For goodness sakes. This sort of mean-spirited pianist bashing says a lot more about you, than it does about Hamelin.
I have to agree with you. I have observed Hamelin's playing develop over more than a quarter century and can vouch for the fact that he has never had any interest in virtuosic displays of digital dexterity or playing to the gallery for its own sake; I don't think that some of his earlier recordings as recordings do him as much good as they might (that of Sorabji's first piano sonata being a notable exception) and perhaps at times the fact of what I might call his affliction with "Richard Strauss syndrome" - i.e. certain things coming much more easily to him than to most (albeit not without as much practice as anyone else does) - might have contributed to some degree to masking his ability to project what he thinks and feels about some of the music that he plays.
Unlike most pianists, Hamelin has always composed and, like most of those others who do or did compose - Dinu Lipatti, John Ogdon, Ronald Stevenson, Stephen Hough, Jonathan Powell, for example - the act of composition is an essential aspect of the art of playing (that said, Stevenson is more widely regarded as a composer than as a pianist, although that's largely because he has never sought to pursue any kind of international career as a performer despite being one of the finest players of his time - and Artur Schnabel, on the other hand, being far better known as a pianist than as a composer, seems to have lived two entirely separate lives in the two professions, in that his largely atonal music might seem to some to be at odds with the repertoire that he performed).
The best of Hamelin's music, whilst by no means "ground-breaking", can be engaging and is not short of its own challenges.
I note that most of the more carping criticisms of him rest on his playing alone, which might itself seem somewhat questionable.
I also note with more than passing interest Thal's praise for his Haydn playing as opposed to his way with the Romantic repertoire for which he was far better known before he made the Haydn CDs (and probaly still is, for that matter); I wonder how he or anyone else that takes a similar view might account for why they believe this to be a fact.
It has come as no pleasure at all to Hamelin to be associated in certain people's minds with the work of the kinds of empty virtuoso trickster that have not much more going for them that their trickstership; indeed, the last time he alluded to this was in a conversation less than 24 hours ago...
Best,
Alistair
Topic: How does Hamelin do it?