Boston Globe: Marc-André Hamelin and the riches of ragtime

Boston Globe
By David Weininger

The pianist, who appears at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival on Saturday, recently released a two-CD set of American composer William Bolcom’s complete piano rags

Like many music lovers of a certain age, pianist Marc-André Hamelin was introduced to ragtime by pianist Joshua Rifkin’s recording of Scott Joplin rags, which his father bought when Hamelin was young. Released in 1970, Rifkin’s recording was credited with sparking a revival of interest in ragtime. (The resurgence got an extra kick a few years later with the release of the Paul Newman-Robert Redford film “The Sting” and its ragtime-infused soundtrack.)

Hamelin started learning some of the rags from a popular Dover collection of Joplin’s piano works. A few years later, he came across “Heliotrope Bouquet,” an LP featuring the American composer William Bolcom at the piano. It featured a few Joplin rags, as well as pieces by Joseph Lamb and James Scott, who together made up the “big three” of ragtime.

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