With his clever and unobtrusive way of illuminating works and his articulatory precision, Jan Lisiecki is just the right pianist to play Sergei Prokofiev’s five piano concertos at the Ruhr Piano Festival over the next two seasons. Their technical hurdles are maddeningly high, but above all they are imbued with the spirit of neo-classicism. To interpret these works in the spirit of Mozart, Mendelssohn and Ravel – who, along with Schumann and Beethoven, are among Lisiecki’s favourite composers – does them far more justice than a mere virtuoso demonstration. And in the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, conducted by Tarmo Peltokoski, the Canadian soloist has an ideal partner for his large-scale Prokofiev project. The orchestra frames the piano concertos with symphonies by W.A. Mozart and Jan Sibelius.