A Letter from Jan Lisiecki

Photo credit: Andras Schram

I have performed a lot: in many different countries, concerts halls, and of course very different audiences, with different conductors and orchestras. I suppose one can say that I have some experience in what makes a concert memorable.


On July 29th, 2010 I performed with Maestro Brott and the National Academy Orchestra in Hamilton.

The concert hall was packed. What a privilege to have people take interest, to come, to spend time with us: the maestros, the orchestra, and me. It was a fantastic audience, very supportive and they were listening beautifully. This kind of public makes the concert special and it is, for sure, one of the most important factors of a good concert. I can't imagine a better silence during the concert and a more enthusiastic applause afterwards. I couldn't be more thankful for both.

Of course, the second factor of any orchestral concert is the conductor. I have the privilege to know maestro Brott for five years now. He is my mentor, my friend, and I look up to him. Performing with him is always an adventure (in a good way!) and so much fun for me. We are simply making music together, that night we enjoyed Chopin's concerto together loving every second of this composition. It was great to also work with the new generation of conductors: Genevieve Leclair and Samuel Tam, who did a wonderful job in leading the orchestra.

The third element is the orchestra. I have worked with some famous orchestras, I have worked with some great ones. I love the National Academy Orchestra. Why? When performing with the NAO I work with wonderful, fun, young people, who love music, and that have decided that music will be their professional life. They have the energy, happiness, and commitment to make the performance of all compositions, usually new to them, the best they can possibly be at the concert. It is amazing for me that they just met as a group for a number of weeks, and they can play so wonderfully, again I was filled with gratitude to all of them.

The concert is now a history, a memory. I will always remember how great the public, the maestros and the National Academy Orchestra all were that night. From the bottom of my heart - thank you all for making this concert so memorable.

--Jan

Jan performs with visiting concertmaster Robert Uchida and the National Academy Orchestra July 29, 2010

 

Jan took some time to meet with and sign autographs for many of his fans at a post-concert reception hosted by

the Polish-Canadian Women's Federation, Hamilton branch

Lisiecki leaves audience breathless

15 year old pianist enthralls at sold out Brott concert

By Hugh Fraser

HAMILTON - If words were adequate to express all that's in the human heart and soul, we wouldn't need music.

That we need music and should, in a worthy and intelligent life, use far fewer words and a great deal more music, was a wisdom brought home with stunning effect by pianist Jan Lisiecki in Mohawk College's auditorium, last night, in a concert with Boris Brott and the National Academy Orchestra.

Lisiecki played a killer program.

To mark the 200th anniversary of Frederic Chopin's birth he played Rondo a la Krakowiak - full of Polish dances and songs - and Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise Brilliante and that was just in the first half.

The second half was Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1, a piece that normally would have been considered a night's work by any and all of the great pianists of this age and any other.

At the end of it and after a thunderous standing ovation, throughout which some brayed thoughtlessly for an encore, in a hall that was literally packed to the rafters, Lisiecki thanked us for coming and allowed he was really pleased to have been able to play so much piano for us in one night. He failed to add without being carried out on life support by EMS.

Jan Lisiecki takes the stage for a performance of Chopin's First Piano Concerto

I've been trying to think of a word that would sum up Lisiecki's performance and have settled on consummate - meaning complete, perfect.

It was complete in the sense that every touch of a piano key seemed totally intentional - by that I mean that every subtle increase in tempo or volume, every shaded color and inflection was exactly what Lisiecki meant to do. It was perfect, in that as an enthralled listener, it was easy to imagine that we were hearing a person achieving his dream of how the music should sound.

Have I mentioned yet that Lisiecki is just 15 years old?

No. Well, I really don't think it has anything to do with the music. It adds a sensational oooh! of course and Brott opined that in his opinion Lisiecki was "Canada's next Glenn Gould."

I wish with all my heart he doesn't follow Gould's path and absent himself from live performance for remote, technologically achieved moon-landings of music from some hidden and lonely lair.

However long I babble on I can only faintly convey what happened at this concert. But those who were there, live, barely breathing and totally in tune with this superb musician had a connection and an experience few will forget. Lisiecki was, let me add, surrounded by the young and also superb musicians of the National Academy Orchestra.

