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10/23/2026
“Lunaris”
Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in D‑Flat major, opus 27 n° 2 [2]
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonatas n° 14 in C‑Sharp minor “Moonlight”, opus 27 n° 2 [2] & n° 21 in C major “Waldstein”, opus 53 [1]
Claude Debussy: Rêverie, L 68 [2]
Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude in B minor, BWV 855a (arr. A. Siloti) [1]
Agnes Obel: Tokka [1]
Federico Mompou: Au clair de la lune: “Glossa Sobre” and “Fantasia Sobre” [1]
Győrgy Ligeti: Etudes, Book 1: n° 4 “Fanfares” [2]
Alexander Scriabin: Piano Sonata n° 4 in F‑Sharp major, opus 30 [1]
John Cage: Dream [1]
Bruce Liu (piano)
Recording: Teldex Studio, Berlin, Germany (December 2025 [1], January 2026 [2]) – 86’27
Deutsche Grammophon 4868761 (Distributed by Universal Music) – Booklet in English
Canadian pianist Bruce Liu has been performing with orchestras the world over since he was 15. He has won many awards including the 2021 XVIII International Chopin Competition in performance with the Warsaw Philharmonic, and he has advanced by scoring the highest rating by the jury at every level of the contest.
Inside the booklet, Liu explains his concept for “Lunaris” with musicologist Michelle Assay who asks him why and how he chose the composers and pieces for this album. Liu cites “the order follows a very clear inner trajectory, a gradual passage between different stages of consciousness that starts with Chopin’s Nocturne and ends with John Cage’s Dream. Some (pieces) belong to my personal history at the instrument while others appeared as I searched for new shades of the same world...a project that reflects something that has been a part of my inner world...this atmosphere of suspended time and the coexistence of intimacy and distance are things I recognize in my daily relationship with the instrument.”
Liu opens “Lunaris” with Chopin’s Nocturne in D‑Flat major, demonstrating quiet technics which open the door to his time-traveling compendium of soundworld and aesthetic intent. The subsequent detailing of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata n° 14 is revelatory: in the booklet Liu reminds us that the “Adagio sostenuto” was tagged “Moonlight Sonata” by others, not by the composer. Liu’s approach makes one lean into its transporting realm, then captivates with beguiling energy during the “Allegretto” and the “Presto” movements.
These œuvres are followed by Debussy’s Rêverie, demonstrating Liu’s exemplary precision and dynamic drive to articulate the composer’s radiant musical world of sensuality and harmonic watercolouring. Alexander Siloti’s minimalist arrangement of J.S. Bach’s Prelude in B minor blooms as a journeying contemporary baroque masterpiece. Bach’s universe is a perfect prelude to Agnes Obel’s cinematic short, Tokka.
Liu leans back into Beethoven with a brisk reading of the “Waldstein” Sonata with its robust “Allegro con brio” opening. Throughout this composition Liu delivers a masterclass of galloping harmonics, giving way to sensorial reaches and contrasting minimalism of the “Adagio molto”. This blooms into a meditative shade and acts as a prelude to the witty grace of the “Allegretto moderato” with its baroque buoyancy and concluding remarks inside the vivacious “Prestissimo” finale: all of Beethoven’s prismatic ideas are vividly alive in Liu’s performance. These tracks are exemplar of his fluid precision and stellar interpretive artistry.
Federico Mompou’s breezy miniatures, the “Glossa sobre” and the “Fantasia sobre” inside Au clair de la lune perhaps “ditto” as an intermission by Liu for star gazing at the constellation.
Pianistically, Liu dances lightly through the jazz-fusion clusters and percussive harmonics during Győrgy Ligeti’s Etude n° 4 “Fanfares”. This is the perfect lead-in to Scriabin’s sinewy Piano Sonata n° 4 featuring an introspective “Andante” that glides into the shimmering energy of the “Prestissimo volando”.
Liu chooses to close this collection with John Cage’s Dream with its slow fade to transcendence. Atypical of Cage’s style, there’s a sudden entrance of sharp percussive lower key intrusion. Liu beautifully pilots the sonic acoustics in a cosmic continuum.
Lewis J. Whittington
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