Chopin: Etudes

The music of Chopin has been significant in Jan Lisiecki’s life ever since he was seven, when his piano teacher gave him some exercises to improve his technique. But technique has never interested Jan: “I looked at those exercises, and told my teacher that there wasn’t any music in them. So instead I was given Chopin’s slow and lyrical Étude Op. 10 No. 3. As it was a photocopy on green paper, it became for me the Green Étude.” Jan’s relationship with Chopin deepened when, at 13, he was invited to play the F minor concerto at the Chopin i Jego Europa (Chopin and his Europe) festival in Warsaw, followed by the E minor concerto the year after. “These are works I could play in the middle of the night and feel extremely comfortable with – every note has its place,” he says. On New Year’s Day in 2010 Jan cemented the relationship by opening the composer’s 200th anniversary celebrations at Chopin’s birthplace in Żelazowa Wola. Lisiecki likes to quote Chopin’s instructions to his students: “Every single note had to sing; and after all the work, the goal should be simplicity – because, for Chopin, that was the crowning reward of art. Those two remarks reflect the essence of his music – pure beauty. That’s why I love Chopin’s works.” Does Jan also follow Chopin’s advice to practise at night in the dark? No: he practises in the early morning: “I like seeing the sun rise. The tranquility at dawn has a different quality than the quiet of the evening.” Jan’s aim with the Études might sound like a truism, but it’s not without significance. “Beauty and music, and not technical difficulty, were the most essential elects to portray in these Études.” Lisiecki’s method of recording, however, is unusual here. Disliking “patching”, he recorded each piece in complete takes. Moreover, before recording, Jan warmed up by playing something else from his repertoire – a Bach Goldberg variation before Op. 25 No. 1, for example, and before others, some pieces by Messiaen: “That would change the mood, in the same way as a different piece would in a live performance. When you’re buying a perfume, the aroma of coffee in-between enables you to appreciate the next fragrance freshly. I like the studio and its possibilities, but for me the music still needs to be infused by the spirit of a concert. After playing an étude many times, there was the opportunity to choose the take which embodied the most music, and not just virtuosity.” Lisiecki’s tempi for the fast pieces can be relatively gentle, and he contrives to give the impression of always conversing with the listener, reflecting his view that each piece should tell a story. But not necessarily one that can be verbalised: “The Étude Op. 10 No. 12 is commonly known as the ‘Revolutionary’ Étude, but that’s not how I see it. For me it indicates a pain which words cannot describe – something which comes from deep inside, about disagreement, about a real anger, posing the question ‘How can I come to terms with this?’ I don’t have a literal story for every étude, but the collection as a whole is like a book in which each piece is a chapter. Each tells its own story, but there’s a bigger narrative overarching everything.” Finally, how Polish does Jan feel? “I was born in Canada, and I’ve lived there all my life, but most Canadians bring with them the culture and heritage from their home-country, and so do I.” How Polish is Chopin’s music? “Quintessentially Polish: all his music expresses a longing for Poland, for its dances and for its countryside. At the same time, the music of Chopin communicates intimately with all audiences worldwide.”