Busy year for young classical pianist
Canadian musician teams up with Orpheus chamber group on album devoted to Mendelssohn
With five albums under his belt and a concert calendar prodding him to a different city nearly every night of the week, it’s easy to forget that Calgaryborn pianist Jan Lisiecki is still only 23.
Since the end of January, he has been performing nearly non-stop in Germany and Italy. At the beginning of March, Lisiecki hops back over to this side of the Atlantic for solo recitals in London, Toronto and Kingston before going south of the border.
The Toronto date, on March 3 at Koerner Hall, sold out within days of being announced last year. The Royal Conservatory of Music added seats onstage last fall. Those new tickets were gone instantly.
The program is excellent, focusing on night-themed pieces by the great piano composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries: Frederic Chopin, Robert Schumann, Maurice Ravel and Sergei Rachmaninov.
The bookends are some beloved Nocturnes by Chopin. The centre is Ravel’s dramatic Gaspard de la nuit. It makes for a compelling dramatic arc.
Lisiecki has been performing this solo program for a bit more than a year now. “I think it was a resounding success both for me and the audiences,” he says on the phone while enjoying a sunset view in Florence. “I enjoy the flow and the dimension it takes onstage.”
The young pianist’s many ticket-deprived fans can console themselves with his just-released fifth album, devoted to the music of early-19th-century com- poser Felix Mendelssohn. It was recorded for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label.
We hear clean, crisply articulated interpretations of Mendelssohn’s First and Second Piano Concertos, as well as the Variations Sérieuses, the Rondo Capriccioso and the “Venetian Gondola Song” from Songs Without Words, Op.19.
Lisiecki partnered with New York City-based Orpheus Chamber Orchestra on the recording. They made it in just two days in Warsaw last summer. The
musicians collectively blew the dust off these pieces, showcasing the lightness and freshness of an early-Romantic esthetic.
Orpheus performs without a conductor. This was Lisiecki’s first try at recording an album without any one person in charge and he loved the experience. When clearing up matters of interpretation, the musicians worked them out one on one.
Lisiecki explains how individual players would walk out into the hall during the process and return with comments on what they were hearing. It made for intense, focused listening as the notes came pouring out.
“For me, the most important thing in making music is the sound that is created,” the pianist says. “I think Orpheus has a fantastic sound and I think it matches well with what’s important to me.
“I had a very strong opinion on what I wanted to do and they had their own musical concepts. But when we were playing together, it was well-balanced and mutual. We never had a moment when something led to a disagreement.”
The collaboration went so well that Lisiecki and Orpheus will be touring the Mendelssohn program together starting in May.
(Lisiecki will perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on June 5, 6 and 8).
There are many more cities, concerts, recitals and albums to come. Lisiecki admits that he does miss home, so he brings it along.
“I feel at home whenever I’m with my parents and I travel with them as much as possible.”
So, instead of being a more typical 20-something who lives with his parents, Lisiecki is trying it the other way around.
It’s clearly working for him.