Program

Chopin:
24 Preludes, Op. 28


~ Intermission ~

Mozart:
Rondo in A minor, K. 511

Schubert:
Impromptu in C minor, Op. 90 D. 899 No. 1

Prokofiev:
Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83


 

Eric Lu 陸逸軒, pianist
www.ericlupianist.com

19-year old pianist Eric Lu is rapidly building an international reputation as a young pianist with enormous promise, and a distinctive musical voice.

A native of the Boston, Massachusetts area, Eric Lu won the 1st prize at the 2015 US National Chopin Competition in Miami, and recently, won the 1st prize and audience award at the 2017 International German Piano Award in Frankfurt. In October 2015, at 17 years old, Eric won the 4th prize at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw, becoming one of the youngest laureates in the history of the prestigious competition. Following these recent successes, Eric received invitations to perform in many important venues around the world in just the past two years, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Alte Oper Hall in Frankfurt, Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw, Jordan Hall in Boston, Taipei National Concert Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, Strathmore Music Center, the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki, Poland, NOSPR Concert Hall in Katowice, Krakow Philharmonic Concert Hall, NohantChopin Festival, and a tour of Japan and Korea following the Chopin Competition, performing in halls such as Seoul Arts Center, Tokyo Metropolitan Hall, Osaka Symphony Hall, Sapporo Arts Center, among others. Described by the New York Classical Review as a musician of “exceptional musical sensitivity”, as well as by Michael Moran from the Duszniki Festival proclaiming, “The tone he produced was luminous, the articulation spellbinding and exciting, the legato and bel canto desperately moving.” Following his performance of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 during the final of the International Piano Award, the Darmstadter Echo wrote, “Lu received thundering applause after a sheer unbelievable performance of the work. Oscillating between melancholy and turmoil, he follows the expressive themes of the work with sensitivity, peeling out melodies with fascinating clarity from the virtuosic, densely-written piano part.”

Paving the way included earlier achievements of 1st prizes at the Moscow International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists(2014), the Minnesota International e-Piano Junior Competition (2013), and the XII Ettlingen International Competition in Germany(2010). Eric has collaborated with orchestras such as the Warsaw Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Staatskapelle Halle, National Philharmonic, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic, Orchestra of the 18th century, Orquestra Clasica Santa Cecilia, New Jersey Symphony, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Rzeszow and Kielce Philharmonics, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, etc.

Eric Lu started piano studies at the age of 6 with Mrs. Dorothy Shi. While at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, he studied with Alexander Korsantia, and Mr. A. Ramon Rivera. In 2013, Eric entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he currently studies with Profs. Robert McDonald and Jonathan Biss. He is also a pupil of pianist Dang Thai Son. His debut CD was released under the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, recorded from the Chopin Competition 2015.

April 2017.
 

Stephen Wigler: Letter from America 2017: bimonthly column on "International Piano" magazine. Eric Lu, the now 19-year-old fourth-prize laureate of the 2015 International Frederyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw, gave the season’s final recital in Boston’s Chinese Performing Arts Foundation concert series (13 May, Jordan Hall). Lu is still a student at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia (where he studies with Robert McDonald and Jonathan Biss), but he is already a serious, mature and interesting musician. His performance of Chopin’s Twenty-four Preludes Op. 28, which occupied the first half of his program, was superb. He moved with confident mastery through the immense variety of moods, from the simple unforced lyricism of the A Major and E-flat Major to the pessimism of the Preludes in A Minor and F Minor. In the remarkable D-flat Major piece, known as the “Raindrop” Prelude because of its repeated A-flats around which melody and accompaniment are woven, he made a listener aware of the way it foreshadows Ravel’s “Le Gibet,” written 75 years later. In the C-sharp Minor middle section, he also made one aware of how Chopin looks forward to Mussorgsky. The suspicion that this anticipation of Mussorgsky suggested a talent for Russian music was confirmed after the interval by Lu’s performance of Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7. This was a terrific reading, especially interesting in the finale’s astonishing toccata-like finale. Unlike most young virtuosos with remarkable equipment, Lu realized that the movement’s excitement is not generated by sheer velocity, but by maintaining rhythmic accuracy and stability. Last season, when another gifted young pianist, Haochen Zhang, performed the same sonata, his breathlessly fast tempo in the finale outpaced the music. Lu’s discipline permitted him to make the music sound unbelievably fast without being uncontrollably fast. The Prokofiev was preceded by performances of two sad pieces, Mozart’s A Minor Rondo K. 511 and Schubert’s C Minor Impromptu D. 899. Lu’s performances of the Mozart will probably attain a higher level of subtlety and refinement as he grows older, but it’s hard to imagine a more touching and tenderly ruminating performance than the one heard on this occasion. It was playing that made a listener look forward to hearing Lu perform this composer’s sonatas in the years to come.