Composer and virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin returns to Athens for world premiere

The man is a miracle.”—Gramophone

“A performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (New York Times)

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known worldwide for his unrivaled blend of consummate musicianship, brilliant technique and his intrepid exploration of the rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. He returns to Athens Tuesday, October 15 at 7:30 pm. at Hodgson Concert Hall for a solo recital featuring works by Beethoven, Busoni, and Liszt.

The performance also includes a rare treat: the world premiere of his own new piece,Deploration sur la Mort de Chopin, commissioned by the American Liszt Society. The concert is a part of the society's annual festival.

An exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, Hamelin has released 89 albums to date, with notable recordings of a broad range of solo, orchestral, and chamber repertoire. In October, Hamelin releases his recording of Beethoven’s imposing Piano Sonata in B flat major, "Hammerklavier," Op. 106 (on this Hodgson Concert Hall program), coupled with the earlier Piano Sonata in C major, Op. 2, No. 3. In 2025, he releases MixTape, featuring 20th-century music. 

Featuring nine original pieces, Hamelin’s 2024 album New Piano Works is a survey of some of his own recent works, exhibiting his formidable skill as a composer-pianist whose music imaginatively and virtuosically taps into his musical forebears. “His previous offerings of his own music were rich, but his latest self-portrait album is on another level,” wrote The New York Times, one of many outlets that published glowing reviews. It was Hamelin’s first album of all original compositions since Eìtudes (2010). In 2023, Hyperion released Hamelin’s recording of Faureì’s Nocturnes & Barcarolles, with the four-hand Dolly suite, played with his wife, Cathy Fuller. A double album of C.P.E. Bach’s Sonatas & Rondos was released in 2022, and another of William Bolcom’s complete rags. Both received wide critical acclaim and chart success. 

Hamelin has composed music throughout his career, most of which is published by Edition Peters, including his Eìtudes and Toccata on L’homme armeì, the latter commissioned by the Van Cliburn Foundation. Hamelin performed the Toccata along with music by C.P.E. Bach and Bolcom in an NPR Tiny Desk concert in 2023. His latest compositions include a piano quintet, which he premiered in 2022 with the Dover Quartet, and the solo piano works Hexensabbat and Mazurka, the latter commissioned by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where the composer presented the first performance in spring 2024. 

PROGRAM

BEETHOVEN: Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier”

FERRUCCIO BUSONI: Sonatina No. 2, BV259

HAMELIN: Deploration sur la Mort de Chopin (world premiere, commissioned by the American Liszt Society)

LISZT: Réminiscences de Norma, S.394 (after Bellini)

SUPPORTED BY

The King Family Foundation in memory of the late Jane King

Patricia and Daniel Minkler

Jed Rasula and Suzi Wong

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