Germany Varied: Bruce Liu (piano). Efficiency of 28.4.2024 broadcast as stay (directed by Bernhard Fleischer) from Klavier-Pageant Ruhr, Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr, Bochum on Stage+, 6.7.2024. (ES-S)

Haydn – Sonata No.32 in B minor, Hob.XVI:32
Chopin – Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor, Op.35
Kapustin – Variations, Op.41
Beethoven – Sonata No.18 in E-flat main, Op.31/3 ‘The Hunt’
Prokofiev – Sonata No.7 in B-flat main, Op.83

Encores:
Satie – Gnossienne No.3
Chopin – Waltz in D-flat main, Op.64 No.1 ‘Minute Waltz’

Canadian pianist Bruce Liu rose to fame in 2021 when he received first prize on the Worldwide Chopin Competitors. A number of months later, he signed an unique contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Since his victory in Warsaw, he has been acting on phases all over the world, each as a soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist. Regardless of his unqualified successes, Liu modestly declared in a latest interview with Katrin Zagrosek, the director of the Ruhr Piano Pageant, that ‘what occurred in Warsaw takes numerous years to digest’.

This system Liu assembled for his Bochum recital supplied nice perception into his evolving path. It was undoubtedly demanding, that includes 4 compositions in sonata kind that spanned almost two centuries and varied types. Every selection was exceptional by itself. Nonetheless, the pianist didn’t convey the impression that the order of presentation, which was not strictly chronological, held any explicit significance in establishing novel or attention-grabbing connections among the many works.

He started with Haydn’s Sonata No.32 in B minor, deftly illuminating each the Baroque-inspired rhythmic depth and the best way melodical snippets foreshadow a Romantic impulse. The Menuet was elegant and clear, the contrasting Trio emphatic, whereas the Presto finale was a showcase of the pianist’s brilliantly mild contact and technical agility.

Bruce Liu’s strategy to Chopin’s music clearly contributed to his success on the Warsaw competitors. For him, as an alternative of melancholy and spleen, ardour and volatility are the first traits characterizing the compositions of the Polish bard. Decoding the Sonata No.2 in B-flat minor, he turned what Robert Schumann as soon as criticized as lack of cohesion right into a benefit, adopting a unique strategy for every of the components. The expressiveness of the melodic traces within the first motion was by no means overly emphasised, whereas the harmony-altering bass line persistently propelled the music ahead. An usually mysterious-sounding Scherzo embraced a Trio whose theme appeared to be rendered by a cello. The Marche funèbre floated between emotion and detachment. The Finale, carried out flawlessly, was a tad overly luminous, but the pianissimos nonetheless conveyed a way of eeriness.

After Chopin, Liu inserted a caesura into his collection of sonatas, a transfer each peculiar and explainable. It was peculiar as a result of Kapustin’s Variations Op.41 diverges considerably from the sonata types thought of elsewhere within the recital, even these the place the principles of the canon weren’t strictly enforced. It was additionally odd to listen to the jovial jig by some means sneak in below the lingering auditory mantle of Chopin’s Marche funèbre. On the identical time, inserting the piece subsequent to the well-known masterpiece made sense, as Liu is a robust believer within the improvisational character of Chopin’s compositions. Just like jazz, they need to sound fairly completely different every time they’re rendered. An amazing jazz music lover, Liu performed with effervescence all these variations, based mostly on a theme impressed by the opening bassoon motif from Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps. Unencumbered by any technical issues, he explored all of the twists and turns of the rating with childlike amazement, bringing out a free-floating proper hand over the left hand’s ostinato right here, and syncopated rhythmic patterns competing with a quasi-Romantic pathos there.

Beethoven’s Sonata No.18 equally brims with exuberance. Liu successfully captured Beethoven’s apparent but not at all times convincing humor on this transitional sonata. Haydnesque reminiscences had been plentiful. The third motion evoked the picture of a kid immediately turning into severe amidst his toys, and the Presto finale was rambunctious.

Prokofiev’s Sonata No.7, one in every of his so-called ‘Warfare Sonatas’, stands as one of many best piano scores of the 20th century, a mannequin of imbuing conventional types with modernist components. Bruce Liu carried out it with irreproachable virtuosity. Nonetheless, one had the impression of listening to it by way of a veil which didn’t obscure the sounds however fairly the interpreter’s personal ideas vis-à-vis what the music goals to convey and the historic backdrop towards which Prokofiev created it. The sense of terror and nervousness within the first motion, Allegro inquieto, and the sharp, satirical edges of the Precipitato toccata appeared considerably smoothed over. The sentimentality and irony within the Andante caloroso didn’t at all times mix properly, changed as an alternative with a much less outlined center floor. Definitely, Bruce Liu’s interpretation(s) will solely profit from better maturity and extra life expertise.

Liu returned to his beloved Chopin for a fragile encore, the ‘Minute Waltz’, preceded by one other delicate miniature with its personal Chopinesque attraction, Satie’s Gnossienne No.3.

Edward Sava-Segal