“Bruce Liu is simply an exceptional pianist. He plays with taste, eloquence,
breathtaking technical control, and nuance. A highly recommended album”
La Scena Musicale on Waves: Music by Rameau · Ravel · Alkan
Chinese-Canadian pianist Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu burst onto the world stage in October 2021 when he won the International Chopin Piano Competition. The fresh, spontaneous dynamism and flawless technique that characterised his playing throughout the various stages of this most prestigious competition (“his Concerto in E minor … held poetry and virtuosity in wonderful balance” Daily Telegraph) not only convinced the jury but have since been winning over critics and audiences at sold-out venues worldwide. Liu has also impressed interviewers with his humility, sense of humour and intelligent interest in the history and culture of the many places he has visited since his victory in Warsaw.
He signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon on 29 March 2022 which, appropriately enough, was World Piano Day. Working in partnership with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, the Yellow Label had already issued an album of live recordings captured during the various stages of the Chopin Competition. Released in November 2021, the album was met with a flood of rave reviews. BBC Music Magazine, for example, noted that he has “something consistently interesting and always idiomatic to say about Chopin’s music”, in playing of “uncommon sensitivity”, “rumbustious energy” and “breathtaking beauty”.
Bruce Liu’s recording of Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor, KK IVa/16 was released as an e‑single in April 2022, just days after the DG signing. Further digital releases soon followed: Rameau’s Les tendres plaintes and La poule in June and August 2022, Chopin’s Étude Op. 10 No. 5 “Black Keys” in October 2022 and J.S. Bach’s French Suite No. 5 in April 2023.
His much-anticipated debut DG studio album, Waves: Music by Rameau · Ravel · Alkan, featured contrasting repertoire by three masters of French keyboard music who were active in consecutive centuries. The two works by Charles-Valentin Alkan, the Barcarolle and Le Festin d’Ésope, were new additions to DG’s catalogue. Released in November 2023, the album was followed on 28 June 2024 by Waves: Music by Satie, which presents two versions of Liu’s readings of the Parisian composer’s Gnossiennes – one for grand piano, the other for upright piano. A video for his interpretation of No. 4 Lent (grand piano version) was premiered on the DG YouTube channel on the same day.
Among Liu’s forthcoming engagements are his debut at London’s Wigmore Hall, in a solo recital of works by Rameau, Haydn and Chopin (14 July 2024); three performances at the Verbier Festival (26, 28 & 31 July); Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 at the Tanglewood Festival (23 August); Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in Québec City and Cincinnati at the start of the new season (18/19 & 27/28 September); and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokorozawa (15, 16, 18 & 19 October).
“What we all have in common is our difference,” Bruce Liu likes to say. Born to Chinese parents in Paris on 8 May 1997, he moved with his father to Montreal at the age of six but has always made regular visits to China and speaks fluent Mandarin. His phenomenal artistry has therefore been shaped by his personal heritage: European refinement, North American dynamism and the long tradition of Chinese culture. He studied with Richard Raymond at the Montreal Conservatoire between 2011 and 2018, during which time he won the grand prize at the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Competition when he was only 15, and thereafter with Dang Thai Son (winner of the 10th Chopin Competition).
He has already performed with some of the world’s leading ensembles, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker at such prestigious venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Royal Festival Hall in London, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Philharmonie, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
Liu has adopted a healthy attitude towards the demands of touring and performing, balancing his practice time with his many other hobbies and interests, which include swimming, chess, cinema, jazz, history, karting and football. In August 2023 he performed as part of the annual UEFA European Club Football Season Kick-Off event in Monte Carlo, and has since recorded a special “orchestral” version of Fire, the official Euro 2024 song, produced by Italian trio Meduza. He also recognises that the focus required by practising or performing has many benefits: “When I play, I forget everything else in the world. Music has the power to help me clean my soul.”
7/2024