Louis Lortie: Venezia e Napoli

French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie's interpretative voice extends across a broad range of repertoire in playing that is ‘ever immaculate, ever imaginative’, with the ‘combination of total spontaneity and meditated ripeness that only great pianists have' (The Times).

His intriguing Italian-inspired programme moves from the clear spring-water of Fauré's Barcarolles to depictions of Italian cities from Poulenc and Liszt. Poulenc's pianistic vision of Naples manages to be light-hearted and dazzling at the same time. Liszt was intrigued and inspired by the city's furious traditional dance, the tarantella. He used that and the gondola songs of Venice in the broad emotional canvas that is his Venezia e Napoli.

Louis Lortie has performed complete Beethoven sonata cycles at London's Wigmore Hall and Berlin's Philharmonie. As pianist and conductor with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, he has performed all five Beethoven concertos and all of the Mozart concertos.

He performed the complete works of Ravel in London and Montreal for the BBC and CBC, and is renowned all over the world for his performances of the complete Chopin etudes.