Reger: Piano Concerto, Strauss: Burleske

Catalogue # CDA67635

Reger: Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 114
Strauss, R: Burleske for Piano and orchestra in D minor

Marc-André Hamelin (piano)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Ilan Volkov

The Reger concerto has a formidable reputation – dense, harmonically complex and with far too many notes for the average pianist. Who better then to decipher it than Marc-André Hamelin? In his hands this rarely recorded behemoth reveals both passion and a lyricism so often lost in lesser performances. He is wonderfully partnered by Ilan Volkov and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester who share the pianist’s desire to elucidate an often misunderstood work.

While the Reger concerto comes from the end of his career, the Strauss Burleske is a product of that composer’s prodigious youth. This ebullient work has long been a Hamelin ‘party-piece’, and he plays it with an unmatched brilliance which surely captures the essence of this humorous music and will have the listener on the edge of his seat. “even Serkin would surely have marvelled at Hamelin's stunning authority. While an easy majority of pianists would run for cover when faced with such sheerly physical demands, Hamelin relishes every challenge, clarifying and refining Reger's potential for opacity at every point. His first entry, like a thunderclap, makes you leap to attention but so too does his expressive beauty in the subsequent molto tranquillo.” May 2011, Gramophone Magazine