Bruce Liu | Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra | Ryan Bancroft

»It’s a piece for the audience,« wrote the New Yorker’s reviewer after one of the first performances of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody. More than that: it’s also a piece for brilliant pianists, such as Bruce Liu.

Winning the 2021 Chopin Competition changed everything for Canadian pianist Bruce Liu. Many doors opened for him, through which he passed with ease thanks to his musical talents. In Cologne, he will present Sergei Rachmaninoff’s final work for piano and orchestra, the Variations on a Theme by the Devil’s Violinist Niccolò Paganini. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ryan Bancroft, will frame this work with music by Benjamin Stearn and Carl Nielsen’s expressive Symphony No. 2.