A POETIC JOURNEY / ERIC LU Piano Recital / Review

A POETIC JOURNEY

ERIC LU Piano Recital

SOTA Concert Hall

Saturday (8 January 2022)

 

It was a matter of time when American pianist Eric Lu gave his début solo recital in Singapore. In 2019, the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition winner substituted for an indisposed Martha Argerich, performing Chopin’s First Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. On his own, much more of him as an artist was revealed.

 

The first of two recitals opened with Schumann’s Kinderszenen (Forest Scenes) Op.82, a cycle of nine character pieces. Possessed with a similar feel to the earlier Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) Op.15, but with longer and more mature pieces, it was a good showcase for range. And it received the performance it deserved. The lanky unsmiling pianist, with the retiring demeanour of one many years older, applied generous pedalling and rubato when appropriate. Much colour emanated from the music’s apparent simple and unalloyed charm, as in the opening Eintritt (Entry) and Einsame Blumen (Lonesome Flowers), pieces which sometimes appear in children’s albums.

 

Tests of technical capabilities came in two hunting pieces (Jäger auf der Lauer and Jagdlied), which he surmounted with ease, but the litmus for true musicality were found in Verrufene Stelle (Haunted Place) and Vogel als Prophet (Prophet Bird). German Romanticism often delighted in Gothic horror or the mere suggestion of it, and Schumann showed that mystery and mysticism could be conjured through simple sounds and harmonies. It was in these two pieces, handled with a magical touch and utmost delicacy, where Lu found a glowing resonance. The final Abschied (Farewell), all about flowing lyricism, was the rightful valediction.  

 

Words from Wilhelm Müller’s poetry, set to music in Schubert’s Winterreise, were recited in both German and English as a brief interlude, ushering the listener into world of Lieder. Schubert’s penultimate Piano Sonata in A major (D.959), despite not having words, lies in the heart of this rarefied genre. Stentorian chords open the work, its openly declared defiance and pathos not lost to Lu, who unfolded the epic like a master story-teller. With exposition repeat observed, the development forged ahead as a tumultuous contest of wills with Schubert at his most Beethovenian. That was before the movement closing with the chords reprised but arriving as a resigned whimper.

 

Has there been any melody sadder than the slow movement’s main theme? Its stark beauty, with which Lu mused like a true bard, was only dispelled by some of Schubert’s uncharacteristically most violent music. The earth shook as the heavens thundered for several pages, bristling with dissonances, its upheavals making this discomfiting listening designed to ruffle more than feathers. Had Schubert left the sonata incomplete with just the first two movements, this would have been hailed his masterpiece of musical tragedy.

 

But no. With the third and fourth movements, the complexion of the work as a whole would be totally changed. The playful Scherzo and Trio was the diversion leading to the Finale’s Rondo with its glorious melody sounding even better with each reappearance. Perhaps this was Schubert’s way of balancing the earlier doom and gloom, but no. The opening chords return, a reminder of his (and our) mortality. Lu has the full measure of Schubert’s psyche, and delivered it like a true master.    

  

Eric’s sole encore was Chopin’s Raindrop Prélude (Op.28 No.15), in a reading which built its crescendo arc-like to a crushing climax that could only represent pain and trauma. One could never hear it the same way again. From this recital alone, Eric Lu announces himself as a major artist, one who will figure large in the musical future to come.

Eric Lu was presented by Altenburg Arts.