashy Prokofiev piece.

* Tattling *
The audience was, for the most part, quite silent but enthusiastic. A young couple in front of us in Row G were obviously not engaged by the music but had the good sense to leave at intermission.

We saw some opera friends before the recital began, and they wanted to make sure I knew there was no singing in this presentation. I was given these tickets from a kind friend who was unable to attend. This isn’t a program I’d normally go to, as I am not particularly interested in Haydn or Rachmaninoff, but I was gratified to hear such a fine pianist live.