The Bourgie Hall audience celebrated pianist Bruce Liu for his solo return to his hometown. A recital imbued with rare energy and real distinction.
It was one of the few sold-out concerts of the season at the Museum of Fine Arts. It must be said that the pianist, now 27 years old, has been propelled like a shooting star since his unequivocal victory at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, almost three years ago. His presences in Quebec are not legion, and the public is there every time.
What Liu presented in Montreal, he plays and he will play it (with a few variations) almost everywhere in the coming weeks in North America and Europe, notably in Chicago, Verbier and at the Wigmore Hall in London.
A diversified menu which includes great classics of the pianistic repertoire (the Sonata no 2 in B flat minor, op. 35, by Chopin, and the Sonata no 7 in B flat major, op. 83, by Prokofiev), a not so well-known classical sonata (the Sonata in B minorHob.XVI:32, by Haydn), some pieces for harpsichord by Rameau (The tender complaints, The cyclops, Minuets I and II, The savages, The hen And there Gavotte and six doubles) and a rarity, the Variations, op. 41, a fascinating jazz improvisation put on paper by the Russian Nikolaï Kapoustine, who died just four years ago.
The first movement of Haydn’s sonata, at the start of the program, is nervous, but also imperious. The central minuet, whose somewhat unusual pace does not prevent it from being elegant, then gives way to a truly “presto” finale, of almost Mendelssohnian lightness.
Chopin’s sonata comes in a similar torrent, with a sweeping first movement, which does not prevent the second lyrical theme from unfolding. The Scherzo, a little square in the first part, and somewhat affected in its central part, is less convincing. The Funeral March is perhaps more poignant in a very slow tempo, but the way Liu does it, almost in snatches, is just as heartbreaking.
If the Variations by Kapoustine slightly lacked spontaneity, swaying, Rameau’s six pieces showed us another side of the musician, who recorded them for Deutsche Grammophon, which is to his credit given the indifference that his fellow pianists generally demonstrate towards this repertoire which should not be the prerogative of harpsichordists.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Zhan Hong Xiao, piano student at the Montreal Conservatory of Music
If The tender complaints may lack simplicity at times, the whole impresses with its mastery and the refinement put into it by the artist, who ornaments without exaggeration.
The evening ended with Prokofiev. If the final Precipitato was done with a cautious tempo (it is unfortunately rare that we hear this perilous piece truly “rushed”), the other two showed a pianist confident in his means, possessing a narrative sense and a palette of colors foolproof.
As an encore, Liu played the transcription (in B minor) by Alexandre Ziloti of Prelude and fugue in E minorBWV 855, by Bach, which he had already played after the Concertoo 2 of Rachmaninov at the first concert of the Orchester Métropolitain last September, then the Waltz in D flat major, op. 64, no 1, by Chopin (known as the “Minute Waltz” or “Little Dog Waltz”).
At the start of the concert, we were able to hear a former student of Richard Raymond (Liu’s former teacher at the Conservatory), Zhan Hong Xiao, 25 years old, who played the very muscular transcription by Guido Agosti of the Danse infernale and the Finale of Fire Bird by Stravinsky. He was overwhelmed at times by the magnitude of the task, but he has a real personality on the piano. We will follow its evolution in the coming years.