Bruce Liu’s fate was forever changed in Warsaw on the night of October 20-21, 2021, when he became the winner of the 18th 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 phone 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 is 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 perform Chopin’s Concerto No. 1 with the local Philharmonic Orchestra, a work he says he has played no less than 40 times since 2021. Slightly more than Concerto No. 2, which had allowed him to distinguish himself in the final of the Chopin Competition.
“Technically, the Prime 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 gives a better impression 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.
“At the competition, even until the last minute before I put 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.
It’s Concerto No. 2 that Montrealers will be able to hear in two weeks, in addition to Symphony No. 6 by Sibelius and The Light of the End by Sofia Goubaïdoulina, conducted by Finland’s Dalia Stasevska, at the head of the Orchestra. Lahti Symphony.
Bruce Liu is delighted to play for the first time with a woman on the podium: “In a sense, Chopin’s music is very feminine, sensual, sensitive, so I can’t wait to discover it from another perspective with a female conductor. »
Later in the summer, it will be the turn of Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3 for a tour in Korea, then Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 2 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 from the second will form a natural couple with the Variations on “Là ci darem la mano” from 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 that’s a good place to start!” “says Bruce Liu, which will be the debut in New York.
Like the painter who inspired its name, the Modigliani Quartet is distinguished by its elegance and the richness of its color palette. Part of the “big leagues” according to Le Monde, the four Frenchmen will be back at Bourgie Hall on April 12 (7:30 p.m.) for an ideal program associating the young Mozart (Quatuor no 7) with the latest Beethoven (Quatuor no 13), with the Canadian creation of a work by the sulphurous Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Canadian violin lord James Ehnes is back in Quebec this month. First tonight (8 p.m.) and tomorrow (10:30 a.m.) with the Orchester symphonique de Québec in Elgar’s Concerto, but also solo at the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club on April 16 (3:30 p.m.) at the Pollak room. On the menu: excerpts from Sonatas and Partitas by Bach, a massive violin that he recorded not once but twice (first with Analekta, then two years ago with Onyx).
On April 20 (7:30 p.m.) at Bourgie Hall, we will be treated to the fine flower of chamber music with the appearance 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 Trio no 2 by Schubert, but also, in the company of their violist colleague Juan-Miguel Hernandez, against the ineffable Quartet for piano and strings no 1 by Fauré. We find them three days later (3 p.m.) at the Club musical de Québec in a completely different program (Beethoven, Brahms and Ravel).
Who will be the next James Ehnes or the new David Grimal? To find out, you will have to follow the Concours musical international de Montréal, 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.