Jan Lisiecki Recordings

Love listening to Jan in recital and wish you could hear more? Lucky for all of us Jan has quite the discography available for purchase.

For his eighth and latest Deutsche Grammophon album, Canadian pianist extraordinaire Jan Lisiecki has chosen to return to the music of Frédéric Chopin. Following on from Works for Piano & Orchestra (2017) and Chopin: Études (2013), Chopin: Complete Nocturnes features profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano.

Lisiecki is perhaps most celebrated for his masterfully sensitive and refined interpretative approach. His newest release – recorded last October at Berlin’s historic Meistersaal – not only captures the spirit of Chopin’s pianism, but also represents the time and circumstances in which it was made, as the pianist himself explains: “I’m the first to question why we should record something that has been recorded many times before. But music only lives through performance and is different every time we hear it, even when it’s a recording. I think there was something for me to say with this album. It reflects on the last year and my thoughts on that as well as on the escape and understanding that music gives us.”

The album, which was released on 13 August 2021, is available on CD and to download and stream. Listen to Chopin: Complete Nocturnes in the new high-quality spatial listening experience of Dolby Atmos on Apple Music.

You can purchase this album and all of Jan’s recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon website, Amazon music, Presto Music, or Apple Music.

 

 

Frédéric Chopin: Poems of the Night

Chopin’s enchanting Nocturnes and the notoriously difficult Études make up the program of Jan Lisiecki‘s recital, which he titles Poems of the Night. Embodying the spirit of Chopin’s pianism, he offers lucid, profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano.

Frédéric Chopin: Poems of the Night
written by Jan Lisiecki

“Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!” Robert Schumann wrote about his contemporary Frédéric Chopin, and it is indisputable that Chopin was, indeed, a genius. Not only did he compose music that has remained current and captivating to us today, he also created his very own language. So recognizable is his style that it will immediately make one say “this is Chopin!” upon hearing just a short fragment.

Tonight’s pieces, intertwined by way of a key-progression, recall a collection of poems in a book: Each one in a different style, telling a personal, particular story which every listener will interpret differently.
They are a space for introspection and reflection, simultaneously embodying what I cherish most in Chopin’s music: the beautiful melodies, the innovation, and – perhaps most of all – the characteristic simplicity and refined elegance which go so effortlessly hand in hand here.

The mystical Nocturnes hail from the night, a realm of emotion and infinite possibilities. While this particular musical form dates back to the Irish composer John Field, Chopin mastered it to a degree that his name has become inseparably tied to the Nocturne. These pieces were among my first introduction to his music at a young age, and have kept me constant company in the years since.

The precise Études literally translate to “Studies” in French and are considered by some to be among the most technically difficult repertoire. In my eyes, technique ranks secondary to their sheer beauty, and pure musicality: every single note is an essential part of a whole. All has meaning, value, line; not a passage is merely ornamental or auxiliary.

Chopin and the piano are one, and his innate bond with the instrument shows in his use of the full range of its tonal possibilities. Some of the spectacular and famous melodies he is so well-known for form part of this programme, but the less familiar ones just as much demonstrate his outstanding writing.

 

Please refrain from applause in between individual pieces.