Above: pianist Bruce Liu
~ Author: Mark Anthony Martinez II
Saturday February 20th, 2026 – It had been a while since I saw a solo piano concert, and I was reminded how beautiful and replete an evening of piano music can be.
Bruce Liu is an acclaimed pianist and the winner of the 18th Chopin Piano Competition in 2021. I had never heard Liu play before, but I was excited to hear how he’d play. In a former life, I was a pianist, and I truly love the music and instrument, even if I never play it anymore.
As the concert lights started to dim and everyone was settling in, Liu briskly strode onto the stage and got himself comfortable at the piano.
Liu jumped right into the first piece, which was “Fanfares” by Ligeti. This is a showpiece with fluttering notes that span the whole keyboard, and Liu had such a mellifluously light touch throughout. It was almost as if he were floating over the keys. It’s an interesting choice to start off the program with a contemporary piece, but it set the tone well for the first half of the program, which consisted of three pieces with lots of movement across the whole keyboard in near-constant motion, so thematically it all made sense.
Once the Ligeti was over, Liu started the French Suite No. 5 by Bach. Liu’s playing of the Bach was simply exquisite, delicate, and elegant. Liu’s playing was so assured and beautiful that I was able to just drift off into the sound.
The Allemande and Sarabande were two of the best-played movements by Liu. Even though the piano is a percussion instrument, the music was able to sing through. The Gigue was another fantastically played movement. What I particularly loved was Liu’s ability to really let the inner voices ring out in the movement. It’s easy to let the lower and upper notes cover a middle voice moment, but Liu’s control and musicianship let each appropriate voice sing out.
After he finished the Bach, the crowd erupted into applause, and Liu stood up to take a bow.
I was extremely excited to see what Liu would do with the next piece, the Waldstein Sonata by Beethoven. This is one of my favorite pieces that Beethoven wrote, and I’ve heard many seminal recordings of it.
I was particularly interested in how Liu would play it because he is such a Chopin specialist and has such a light touch. Beethoven, though still solidly in the Classical era, has flavors of romanticism, but also the classic Sturm und Drang. I was curious to see how Liu would navigate both.
Before Liu started the Waldstein, he took a moment to compose himself, then played the iconic opening. Liu started the piece faster than I was used to, and I sat listening to see how things would develop.
Liu really knocked the Waldstein out of the park. What was really so interesting was that Liu played the Beethoven in such a way that it sounded more romantic than I normally had heard it. The fluttering of notes and the well-placed rubato made it at times sound closer to Chopin than Mozart, and I loved it!
For a warhorse like the Waldstein, it’s easy to fall into the patterns of pianists over the ages, but the way that Liu played the piece made it feel like a fully new piece of music to me. Somehow this tried and trodden sonata had a breath of new life that shimmered as Liu swept up and down the keyboard. The voicing was again perfect and just so wonderfully played overall.
After Liu finished, he stood up for a well-deserved applause and then strode off for intermission.
The second half of the program was more of a motley crew of pieces. It started with some Chopin classics, then there were single movements from larger works by Ravel, Mompou, Albeniz, and ended with a grand Liszt piece.
Liu’s handling of the Chopin was great and very much what I expected a Chopin specialist to play like. What was really interesting, though, was that I felt more of a unique touch on the preceding pieces, the Beethoven in particular, than I did with the Chopin. It might be that since Chopin is at the core of Liu’s style, it is the style that affects the other pieces, but Chopin’s music remains unchanged.
The crowd loved the Nocturne in C-sharp Minor and the Nocturne in D-flat Major. The largest applause of the night up until this point followed the two Chopin pieces.
I loved Liu’s treatment of Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso. Ravel is truly a pianistic composer, and Liu took full advantage of the music that utilized so much of the keyboard. This piece has an infamously difficult triple glissando, and Liu managed that without a shred of difficulty. The piece was fiery and passionate and somehow more aggressively played than the Beethoven.
Another highlight for me was Albeniz’ El Puerto from Iberio, Book I. If there was a theme for the second half of the program, the music seemed to be inspired by Spain or have some Spanish influence throughout. This piece was classic Albeniz and was such a jolly piece with a very humorous mood throughout.
Before Liu tackled the last piece on the program, Liszt’s Rhapsoddie espangole, he took a quick break. True to Lisztian form, this piece was a monumental flurry of notes that left the listener in shock and awe at the virtuosity of the performer.
Once Liu finished, he received a very well-deserved standing ovation before jumping into encores of Beethoven and Chopin to more rapturous applause.
~ Mark Anthony Martinez II
Oberon's Glade 