Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21

The Deutsche Grammophon debut of Canadian phenomenon, Jan Lisiecki, who is at the age of 16 already a household name in his home country

Born to Polish parents, Jan is fluent in three languages and, in lightning speed, already finished his schooling last year, simultaneous to signing an exclusive recording deal with the Yellow Label. Like many 16 year olds, he got his driver s license - but he is also taking pilot lessons so he can be free to discover and travel the world, to meet people and most importantly of course, to play the piano!

I love what I do. No one has ever pushed me into becoming a pianist. It was just something that happened very organically, very naturally, not something I ever intended would happen.

Mozart s Piano Concertos nos. 20 and 21 are technically challenging and make interpretive demands of which only the most imaginative artist is capable. No.20 alternates tempestuousness with contemplation; no. 21 shimmers with playful, pensive grandeur

Jan Lisiecki explains: Mozart often wrote very different works at one and the same time. Even so, the carefree surface of the C major Concerto conceals beneath it traces of the dark energy of the D minor Concerto. Conversely, this last-named piece also has something of the lightness of the C major Concerto. That s why I was so keen to record both these pieces together.

Christian Zacharias, highly respected for his Mozart interpretations both as a pianist and conductor, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, embrace Jan Lisiecki s piano with crystalline sonorities - perfect for this music

Jan Lisiecki is in great demand with international promoters: He opened the season of the Orchestre de Paris in September 2011, will have his debuts with the BBC Symphony in March 2012 and New York Phil with three subscription concerts in December 2012. A major city German debut tour is scheduled for this spring.

On his extensive tours he will perform in Canada (8 concerts, more tbc), Germany (11 concerts, more tbc), Italy (5 concerts, more tbc), US (5 concerts, more tbc), UK, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Croatia, Poland (tbc), Brazil (tbc) in 2012

His radio recordings, released on the Chopin Institute label, received highest acclaim in the music press. Diapason calls him an unmannered virtuoso, with virile, and above all, irresistibly natural playing , and awarded a Diapason d Or to his Chopin album