Perhaps more than any other contest, the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, held just once every five years, gives career momentum to its prizewinners. So it has been with 2015 silver medalist Charles Richard-Hamelin (no relation to Marc-André Hamelin), who has issued albums of music by Chopin and other composers and has enjoyed an extra year in the limelight due to the postponement of the competition in 2020. Richard-Hamelin has held up well under the pressure of wide scrutiny. In a landscape of dreamy, ...
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Perhaps more than any other contest, the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, held just once every five years, gives career momentum to its prizewinners. So it has been with 2015 silver medalist Charles Richard-Hamelin (no relation to Marc-André Hamelin), who has issued albums of music by Chopin and other composers and has enjoyed an extra year in the limelight due to the postponement of the competition in 2020. Richard-Hamelin has held up well under the pressure of wide scrutiny. In a landscape of dreamy, impressionistic Chopin with lots of tempo rubato, he offers muscular readings that, in the set of 24 Preludes, treat the group effectively as a set and sustains momentum throughout. His tempos are relatively straightforward, and he doesn't linger over the individual pieces but plays them in such a way that the listener looks forward to the next one. The short Preludes play a key role in this structure and are fresh in concept and execution. The momentum is interrupted by the big C minor...
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