Jan and his mother Anita at a post-concert reception hosted

by the Polish Canadian Women's Federation, Hamilton Branch

Boris Brott conducted the orchestra for the Concerto and his always superb accompanying reached a zenith of sorts allied as it was by the orchestra's ability to listen so carefully and musically. The piano's first entry in the Romance, the second movement, was actually a true pianissimo and as clear and as clean and as sweet and true as could be imagined. All the while sitting luxuriously on a soft velvet cushion of full string tone. A thing rarer than blue diamonds.

Genevieve Leclair conducted the Rondo, in which Lisiecki's tempi overtook a woodwind or two, with aplomb and understanding. Samuel Tak- Ho Tam had a far more trying job in the Grande Polonaise.
The orchestra is so much on the periphery in this piece it is often played without the benefit, if benefit it is, of orchestra at all.

And it is very hard to come off the bench and hit full stride at once, which made the first pizzicato end of the orchestra's first tutti a little dazed but all was well managed after that.

Brott, as is right, reserved for himself the conducting of his father's piece, Oracle, which opened the program. Composed in 1939 it is a foreboding shudder of musical agony at the declaration of World War II. Amongst the fright, panicked scurrying and brassy alarms there is a touching but monumental resolve. I don't mean monumental as anything big but immovable. A lone, terrified soul facing with valour what no one knew at the time would become perhaps the deepest abyss the human race has ever plunged itself into.

Lest I forget. From the Brott to the Concerto the playing of bassoonist Spencer de Man - not mentioned in the program and if I'm wrong I apologize - was just ravishing. In tone and sophistication of phrase it was one more thing that was consummate in a glorious evening of music.

Oh yes. Did we get an encore? We did. A ravishing Nocturne that effectively pulled the blanket over the canary's cage and sent us all off to bed. It was a real privilege to hear the music, but next time just yell "Bravo," OK? Lisiecki had worked his fingers to the bone already.

--July 29, 2010

Toronto Star: 15-year-old Canadian piano sensation Jan Lisiecki coming to concert venues near Toronto

07/28/2010

By John Terauds

Toronto Star

Teenage Calgary pianist Jan Lisiecki is the classical world's equivalent of Justin Bieber (ardent fans gushing over an angelic face framed by those currently fashionable sideways licks of hair), except that Jan really has musical talent.
Coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédérick Chopin, the only child of a Calgary Polish-immigrant couple has been charming the world with his interpretations of that Romantic composer's music.
All year, Jan has been performing the two piano concertos, as well as a selection of solo pieces. In May, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Poland released a disc of Jan playing the two concertos with Sinfonia Varsovia and conductor Howard Shelley. (For CD info, click here.)
The disc really is beautiful. Jan's playing -- recorded in 2008 and 2009 -- is technically flawless and the music is shaped elegantly.
Jan also has his own YouTube channel. The Chopin and Liszt pieces here are much less convincing.
Given how many times Jan has played his Chopin repertoire in the last six months alone, I'm willing to bet that what an audience may hear tomorrow could be very different from what he has recorded in the past.
Fresh from concerts at the Festival of the Sound, Jan is heading Hamilton-ward today for an all-Chopin concert tomorrow night at Mohawk College for the Brott Summer Festival.
On Aug. 12, 13 & 14, Jan returns to Ontario to perform three separate programmes of Chopin with the Tokai String Quartet at Stratford Summer Music.
If you want to immerse yourself in the world of Jan Lisiecki, you can visit his website.
+++
Someone like Jan presents a challenge for me. As a rule, I don't review students. Jan is 15, but he's released his first disc and has the travel calendar of a professional.
I have a philosophical opposition to encouraging child prodigies, thinking they should go through as normal a childhood development process as possible. However, I also realise that a huge proportion of the world's great musical artists set foot on the stage well before adulthood, and needed that early encouragement and acclaim to bring them to wide attention.
I can only hope that Jan will find his happy balance between music and the rest of life, and continue to treat an eager public with what, at this point, looks like a keen, unaffected artistry.

More Proms PIcs - July 14, 2010

Our brass takes a bow

Go England!

Liz (oboe) -- truly dedicated to the team!

