Summer performance by Marc-André Hamelin as fresh as the sea air around him

Photo: Cathy Fuller 

There's a 19th century town on a quiet bay nestled on a small rocky cape about an hour north of Boston where comfortable city people go during the summer to breathe in the the fresh, salty air and admire the work of the local colony of visual artists.

Rockport, and it's chamber music festival was graced by one of the world's finest pianists, Marc-André Hamelin, last month, to help inaugurate the Shalin Liu Performance Center, its new concert hall overlooking Sandy Bay.

Boston radio station WGBH recorded the concert, and NPR has packaged it with a background article as well as a 6 minute interview with the Montreal-born pianist. Click on the picture for all the details.

Avilable for a free listen is Alban Berg's Op. 1 Piano Sonata, Franz Liszt's B-minor Piano Sonata, a short Tchaikovsky-inspired Hamelin Etude and a gorgeous little picturesque by Leopold Godowsky: Gardens of Buitenzorg.