Lunch concert with Sophia Liu

Description

Virtuosity is a prerequisite for artistic careers and yet has an image problem. Artist biographies like to invoke the profound musicality of their protagonists, while technical brilliance often appears as a casual addition. There is too much concern that a musician might be misunderstood as a mere finger acrobat. In the case of Sophia Liu, virtuosity explicitly belongs to the artistic signature. The Canadian pianist, born in Shanghai in 2008, is the youngest discovery of this festival edition. Press reviews praise her playing as extraordinarily clear, delicate, refined, and almost supernaturally fluid. At the same time, the young pianist is celebrated for a technical sovereignty with which she explores the limits of her instrument. She spectacularly confirms this in the lunch concert in the Zeugheersaal of the Hotel Schweizerhof Lucerne with works by Charles-Valentin Alkan. As one of the most radical French romantics, Alkan competed with colleagues like Chopin and Liszt with the most difficult virtuoso literature. In Le Preux, the Allegretto alla barbaresca, and the Barcarolle, orchestral sound textures ignite on rhythmic, colorful, and vocal elements. The variation cycle Le Festin d’Ésope is a pianistic feast, demanding boldly forward-driving virtuosity with rapid octaves, extreme leaps, tremolos, and double stops. Chopin's Polonaise Héroïque then leads into romantic sound worlds of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and The Seasons – in arrangements and selections that also show Sophia Liu's playing from a delicate and refined side. With Balakirev's Islamey, Sophia Liu concludes the program with one of the most notorious virtuoso pieces of the piano repertoire – a lunch concert that combines lightness, refinement, and pianistic boundary experience. Cast
Piano: Sophia Liu Program
Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813 – 1888)
Le Preux, op. 17 | 6’
12 Études in all minor keys, op. 39 X Allegretto alla barbaresca | 10’
Recueil de Chants, op. 65 VI Barcarolle | 4’
12 Études in all minor keys, op. 39
XII Le Festin d’Ésope. Allegretto senza licenza quantunque | 10’ Frédéric Chopin (1810 – 1849)
Polonaise Héroïque in A-flat major, op. 53 | 8’ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893)
Nutcracker Suite, op. 71a, arr. Mikhail Pletnev | 17’
The Seasons, op. 37a | 19’
VI June: Barcarolle
VIII August: The Harvest
IX September: Hunting Song
XI November: Troika
XII December: Christmas Mily Balakirev (1837 – 1910)
Islamey – Oriental Fantasy, op. 18 | 8’ Concert end approx. 13:10 SCHWEIZERHOF LUNCH OFFER
Combine music and enjoyment: You can book the matching lunch offer in the Brasserie VICO at the Hotel Schweizerhof Lucerne together with the lunch concerts.

Highlights

• Lunch concert with pianist Sophia Liu
• Works by Charles-Valentin Alkan and Chopin
• Virtuoso piano music in the Zeugheersaal

General Information

The lunch concert takes place at the Hotel Schweizerhof Lucerne and presents the talented pianist Sophia Liu. She plays demanding works by Alkan and Chopin, demonstrating her technical brilliance and musical depth.

Location

Schweizerhofquai 3, 6004 Luzern, Switzerland

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