With a highly acclaimed performance, shooting star Bruce Liu thrilled the Bochum audience in the packed Anneliese Brost Musikforum as part of the 2024 Klavier-Festival Ruhr.

The Chinese-Canadian pianist excelled in this concert evening with the full range of his stupendous playing technique, which he proved with an impressive performance of a stylistically wide-ranging series of works from Haydn, Chopin, and Beethoven to Prokofiev, touching on the variations of the Ukrainian Nicolai Kapustin, which are infused with a relaxed jazz feeling.

Pianists are not singers, nor do they play an orchestral instrument. Nevertheless, the use of color is also of fundamental importance for them. “The term color in music is used like a metaphor,” says Bruce Liu. For Liu, color is a mixture of sound intensity, pitch and tempo. “For me, the term refers to various emotions that we pianists convey through convey through the touch.” Bruce Liu has made a name for himself by winning the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 2021, conquering his place in international music life.

Joseph Haydn
Sonata No. 32 in B Minor Hob. XVI:32

Frédéric Chopin
Sonata No. 2 in B Flat Minor, Op. 35

Nicolai Kapustin
Variations Op. 41

Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata No. 18 in E Flat Major, Op. 31/3
“The Hunt”

Sergei Prokofiev
Sonata No. 7 in B Flat Major, Op. 83

Erik Satie
Gnossienne No. 1
(Encore)

Frédéric Chopin
Waltz No. 6 in D Flat Major, Op. 64
No. 1 “Minute”
(Encore)

 

Bruce Liu, piano