Bruce Liu – WAVES: Music by Rameau, Ravel, Alkan (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:16 minutes | 953 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
Chinese-Canadian pianist Bruce Liu has recorded his much-anticipated DG debut studio album, its repertoire spanning two centuries of French keyboard music and including two works new to the DG catalogue.
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Maurice Ravel: three centuries of French music meet face-to-face to pass the baton in this record that is so admirably interpreted by the young Bruce Liu. For his first studio album Waves (Deutsche Grammophon), the Chinese pianist and winner of the 2021 Chopin Piano Competition at 24 years old, undertakes the delicate mission of constructing and presenting a vast panel of sonoric textures and approaches, unique to each composer and their time. With the valued assistance of technician Michel Brandjes, Liu has managed to erect a monument of subtlety and variations that carefully house the pieces that he interprets. As he himself explains in the liner notes: Rameau’s writing (“Gavotte et six doubles,” “Les Sauvages”) lends itself to a sound that abounds in bursts of rage and passion, contrasting with the misty impressionism of Ravel and his “Miroirs.” Somewhere between the two, “Barcarolle” and “Festin d’Esope” serve as the bridge that certain Romantics sought between baroque music and their own. Bruce Liu revels in the flexibility of his playing, which is precise and adapts to older and more recent repertoire alike. His interpretation of Ravel’s “Miroirs” is particularly admirable for its skillful use of sonoric layers and its sense of time – and, notably, of silence – and brings to mind another beautiful version – that of Pierre-Laurent Aimard, also released on Deutsche Grammophon. – Pierre Lamy
Tracklist:
1-1. Bruce Liu – Gavotte (01:28)
1-2. Bruce Liu – Var. 1 (01:03)
1-3. Bruce Liu – Var. 2 (01:00)
1-4. Bruce Liu – Var. 3 (00:57)
1-5. Bruce Liu – Var. 4 (00:51)
1-6. Bruce Liu – Var. 5 (00:47)
1-7. Bruce Liu – Var. 6 (00:53)
1-8. Bruce Liu – No. 6, Barcarolle (03:36)
1-9. Bruce Liu – Rameau: Les sauvages, RCT 6/14 (01:51)
1-10. Bruce Liu – No. 1, Noctuelles (04:30)
1-11. Bruce Liu – No. 2, Oiseaux tristes (03:58)
1-12. Bruce Liu – No. 3, Une barque sur l’océan (06:23)
1-13. Bruce Liu – No. 4, Alborada del gracioso (06:36)
1-14. Bruce Liu – No. 5, La vallée des cloches (05:14)
1-15. Bruce Liu – Thema – Var. 1 – Var. 7 (02:03)
1-16. Bruce Liu – Var. 8 – Var. 13 (01:49)
1-17. Bruce Liu – Var. 14 – Var. 16 (01:03)
1-18. Bruce Liu – Var. 17 – Var. 18 (00:37)
1-19. Bruce Liu – Var. 19 – Var. 20 (00:31)
1-20. Bruce Liu – Var. 21 – Var. 24 (01:15)
1-21. Bruce Liu – Var. 25 (02:44)
1-22. Bruce Liu – Rameau: Les tendres plaintes—Rondeau, RCT 3/1 (02:57)
1-23. Bruce Liu – Rameau: Les cyclopes—Rondeau, RCT 3/8 (03:06)
1-24. Bruce Liu – Rameau: Menuets, RCT 6/3-4 (02:54)
1-25. Bruce Liu – Rameau: La poule, RCT 6/12 (02:58)
