• ABOUT US
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Advertising
    • Subscription
  • CONTACT US
Georgia Today
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Social & Society
  • Sports
  • Culture
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Social & Society
  • Sports
  • Culture
No Result
View All Result
Georgia Today
No Result
View All Result

The Mind at the Edge of the Hand: Marc-André Hamelin Opens Tbilisi Piano Fest 2025

by Georgia Today
June 19, 2025
in Culture, Editor's Pick, Newspaper
Reading Time: 3 mins read
Photo by the author

Photo by the author

On Tuesday evening, the Tbilisi State Conservatoire hosted a performance by Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin as part of the 2025 edition of Tbilisi Piano Fest. The appearance of a figure long respected for his analytical clarity and technical control lent a measured gravity to the festival’s opening, which otherwise leans toward showcasing virtuosity and international appeal.

The program spanned Classical precision and Romantic interiority, moving from Haydn and Beethoven to Medtner and Rachmaninov. Hamelin’s choices—neither crowd-pleasing nor obscure—reflected a characteristic interest in works that test the pianist’s ability to navigate between formal discipline and expressive ambiguity.

Hamelin opened with Haydn’s Sonata in D major, Hob. XVI:37, a compact but structurally intelligent work often underestimated in recital settings. His interpretation avoided exaggerated contrast or decorative phrasing, instead allowing the rhetorical shape of the piece to speak through restrained articulation and clarity of texture. The approach served as a statement of method—eschewing effect in favor of attention to structure.

Beethoven’s Sonata in C major, Op. 2 No. 3 followed. Hamelin’s reading was marked by precision and a refusal to dramatize beyond the score’s inherent momentum. The first movement’s rhythmic insistence emerged as a kind of architectural challenge—form pushing against itself. In the slow movement, Hamelin resisted sentimentality, maintaining an internal tension that kept the lyricism from collapsing into expressive vagueness. This was a Beethoven shaped more by contour and cadence than by psychological drama.

In the second half, the program shifted toward the early 20th century with works by Nikolai Medtner—the Improvisation in B-flat minor, Op. 31 No. 1, and Danza Festiva, Op. 38 No. 3. Hamelin is one of the few pianists today who approaches Medtner not as a curiosity, but as a composer with a self-sustaining formal logic.

In the Improvisation, he traced the line of variation with patient control, allowing motivic development to unfold without rhetorical inflation. His approach to rhythm was flexible but unsentimental; rubato was used not for emotional effect but for structural clarification. The Danza Festiva, lighter in tone, was treated with similar economy, revealing the underlying counterpoint beneath its surface gestures.

The recital concluded with Rachmaninov’s Étude-Tableau in E-flat minor, Op. 39 No. 5, and the Second Sonata in B-flat minor, performed in the composer’s revised 1931 version. Hamelin approached these pieces with notable restraint. Rather than emphasizing the work’s inherent drama, he foregrounded the sonata’s compressed structure and motivic interrelations.

This was not Rachmaninov as an exercise in late-Romantic excess, but as a study in thematic condensation. The final movement’s virtuosic demands were navigated with clarity and discipline, but without ostentation. It was an interpretation shaped by internal coherence rather than expressive projection.

Photo by the author
Photo by the author

Interpretation as Inquiry
Throughout the evening, Hamelin offered not a display of pianistic personality but a set of interpretations grounded in formal attention and musical literacy. His playing remains a reminder that virtuosity, when subordinate to structure, can serve as a vehicle for thought rather than an end in itself.

In a festival context that will include performers with more demonstrative styles and extroverted programming, Hamelin’s recital stood apart—less an event, more a reading. For audiences willing to listen closely, it was a lucid proposition: that the pianist’s role is not to entertain or emote, but to think in sound.
Tbilisi Piano Fest 2025 continues through June 28, with upcoming performances by Konstantin Lifschitz, Francesco Libetta, Andrius Žlabys, and Martín García García, among others.

