Louis Lortie

Louis Lortie – pianist

For over three decades, French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie has performed world-wide, building a reputation as one of the world’s most versatile pianists. He extends his interpretative voice across a broad spectrum of repertoire, and his performances and award-winning recordings attest to his remarkable musical range.

In demand on five continents, Lortie has established long-term partnerships with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Dresden Philharmonic in Europe, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, San Diego Symphony and St Louis Symphony and New Jersey Symphony in the US. In his native Canada he regularly performs with the major orchestras in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa and Calgary. Further afield, collaborations include the Shanghai Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and the Adelaide and Sydney Symphony Orchestras and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo in Brazil. Regular partnerships with conductors include, among others, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Edward Gardner, Sir Andrew Davis, Jaap Van Zweden, Simone Young, Antoni Wit and Thierry Fischer.

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In recital and chamber music, Louis Lortie appears in the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals, including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Hall, the Beethovenfest Bonn and Liszt Festival Raiding. Recent special projects have included performances of Liszt ‘complete Années de Pèlerinage in one evening and a complete Beethoven sonata cycle filmed at Salle Bourgie in Montreal and broadcast on Medici TV in 2021.

Together with fellow pianist Hélène Mercier, as the Lortie-Mercier duo, he has also shed new light on the repertoire for four hands and two pianos both in the concert hall and on several best-selling recordings.

A prolific recording artist, Louis Lortie’s thirty-year relationship with Chandos Records has produced a catalogue of over 45 recordings on the label, covering repertoire from Mozart to Stravinsky, including a complete Beethoven sonata cycle and the complete Liszt ‘Années de pèlerinage’, which was named as one of the top ten recordings of 2012 by the New Yorker. His recording of the Lutosławski Piano Concerto with Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra received high praise, as have his Chopin recordings. In duet with Hélène Mercier, he recorded Carnival of the Animals with Neeme Jarvi and the Bergen Philharmonic and Vaughan-Williams’ Concerto for Two Pianos as well as Rachmaninov’s complete works for two pianos. Recent recording projects include the five Saint-Saëns piano concertos with Edward Gardner and BBC Philharmonic, solo piano works by Fauré and the complete works of Chopin. He has also recorded two acclaimed CDs with violinist Augustin Dumay for Onyx Classics.

Louis Lortie is co-founder and Artistic Director of the LacMus International Festival on Lake Como and was Master in Residence at The Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel of Brussels from 2015 until 2022. During his formative years in Montreal, Louis Lortie studied with Yvonne Hubert (a pupil of the legendary Alfred Cortot), later in Vienna, with Beethoven specialist Dieter Weber, and subsequently with Schnabel disciple Leon Fleisher. In 1984, he won First Prize in the Busoni Competition and the same year he was a prize-winner at the Leeds Competition.

Contact:
Aude-Marie Auphan (Director)
Nicolas Papageorgiou (Director)

General Management

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Repertoire

Concerto list

- ADÉS
  Concerto Conciso

BACH, J.S

Concerto in F minor, BWV 1056

BEETHOVEN

Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15
Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19
Concerto No. 3 in c minor, Op. 37
Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58
Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 73 (“Emperor”)
Triple Concerto, Op. 56
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 61 (original transcription for Piano and Orchestra)

BRAHMS

Concerto No. 1 in d minor, Op. 15
Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op.83

CHOPIN

Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Op. 11
Concerto No. 2 in f minor, Op. 21
Krakowiak (Rondo), Op. 14
Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise, Op. 22
Variations in B-flat on Mozart’s “La ci darem la mano”, Op. 2
Grand Fantasy on Polish Airs, Op. 13

DEBUSSY

Fantaisie for Piano and Orchestra

DE FALLA

Nights in the Gardens of Spain

D’INDY

Symphonie sur un chant montagnard français, for piano and orchestra

FRANCK

Symphonic Variations

GERSHWIN

Rhapsody in Blue

GRIEG

Concerto in a minor, Op. 16

LISZT

Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major
Concerto No. 2 in A Major
Concerto No. 3
Concerto pathétique
De Profundis
Fantasy on Hungarian Folk-tunes
Fantasy on themes from Berlioz’ “Lelio”
Fantasy on themes from Beethoven’s “Ruins of Athens”
Malédiction for Piano and Strings
Polonaise Brillante
Totentanz

(SCHUBERT-LISZT)

Wandererfantasie

LUTOSLAWSKI

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Paganini Variations

MENDELSSOHN

Concerto No. 1 in g minor, Op. 25
Concerto No. 2 in d minor, Op.40
Serenade and Allegro
Capriccio Brillante
Rondo Brillante
Concerto for 2 Pianos in E major
Concerto in a minor for Piano and Strings
Double Concerto in d minor for Violin, Piano and Strings

MOZART

Concerto No.5 in D major, K.175
Concerto No.6 in B-flat major, K.238
Concerto No.7 in F major for 3 Pianos, K.242
Concerto No.8 in C major, K.246
Concerto No.9 in E-flat major, K.271
Concerto No.10 in E-flat major for 2 Pianos, K.365
Concerto No.11 in F major, K.413
Concerto No.12 in A major, K.414
Concerto No.13 in C major, K.415
Concerto No.14 in E-flat major, K.449
Concerto No.15 in B-flat major, K.450
Concerto No.16 in D major, K.451
Concerto No.17, in G major, K.453
Concerto No.18 in B-flat major, K.456
Concerto No.19 in F major, K.459
Concerto No.20 in d minor, K.466
Concerto No.21 in C Major, K.467
Concerto No.22 in E-flat Major, K.482
Concerto No.23 in A Major, K.488
Concerto No.24 in c minor, K.491
Concerto No.25 in C Major, K.503
Concerto No.26 in D Major, K.537
Concerto No.27 in B-flat Major, K.595

POULENC

Aubade for Piano and 18 instruments
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

PROKOFIEV

Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major
Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26

RACHMANINOV

Concerto No. 2 in c minor, Op. 18
Concerto No. 3 in d minor, Op. 30
Concerto No. 4 in g minor, Op. 40
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

RAVEL

Concerto in G Major
Concerto in D Major (left hand)

SAINT-SAËNS

Concerto No.1 in D, Op. 17
Concerto No. 2 in g minor, Op. 22
Concerto No. 4 in C, Op. 44
Concerto No. 5 in F, Op. 103
Carnival of the Animals (2 pianos)
Africa: Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra
Wedding Cake