Chopin and His Europe Festival 2010 - Jan Lisiecki at the Filharmonia, Warsaw - Evening of August 25
In previous Chopin i jego Europa Festivals this almost indecently young genius of the instrument and academic studies at school (15 years old and leaping years of formal teaching with ease and negligence) gave scintillating and idiomatic performances of both Chopin concerti. This evening's concert featured him in Mozart (the Concerto for Two Pianos in E major KV 365) with Howard Shelley on the second instrument and conducting the fine Sinfonia Varsovia. Lisiecki's limpid style, acute articulation and sense of grace suited the music to perfection. The fact that Chopin was to follow Mozart showed perceptive programming as his stylistic origins lie there and in the counterpoint of Bach rather than Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Prokoviev as so many seem to think. There was also a pleasant Overture by Chopin's contemporary, the popular Polish composer Karol Kurpinski and the first performance in modern times of an inoffensive Piano Concerto in C major Op. 14...