Jan Lisiecki’s immersion in the piano concertos of Ludwig van Beethoven began right at the deep end. Rather than offer his interpretation of just one work, his very first recording of music by the German composer (which appeared in 2019) encompassed nothing less than a complete concerto cycle.
The Canadian pianist brings his distinctive approach to Beethoven’s concertos to Toronto Symphony Orchestra audiences in February, performing as the soloist whilst simultaneously leading all five works from the keyboard in a two-concert marathon, from 5th to 6th February.
Released by Deutsche Grammophon – with which Lisiecki signed an exclusive contract at age 15 – the three-CD Beethoven concerto recording captures his live performances and rehearsals of these works with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the Konzerthaus in Berlin in December 2018. “A sparkling performance that seems refreshingly spontaneous – yet is intellectually perfectly formed,” wrote Der Tagesspiel.
Lisiecki, who was born in Calgary in 1995, has started off the new year with an intense focus on Beethoven. His January calendar is booked with 19 concerts devoted to the concertos, which he is playing on a tour across Germany with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. As on his recording, Lisiecki is leading the ensemble from the keyboard. Following his TSO concerts in early February, he returns to perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1 on a programme led by Music Director Gustavo Gimeno (pairing Chopin with Bruckner’s rarely encountered First Symphony).
“I’m so glad to be bringing this project to Toronto,” Lisiecki tells me in a video call, at the end of a long European tour he has just completed with the violinist Julia Fischer. In spite of his relentless performance schedule – typically exceeding 100 concerts per year – Lisiecki seems incapable of allowing his energy to flag, and lights up with palpable enthusiasm when the topic turns to the upcoming Beethoven project. He speaks glowingly of his longstanding relationship with the TSO “through so many stages of my life.”
Lisiecki made his debut with the TSO in 2012 performing Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto – while still in his teens, billed as “a rising star”. Since then he has returned to collaborate with the orchestra frequently. The pianist recalls with particular fondness several events led by former Music Director (now emeritus) Peter Oundjian, including winter tours to Florida and a high-profile European tour, as well as a special programme honouring the 85th anniversary of Glenn Gould in 2017, for which he played Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 1.
As a Spotlight Artist with the TSO this year, Lisiecki launched the season performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto together with concertmaster Jonathan Crow and principal cellist Joseph Johnson. He points to the Beethoven concerto marathon as an undertaking that especially thrills him.
“The TSO is a phenomenal orchestra, but this will be a very different project for them, since it is a symphony orchestra that usually plays with conductors on the podium.” By contrast, when Lisiecki leads these works from the keyboard, it has almost invariably been with chamber ensembles for which this sort of exchange is normal practice, such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields or the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (“a wonderful experience”).
This won’t quite be Lisiecki’s first time leading a modern symphony orchestra in Beethoven’s concerti. In 2022, he joined with the orchestra of the Macerata Opera Festival to play the cycle at the Arena Sferisterio. “That was also a traditional orchestra, in the sense that the musicians are used to looking at the conductor to see everything. So we all adjusted, and the performances were great.”
Leading a full symphony orchestra “is also a different preparation for me,” he adds. “Playing with a group like the Academy is straightforward. I know exactly how to approach it, how to get into it, and how to work with them. There will be a very different format with the TSO. That’s not a negative in any sense – just a different challenge. I’m greatly looking forward to it.”
The TSO concerts will involve a reduced orchestra – “not small by any means, but it’s not going to be a symphony size orchestra,” Lisiecki explains. “So from that perspective, the actual number of musicians onstage and the sound structure won’t be very different from playing with Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields. I can’t predict what the differences will be, but the TSO has very high-quality musicians and knows me quite well, so I believe that we will be able to bring these concerti to life in the best possible way.”
What makes the added challenge of leading the players so worthwhile for Lisiecki? “When there’s a great conductor with me onstage who is feeding the orchestra with ideas and inspiring them, I’m also interested in their interpretation. And when I’m working directly with an orchestra without a conductor, I have the ultimate responsibility. It’s a very big one, and I treat it very seriously. But I also have freedom in creating what I want. As a result, the performances are fresh and have an energy and immediacy to them. It isn’t something overrehearsed.” The resulting spontaneity “creates an amazing effect when you’re playing.”
In all of these contexts, Lisiecki says he has a consistent aesthetic: “I approach it like chamber music, as teamwork and collaboration and not, as is sometimes the case, as a virtuoso showpiece for me to be on my own and do whatever makes me look and sound good – as if the orchestra just happens to be there. The goal is to collaborate with them. The ultimate enjoyment for me lies in being engaged and inspired by what’s happening – and in learning at the same time. You always learn, at every concert. No matter how many times you’ve played a piece, you find something new.”
Has performing these works as a cycle shaped Lisiecki’s view of Beethoven’s concerto legacy? “Playing these complete cycles has greatly influenced how I now see the individual concerti,” he says. “Overall, when you play all five, you’re inspired by how Beethoven has grown the piano concerto. He took something very traditional and classical and, with his genius, transformed it entirely.”
Lisiecki emphasises how each concerto inhabits a world of its own. “There is no commonality here. Each one of the pieces is different. I’m not talking analytically: of course, you can discuss recurring formal structures – the use of a Rondo in the third movement, for example. But as far as the actual writing, the one thing that links them is the sense of surprise. With each, you witness a snapshot of how Beethoven wrote at that moment. It’s a shame that we don’t have a very late concerto – he started a sixth and never finished it – but we should be happy that we have these five.”
What are some unique features that Lisiecki admires? “The cadenza for the first movement in the First Concerto is magnificent. It’s very long and forward thinking and humorous. The Fourth is a magical piece and has the most emotional intensity. It’s the one where Beethoven really pushed the boundaries, like having the piano simply enter and begin the piece.” Lisiecki pairs the First and Second with the Fourth on the first programme, juxtaposing the Third and Fifth on programme two.
“The Third is a very dark concerto that starts from a place of anger, frustration and determination, in C minor, and ends in C major, the most positive key one can imagine. The Fifth is the opposite – it’s also in the relative major key to C minor, E-flat – and has this amazing confidence. Actually, I used to not be as enthusiastic about the Fifth as I was about the Third and Fourth, precisely because it’s so straightforward and doesn’t have that brooding uncertainty about it.”
“I’m a pianist who likes to go searching for things, to find the answers to the questions that the composer poses. No questions are really asked here. What won me over is simply playing it – and playing it in context after going through all of these emotional states throughout the cycle. When you embrace that, it becomes magical. And I have embraced it, so I love the Fifth now. It’s as if Beethoven is saying: ‘I have a right by birth to write this piece.’”
Jan Lisiecki performs Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on 5th–6th February at Roy Thomson Hall.
This article was sponsored by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
