Matthias Goerne / Jan Lisiecki

»Jan Lisiecki has what it takes to succeed the great Alfred Brendel in the pianists’ Olympus« – thus the Berlin Tagesspiegel two years ago; with this eulogy the reviewer placed a massive mantle of expectation over the shoulders of a musician who had just turned 24. So far, Lisiecki has fulfilled expectations: successful albums, sold-out concert halls, long queues of autograph hunters outside his dressing room. Things were similar in the case of »the great Alfred Brendel«. What is still missing? Song accompaniment! Brendel himself, incidentally, recorded Beethoven’s wonderfully intimate song cycle »An die ferne Geliebte« together with phenomenal baritone Matthias Goerne, who is also on stage tonight. Thus the wheel turns full circle, and Jan Lisiecki finally gets the opportunity to establish himself as a song accompanist.