Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Kate Liu plays Beethoven and Brahms

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Kate Liu plays Beethoven and Brahms · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:08
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  I hope you will consider taking out a subscription
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  to The Piano Maven through my Substack page,
• 0:22
  and I have posted a link to do so in our episode
• 0:26
  description. Paid subscribers get free downloads
• 0:30
  at the beginning of each month, and every now
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  and then we will have a Zoom hangout so we can
• 0:36
  all meet in person online. Can one meet in person
• 0:42
  online, or is that an oxymoron? Well, I don't
• 0:46
  know. I guess Zoom is... kind of the new reality.
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  But in any case, do consider taking out a subscription
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  to keep this podcast going for the rest of the
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  year. The pianist Kate Liu first came to my attention
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  in 2015 when she won the third prize in that
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  year's Warsaw International Chopin Competition.
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  Shortly thereafter, her career was sidelined
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  by a hand injury. Yet she thankfully recovered
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  and came back to form. And I was really taken
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  with her performances during the 2022 Van Cliburn
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  competition, where she played, among other things,
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  a very... beautiful and well -thought -out performance
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  of Prokofiev's Eighth Sonata. And in the quarterfinals,
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  she gave a very memorable reading of Beethoven's
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  Piano Sonata No. 31 in A -flat, Op. 110. She's
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  been honing her interpretation of this sonata,
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  which is one of two featured works on her most
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  recent solo piano release on the Orchid Classics
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  label. I reviewed this disc earlier this year
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  for Gramophone, but I've been wanting to bring
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  it to your attention on this podcast. In the
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  first movement of the Beethoven Op. 110, Kate
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  Liu imbues Beethoven's scrupulous expressive
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  directives with some of her own, you know, like
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  an extra fermata here or hesitancy there or a
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  dynamic dip. that some might feel is more appropriate
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  for Chopin than Beethoven, you know, one could
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  argue. But the scherzo movements, hard -hitting
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  accents and cross rhythms, have power and conviction.
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  And in parts of the Arioso, she indulges in some
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  old -fashioned Paderewski -like desynchronization
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  of the hands. But her way of... building up the
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  fugal textures, reveals careful scaling of dynamics
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  and smartly organized tempo relationships. And
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  her sound is beautifully full -bodied as well.
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  And over time, I've really come to like this
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  interpretation more and more. In the Brahms F
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  minor sonata, this is the sonata number three,
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  opus five, which is the other work on this disc.
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  Her very broad tempo at the outset of the first
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  movement indicates that we are in for some serious
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  as opposed to impetuous music making. Now, some
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  of her expressive devices causes the music to
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  meander every now and then, although the development
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  section is actually tighter and steadier in this
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  regard. But Kate Liu's expressive and expansive
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  phrases frame of mind spills over into the andante,
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  where those little hairpins and holdbacks really
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  suit what the music has to say. And her scherzo
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  movement has some rather arch little luft pauses,
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  but the left -hand staccato articulation really
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  stings to great effect. However, It's in the
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  intermezzo and in the finale where Kate Liu and
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  Johannes Brahms have a true meeting of minds.
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  Each fragmentary phrase at the finale's outset
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  has its own character and kind of keeps you guessing
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  as to what it is that Brahms is going to serve
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  up next. You are listening and you're kept guessing.
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  sense of the playing is kind of, you know, playing
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  up Brahms' unpredictability. I guess I'm not
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  expressing that too well, but, you know, you
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  have these... You have all these little fragmentary
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  things, and then once the piano writing takes
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  off, wow, we're in for quite a ride. Also in
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  this movement... you will notice that Kate Liu
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  pays a lot of attention to how the bass lines
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  are moving, but she does so without ever sounding
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  thick or massive or heavy, even with the luscious
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  sonority. And there's a real sincerity and communicative
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  aura characterizing these Beethoven and Brahms
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  performances. They may not be my... absolute
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  top favorite Beethoven 110 and Brahms Piano Sonata
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  number three recordings ever. But I'm still taken
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  in by Kate Liu's music making and her sincere
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  passion. And she's also really, really well recorded
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  too. The sonics are just fabulous. So, you know,
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  I can understand why Kate Liu has been acquiring
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  a kind of cult following among young aspiring
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  pianists. And I look forward to hearing her in
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  person at the next possible opportunity, as well
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  as any of her further recordings. I know she'll
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  be recording. I don't know when the next one
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  is coming out, but I'm certainly following her
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  career. This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to the Piano Maven podcast. This is a friendly
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  podcast guide to piano recordings. At least I
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  try to make it friendly. And I hope we will be
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  together for the next episode.