Silver medalist and winner of the Krystian Zimerman Prize at the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin has emerged as one of the most important pianists of his generation. Recipient of the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec and of the prestigious Career Development Award conferred by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto, he was awarded the Prix Denise-Pelletier in November 2022, becoming the youngest recipient in the history of the Prix du Québec.
Beethoven : Sonate pour violon n° 10 en sol majeur, opus 96. II Adagio espressivo
Chopin : Concerto pour piano n° 1, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Kent Nagano
Mozart : Concertos pour piano n° 20 et 23, Les Violons du Roy, Jonathan Cohen
His delicate touch draws out a golden, bell-like resonance that contrasts beautifully with the chamber strings, whose period bows ensure the texture is never too rich or Romantic.
★★★★★— Charlotte Smith, BBC Music Magazine (On the MOZART Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 23 album, published by Analekta)
The Canadian offers a reading of remarkable formal perfection. His phrasing is at once lilting and finely articulated, and his playing testifies to a beautiful loftiness of vision, as much as to a great attention to detail, treated with subtlety.
— Jérôme Bastianelli, Diapason (France), January 2020
(On the album Chopin: Ballades & Impromptus, published by Analekta)Another winning tandem
★★★★ 1/2
After the success of his Chopin concertos, Charles Richard-Hamelin’s new orchestral recording is destined for the same honors. […] At 30, Charles Richard-Hamelin is already a national treasure!— Christophe Huss, Le Devoir (Montreal), January 31, 2020