United Kingdom Di Castri, R. Schumann, Beethoven: Eric Lu (piano), Vancouver Symphony Orchestra / Earl Lee (conductor). Chan Centre, Vancouver, 24.2.2024. (GN)
Zosha di Castri – ‘Pentimento’
Schumann – Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54
Beethoven – Symphony No.6 in F major, Op.68 ‘Pastoral’
There are few young pianists who have taken the world by storm as much as has 2018 Leeds Piano Competition winner Eric Lu. Now 26, he has produced two widely praised recordings of Schubert and Beethoven/Schumann for Warner and has received consistent ‘superlatives’ in the highest critical circles.
The pianist’s command and wonderful clarity of articulation were certainly on display in the Schumann concerto, where his collaborator was the energetic young Korean/Canadian conductor Earl Lee, currently Music Director of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The performance was bigger and more robust than usual, with the orchestral forces driving hard in the outer movements, but it achieved unusual integration. Lu never faltered in moving the work forward with elegance, strength and precision, even if less room was left for poetic repose. Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral Symphony’ had something of the same energy and strength of line, and it emerged as pleasant and entertaining but not particularly deep.
The opening movement of the Schumann concerto was very Florestan-like, bold and held on a tight rein, with the orchestra moving forward in the spirit of Schumann’s ‘Rhenish’ Symphony or Beethoven. Lu showed lovely command in his entries, but it was the clean transparency and strength of his playing that stood out more than its lyrical shaping. This was a powerful and direct performance, not a rhapsodic one, and not one that sought to probe all the movement’s contrasted corners of expression. Volume levels were also on the loud side, making the dreamier, more contemplative passages – such as the famous duet between clarinet and piano – more difficult to realize. The highlight was the long cadenza which, in Lu’s hands, came off as a stunning virtuoso tour-de-force taken to almost Lisztian proportions.
The Intermezzo gave greater scope for repose, and Lu displayed an admirable sense of line and feeling. There was a purity and sculpted elegance in his playing and, interestingly, a certain grandness later. Unfortunately, some coordination problems between piano, winds and orchestra occurred in the magical transition to the finale but, once we got there, a searing experience was in store, driven by the speed and intensity of the orchestral response.
It was a powerful, virtuoso interpretation, always rhythmically conscious, with Lu remarkably agile and sufficiently grand in his pianism that it got me thinking of Brahms or even Rachmaninoff at times. There were some moments of illumination here, and the movement did not come off as inflated and showy since the pianist’s playing was so concentrated and communicative throughout.
The performance impressed by virtue of its integration and consistency and Lu’s sterling pianism. Still, it is clear that a lot of the integration was achieved by scaling down the work’s more delicate moments of charm, caprice and poetry – a key part of the composer’s conception of the work as a ‘fantasy’. So that was the downside. The other story is about Eric Lu’s virtuoso command and power, which was quite stunning and essential to making this interpretation work.
The pianism witnessed here was quite different in character from the coaxing, soft-spoken lyricism of, say, his Schubert. His encore, Chopin’s popular Prelude No.15, was beautifully etched and had a lovely concentration of feeling. It seemed to lie stylistically about halfway between the two, revealing Lu as a pianist of truly enviable range and penetration.
Earl Lee’s reading of Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ had some of the same energy and firmness of line as the concerto, and the conductor made a particular effort to secure needed character from the woodwinds. The opening movement set off at a quick pace, giving it the feeling of an innocent, open-air, countryside frolic. This was pleasing enough, but the result was perhaps a little too breezy. It tended to gloss over the sense of new discovery in the journey, the slight hesitations and doubts en route, while the speed made the gradual crescendos in the movement difficult to bring off convincingly.
The ‘Scene by the Brook’ was also fairly quick but had a firm pulse throughout. It mined woodwind character particularly well, and that is critical in this movement. I enjoyed it, and my only concern was that, as the movement progressed, the poignancy of the initial expression tended to turn into to a less interesting ‘serenade’ of sorts – again perhaps slightly too glossy.
The ‘Peasant’s Merrymaking’ was given the most cinematic treatment I have heard – the peasants foot-stomping their way to unbridled delight, with the horns whooping their way to delirium. Perhaps it was a little over-the-top, but let young conductors have some fun! The principal danger in inflating these early passages is that it can make the subsequent thunderstorm anti-climactic, but here the intensity was kept up pretty well.
The young conductor obviously loves the finale but perhaps a little too much: the opening violin theme was too effusive and did not avoid sentimentality, and the movement was not free of rough-and-ready moments. But it was a good experience overall. I admired Lee’s spirit and conviction throughout: more depth and reserve will come later.
It was delightful to see the two young artists come together for this concert. I also find the development in Eric Lu’s vision and talent astonishing since I first saw him in 2017. I would be remiss if I did not mention Zosha di Castri’s ‘Pentimento’, a short work that started the concert. It has a myriad of decisive percussion and brass effects that combine to create rhythmic, almost dance-like, postures, but I ultimately felt the piece remained underdeveloped.
Geoffrey Newman