Pianist Hamelin discusses Fort Worth concert, Cliburn competition

Fort Worth classical music fans will get a sneak peek Tuesday of what the commissioned work for the next Van Cliburn International Piano Competition might sound like.

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin will be performing one of his original compositions, Variations on a Theme by Paganini, at a solo recital presented by the Cliburn at Bass Hall.

Last month, the foundation announced that Hamelin will compose a new piece for the 2017 competitors to play in the first round and will serve on the jury.

While Hamelin said he hasn’t started on that commissioned work yet, he is already thinking about the four- to six-minute piano piece.

“I think first and foremost, I’m not so concerned about the pianistic aspect of it, although there has to be a certain level of difficulty,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I’m more concerned about the competitors getting the character right.”

His Tuesday Cliburn at the Bass concert also includes Mozart’s Sonata in D Major, K. 576; Debussy’s Images, Book II; and Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major, D. 960. Here’s more of our conversation with him before his Fort Worth appearance.

Why have you chosen to play the Schubert Sonata?

It’s one of my greatest friends. I don’t want to sound pretentious when I say that, but it’s true. I just feel so close to it. … I had started to play it really in the late ’90s, and I set it aside for a while, but in recent years, I decided that it would be nice to get it back, and I just love it. I can’t do without it. I’m now playing it in as many venues as I possibly can.

You have played in Fort Worth before. Why did you decide to take part in the Cliburn series this season?

It’s a given because of the competition that the audience is extremely in tune to things pianistically, and visiting pianists are really treated like gold. How can we not like that?

Did the Cliburn ask you to judge the competition first or write the commissioned work?

It was simultaneously, actually. I had been hoping that competitions would ask me for a particular piece because it is one of the best ways, really, as a piano composer to get performed.

That actually happened last year at the ARD Music Competition in Munich. I was asked to write a work for the semifinalists and four pianists got to play the piece that I wrote. … I was relieved that they didn’t seem to think I had written too difficult a piece because all four of them played it very well, to say the least.

Do you enjoy judging piano competitions?

It’s wonderful because you are really eager to discover and figure out who is going to continue the art. The process of judging is very long and intense and grueling, but that discovery alone gives me the strength to do it.

Have you started working on the commissioned work for the Cliburn yet?

I am oscillating between a couple of ideas, but I have to say no at the moment. Once I start a piece, I always manage to make time for it,and the enthusiasm of going to the finish line of the work really drives me. … The fact that [the Cliburn Competition is] so long in the future, I have no excuse to turn the piece in late.

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Pianist Hamelin discusses Fort Worth concert, Cliburn competition."