Jan Lisiecki, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Christian Zacharias – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos.20 & 21 (2012) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Jan Lisiecki, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Christian Zacharias – Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos.20 & 21 (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:32 minutes | 887 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Jan Lisiecki, the Canadian prodigy, makes his Deutsche Grammophon debut with a masterful interpretation of Mozart Concertos. Lisiecki performs with technical assurance in this collaboration with Christian Zacharias, who leads the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Mozart’s Piano Concertos nos. 20 & 21 are technically challenging pieces and are well-respected in the classical repertoire. Lisiecki displays unworldly virtuosity, far beyond his years. The performances are glowing and compelling. Absolutely essential.

If Mozart was a child prodigy, the Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki, who here performs both works with assurance and skill, appears something of an equivalent…he is one to watch. – Scotsman

The Deutsche Grammophon label has offered a series of teenage prodigies, not all of whom have lived up to their billing. This release by Polish-born Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki, just 17 and looking not entirely unlike Justin Bieber, may make a bigger splash than most. You might guess from the sheer daring of the interpretations, especially that of the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, that you were dealing with extreme youth here, but no insufficiency of technique or tone gives it away. The Piano Concerto No. 20 is really impressive. Lisiecki and conductor Christian Zacharias, leading the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, set out to create a real old-school recording of this most stormy of Mozart’s concertos, and they succeed in forging something that’s quite detailed and coherently worked out. It might also be called over the top, but that’s something to be decided by the individual listener Lisiecki deploys a big sound, and he and Zacharias add on tempo variations, ornaments, and sudden dramatic gestures, topping the whole thing off with Beethoven’s underutilized cadenza for the first movement. It’s sort of as if one of the big Russian-schooled pianists of the middle part of the last century had decided to record the work with Leopold Stokowski as conductor, and Zacharias’ contribution is key: he ruffles the orchestra’s strings into spiky little attacks. In the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, they are not quite as distinctive, but the breadth and control of Lisiecki’s playing is nevertheless impressive, and in a world in which young students are disinclined to take chances he deserves all kinds of credit.

Tracklist:

01. Jan Lisiecki, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Christian Zacharias – Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K.466 – 1. Allegro (14:34)
02. Jan Lisiecki, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Christian Zacharias – Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K.466 – 2. Romance (08:31)
03. Jan Lisiecki, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Christian Zacharias – Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K.466 – 3. Rondo (Allegro assai) (08:18)
04. Jan Lisiecki, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Christian Zacharias – Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K.467 – 1. Allegro maestoso (14:34)
05. Jan Lisiecki, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Christian Zacharias – Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K.467 – 2. Andante (06:12)
06. Jan Lisiecki, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks & Christian Zacharias – Piano Concerto No.21 in C, K.467 – 3. Allegro vivace assai (07:21)

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