Jan Lisiecki. Photo by Christoph Köstlin, courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon .
As a wrap-up to this past month of Beethoven recordings on vinyl (Violin Concerto, Symp. No.7, Piano Conc. No.4, Piano Conc. No.5, and Symp. No.6), it is a pleasure to have pianist Jan Lisiecki on here for a contemporary insight on the composer’s style. Particularly on Beethoven’s fourth and fifth piano concertos, the latter of which he had been scheduled to perform with the TSO before Covid-cancelations. Jan is one of the most sought-after young pianists on the global stage; writing in from Alberta where he’s quarantined, he shares some thoughts below on one of the questions my weekly blog has been concerned with in the last month—what is characteristically Beethoven.
BR: What do you feel to be the foremost difference in style between Concertos by Chopin vs. Beethoven?
JL: Comparing Beethoven’s piano concertos with Chopin’s is almost like comparing anything that doesn’t fit together entirely. While they both go under the same banner, the same name—seeing that they are titled piano concertos—they have an entirely different approach to the musical form. Chopin wrote his piano concertos like a piano sonata with orchestral accompaniment, orchestral colours, in the traditional style perhaps, much more so than the Beethoven concertos in the structure and format of each movement. Chopin’s concertos are very much like a solo-piano piece with a beautiful layer of support from the orchestra. While with Beethoven, the orchestra and the piano form a unit, both are an integral part of the piece—if you take one away, the work would change its dimensions entirely. Therefore Beethoven’s and Chopin’s Concertos are polar opposites to me, and I think that there’s very little that I can see in common between the ways these composers approach this musical format.
BR: If you had to pick, which one of Beethoven's Piano Concertos resonates with you the most?
JL: I’m terrible at picking favourites: cities, places to live, performers, pianists etc… It’s not my thing. So I definitely don’t have a favourite Beethoven piano concerto. I’ve been on journeys with many of his concertos, for instance with the Fourth Piano Concerto, having played it with Claudio Abbado or Zubin Mehta also. But I’ve also had similar experiences with the Third Concerto, having played it as one of my first concerts in Canada at the National Arts Centre Orchestra with Pinchas Zuckerman. Lots of memories of each time I’ve played them, sometimes playing them in cycles or individually. I have different things I like about each, and I am glad we have each one of them. I certainly don’t have a least-favourite either.
BR: I’ve been thinking recently of what makes a piece characteristically Beethoven, and found Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.4 quite unexpected in regards to the sombre 'interiority' of its mood. Compared to his Concerto No.5, which is more-so extroverted, which of the two feels more like Beethoven to you?
JL: I find it very hard to say what specifically is Beethoven’s character. I think he was always pushing boundaries, creating new worlds in his compositions, so trying to box-in his style to a certain narrow definition would be very challenging for me. Of course, his Fourth Concerto is very unusual, which is perhaps one of the reason why it resonates so strongly with audiences and with pianists. One could say his Fifth is more of the traditional Beethoven style. I’ve experienced many unusual Beethoven compositions, for example having recently recorded many lieder that are also revolutionary, intimate, and challenging, heartfelt, sorrowful. So there’s a lot of corners of Beethoven’s sphere that we don’t know that well, and I think those that are most commonly performed are often those that we hear Beethoven as being the extrovert. I think he was equally an introvert, and a lot of his darker music has this amazing emotional strength to it. That, I think, is what we feel in the Fourth Piano Concerto.