The Canadian player’s Hyperion catalogue grows by the month, offering an astounding range of repertoire that embraces music of remarkable virtuosity.

A tribute by Gramophone's Bryce Morrison

Few pianists have created a more astonishing discography than Marc-André Hamelin. Who else would, or could, have launched their career on record with William Bolcom’s Etudes, Stefan Wolpe’s Battle Piece and Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté’s six sonatas? Discs of Alkan, complete cycles of Scriabin and Medtner sonatas and the Chopin-Godowsky Etudes (to mention but a few) followed, all played with a seemingly nonchalant mastery and an intensely musical virtuosity. The legend continued with ‘In a State of Jazz’ and a recital of Hamelin’s own Etudes.

Today such dazzle is complemented by more intimate and introspective but no less memorable offerings of music by Mozart, Haydn, Debussy and Janáček. Hamelin’s range is limitless and with discs on the horizon of Rachmaninov, Ravel and, hopefully, Schubert, what else could one wish for?

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