The fabulous Maestro Brian Jackson

Mrs. Marc Gibbon, oboe & Spencer deMan, bassoon ready for the fun second half of the concert

Brian Jackson chats up the audience

Hat's the spirit, Daniel!

Rule Britannia!

Jean-Norman practices his swing during the clarinet solo

Summer Proms: In Pictures

Wed. July 14, 2010

Marc Gibbons, oboe and fashionista

Alejandro Céspedes, percussion

Pines & Planets: More pics

Artists Jamie Lawson (Mars) and Jacqui Oakley (Uranus)

Composer Maxime Goulet with the Maestro

Genevieve with Maxime in the background.

Ontario Arts Review: “Pines & Planets” a successful NAO A/V offering

July 12th ‘10

L-R. Concertmaster Joseph Lanza, composer Maxime Goulet

RBC Apprentice Conductor Genevieve Leclair and Boris Brott

“The term audio-visual (AV) may refer to works with both a sound and a visual component, the production or use of such works, or the equipment involved in presenting such works. Films and television programs are examples of audio-visual presentations. Occasionally, the format has been used effectively within the creative arts”. *Wikipedia.

Last season; the Brott Summer Festival presented a highly successful rendering of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’; using interpretive renditions by local artists. This year; Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” and Holst’s “The Planets”. In spite of the mercury [sic] climbing well into the 30’s, this was another blockbuster event. James Street’s Christ Church Cathedral was also the focal point of our Community’s Spanish celebrants, so counterpoint was off-key and unsynchronized. But it did add to the celebratory evening. Overhead projection - Eric Brittan's "The Catacombs"

Opening with a modern composition commissioned by conductor Genevieve Leclair, “Parade of the Puppets” by Maxime Goulet interprets five marionettes, and is so defining as to render the projected titles superfluous. Leclair’s baton emphasized all the musical details and specifics of the dolls, just as the projected portraits achieved. Then:- Brott and the Pines. As a Rome enthusiast, the imagery of those stately trees and the cypresses are intrinsic to every mental & photographic impression I possess. The Borghese and its winding road are replete with uncountable numbers of both; Respighi captured the feeling imparted by those ancient trees, Brott encapsulated both mood and sentiment. Ancient law forbade burials near the Appia or any other of those ‘All roads that lead etc.; hence the catacombs. The music portrays the sombreness of an internment; plus captures the atmosphere one experiences while visiting the tunnels. Every visitor to the area will ultimately be taken to the top of Giancolo, the 8th of the famous Seven Hills. Respighi called it by its Latin name – Janiculum (after Janus) and the segment is both evocative and melodic.

Then:- the Appian Way movement. Tangentially, I fail to appreciate the representation by Kawong Chung. Dark, foreboding and with depictions of the horse’s head from Godfather One; there was what appears to be a Hannibal Lecterish neck nibble. 2300 years old and created during the Samnite Wars, this ancient highway is beautiful with gentle curves; mosaic cobblestones, and of course the verdant vegetation that curb every mile it’s been my thrill to traverse. At least, the N.A.O.’s version of this movement was uplifting and joyful.

Holst’s PLANETS must be an interpretation of their astrological position because ‘MV[e] MJSUN’ is definitely out of whack. Even the musical durational periods are off kilter…Mars is way longer than Jupiter’s movement, but it's even smaller than Earth and Jupiter is 1300 times bigger than our planet!. See, I know my astronomy! The work is a masterpiece and the NAO treatment was about 50 minutes of pure excellence. Not a booboo; no rushing, and those dramatic pauses intrinsic to G.H.’s portrayals. The projected artistic creations were imaginative and showing enlargements of the details were an enhancement. Jacqui Oakley’s cubist impression of Uranus and Cora Brittan’s ‘Venus’ deserve ending up on a deserving & appreciative wall.

