Eric Lu: Chopin, Scriabin, Schubert

In 1828, Schubert wrote his last three piano sonatas – and then died. Even if they weren’t a conscious goodbye, Schubert was writing this music for nobody but himself. The middle sonata presents a combination of paranoia, abysmal melancholy and elusive, long-spun melodiousness that indulges the composer’s deepest hopes, fears and dreams. Schubert’s Sonata in A forms the culmination of this recital from Leeds International Piano Competition-winner Eric Lu, opening with essential Chopin. Lu journeys from the black pearl of Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor to three of the Polish composer’s most elegant, shapely and much-loved dances for keyboard. To finish, a total one off. Scriabin’s self-styled Gothic Piano Sonata brims over with the Russian composer’s own brand of inflamed mysticism. Explanatory notes suggest to pianists what the composer was after: ‘a free, untamed soul passionately throws itself into pain and struggle.’ Expect fireworks.