{"id":957,"date":"2019-04-02T17:29:56","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T17:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=957"},"modified":"2019-04-03T17:55:57","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T17:55:57","slug":"an-exceptional-piano-recital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/04\/02\/an-exceptional-piano-recital\/","title":{"rendered":"AN EXCEPTIONAL PIANO RECITAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review by Martin Widden<\/span><\/p>\n

Some years ago, with help from the Friends of the Lancaster Concerts, the University bought a new Steinway concert grand piano for the Great Hall. Our old Steinway had reached the stage where good pianists were complaining about the state of it, and seemed quite likely to start refusing to come to Lancaster. Having this new piano has enabled the University to bring excellent pianists to Lancaster to perform in the concert series. Last week’s concert was one such, with a recital by Eric Lu, winner of the first prize in the 2018 Leeds international piano competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

His programme opened with the A minor Rondo by Mozart. This late piece by Mozart, dating from 1787, is full of emotion, and Lu captured this excellently in a sensitive performance. He followed this with the six Klavierst\u00fccke by Brahms. These are serious pieces, demanding the deepest insight from the performer, and again Eric Lu was able to tap into this very well despite his relatively tender years (he is 21).<\/span><\/p>\n

After the interval, we had Handel’s Chaconne in G major, a series of variations on a theme. Handel’s skill in developing this short and simple theme into complex and mesmerising variations is remarkable.<\/span><\/p>\n

The recital ended with the second sonata by Chopin – the one that includes as its third movement the well-known funeral march. This is a virtuoso piece, which was played with complete confidence by the pianist.<\/span><\/p>\n

The performance of this varied and well-balanced programme by Eric Lu was highly satisfying. He evidently studies the music so that he becomes fully aware of the composer’s intentions, and his technique is so assured that he is able to communicate these to the listener very clearly.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was an excellent recital in every way – possibly the best piano performance of recent years in the Lancaster series of concerts, and a fine end to the 2018-19 concert season.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review by Martin Widden Some years ago, with help from the Friends of the Lancaster Concerts, the University bought a new Steinway concert grand piano for the Great Hall. Our old Steinway had reached the stage where good pianists were … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[65,481,63,482,410],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contributed-article","category-review","tag-classical-music","tag-issue-187","tag-martin-widden","tag-piano","tag-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-fr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":861,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/12\/17\/martin-widden-wielding-his-pen-like-a-knife-to-the-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":0},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘WIELDING HIS PEN LIKE A KNIFE TO THE HEART’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 17 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Leeds Piano Competition Winner gives first-class recital The Great Hall concert on Thursday 1 November was a solo piano recital by Anna Tsybuleva, winner of the 2015 Leeds Piano Competition. 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Such claims are widely believed by musicians, but although careful scientific tests\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/02\/19\/widdens-review-piano-quartet-concert-in-the-great-hall\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":2},"title":"WIDDEN’S REVIEW – PIANO QUARTET CONCERT IN THE GREAT HALL","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"February 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed by Martin Widden This concert on 30 January 2020 was given by a quartet of violin, viola, cello and piano - a fairly unusual combination, because the modern concert grand can easily drown out the three strings. But Mozart, that brilliant pioneer in all things musical, wrote three works\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1405,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/10\/28\/widdens-review-songs-in-the-great-hall\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":3},"title":"Widden’s Review – Songs in the Great Hall","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 28 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Contributed by Martin Widden It is good to be able to report that some things are getting back to something like normal, or at any rate to New Normal: the University's International Concert Series resumed on the evening of Thursday 8 October. The furniture in the Great Hall had been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":157,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/martin-widden-he-pulls-no-punches-and-tells-it-like-it-is\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":4},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘HE PULLS NO PUNCHES, AND TELLS IT LIKE IT IS’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Scarlatti and Cage in the Great Hall Domenico Scarlatti (born Naples in 1685, and so an exact contemporary of J S Bach) wrote over 500 sonatas for harpsichord, nearly all of them short and in just one movement of simple AABB form - two halves, each of them repeated.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":287,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/01\/18\/martin-widden-britains-fiercest-music-critic\/","url_meta":{"origin":957,"position":5},"title":"MARTIN WIDDEN: ‘BRITAIN\u2019S FIERCEST MUSIC CRITIC’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"January 18 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Review: Ella Remembered This was the title of a performance given in the Great Hall on 7 December as part of the University\u2019s International Concert Series. 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