Hamelin - Etude No. 7: after Tchaikovsky (for the left hand alone)

A beautiful one-handed Tchaikovsky arrangement by the great contemporary pianist and composer Marc-André Hamelin. I found it somewhat awkward to play since I don't have monster bear hands like Mr. Hamelin, who is ruthless with 10th chords in this piece. From his collection of 12 etudes in all the minor keys.
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"The initial idea to make an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Lullaby op.16/1 came because of my performances of it as a pianist in the original version for voice and piano. My transformation of it simply came about after the song started rolling around in my head insistently one day, to the point where I had to do something about it.
In composing for the left hand alone, I contributed to a long and noble tradition, but one which the music-loving public is unfortunately ill-acquainted with. Unlike some composers, I don't regard writing for one hand as an opportunity to display pianistic proficiency; instead I consider it a fascinating compositional constraint. Such writing presented me with quite a challenge; indeed, there is not much point in composing for one hand unless one tries to make the textures as rich as possible, and it is a special delight to try to make one hand sound like two. This is precisely what is attempted here, and for this reason I would say that the chief difficulty of the piece resides in the proper control of the pedal. Only the most careful handling of it will ensure the seamlessness and the richness of texture that ultimately creates the illusion of two-handed playing. In order to get the right texture, I would suggest practicing using both hands at first so that one can imprint the right result in one's ear, especially in regard to all of the interlocking slurs.
As a matter of interest, I had originally envisioned presenting this piece in two versions. Both of them would have consisted of the étude as it is now, but in the second one, the right hand would have joined in toward the middle of the piece with some ethereal arabesques. As promising as this idea seemed, I quickly realized that there was no need for this as the one-hand version was complete on its own.
Although I had been aware of Rachmaninoff's (two-handed) arrangement for many years before I wrote this one, I had never actually heard it. Not until after I had finished mine did I patiently wade through Rachmaninoff's seven-flatted forest."
-Marc-André Hamelin
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Sheet music: www.edition-peters.com/produc...
Piano: Kawai Novus NV10
Piano VST: Garritan CFX Full
My current CFX settings: forum.pianoworld.com/ubbthread...

[@JG_1998]

always good to see more people play hamelin's work.

[@teodorb.p.composer]

Such a astonishing performence of this Hamelin's masterpiece!

[@Varooooooom]

Whewwww this performance is gorgeous. Magnificent job!

[@loganm2924]

The best recording I've heard beside Hamelin himself! You play this really well!

[@FrankyM_Piano]

Well done. I love this arrangement by M. Hamelin. Great stability and flow in your playing, the score does look a bit awkward but your performance certainly wasn't.

[@VinLudens]

Absolutely magnificent. Such beautiful textures and indeed, your performance really sells the illusion of 2 hands playing.

[@andante5133]

Wonderful, bravo, bravo, bravo !!!!

[@benjaminkatt]

Sublime! I love this arrangement and performance. Thank you for sharing this!

[@paolofranceschi6874]

Bravissimo ❤

[@korayus]

Thank you very much for sharing with us such a great music and performance.

[@jazztemple2]

Stunning playing! Thank you so much for the beauty. And for sharing the quotation from Hamelin, as well.

[@jackbyrd381]

Bravo!

[@arje5651]

Incredible!

[@MikeN275]

I'll be honest, for a split second I saw the notification and thought #7 was Erlkonig and I was excited as hell. That said, this is great too!

[@andreasd.5649]

Grandios und absolut bewundernswert.

[@johnruelas]

beautiful!

[@HeartofthePiano]

Bravo! 👏🏼

[@ChernobieffPiano]

Awesome!!

[@paddy1nz]

Amazing.

[@Anto.L.1984]

Wow 🧐🧐🧐grandioso!!!

[@uwuwuwu525]

MAH goat

[@bropy2938]

good

[@chopinaddict6435]

I guess I couldn't do this with my two hands. 😭