Deutsche Grammophon released Jan Lisiecki's new album today, his fourth on the revered record label.
On Chopin: Works for Piano & Orchestra, the 21-year-old Canadian pianist plays lesser-known works by the composer whose Etudes Lisiecki committed so convincingly to disc back in 2013.
Compared to Chopin's two famous piano concertos, the four works for piano and orchestra presented here are obscure and have not been widely recorded: Rondo à la Krakowiak, Op. 14, Variations on 'La ci darem la mano,' Op. 2, Fantasy on Polish Airs, Op. 13, and Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise Brillante, Op. 22.
"I think it's wonderful that we're able to introduce them to the Deutsche Grammophon catalogue," says Lisiecki in the album's promotional video, "as well as explore them for ourselves."
Joining Lisiecki is Hamburg, Germany's NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Urbanski, who, in the following interview, says he admires the young pianist for never detracting from the compositions' architecture by the virtuosity of his playing.
Chopin: Works for Piano & Orchestra is available on iTunes.
Lisiecki joins the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin later this month for Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 on a German tour. Fans in Ottawa will be able to hear him play the same work with the NAC Orchestra under Alexander Shelley on April 12 and 13.
Enjoy the following promotional video, shot in Hamburg.
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