Pianist Jan Lisiecki with the Annex Quartet and Roberto Occhipinti on bass. St. Andrew’s Church, Stratford Summer Music Festival, Aug. 27
[Originally published in the Toronto Star]
STRATFORD — Over the past five years, Calgary-born pianist Jan Lisiecki has been doing remarkably well for himself. He has enjoyed a recording contract from Deutsche Grammophon, a deal with IMG Artists, and won Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year Award — all while barely out of high school.
Throughout the rise, Lisiecki has remained true to Stratford and returned every year since 2010. Glenn Gould, to whom Lisiecki has been compared, also shared a fondness for Stratford, making the annual summer trip for almost 10 years before retiring from the stage in 1964.
For Gould, and now Lisiecki, Stratford provides a haven from the pressures of big-name concert halls, imposing orchestras and star conductors. It is also a unique place to try out new repertoire and receive a home-cooked meal from a small town with a special charm.
Marking the first of three concerts covering all five Beethoven concerti at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Lisiecki joined Toronto’s Annex Quartet with Roberto Occhipinti (bass) to perform the first two of Beethoven’s five concerti. Between them, it was a mixed showing.
One of the foremost elements of Lisiecki is a positive optimism that radiates from the wingspan of his hands. It works well for things like Chopin’s lighter Études, but it can come across like a clean kitchen before the soup is made. Beethoven was a gloomy profound soul and his music requires a touch of hard knocks to translate well. While Lisiecki is a technically impeccable performer, his juvenescence made it seem like he was floating above it all.
The arrangement of the concerti into string quintets is another issue as it stacks the deck for the pianist and throws off the power dynamic. If you can look past that though, it offered a curious inversion with the quintet struggling to keep up with the piano for a change.
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Opus 37 faired better than the first. The quintet pulled more nuanced threads from the fabric and, at the end of phrases, fermatas and trills were milked for every drop. However, for the internal phrasing, especially the largo, they could have done with more space between the notes.
There is no doubt Lisiecki plays beautifully, but Beethoven is not the topic of light conversation. At 20 years old, one wonders if Lisiecki is ready to provide a convincing voice for Beethoven’s five concerti as he has done with Mozart. Let’s hope the remaining two concerts prove otherwise.
The Classical Piano Series with Jan Lisiecki runs through Saturday. See stratfordsummermusic.ca for tickets and info.
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