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Bruce Liu/Bach: French Suite No. 5, BWV 816
Bruce Liu, piano
Deutsche Grammophon, 2023
The new album by Bruce Liu, winner of the last Chopin Competition in Warsaw and former student of the Université de Montréal, revolves around Bach. Specifically, French Suite No. 5 in G major.
In general, the interpretation is balanced and expressive; the listener will appreciate Liu’s best quality: his sound, always rich and warm. Nevertheless, what is sometimes missing is greater sharpness, both in touch and in the choice of tempi. The Allemande, which opens the Suite, showcases Liu’s cantabile, touching and intimate, as well as his ability to highlight counter-voices in the left hand. The Courante is interpreted with vivacity and richness of contrasts, both in sound and articulation, while the Sarabande is extremely expressive and well realized from the point of view of ornamentation. It must be said that some brilliant articulations take away a bit of balance from the interpretation of this movement. The same goes for the Gavotte. Here, the choice of sound is great, but a certain rubato makes the interpretation slightly mannered. The Bourrée is well played in dynamic alternation and interpretative spirit, while the Loure is perhaps Liu’s best movement. Bach’s music, for it to be well interpreted, sometimes has to be approached in an extreme way: doing nothing, or looking for the limit, as Glenn Gould often did. In this movement Liu limits himself to unravelling the thread of the music, without doing anything but leading melodic lines and highlighting counterpoints, managing to give an “objective” vision (if such an idea exists) of the piece. The Gigue is well conceived in the choice of tempo and phrasing. A nice CD.
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