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Bruce Liu provides considered, beautifully shaped performances on Bach: French Suite No. 5 / BBC Music Magazine

Having released a series of Rameau and Chopin e-singles in 2022, pianist Bruce Liu now showcases his extraordinary talent in a brand-new recording for Deutsche Grammophon of Johann Sebastian Bach’s French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816. 


Bach wrote this suite, one of a set of six, in the early 1720s, possibly as a wedding present for his second wife, Anna Magdalena. The collection later became known as the “French Suites”, but the name is misleading, given that each work contains movements inspired by dances from various national traditions. No. 5, for example, includes a German Allemande, a French Courante, a Spanish Sarabande and an Irish/Scottish Gigue.

The different idioms of these dances are all captured in Liu’s performance. His trademark spontaneity, along with a delightful sense of energy and precision of articulation, can be heard in faster movements such as the Courante and Gigue. By contrast, the Sarabande is noble and sensitive, while the rhythms of the Loure are elegantly phrased. All seven movements are in the key of G major which, for Bruce Liu, inspires a “feeling of lyrical, poetic tenderness”. 

He will perform Bach’s French Suite No. 5 at the Rheingau Musik Festival and Festival de Saint-Paul de Vence Classique & Jazz this summer (23/25 July 2023). A major highlight of his schedule before then is his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall on 19 May, at which he will present a programme of works by Chopin, as well as Liszt’s Réminiscences de Don Juan.
Bruce Liu achieved worldwide fame in October 2021 when he won the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition, becoming the first Canadian ever to take first prize in the long history of this most prestigious event. He signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon the following March. DG’s album of recordings made live during various stages of the Chopin Competition, released in November 2021, had already been met with huge critical acclaim, Gramophone calling it “one of the most distinguished Chopin recitals of recent years, full of maturity, character and purpose”.


BBC Music Magazine's Jan Smaczny writes….Of Bach’s three collections of suites for keyboard, the so-called French Suites from the early 1720s are the slightest. While they lack the grandeur and virtuosity of the English Suites and Partitas with their extended preludes often adopting the style of the Italian concerto or the French overture, they have more subtle charms and an unassuming melodic lightness. The Fifth is enormously attractive with a wonderfully poised ‘Sarabande’ and a winning concluding ‘Gigue’ that has long been one of the composer’s most popular keyboard movements.

Bruce Liu provides considered, beautifully shaped performances. While making full use of the contrasts and phasing opportunities available on the piano, he also nods in the direction of the harpsichord with appropriately spread chords and occasional delays between bottom and top notes. His treatment of first section repeats, particularly in the ‘Allemande’ and ‘Sarabande’, is brilliantly imaginative and it’s a pity he fails to repeat the second sections. His ornamentation is graceful, though some might quarrel with a certain lack of consistency. His performance of the concluding ‘Gigue’ is thoroughly pianistic, but also thoroughly enjoyable. With one or two reservations, there is a vast amount to enjoy in Liu’s carefully conceived and superbly played reading.
 

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