Schumann Jan Lisiecki

• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856): Piano Concerto In A Minor, Op.54:
• 1 1. Allegro affettuoso 14:18
• 2 2. Intermezzo (Andantino grazioso) 05:23
• 3 3. Allegro vivace 10:12
• Introduction And Allegro Appassionato, Op.92:
• 4 Introduction 03:04
• 5 Allegro Appassionato 11:34
• Op.134:
• 6 Introduction And Concert-Allegro 12:38
• Kinderszenen, Op.15:
• 7 7. Träumerei 02:19
• 8 No. 2 In F Sharp (Einfach) 03:41
• Total Runtime 01:03:09

Info for Schumann

Jan Lisiecki turns to the music of Robert Schumann for his third release from Deutsche Grammophon / Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company. The 20-year-old Canadian pianist presents strikingly mature and imaginative interpretations of the composer’s complete concertante works for piano and orchestra. Jan Lisiecki: Schumann – Works for Piano and Orchestra, set for international release on 08 January 2016, opens with the evergreen Piano Concerto in A minor op. 54. It also contains the Introduction and Allegro appassionato op. 92, Träumerei op. 15 no. 7 and the rarely heard Introduction and Allegro op. 134, the latter entering the DG catalogue for the first time in the yellow label’s 117-year history. Lisiecki is partnered by the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Sir Antonio Pappano, with whom he made his debut at the 2013 BBC Proms in Schumann’s Piano Concerto. “This proved to be a performance of extraordinary accomplishment,” noted the Guardian at the time.

Jan Lisiecki’s personal vision of Schumann’s poetic works has evolved over several years, backed by meticulous preparation and deep immersion in the music. His approach to the Piano Concerto and the other concertante works has also gained from Antonio Pappano’s guidance and encouragement. The album reflects the rapport shared by soloist, orchestra and conductor. Recorded in September 2015 under studio conditions in Rome, it renewed a musical relationship forged three years earlier when Lisiecki, then aged 17, performed Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Pappano and his Santa Cecilia forces during a five-concert European tour in which he alternated as soloist with Martha Argerich.

“These pieces demand an incredibly close collaboration in order to accomplish what Schumann desired,” comments Lisiecki. “I believe the sound of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra matches mine in the best possible way.” The Piano Concerto and other concertante works, he adds, are concerned above all with subtle shades of expression and intimate dialogue between soloist and orchestra. “Of course the Piano Concerto is virtuosic. But it’s virtuosic in a way that’s in the background, and that’s what speaks to me.”

Antonio Pappano, himself an accomplished pianist and tireless supporter of young musicians, recalls his first experience of hearing Lisiecki’s pianism. “I’ll admit that I was overwhelmed with envy when I first heard Jan play. What is so refreshing is that there are no fake layers of age added on – just youth,” he notes. “We’ve now worked together many times and this Schumann project provided a perfect opportunity to work on two pieces that are so rarely heard in concert, as well as to revisit a concerto that is a shared favourite.”

Jan Lisiecki’s previous releases as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, comprising piano concertos by Mozart and Chopin’s Études opp. 10 & 25, have attracted critical acclaim and strong international sales. In 2013 he received the Leonard Bernstein Award at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and was also named as Gramophone’s “Young Artist of the Year”.

“… music-making of integrity and substance from a man who represents the top-drawer future of classical music performance” (Independent)

Jan Lisiecki, piano
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Antonio Pappano, conductor

Jan Lisiecki
The Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki was born in Calgary to Polish parents in 1995. After gradu-ating from high school there in January 2011, he attended the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto. Now recognized around the world for his poetic and mature playing, Jan has received several awards, among others as a 2010 Révélation Radio-Canada Musique and a 2011 Jeune Soliste des Radios Francophones. In 2010, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute released his live recordings of both Chopin concertos with Sinfonia Varsovia and Howard Shelley. This album was awarded the Diapason découverte. Diapason described him as “an unmannered virtuoso” and singled out for praise his “irresistibly natural playing”.

Jan has shared the stage with such renowned artists as Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma and Pinchas Zukerman and substituted for Nelson Freire in four concerts in France. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York, opened the Seoul International Music Festival in Korea and performed for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and an audience of 100,000 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Also a dedicated performer of chamber music, Jan has collaborated with the New Zealand String Quartet, Quatuor Ébène and the Penderecki String Quartet, appearing at festivals including Ravinia, Verbier, Montpellier, La Roque d’Anthéron, Warsaw (“Chopin and His Europe”), Bologna, Auvers-sur-Oise, Menton, Merano, Seoul and many others in Canada and the USA. Among the highlights of Jan Lisiecki’s 2011/12 season were the opening concert of the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi at Salle Pleyel and concerts in Montreal with the Orchestre Métropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, debuts with the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, as well as a European recital tour. On his Japan tour in the autumn, he appeared in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Later in 2012 he made his debuts with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra under Antonio Pappano and with the New York Philharmonic under Daniel Harding.

In March 2013, Lisiecki substituted at short notice for Martha Argerich in a Bologna concert under Claudio Abbado. Further engagements in 2013/14 include a Japan tour with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Nézet-Séguin, Mozart concertos with Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center, a German tour with the Prague Philharmonia and Jakob Hrusa and concerts with Hrusa and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, concerts with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreál under Kazushi Ono and with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra under Krysztof Urbański, a European recital tour including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Rome’s Accademia di Santa Cecilia and the Berlin Philharmonie, as well as other European and North American recital and orchestral engagements and festival appearances including Verbier, Vail, Schleswig-Holstein and Warsaw (Chopin).

Lisiecki’s performances have been broadcast on Bavarian Radio, BBC Radio, CBC Canada, Austrian Radio, Radio France and Radio Luxembourg, as well as on television on France 3 and TV 1 and 2 in Poland. He was featured in the CBC Next! series as one of Canada’s most promising young artists and in The Reluctant Prodigy, Joe Schlesinger’s 2009 CBC National News documentary about him.

Jan Lisiecki performs frequently for various charity organizations, including the David Foster Foundation, the Polish Humanitarian Organization and the Wish Upon a Star Foundation. In June 2008 he was appointed a National Youth Representative by UNICEF Canada.

In 2011 Jan Lisiecki signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His first recording under this agreement, released in April 2012, features Mozart’s Piano Concertos K.466 and 467 with Christian Zacharias conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. A CD containing his performances of the complete Chopin Etudes Opp. 10 and 25, will be issued in April 2013.

Booklet for Schumann