It is in a gesture of great elegance that Bruce Liu reserved Thursday for a benefit event for the benefit of the Prix d’Europe, which had consecrated him in 2015, his first recital in Canada since his victory at the Chopin Competition in October 2021. He showed himself, oh so worthy of the laurels harvested in Warsaw.
The comparison was quite direct and the verdict is final. On December 7, the famous pianist Emanuel Ax, who has been performing on North American stages for 40 years, gave a Chopin recital at Bourgie Hall as part of the chamber music festival. He did not make the impression left by Bruce Liu on Thursday evening at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur during this concert organized by the Académie de musique du Québec for the benefit of the Prix d’Europe recorded by Radio Canada. and that we can hear from Tuesday on Espace musique.
A symphonic piano
The success of the pianist trained in Montreal is not a surprise in itself, but its magnitude may be. We are obviously thinking here of ease, in the most tortuous passages of the 2nd Balladan ease that becomes playful in the Grande Polonaise Brillante op. 22we knew it from Warsaw.
But what is important to gauge in real life, compared to a webcast, is the sound production. This one is impressive. Bruce Liu has a refined sense of transitions, which shines through from the Nocturne op. 27 no. 1. A sense of resonances, too, which he uses to play the “funeral” sonata by linking the four movements attacked.
But above all, Bruce Liu’s piano is a piano that explodes, so “symphonic” that it comes out of its metal frame and sometimes seems almost too small. This is the case in the 3rd Ballad or, above all, the “Funeral March” of the 2nd Sonata taken with inner strength and determination.
Compared to Warsaw, Bruce Liu succeeds better in the 1st part of the 2nd Sonata, better kept, more compact in the discourse, in particular by the elimination of useless repeats. It triturates a little more the beginning of theAndante spinato op. 22 and that’s a shame. As in the Variations on “La ci darem la mano”he is imperial in the Chopin of youth and camps with pleasure, freshness and breadth the rhythm of the Mazur Rondo. In bis, the Nocturne opus 20 precedes one of those somewhat futile pieces in which his joy of playing is infectious.
Seeing the 2022 Bruce Liu was a very enlightening experience. He is a great winner of the Chopin Competition, the largest since Yundi Li in 2000. And the only significant competition before that of 2000 was the 1980 vintage won by Dang Thái Son, Bruce’s teacher, a competition which also revealed Ivo Pogorelich .
This is an impressive perspective.
Benefit concert for the Prix d’Europe
Chopin: Nocturne op. 27 no. 1. Rondo a la mazur op. 5. Ballads no. 2 and 3. Sonata n° 2. Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante op. 22. Bruce Liu (piano). Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, Thursday February 17, 2022. Broadcast on Espace musique, Tuesday February 22.