Comments; email me at dgaisin@ontarioartsreview.caThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Brott Festival's Planets & Pines Project: The Art

Holst's The Planets "Mars the Bringer of War " by Jamie Lawson

Holst's The Planets "Venus the Bringer of Peace" by Cora Brittan

Holst's The Planets "Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity" by Maria Lezon

Holst's The Planets "Saturn the Bringer of Old Age" by Ruth Marshall

Holst The Planets "Uranus the Magician" by Jacqui Oakley

 

Holst's The Planets "Neptune the Mystic" by R. Ward Shipman

Pines of Rome "Villa Borghese" by Anna Constance Lipowski

Pines of Rome "Catacomb" by Eric Brittan

Pines of Rome "Janiculum" by Grace Loney

Pines of Rome "Appian Way" Kawong Chung-Shipman

Visual Art and Vuvuzuelas: The Planets According to Brott

Concert on James St. North opens the doors to downtown community’s artistic renaissance

By Hugh Fraser

Cora Brittan's High In the Heavens

Inspired by Holst's The Planets "Venus"

HAMILTON - As I mounted the steps of Christ's Church Cathedral, Sunday night, to attend the Boris Brott Summer Music Festival concert there, I wondered how many pieces of music I had witnessed, over my many years, that had come to this place to die.

I have never heard an orchestra sound well in this space. Not even one as brilliant as this National Academy Orchestra. The acoustic is loud, even raucous, when it is not simply crude and harsh. The enormous effort to achieve any nuance or subtlety seems wasted as the effect will soon be swamped by the inevitable uproar to follow. A miniature baroque band to accompany Messiah is the best one can hope for here.

Hopes of great performances of Respighi's Pines of Rome and Holst's The Planets, even when not accompanied by jubilant Spanish vuvuzuelas and horn honkings out on James St., seemed a bit forlorn. However the point of the exercise was not to slam the door shut on James Street but to open the doors and welcome in what has become an artistic renaissance in this downtown community.

To do this, Brott had invited local artists to create pictures inspired by these two great works - pieces that already are so visual they form a thesaurus that composers of film music have used since the works first saw the lights of the concert hall.

These art works were then photographed, turned into slides and screened above the orchestra as Brott conducted the music beneath them. And in this we can report a real artistic triumph.

This job was done by Brott staffers -- Diane Clark who photographed most of the works and Mary Pat Elliott, who edited the slide show to roam the pictures picking out details and fascinations she found within them that so aptly fit the music as to enormously enhance both arts at once. Alongside her was Genevieve Leclair to facilitate the musical and thematic transition of the slides.

The originals were displayed at knee height around the south west corner of the nave and the contrast was striking. Elliott elided the childishness of Anna Constance Lipowski's Villa Borghese -- by highlighting foliage and other details that gave it a gravitas and presence it might have otherwise lacked.

Jamie Lawson's Mars inspired by the movement in Holst's The Planets

Works that Clark and Elliott so effectively enhanced for the Holst were Ruth Marshall's glass mask (Saturn) that shimmered with iridescent layers of light and lovingly lingered over its coils. Also lightened and exploded with vivid life was the geometric wonders of Uranus the Magician and the wonderful subtleties of Ward Shipman's Neptune where backgrounds were wallowed in to reveal enthralling patterns, textures and colours.

Ruth Marshall's Saturn 

The artists had mostly gone for the astronomical rather than the astrological and the spheres dominated the gods in the artists visions, though Cora Brittan's Venus the Bringer of Peace gave Earth its first ever appearance in Holst's Planets. May that be prophetic, please.

Parade of the Puppets by Maxime Goulet and conducted by apprentice maestro Genevieve Leclair came with its own child-like paintings of puppets that were screened. The lovely second movement, Wang-Fo, was a nice relief from the jagged, discordant syncopations that just don't come off well in this space.

Ryan Trew's Starlike, commissioned by the Vancouver Symphony for the recent Winter Olympics in that city and conducted by apprentice maestro Samuel Tak-Ho Tam was very pretty; all tinkly bells, glistening arpeggios and scales nestled into thick, comfy chords. It was rarely strenuous and climaxed by merely increasing volume.

The heat was oppressive and the ministering angel who handed out the bottled water at half-time should get a humanitarian award.

Glorious Gershwin with Lindsay Deutsch: In Pictures

Talisa Blackman, piano

Brass section warms up

Coming in from the sudden rainstorm

This is Breanne and Kilmeny, violinist Jared Mosher's wife and daughter

The lovely Lindsay Deutsch signs CDs at intermission

Ardyth Brott signs copies of her children's book Jeremy's Decision

Guillaume!

Our fabulous celli

A happy crowd at the McIntyre Theatre