Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has been praised for the fresh perspective and individuality he brings to a deliberately broad spectrum of the keyboard canon. He studied in Montréal with Yvonne Hubert (a pupil of French pianist, Alfred Cortot), in Vienna with the Beethoven specialist Dieter Weber, and subsequently with Schnabel disciple Leon Fleisher, among others.
Mr. Lortie has performed the complete works of Ravel in London and Montréal for the BBC and CBC, and is also known for his interpretation of Chopin. Following a recital of Chopin’s complete Etudes in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Financial Times wrote: “Better Chopin playing than this is not to be heard, not anywhere.” He often performs major contemporary works, recently concentrating on pieces by British composer Thomas Ades.
Also celebrated for his interpretation of works by Beethoven, Mr. Lortie has performed the complete Beethoven sonatas in London’s Wigmore Hall, Toronto’s Ford Center, Berlin Philharmonie, and the Sala Grande del Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. In Berlin, Die Welt called his performances “possibly the most beautiful Beethoven since the times of Wilhelm Kempff.” With the Montreal and Quebec Symphonies, he performed and conducted all five Beethoven Piano Concertos. In the Beethoven Plus Festival, Mr. Lortie performed Beethoven’s 32 sonatas for piano; plus the complete sonatas and trios with violin and cello.
Upcoming engagements include the Chicago Symphony, the National Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskappelle, the Santa Cecilia in Rome, the National Symphony of Taiwan, and recitals at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam’s Concergebouw, Atlanta’s Spivey Hall, three Chopin recitals in the San Francisco Bay Area and a recital in Hong Kong among others.
Also, next season Mr. Lortie celebrates the 200th anniversary of Liszt’s birth performing the complete “Annees de Pelerinage” at the Liszt Weimar Festival, New York’s Lincoln Center, in Los Angeles, La Jolla, Portland, at the Savannah International Festival, and in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. His Chandos recording of the complete “Annees” will be released in early 2011.
In February, 2010, Mr. Lortie performed and toured with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Newark and Carnegie Hall. Other notable concerts last season included the Sydney Symphony, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the RAI Torino, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Dallas Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony, and many important recitals, including Duke University, UC Berkeley, the Concertgebouw, in Krakow and Toronto.
Mr. Lortie recently concluded his multi-year project with the Montreal Symphony to play and conduct all 27 Mozart Piano Concertos (along with other all-orchestral repertoire by various composers). Last season he performed a multi-concert Wagner/Liszt project at London’s Wigmore Hall, which he also performed it in Berlin, Milan, Domain Forget, the Weimar Festival, Bordeaux and Warsaw. He regularly play/conducts programs for the Vancouver Symphony, the Quebec Symphony and the Hamburg Symphony.
Louis Lortie has performed under the baton of conductors Riccardo Chailly, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Sanderling, Neeme Jarvi, Sir Andrew Davis, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Mark Elder and Osmo Vanska among others. He has also been involved in many chamber music projects, with musicians such as Frank Peter Zimmermann, Leonidas Kavakos, Renaud and Gautier Capucon, Jan Vogler, Augustin Dumay, the Takacs Quartet, and Gidon Kremer. His regular piano-duo partner is fellow Canadian Helene Mercier, with whom he has made successful recordings on the Chandos label.
Mr. Lortie has made over 30 recordings on the Chandos label, ranging from Mozart to Stravinsky. His latest Chopin recording was released in May, 2010 to high praise, and the final installment of his Beethoven Sonata Cycle, is scheduled to be released in late 2010. His complete Liszt “Annees de Pelerinage” will be released in early 2011, as well as his next Chopin disc of Nocturnes and Ballades. His recording of Beethoven’s Eroica Variations won the Edison Award, and his disc of Schumann’s Bunte Blatter and other works by Schumann and Brahms was named one of the best CDs of the year by BBC Music Magazine. He has also recorded Ravel’s complete works for piano. His recording of the complete Chopin Etudes, opp. 10 and 25, has been cited by BBC Music Magazine’s special Piano Issue as one of “50 Recordings by Superlative Pianists”. One of his most recent CD releases is the final recording in his three-CD series of Liszt’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. It was immediately named “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone Magazine. In addition to these Liszt recordings, other recent releases include To the Distant Beloved, with works by Beethoven, Schumann and Liszt, and Franck’s Symphonic Variations with the BBC Symphony.
Born in Montréal, Louis Lortie made his debut with the Montréal Symphony at the age of thirteen and the Toronto Symphony three years later, which as a result engaged him for an historic tour of the People’s Republic of China and Japan. In 1984, he won First Prize in the Busoni Competition and was a prize-winner at the Leeds Competition. In 1992 he was named Officer of the Order of Canada, and received both the Order of Quebec and an honorary doctorate from Laval University. As his schedule permits, he teaches at Italy’s renowned piano institute at Imola. Mr. Lortie has lived in Berlin since 1997 and also has homes in Canada and Italy.
June 2010 – Please discard any previously dated materials.
