Kenneth Hamilton - Preludes To Chopin - Sonatas, Barcarolle, Polonaise

Following his widely admired Back to Bach and Ronald Stevenson recordings, Kenneth Hamilton gives us Preludes to Chopin, the latest release in Prima Facie's Heritage series.

Kenneth Hamilton comments: The inspiration for this recording is identical to the motivation for my book After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance: an abiding fascination with the styles of the golden age of piano-playing from Chopin to Paderewski, and how these approaches might enrich our performances today. I've used Chopin's thought-provoking Preludes as they were originally intended - as exquisite prefaces to longer pieces - and adopted a wide range of Romantic performance techniques. My aim was not a direct imitation of historical recordings, but to open myself up to the wider panorama of interpretative possibilities within this wonderful music.

The recording features the great Chopin Sonatas and the Barcarolle, along with two rarities: Busoni's dramatic reworking of the Heroic Polonaise, and a hauntingly nostalgic version of the Chopin/Liszt My Joys, played according to Liszt student Bernhard Stavenhagen's personal memories of Liszt. The CD is accompanied by Hamilton's own detailed notes on the pieces and their performance.

ReviewsThe phrase joyous revelations could perhaps sum up this release. One of the finest musical intellects around�Hamilton achieves what he sets out to do: to give modern performances absolutely in the line of their great forebears. Every single lover of the music of Chopin should hear this. Colin Clarke, Fanfare

Hamilton's approach to Chopin ignores the pianistic fashions of today's music-market, challenges the dogmas of historical performance-practice, and offers a whole palette of new and intriguing experiences. The recording shows that an enlightened spirit of inquiry and a subjective performance personality are not contradictory� played with flexible precision and captivating richness of tone-colour�Artistic Quality: 10/10 Stefan Pieper, Klassik Heute

The commercial success of this release shows how strongly audiences hunger for fresh interpretations of mainstream repertory, and a fresh interpretation is exactly what you get. James Manheim, AllMusic

There are several things that are new in Hamilton's recital, a lot that is innovative, and simply beautiful. Michael Ullman, Fanfare