Bruce Liu’s fate changed forever in Warsaw on the night of October 20-21, 2021, as he became the winner of the 18e Chopin Competition. The Montrealer returns home for three concerts with the Orchester symphonique de Montréal on April 19 and 20.
It was with great difficulty that we managed to have the pianist on the line after his victory, a year and a half ago. A young musician with a still confidential career, without an agent, without a website, Bruce Liu had been caught off guard in a whirlwind that would propel him to the biggest stages in the snap of his fingers.
It’s another artist who answers us this time, now experienced in the demanding discipline of international concert performers. We join him in Buenos Aires, where he has just played in the legendary hall of the Teatro Colón. “It really is a magnificent hall,” he exclaims, adding that he has never heard such good acoustics in an opera hall.
Bruce Liu was in the Argentine capital to play the Concerto noh 1 by Chopin with the local Philharmonic Orchestra, a work he says he has performed no less than forty times since 2021. A little more than the Concerto noh 2which allowed him to distinguish himself in the final of the Chopin Competition.
“Technically, the First is more difficult, more brilliant. It’s harder to convince with the Second “, less virtuoso, explains the musician. “But the fact that it’s short makes it feel better because it’s short and clean. »
“Concert organizers always ask for Chopin. Unfortunately, he only wrote two concertos”, sums up the 25-year-old pianist, who adapts quite well to his association with the Polish composer.
How to avoid falling into routine, by always plowing the same land? For Liu, only one solution: always keep your mind in motion.
“In the competition, even until the last minute before putting my foot on the stage, I was discovering new phrasing, new dynamics”, he illustrates.
The diversity of rooms and instruments also helps to clear the mind. “Violinists bring their own babies. Us, at each concert, it’s like with a different girlfriend,” he laughs.
A woman on the podium
It’s the Concerto noh 2 that Montrealers will be able to hear in two weeks, in addition to the Symphony noh 6 of Sibelius and The Light of the End by Sofia Goubaïdoulina, conducted by the Finnish Dalia Stasevska, at the head of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra.
Bruce Liu is delighted to play for the first time with a woman on the podium: “In a way, Chopin’s music is very feminine, sensual, sensitive, so I can’t wait to discover it from another perspective with a conductor. »
But there is not only Chopin in the life of the pianist, who had played the Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini by Rachmaninoff last summer with the OSM as part of the Classical Spree.
Later in the summer, it will be the turn of Concerto noh 3 of Beethoven for a tour in Korea, then of Concerto noh 2 by Rachmaninoff with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
On April 23, the musician will also perform solo at the Desjardins Cultural Center in Joliette in a Chopin-Liszt program. THE Reminiscences of Don Juan of the second will form a natural couple with the Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” the first, a rarely performed early work that Liu had included in his competition program in Warsaw.
Works he will perform during a North American tour that will end at the legendary Carnegie Hall on May 19. “I think it’s a good place to start!” “says Bruce Liu, who will be making his debut in New York.
Other concerts and news
Mozart and Beethoven under the brush of Modigliani
PHOTO JÉRÔME BONNET, PROVIDED BY THE QUARTET
Modigliani Quartet
Like the painter who inspired its name, the Modigliani Quartet is distinguished by its elegance and the richness of its color palette. Being part of the “big leagues” according to The worldthe four Frenchmen will be back at Bourgie Hall on April 12 (7:30 p.m.) for an ideal program involving the young Mozart (Quartet noh 7) to the last Beethoven (Quartet noh 13), with the Canadian creation of a work by the sulphurous Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Bach in his finery
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
James Ehnes on violin accompanied by Charles Richard-Hamelin (right)
Canadian violin lord James Ehnes is back in Quebec this month. First tonight (8 p.m.) and tomorrow (10:30 a.m.) at the Orchester symphonique de Québec in the Concerto d’Elgar, but also solo at the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club on April 16 (3:30 p.m.) at Pollack Hall. On the menu: excerpts from Sonatas and Partitas by Bach, a massive violin that he has recorded not once but twice (first with Analekta, then two years ago with Onyx).
A trio of stars at Bourgie and the Club musical de Québec
PHOTO PROVIDED BY BOURGIE HALL
The Cassard-Grimal-Gastinel trio
On April 20 (7:30 p.m.) at Bourgie Hall, we will be treated to the very best of chamber music with the arrival of pianist Philippe Cassard, violinist David Grimal and cellist Anne Gastinel, three of the most distinguished representatives of their instrument in France. They will compete against the famous Threesomeoh 2 of Schubert, but also, in the company of their violist colleague Juan-Miguel Hernandez, to the ineffable Quartet for piano and strings noh 1 by Faure. We find them three days later (3 p.m.) at the Club musical de Québec in a completely different program (Beethoven, Brahms and Ravel).
The cream of young violinists in Montreal
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The final of the Concours musical international de Montréal will take place on May 3 and 4 at the Maison symphonique.
Who will be the next James Ehnes or the new David Grimal? To find out, you will have to follow the Montreal International Music Competition, whose 2023 edition is dedicated to the violin. The first two events, which will give the opportunity to hear 24 competitors from 11 countries, including 2 Canadians, will take place from April 25 to 30 at Bourgie Hall. The final, which will take place on May 3 and 4 at the Maison symphonique, will feature the six finalists accompanied by the Orchester symphonique de Montréal and its conductor Rafael Payare.