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I heard Hamelin last night. His program was

Beethoven: Sonatas Op. 109 and 110
Schumann: Papillons
Liszt: Dante Sonata

This was a very intense and serious program. Although Hamelin never seems to show much effort if you watch his hands or body, if you look at his face his great concentration is very apparent(in fact heis constantly clenching the muscles in the side of his face).

After this intense program, he decided to play a light encore... Beethoven Sonata Op. 111(no, I'm not kidding). I don't think this was such a good decision, because I think very few people (and I'm not one of them) in the audience can concentrate and stay involved for such a long period no matter how much they might like his playing or listening to great works.

In a previous thread, I mentioned that Busoni had played a monumental Beethoven program in the U.S.(three Beetoven Sonatas including Op. 101 and Op. 106 plus the Diabelli Variations). Hamelin's recital plus the encore was almost as big.

I went at the last minute and along with one or two dozen people, was not able to get in. There were only two seats available on the wait list.

On the other hand, I heard Earl Wild last night and at 88/89, his playing belies his age. He played Haydn and Beethoven sonatas, and followed up with Lizst, and a couple of other romantic composers I never heard of, one of which was a beautiful piece named Nocturnno.

He wanted to do an encore, but found the piano too stiff from the humidity and interviewed with David Dubal and talked about everything from today's musical education to FDR's wife and today's movies. Dubal ended by playing Wild's recording of Marcello's Adagio with the lights off.

I only have his Medtner disc, but after hearing him, am now an official fan and ordered a copy of the Adagio. If you have the chance, don't miss the opportunity to see him!

Hamelin's playing in Chicago (Ravinia) on Sep 1 - Haydn, Schumann, and Ives.

I think it's Charles Rosen who tells (? in Piano Notes) a story Moritz Rosenthal told him about Busoni.

When Busoni was a dinner guest, he would occasionally be asked, after the meal, if he would like to play the piano. He invariably declined, but one hostess was particularly insistent. So Busoni sat down and played all 5 of the last Beethoven sonatas. In response to Rosen's question as to how the performance was, Rosenthal would only answer, "It was a very heavy meal." Perhaps Rosenthal slept through it all.

I also heard the Earl Wild recital last night. Having heard him 20 years ago, I felt he was struggling a lot in both last night's recital and last year's recital at Mannes IKI. To me, he seems like a fish out of water when playing non Romantic music(Haydn and Beethoven last night) but I did very much enjoy last night's Liszt Ballade and Resphighi Notturno(if you go here
http://groups.msn.com/PianoscoreCen...368&LastModified=4675480253436154747 and join Piano Score Central you can get a copy of this piece).
And I felt his tone was particularly beautiful.

Is anyone going to Alicia de Larrocha's class tomorrow evening? I just bought a ticket over the phone and the seller said they were going quickly so if you want to go you should consider calling and buying over the phone before it's too late.