For her fifth cd with BIS, Clare Hammond chose a challenging programme. Through variation series, she sketches the diversity of the 20th and 21st-century classical music landscape. From Szymanowski's romantic melodies to Copland's monolithic modernity, from Hindemith's tender melancholy to Lachenmann's bewildering ambiguity… Hammond presents this well-balanced programme with elegance and bravura.
Imaginative
Clare Hammond (°1985) studied at Cambridge University and subsequently continued her studies with pianist Ronan O'Hora. In 2016 she won the "Young Artist Award" from the Royal Philharmonic Society. Hammond gained international recognition through concert series and festivals such as the International Piano Series and Aldeburgh Festival. She has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, among others.
Hammond has a "reputation for brilliantly imaginative concert programmes" (BBC Music Magazine). This cd is an example of this; it offers a fresh perspective on the genre and its long history. In the cd booklet she provides her own explanation of the programme's composition: "For this programme, I have selected sets of variations that transcend the form in numerous creative and sometimes daring ways. In their range of emotion, from humour to contemplation, triumph to searing grief, these variations show that a composer need not be limited in expression by the constraints of form."
Flexible plurality
Hammond opens the cd with a youthful work by Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937): Variationen über ein polnisches Thema op.10 (1904). The work consists of a lyrical introduction, followed by the presentation of the original theme (O muzyce podhalańskiej, 1888) by Jan Klecyński, followed by 10 variations. The romantic style of these variations is influenced by the Russian group The Mighty Five — particularly by Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). Hammond herself finds variation VIII (1st variation of track 4) most striking since it is a funeral march. In the recording it is clear that she has experimented with the tonal balance of the different musical layers to bring out the bell-like resonances.
The last work on this cd is by Sofia Gubaidulina (°1931). She chose a popular Baroque genre: the fast Spanish dance form with roots in the 16th century. She wrote Chaconne (1963) as a post-university student at Moscow University in response to Marina Mdivan's (to whom the work is also dedicated) "powerful technique for playing chords" and "lively temperament". Typical of the chaconne is the short repeating bass line with flexible variations above it. This chaconne, however, is anything but typical. While it does use this basic principle of the repeated bass (here every 8 measures) the conventional dance character is completely absent. The work is particularly virtuosic, contrasting and dynamic. Hammond takes charge of this imposing work and brings this spectacular emotional roller coaster to the fore.
The genre of the variation series, which at first glance seems limiting, takes on new light with this cd. The idea that variations must be fragmented is another cliché that is dispelled here. Furthermore, Hammond displays her flexible interpretive ability. The British newspaper The Observer clearly named her for good reason a "star interpreter of contemporary music."
- WHO: Clare Hammond
- WHAT: Variations
- RELEASE: BIS Records 10352825
- PHOTOS: © Julie Kim
- ORDER: JPC
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGcWIoDAz4Q[/embed]
