Pianist Marc-André Hamelin shares his love for C.P.E. Bach

Marc-André Hamelin — Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Sonatas & Rondos (Hyperion)

“They shouldn't expect anything quite as exciting as drum and bass. Give it a minute or two, because the riches that some music offers may not be apparent at first,” said pianist Marc-André Hamelin, encouraging you to check out his latest two-CD compilation, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Sonatas & Rondos.

“I can tell you how it all started. My wife, Cathy Fuller, was a classical radio host in Boston in 2008 or 2009. She chose to play a little Sonata in E Minor, which is not even eight minutes for the three movements,” he said. “Suddenly, the composer decides to finish the piece. It just cuts off in the middle of a phrase.

“This was absolutely what Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote, and I thought this was worth exploring. I started sight reading at the keyboard, and I was just fascinated by how daring and delightful it was.”

Can you talk about how this composer was the first one you performed?

“The first time I was on a stage was at a local competition in Montreal when I was 9. I played a group of five pieces, but the first piece was a little work in G Major. The score said it was by J.S. Bach. It has since been determined that it was composed by C.P.E. Bach. So in essence, C.P.E. Bach was the first composer I ever played in public.

“I just strolled to the piano confidently and played my music from the very beginning. From that instant I realized that I just didn't have any kind of stage fright.”

Did you write a piece based on the Solfeggio in C minor?

“Yeah, I've written three pieces specifically for the player piano. It’s like Conlon Nancarrow, who devoted his whole life to the player piano. It was partly inspired by him and the fact that I grew up with a player piano as a medium because my grandparents had one.”

Can you give us examples of the evolving mechanics of the keyboard through C.P.E. Bach’s compositions?

“There was one piece that was written for ‘A’ [his] clavichord where, while the title is very explicit, he is bidding farewell to an instrument that he had owned for decades. He was giving it as a present to somebody. This piece is slow and wistful.

“He said in the letter to the future owner, this piece is absolutely impossible to play on any other instrument. It would be interesting if it had survived, which I don't believe it has. If you played the clavichord, as I have tried to do, it's not easy. You get a sense of what this piece could sound like.”

To hear the rest of my conversation, click on the extended interview above, or download the extended podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

Resources

Marc-André Hamelin — CPE Bach Sonatas & Rondos (Hyperion Store)

Marc-André Hamelin — CPE Bach Sonatas & Rondos (Amazon)

Marc-André Hamelin (official site)