Marc-Andre Hamelin: It's All About the Music

Hailed in many quarters as a direct musical descendant of Glenn Gould, the masterful French-Canadian concert pianist Marc-André Hamelin is notorious for building an extensive repertory catalogue for himself of obscure and esoteric piano compositions from a host of diverse musical eras. The film Marc-André Hamelin: It's All About the Music provides one of the first extended documentary overviews of Hamelin's life and career, from his birth in Montreal, Quebec in 1961, through his musical education at the Vincent d'Indy school and Temple University under the tutelage of Yvonne Hubert, Russell Sherman and Harvey Weeden, to his netting of first prize in the 1985 Carnegie Hall Music Competition, and his decision to mount a series of thematically-linked recitals during the nineties and 2000s. It also touches on his unique interest in unearthing and performing the works of lesser-known international composers, such as Alkan, Kasputin and Godowsky. As an added bonus, the program features discussions with interviewees including Weeden and the composer Jay Reise, as well as extensive in-concert footage of Hamelin. It includes his complete recital in Charlevoix, Quebec, and his performance of the fourth movement of Busoni's Piano Concerto Op. 39, accompanied by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Osmo Vänskä.