Founded and curated by Dudana Mazmanishvili, the Tbilisi Piano Fest has, over the past years, developed into one of the region’s more thoughtfully assembled platforms for pianistic exchange. Eschewing superficial glamour, the festival focuses on presenting a broad spectrum of interpretative aesthetics—from historically informed performance to modernist virtuosity—within a setting that encourages close listening and critical engagement. Held across several of Tbilisi’s academic and public venues, the festival aims not merely to showcase technical brilliance, but to position the piano recital as a site of cultural discourse. With its combination of international guests and Georgian artists, it also serves as a bridge between the city’s conservatoire tradition and its more contemporary musical ambitions. Under Mazmanishvili’s direction, the festival operates less as a spectacle and more as a curatorial proposition: what does it mean to listen with seriousness—and what does the piano still have to say in a culture saturated with images and noise?

By Ivan Nechaev

Tags: and Martín García GarcíaAndrius ŽlabysFrancesco LibettaIvan NechaevKonstantin LifschitzMarc-André HamelinTbilisi Piano FestTbilisi State Conservatoire
ShareShareTweet

Related Posts

World Youth Skills Day discussed in Tbilisi. Source: UNICEF Georgia
News

UNICEF Calls for Empowering Adolescents through Skill-Building on World Youth Skills Day

July 17, 2025
The site of the collapse. Source: IPN
News

Tbilisi Building Collapse Sparks Outcry as Mayor Defends Housing Policy, Public Defender Demands Urgent Reform

July 17, 2025
Program participants. Photo by Gela Bedianashvili/ UNDP
News

The German Gov’t, UNDP, and CARE Caucasus Expand Support for Small Businesses Led by Ukrainian Refugees

July 17, 2025

Recommended

Putin, Xi, and allied leaders mark Russia’s Victory Day at Moscow parade

Putin, Xi, and allied leaders mark Russia’s Victory Day at Moscow parade

2 months ago
Experience Seamless Connectivity with Silknet eSIM in Georgia

Experience Seamless Connectivity with Silknet eSIM in Georgia

1 year ago
Champion Karateka Luka Khvedeliani on the Benefits of Georgian Karate for Georgia’s Youth

Georgia to Celebrate First Europe Day with European Union Candidate Status

1 year ago
Georgian Foreign Minister Holds Farewell Meeting with French Ambassador to Georgia

Georgian Foreign Minister Holds Farewell Meeting with French Ambassador to Georgia

3 years ago
Natia Mezvrishvili on Dealing with 2 Political Giants

Natia Mezvrishvili on Dealing with 2 Political Giants

3 years ago
Giorgi Gakharia: We were Told We Were Capable of Nothing – It’s All a Lie and Ukraine is a Great Example of This

Giorgi Gakharia: We were Told We Were Capable of Nothing – It’s All a Lie and Ukraine is a Great Example of This

3 years ago
GT Interview with Giorgi Badridze

GT Interview with Giorgi Badridze

3 years ago
Russo-Ukrainian War and Georgia – Analysis from security expert Kakha Kemoklidze

Russo-Ukrainian War and Georgia – Analysis from security expert Kakha Kemoklidze

3 years ago

Navigation

  • News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Social & Society
  • Sports
  • Culture
  • International
  • Where.ge
  • Newspaper
  • Magazine
  • GEO
  • OP-ED
  • About Us
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Advertising
    • Subscription
  • Contact

Highlights

CNN: As democracy in Georgia collapses, Russia, China and Iran see an opening

Health Ministry issues heatwave safety guidelines for citizens

Arrested protester Giorgi Gorgadze faints during trial over group violence charges

UK Foreign Secretary: Sentences against Georgian political leaders aim to block them from upcoming elections

Ex-president Zurabishvili urges EU to act on Georgia’s democratic crisis and Russian interference

Kaja Kallas: Visa-free suspension among options for Georgia

Trending

Experience Seamless Connectivity with Silknet eSIM in Georgia
Business & Economy

Experience Seamless Connectivity with Silknet eSIM in Georgia

by Georgia Today
June 26, 2024

Why Silknet's eSIM could be your top choice in Georgia  Since its introduction, eSIM technology has become...

Photo by the author

Virtuosity and Versatility: Marc-André Hamelin Opens Tbilisi Piano Festival 2024

May 30, 2024
  • Where.ge
  • Newspaper
  • GEO
  • Magazine
  • Old Website

2000-2024 © Georgia Today

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Social & Society
  • Sports
  • Culture
  • International
  • Where.ge
  • Newspaper
  • Magazine
  • GEO
  • OP-ED
  • About Us
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Advertising
    • Subscription
  • Contact

2000-2024 © Georgia Today