InClassica International Music Festival Opens with ‘Fascinating’ Concert by Marc-André Hamelin

The festival’s opening night saw a packed house, with various dignitaries, including the Consul General of Canada in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, United Arab Emirates, Jean-Philippe Linteau, mingling with audience members from all over the world who travelled to the UAE’s most populous city to witness the star pianist in action. 

The artists himself, who is the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the German Record Critics’ Association, as well as 7 Juno Awards and 11 GRAMMY nominations, among many other achievements, did not disappoint, embarking on a 2-hour long recital full of a carefully-selected programme of works that represented some of the biggest names in the canon, with each piece flowing mellifluously into the next. 

“It was such an amazing experience. I’ve been eager to see him live for so long but I’ve never had the chance before so this was a dream come true for me and he really is as wonderful as I imagined!”, said one woman in attendance who is based in Dubai itself. 

The evening began with a rendition of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Rondo in C Minor that set the perfect tone for the evening’s proceedings, with its progression of shifting moods and constant variation giving a glimpse into the programme that the pianist had prepared for the Dubai audience. This was then followed by a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous Adelaide, arranged for the piano by Franz Liszt, a piece that has managed to transcend its roots in classical music to attain mainstream popularity, and which was impeccably performed by the Canadian pianist. 

Hamelin then moved to George Enescu’s Choral and Carillon Nocturne, Op. 18, Nos. 6 and 7, deftly navigating the Romanian composer’s unique style, which is still arguably under-represented even within the world of classical music, with ease, and evoking many statements of admiration from those present. 

“The Enescu in particular was one of my favourites”, said one audience member. “I love the fact that it was included in the programme because it’s quite different from many of the other works so it offered a very pleasant contrast”.

The pianist himself also spoke fondly of the piece, remarking that “A friend of mine — who is Romanian, so the music is in his blood — sat down once and played the bell piece unannounced, and I said to him, ‘What is this? This is just amazing!’ And this is how I got to play it. I thought, ‘I have to see what I can do with this.’”

The first part of the concert was then brought to a close with Sergei Prokofiev’s Sarcasms, Op.17, a richly lyrical work that marked the composer’s radical style at this stage of his career, and which provided the perfect note upon which to pause the concert’s narrative heading into the interval. The second part of the evening was then dominated by Franz Schubert’s celebrated Sonata in B Flat Major, written during the last months of the composer’s life and remaining unpublished until a decade after his death. Hamelin paid true homage to the piece, drawing out all of its intense emotion and leaving the hall dumbstruck as he carried the audience away into his music. 

“I was speechless after that Schubert”, a gentleman in attendance said. “It was just mesmerising, such a fascinating display”

The audience’s satisfaction was mirrored in Hamelin himself, who noted that “it was a particular pleasure to play for an audience which may not be as used to this kind of concert as other localities perhaps, and for me it was a golden opportunity, really, to play for a new public that I hadn’t played for before. So that was very valuable, and pleasurable of course.”

“What a spectacular way to start off this year’s edition of InClassica. It was a simply enchanting performance, and congratulations to Marc-André Hamelin for an amazing evening. This was just the beginning of course, and there are so many concerts still coming up with some of the most illustrious names in the classical music world yet to join us. I cannot wait to see what these wonderful artists will offer us” — Konstantin Ishkhanov, President of the EUFSC.

The InClassica International Music Festival is currently underway and will run until the 26th of September. For more information about the full programme or to book tickets, please visit the official website at inclassica.com.