Jan Lisiecki
Chopin: Complete Nocturnes (2CD)
For his latest Deutsche Grammophon album, Polish-Canadian pianist 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 is now set for international release on 13 August 2021 and features profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano.
Lisiecki went into the studio last autumn, and his new recording 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.”
Lisiecki was warmly praised for the Beethoven Lieder album he and Matthias Goerne released last year and – together with his renowned affinity for Chopin – that immersion in the world of song has surely helped inform his new readings of the lyrical, confessional Nocturnes, works he feels are made for intimate listening, arguably best heard and contemplated alone at night. “These remarkable pieces invite you to think and feel whatever you want,” concludes the pianist. “There’s no ‘right’ response to them, other than the one you’re having.”
CD 1
3 Nocturnes op. 9
1. No. 1 in B flat minor. Larghetto
2. No. 2 in E flat major. Andante
3. No. 3 in B major. Allegretto
3 Nocturnes op. 15
4. No. 1 in F major. Andante cantabile
5. No. 2 in F sharp major. Larghetto
6. No. 3 in G minor. Lento
2 Nocturnes op. 27
7. No. 1 in C sharp minor. Larghetto
8. No. 2 in D flat major. Lento sostenuto
2 Nocturnes op. 32
9. No. 1 in B major. Andante sostenuto
10. No. 2 in A flat major. Lento
2 Nocturnes op. 37
11. No. 1 in G minor. Andante sostenuto
12. No. 2 in G major. Andantino
CD 2
2 Nocturnes op. 48
1. No. 1 in C minor. Lento
2. No. 2 in F sharp minor. Andantino
2 Nocturnes op. 55
3. No. 1 in F minor. Andante
4. No. 2 in E flat major. Lento sostenuto
2 Nocturnes op. 62
5. No. 1 in B major. Andante
6. No. 2 in E major. Lento
7. Nocturne in E minor op. posth. 72 no. 1
8. Nocturne in C minor KK IVb, 8, op. post.
9. Nocturne in C sharp minor KK IVa, 16, op. post."