Tall, golden-blond, smiling almost endlessly, this gangling 15 year old sits at the piano surrounded by a least a hundred years of talent in violin, cello and viola – men of standing in the musical community. From the opening notes to the rollicking Hungarian Dance of the final movement – I am held in thrall by this “kid.” They are a “pick-up” quartet. They have never played together. The tall blond youngster has not even played Brahms, but there he is, sometimes leading, sometimes following in the Brahms Piano Quartet in G Minor.
I have one serious reservation. Whenever I, and others, speak of Jan, it is almost always with reference to his age. I worry that so much of the lustre of his playing is misconstrued; that his performance is rated as outstanding, “especially for a 15 year old. “ Like many prodigies before him, it assumes almost the quality of a freak show, where the age of the player factors into the appreciation. I promise you, his stature is neither diminished nor enlarged by his youth.).
I have been blessed to sit in on a rehearsal. We will leave the Festival that morning but his mother invites us to sit in. I am blessed. We are transfixed. I am held like no other music has ever held me, by the virtuosity of 15 year old Jan Lisiecki Three vintage players, with their credentials too long to mention; three players who teach, and who have played with the very best chamber groups. It is the three of them, and the one – only one – of him.
Earlier in the week I saw another side: the unflappable Jan. The Festival staged a cruise on Georgian Bay with three different concerts. In one of them., Jan and his former teacher Glen Montgomery, played a series of Chopin Nocturnes. The piano was an electronic model, dredged up from some forgotten musical dungeon. It rocked back and forth. (I commented to Jan that is he had tried to play a Polonaise the piano would have fallen over.) There were several keys whose rendition of a musical note was closer to a traffic accident than a musical sound. The point is that Jan was, at least visibly) totally unfazed.. Inside he may have been seething, but there was not of the so-called “artiste” temperament about having to play under very trying circumstances. He played. And he bounced back the following day with a bravura performance of Chopin Etudes 1 to 12.
My wife and I have watched him since he was a very boyish 12 year old, close to a foot shorter than he is today. He appeared briefly at the Festival of The Sound, playing in a duet. It was a competent performance. Perhaps because the audience was so charmed, he was haled back for an encore. He stunned us with a bravura performance of an extremely demanding Chopin Etude. He stood shyly, still not quite sure how to bow to an audience, while that audience rose to its feet in spontaneous homage to a kid who, if he continued to grow, would be among the premier pianists of our age. In fact, in a short documentary Joe Schlesinger did for the CBC, violinist and conductor Pincus Zukermann said he was one of those talents that comes along only once is a couple of generations. He is proving it. I am privileged to have been there to see it.
Earlier in the Festival program I heard him accompany Dennis Brott in the Chopin Sonata for cello and piano. He displayed what I saw him display in the rehearsal of the quartet: an ability to “serve” the ensemble, setting aside any trace of individual showing-off virtuosity. He was there to serve the music and to serve his fellow players. That’s often a lesson many soloists never learn, perhaps never ever want to learn.
I am getting to know Jan, as he and his mother, who keeps him well grounded, are getting to know us. He can be just another playful 15 year old. Coming up behind me he will snap my suspenders for attention. Sitting at breakfast he likes to sneak up on me, making me jump as he administers a hug. He practices hard but he is always having fun. The lead violinist in the Brahms commented between movements about the shoes Jan was wearing. They seem be a kind of rubber, but the toes are articulated so that they look like a glove for the foot. I think he does it for the sheer fun of it. Jan loves to fly, and fly he does, all over the world. He told me a story about playing for Larry Ellison, perhaps the fourth richest man in the world, the head of Oracle. His big moment was to go up in the air in Ellison's plane with a stunt flyer and do loops and rolls.
He will finish high school this year, needing only to complete a course in calculus.
He is perhaps like no other prodigy I have ever met. He is “grounded.” Knows who he is. Makes friends easily. Is easy to talk to and enjoys repartee. He is, sometimes like all geniuses, a little bit obsessive. In fact, he loves to practice and will spend hours at the piano. But it does not remove him from the other joys of life. He finds them all. They find him.
Perhaps the most compelling aspect for me is that we are chronological opposites. My best days are well behind me and his are all ahead of him/. He will climb to heights I never did. He will reign in his field. He has already signed a contract to record with Deutsche Gramophone. And he takes is all without even the slightest note of smug self-satisfaction. He is without the tender and vulnerable ego possessed by so many artists. He simply plays. Like no one I have ever heard.
P.S. This was written on Monday July 26th. I forgot to post it. We were back in Parry Sound on the 29th and confirmed what I knew would happen: the performance of the Brahms Piano quartet got a foot-stomping standing-O
Friday, July 30, 2010
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