Echo — Lü Yuanhan Solo Piano Recital (Chengdu)

|Performance Date|

Friday, September 12, 2025, 19:30

|Venue|

Chengdu City Concert Hall · Chamber Music Hall

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Do you remember last year's 19-year-old piano prodigy who successfully conquered what is regarded as the world's hardest work — Bach's 283-year-old Goldberg Variations? What passion, what a shock! This year, at 20, he returns with the concept of "Echo" and his unique, poetic playing to take us on a soul journey spanning several centuries…

Bach — Goldberg Variations, Aria da capo

Performed by: Lü Yuanhan — live at Chengdu City Concert Hall, 2024

Lü Yuanhan — a "phenomenon-level" rising star of the classical music world

At 20, he is the youngest laureate of the Gautier Capuçon Foundation (2022) and the Verbier Festival Soloist Academy Tabor Prize (2024), with a performance career spanning Schloss Elmau, Jordan Hall, and other world-class venues.

At 17, his "distinctive personal style" made a sensation at both the Leipzig Bach International Competition and the Geneva International Piano Competition. In 2025 he reached the Leipzig Bach Competition semifinals again, emerging as the most dazzling young face among the world's top nine.

His playing moved Japanese pianist Momo Kodama to describe it as "full of poetry," brought Korean educator Eun Jeong Lee to tears for "reading Bach's soul," and earned the tribute from Music Weekly critic Lin Da: "like a pilgrim climbing a solemn tower — the higher the climb, the stronger the belief, until a state of awakening is reached."

Shostakovich — Prelude and Fugue in A major, Op. 87

Performed by: Lü Yuanhan — live at the Leipzig Bach Competition, 2025

Why you must attend in person

When Bach and Shostakovich transcend time — "Echo" meets

From the playful dialogue of the Echo (BWV 831) to the deep philosophical meditation of the Sarabande from Partita No. 4, to the tension of Shostakovich's Preludes and Fugues — Lü Yuanhan re-interprets the classical core through a "new-generation lens," letting Baroque and 20th-century classics illuminate each other anew.

Second half — "Emotional Tempest": Schumann and Scriabin's inner soliloquies

Schumann's Kreisleriana, Op. 16 surges like a rhapsody, weaving fantasy and reality; Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53, suffused with mysticism, leads you into a dreamscape of shifting light and shadow.

Programme

1. J.S. Bach — Echo, from French Overture BWV 831

2. Shostakovich — Prelude and Fugue in a minor & A major, Op. 87

3. Bartók — 3 Hungarian Folksongs from Csík, Sz. 35a

4. J.S. Bach — Sarabande from Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828

5. J.S. Bach — Toccata in G major, BWV 916

6. Shostakovich — Prelude and Fugue in D major & d minor, Op. 87

— Intermission —

7. Schumann — Kreisleriana, Op. 16

8. Scriabin — Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53

Programme and order subject to change

Programme Notes — by Lü Yuanhan

I was once playing the final movement of Bach's French Overture and was struck by the title "Echo" — Bach never named any other work "Echo," before or after. It reminded me of last year, in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chengdu: after I played the final note of the Goldberg Variations, the audience and I held a silence of about half a minute. I am very proud of that — it was the echo of every note I had played, and the audience felt it.

This year I open with this unique "Echo," followed by Shostakovich's colorful and passionate Preludes and Fugues — the A major radiating brilliant light. I think of Bartók's "3 Hungarian Folk Songs" as an interlude, briefly taking us to the Hungarian countryside to hear birdsong and a shepherd's song. Suddenly — could it be that three hundred years ago in the Baroque era, a shepherd was also whispering his own feelings? The Sarabande from the Fourth Partita.

Dance freely, never mind the onlookers — the G major Toccata.

Return once more: Shostakovich's D major Preludes and Fugues, the key of D echoing the earlier A, ending the first half with the composer's fierce inner cry.

Second half: Schumann's Kreisleriana, the collision of two extreme personalities — passionate impulsiveness and poetic introspection. Scriabin's Fifth Sonata, inspired by the Poem of Ecstasy: "Mysterious force, I awaken you! You, trembling in the dark depths of the creative spirit, fearful of life's beginning — I set you stirring!"

Artist Biography

Lü Yuanhan — Born 2004. Studied under Associate Professor Yang Yang at the affiliated high school of Sichuan Conservatory of Music; completed undergraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg under Professor Alexander Schimpf; currently pursuing a master's degree at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin under Professor Kirill Gerstein.

2025: Leipzig Bach Competition semifinalist, top nine worldwide; 2024: Verbier Festival Tabor Prize; 2022: Gautier Capuçon Foundation laureate; Morningside Music Bridge fellow; Ad Infinitum Foundation scholarship; 2022 semifinalist at both the Geneva International Piano Competition and the Leipzig Bach International Competition (youngest); First Prize — Gustav Mahler Competition; First Prize and Best Haydn Prize — Carles & Sofia Competition; Second Prize — Rudolf Kehrer Competition; 2019 Gold Award — 5th Sichuan Provincial Youth Piano Competition.

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