Lisiecki's Chopin - The Marvel of Youth

Perhaps a teenager is best placed to perform a teenager's music.  Is that the explanation for something as exciting and satisfying as the recent recording of Chopin's two piano concerti by the teenage Canadian virtoso, Jan Lisiecki?  Having read an ecstatic review of this made-in-concert recording, I had to hear for myself, and found the performances of both concerti immensely satisfying.

Lisiecki, born in Canada in 1995, recorded the F Minor concerto in 2008 (age 13) and the E Minor concerto in 2009 (age 14).  Chopin wrote them in his late teens.  What strikes me about these performances recorded in concert is, first, the maturity of the interpretations.  Tempi are excellently chosen for each movement, and there is a sense of patiently unfolding the long lines in the two middle movements that is remarkable for a pianist so young.  Undoubtedly, having an experienced musician like Howard Shelley leading the excellent chamber orchestra makes a difference, for Shelley has undoubtedly played both concerti many times as a pianist and so knows the works from both the soloist's perspective and the conductor's.  He surely had a say in the tempi.  But, nonetheless, this is playing of solid maturity, and the love for the music comes through.

The concert hall setting (Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall) is slightly more resonant than might be desirable during the orchestral tutti passages, but the miking on the piano is tight enough to avoid problems of smudging during Chopin's patented runs, which are played with clarity and evenness throughout.  Apart from this, I found this recording perfect of its kind, if without the pronounced individuality of Zimerman's famous keyboard-conducted recordings with his hand-picked chamber orchestra.  These performances are more resolutely mainstream, but I expect that Lisiecki, if not a flash in the pan, will record them again some day and bring the insights of an elderly 30 year old or so into the picture.... :))