Marc-Andre Hamelin has a beard?!?!?! what???

[viking]

Just got back from one of his concerts.  It has been just under a year since I have seen MAH live, but have you guys seen him lately?  He has this extremely noticeable beard, no glasses, and was wearing a nice grey suit with a pink striped tie!  I almost didn't recognize him when he first came out.  This is far from his nerdy look with glasses, and pants pulled almost up to his armpits under a black tux.  He also played an concert comprising of a few short mendelssohn songs without words, with the rest of the concert being entirely Liszt.  I am wondering if he is really trying to establish himself as a performer of mainstream classical music in his "older" age so that people will remember him more later.  Any insightful comments or observations out there?
Sam

[jakev2.0]

That's cool. I wish him the best of luck on these endeavors and am curious to see where his pursuits takes him over the years.

[opus10no2]

LEGENDARY!

Post picz!

[m]

[jre58591]

yeah he does. heres a semi-recent pic with him and i:

https://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c132/jre58591/100_0544.jpg

[rach n bach]

Yikes.

Actually, I kinda like it, he looks almost like some kind of artic explorer or someting...

RnB

[soliloquy]

Well hello mister Radu :O  That picture is a FAKE


Now, while I wouldn't want to soil my reputation with Marky, here are some REAL pictures of him with his recent facial hair changes   These are some pictures I took of him while hanging out with him while he was experimenting with different styles:




There, the real thing.  And just in case you were wondering... he went with the Feng Shui.

[jre58591]

wow those pictures have to be at least 15 years old.

[soliloquy]

wow those pictures have to be at least 15 years old.

No, he was just also experimenting with toupees at the time.

[mephisto]

He has this extremely noticeable beard, no glasses.
Sam

He has taken an eye surgency or what ever it it called.

[opus10no2]

Yikes.

Actually, I kinda like it, he looks almost like some kind of artic explorer or someting...

RnB

Which, in a musical sense, he is!

[rach n bach]

Which, in a musical sense, he is!

Never thought about it that way... but you're right!

RnB

[Mozartian]

I still say he looks like a blind marxist without his glasses and with that HIDEOUS beard.. but euw.. a pink tie?! Insult to injuries!

But he's still great, of course.

[mephisto]

  He also played an concert comprising of a few short mendelssohn songs without words, with the rest of the concert being entirely Liszt.  I am wondering if he is really trying to establish himself as a performer of mainstream classical music in his "older" age so that people will remember him more later.  Any insightful comments or observations out there?
Sam

Some programs by MAH:

Husum Festival (14-6-1991)

   Mozart – Piano Sonata no. 1
            Bellini/Liszt – Reminiscences de ‘Norma’
   Liszt – La Leggierezza
   Chopin – Piano Sonata no. 2

Festival de Musique de Lanaudiere (7/24/2000)

   Schubert – Piano Sonata in A Major, D.959
   Rachmaninoff – Piano Sonata no. 2 (revised)

Manchester (10/31/1997)

   Bach – French Suite no. 5 (partial)
   Brahms – Intermezzi, Op. 117
   Liszt – Fantasy and Fugue on BACH
   Schubert – Sonata no. 21

What I am trying to show is that he has for a very long time played a lot of standard repertoire in public. So this isn't something new. But still I think you might be righ about Hamelin becoming more mainstream. I would personally prefer him to still record non-standard pieces, because there is so much great but sadly forgotten piano musico out there.

But if there is anyone who should decide what he plays, it should be himself.

[demented cow]

To  add to the last post, I must confess that it does my head in when people in other threads claim that Hamelin plays non-standard stuff in order to avoid being compared with other pianists. What guff. If that were true, he wouldn't have cds out such as:

-a cd full of standard Liszt repertoire (the fact that most people haven't heard it may be because it rejoices in the stupid name of 'grand romantic virtuoso', which no self-respecting music seller would want to have on their catalogue)

-Pagaini etudes cd

-Stuff by Brahms, Haydn etc. under
www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=hamelin

I'm not a massive Hamelin fan, but give him full points for playing stuff most other people don't play. I might not always like his repertoire choice, but thanks to him I can at least have an informed opinion about what this repertoire sounds like.

[sevencircles]

I'm not a massive Hamelin fan, but give him full points for playing stuff most other people don't play. I might not always like his repertoire choice, but thanks to him I can at least have an informed opinion about what this repertoire sounds like.

Agree! He is always searching for new things. I think he should compose more though. When you play something you composed on your own you will practice twice as much as as you would otherwise.

 He claims that he doesn´t practice  more then 3 hours a day or so these days but if he composed the things he played he would practice a lot more and obviously play a lot better from a musical point of view.