SCHUMANN: Arabeske< Op. 18
SCHUMANN: Waldszenen, Op. 82

1. Eintritt (Entry)
2. Jäger auf der Lauer (Hunters on the lookout)
3. Einsame Blumen (Lonely Flowers)
4. Verrufene Stelle (Haunted Place)
5. Freundliche Landschaft (Friendly Landscape)
6. Herberge (Wayside Inn)
7. Vogel als Prophet (Bird as Prophet)
8. Jagdlied (Hunting Song)
9. Abschied (Farewell)

BRAHMS Theme and Variations in D minor, op. 18b
INTERMISSION
BACH: Toccata in C minor BWV 911
CHOPIN: Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35

Schumann’s Arabeske is a work of simple yet profound emotions, requiring the musical and interpretative skills of a truly great performer. A simple rippling theme begins the work and is heard three times, alternating with two minor-key passages. One writer comments that with each appearance of the theme, Schumann “obliges us to reassess” it, “as though our view changes when seen through the differing shadows cast by the intervening passages.” The composer’s Waldszenen is a collection of pieces that underscores the 19th century’s fascination with the magic and mystery of the forest. The most striking piece within the set has to be the spooky and almost psychedelic “Vogel als Prophet” (Bird as Prophet).

When Clara Schumann heard the slow movement of Brahms’ Sextet in B-flat major, she implored him for a piano transcription of it. Brahms delivered in this present transcription, unpublished until after his death. The composer was reportedly very pleased and proud of this work, where he richly and thoroughly transformed the original theme in six variations.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata in C minor is one of seven pieces written under a collective title, pieces that represent the composer’s earliest keyboard writing. Common among Bach’s toccatas is a contrast between free, improvisatory keyboard writing and more tightly organized, contrapuntal sections. While the fugue in this work does not have the complexity of those found in the two volumes of the Well Tempered Clavier, it allows for ample display of virtuoso fingerwork characteristic of toccatas as a genre.

Robert Schumann referred to the four movements of Chopin’s B-flat minor sonata as “four of his most reckless children.” Indeed, the four contrasting movements of this sonata could almost be viewed as four scenes of a tragic play. The emotional core of the entire work is of course the remarkable and now iconic funeral march that constitutes the third movement. One writer refers to this work as a “sonata of love and death”, still another, in rather colourful language, writes about this work being “an inward conversation about existential matters.”

“Lu seems already to possess something of the magic tough of early Leeds laureates Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu, and is surely one of the most exciting prospects in a long time. A veritable poet of the keyboard.”-The Guardian

“Moments of the utmost mystery nourished the soul, while elsewhere the ear was ravished by Lu’s impeccably even, crystalline trills… And how right Lu was to wait just that split second before his first retort to the strings in the central movement, a moment of purest magic.” – Seen and Heard International