{"id":44409,"date":"2017-04-05T13:13:06","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T17:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=44409"},"modified":"2017-04-05T13:13:06","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T17:13:06","slug":"record-keeping-for-jan-lisiecki-fans-new-chopin-release-is-another-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/04\/05\/record-keeping-for-jan-lisiecki-fans-new-chopin-release-is-another-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"RECORD KEEPING | For Jan Lisiecki Fans, New Chopin Release Is Another Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jan
Jan Lisiecki (Photo: Bo Huang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pianist Jan Lisiecki, 22, has had a spectacular rise to fame \u2014 he made his first recording in Poland at the age of 14, playing the two Chopin Piano Concertos with Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by Howard Shelley (NIF CCD 200) \u2014 and today enjoys an international reputation. Born in Calgary of Polish descent, it could be that this heritage has made him especially authoritative in the music of Chopin.<\/p>\n

Lisiecki is now under exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and his latest release is also all-Chopin. For Lisiecki fans, this is another winner, although it must be said that the selected repertoire is not representative of Chopin\u2019s best work.<\/p>\n

Above all else, Chopin was a pianist and a composer who wrote for the piano. While he wrote six works for piano and orchestra, they all date from 1827-30 when he was only in his late teens. Chopin never showed much interest in writing for orchestra \u2013 he wrote no symphonies or symphonic pieces without piano \u2013 and his six works for piano and orchestra show little aptitude for it. That is especially true of the four pieces on this CD, in which the orchestra is largely confined to providing brief introductory material, unobtrusive background, and punctuation at appropriate moments. I really feel for Polish conductor Krzysztof Urba\u0144ski; conducting these works must have been a thankless job, as these short pieces are all about the piano and, in this case, Jan Lisiecki.<\/p>\n

The young Canadian makes the most of his star turns with playing that is technically dazzling; furthermore, while projecting the virtuosity that Chopin built into the music to show off his own talents and wow the crowds, he is also sensitive to what he calls Chopin\u2019s \u201cbel canto style.\u201d While Lisiecki can toss off a proliferation of notes at top speed, he also takes the time to shape phrases and to maintain a singing line when required.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best piece on the CD is the Rondo <\/em>\u00e0 la Krakowiak<\/em> in F major Op. 14. Here, the orchestral accompaniment is allowed to become something more than musical wallpaper, and harmonically the work is more interesting than most of the others. The \u201cKrakowiak\u201d is actually a syncopated dance in duple time said to have originated in Krakow. Chopin\u2019s Krakowiak tune is catchy and charming.<\/p>\n

Chopin\u2019s variations on the Don Giovanni-Zerlina duet, \u201cL<\/em>\u00e0 ci darem la mano,<\/em>\u201d is also memorable for the composer\u2019s resourcefulness in melodic variation. The second last variation resembles one of Chopin\u2019s own Nocturnes, and the last movement is turned into a Polonaise.<\/p>\n

\"CHOPIN:
CHOPIN: Works for Piano & Orchestra. Andante spianato & Grande Polonaise brillante Op. 22. Rondo \u00e0 la krakowiak Op. 14. Variations on \u201cL\u00e0 ci darem la mano\u201d Op. 2. Fantasy on Polish Airs Op. 13. Nocturne in c sharp minor Op. posth. Jan Lisiecki, piano. NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra\/Krzysztof Urba\u0144ski. DG 4796824. Total Time: 64:43.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to the four pieces for piano and orchestra on this CD, Lisiecki throws in an encore piece for solo piano, the Nocturne<\/em> in c sharp minor Op. posth. Although it is marked \u201cLento con gran espressione,<\/em>\u201d Lisiecki\u2019s performance comes across as somewhat deadpan and clunky.<\/p>\n

Jan Lisiecki will soon (May 4, 2017<\/a>) be appearing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) under Peter Oundjian in a performance of the Schumann Piano Concerto at Roy Thomson Hall. Later that month, he will appear as featured artist in the same work on the TSO\u2019s European tour.<\/p>\n

The orchestra featured on this recording is the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, based in Hamburg, which used to be known simply as the \u201cNDR Symphony Orchestra\u201d, or North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. The use of this rather unwieldy new name has to do with the fact that the orchestra\u2019s new home is the Elbphilharmonie<\/em>, a spectacular new concert hall built on the top floor of an existing building.<\/p>\n

The CD booklet includes some photos of the new hall, none of which, unfortunately, give us any sense of the novelty of the building and its location. In fact, one of the photos, a shot of Lisiecki playing his grand piano on a Hamburg dock with a shipload of containers in the background, borders on the absurd. And in spite of the fact that all the photos in the booklet are of Hamburg and the new Elbphilharmonie<\/em>, the recording was not made there, but in NDR\u2019s Rolf-Liebermann-Studio.<\/p>\n

For more RECORD KEEPING, see HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jan Lisiecki abandons former glories with Chopin’s solo repertoire for a technically dazzling release that highlights Chopin’s orchestral works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":44411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,77,47,5739,51,52],"tags":[1673],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/04\/Jan_Lisiecki-Photo-Bo-Huang.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-byh","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44409"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44417,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44409\/revisions\/44417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44409"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=44409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}