Louis Lortie


Louis Lortie has made nearly 50 recordings for the Chandos label, which attests to an unusually broad repertoire: from Mozart to Stravinsky, all the Beethoven sonatas, as well as the Années de Pèlerinage by Franz Liszt. This latter recording, released in 2012, was listed by The New Yorker as one of the ten best recordings of the year.

Louis Lortie was born in Montreal. After his initial years of study in his native Canada, his path led him to Vienna, where he studied with the Beethoven specialist Dieter Weber. The winner of the 1984 Busoni Competition, he also initiated the LacMus International Festival in Italy, which is held on Lake Como.

As a Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels, he hopes to help open young musicians to the “rich world of possible interpretations.”Als Master in Residence an der Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brüssel hofft er, jungen Musikerinnen und Musikern helfen zu können, sich der „reichen Welt an Interpretationen öffnen zu können.“

The perfect piano - a marvel

That is how Louis Lortie described the Bösendorfer Model 280VC concert grand after a concert in London’s Wigmore Hall. “Even with its new action, the piano always has this typical Bösendorfer sound, these thick, massive tones.” He is also impressed by the quality of Bösendorfer’s craftsmanship. “It is wonderful that there are still people who have devoted themselves to this highest level of quality, which we absolutely need.”