April 3–10, 1997
cover story|Philly Discquiks
classical
Plays Liszt (Hyperion)
Wow. The monster pianist from Queen Village strikes again. Hamelin gets to display two sides of his musical personality in this recital. About half consists of late Liszt, quiet, mysterious, and harmonically complex. Hamelin renders this material with shimmering tone and gently undulating rhythms. The other side is the Liszt everyone knows, including fans of Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry. Hamelin plays the famous Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 with giddy, melodramatic style, and his own cadenza is both ingenious and sizzling. The "Don Juan" fantasy is similarly astonishing. There is no use in comparing Hamelin to the great masters of the golden age he so admires. He is fast becoming one himself.