CD Review | Waves: Music by Rameau, Ravel, and Alkan (Deutsche Grammophon, 2023)

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Deutsche Grammophon
4.5
User Ratings (2 Votes)
3.5

Waves: Music by Rameau, Ravel, and Alkan
Bruce Liu, piano
Deutsche Grammophon, November 2023

Bruce Liu’s new album, Waves, opens with Rameau’s well-known Gavotte et six doubles, a stately French dance with variations, each of which explore and ornament the theme in a different and more dramatic way. The opening Gavotte welcomes listeners into Liu’s gorgeous, exquisite sound, fine tonal and technical control. The “doubles” are played with ease, sensitivity, and mature elegance. While rhythmically driven, Liu’s performance could use more metric differentiation and breath, which would make the dance rhythms more perceptible amid the fountain of sparkling notes.

From the very first notes of Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Barcarolle, Liu draws the listener into a warm and melancholic sound world. The pianist’s exquisite touch perfectly suits the atmosphere of this lovely, if modest, piece. In Rameau’s Les sauvages, from his opera Les Indes galantes, Liu demonstrates more liveliness and improvisation than in the opening Gavotte. In true baroque spirit, Liu’s performance is impetuous, charismatic, daring, and alive. An exemplary stylistic interpretation.

Ravel’s Miroirs then displays the impressive pianistic control of the latest Chopin Competition winner. Flowing through Noctuelles with elusive agility, Liu captures the fleeting rapture of Ravel’s seductive and crisp piano writing. The pianist’s gift for timing and dynamic nuance is perfectly suited to Oiseaux tristes, in which he explores the suite’s emotional depth, wallowing in dark, disturbed loneliness. Liu’s exquisite control is breathtaking in Une barque sur l’océan, the brightest piece in the collection. Brilliant yet balanced arpeggiated passages reflect the glitter on the surface of the water, between the warm sunshine outside and the darker depths of the sea. Using a lighter touch than most pianists adopt in Alborada del gracioso, Liu brings out the brighter side of this notoriously challenging piece. On the fast side, Liu’s fresh take offers a welcome, light and sparkling approach. But Liu’s delicate touch and bright timbre translate less well into the much heavier, darker last movement. While the treble figures and melody are transparent and lucid, the bass and middle registers feel a little understated in the finale.

Notwithstanding Liu’s fantastic display of pianism in Alkan’s Le festin d’Ésope, one cannot help noticing the gap between great and decent composers on this album. Alkan’s showy salon piece simply does not hold candles next to Ravel’s masterpiece nor to Rameau’s flair. Pianists might reconsider programming the works of Alkan, in favour of better composers whose works merit being recorded on Deutsche Grammophon.

The album ends with Rameau’s beautiful rondeau Les Tendres plaintes. Once again, Liu proves his taste and eloquence in performing baroque music on the piano. His light, precise, agile touch perfectly suits the next rondeau, Les Cyclopes. Liu captures the unsettling, excited character of this work. His command of baroque performance practice serves him well in finding the perfect balance in playing this repertoire on the modern piano, which sounds light and crisp under his touch. The album ends with a rendition of Rameau’s La Poule, a former staple of Grigory Sokolov.

While excelling in capturing the brightness and youthful elegance of the repertoire, with time, Liu may consider exploring the more mature, baritone, oak timbre of the piano. Yet this slight criticism should not in any way derail from the fact that Bruce Liu is simply an exceptional pianist. He plays with taste, eloquence, breathtaking technical control, and nuance. A highly recommended album.