Wed 23 Oct 1.10pm
2020 Performing Artist of the Year’ by the South China Morning Post, currently studies at the Royal Academy of Music on full scholarship.
https://www.youtube.com/live/TXGAQ3EJ8vs?feature=shared
Some very assured playing from the opening notes of the Bach Chaconne played with great authority with wonderful layers of sound.There was a luminosity and fluidity to her playing of great clarity and precision where there was both poetry and passion ,power and grandeur. A wonderful range of sounds but always within the style of one of the greatest works ever written for a solo instrument.
There was a delicacy to her chromatic study by Debussy that was played with a crystalline clarity and great beauty as the melodic line was intoned in the bass with the insinuating chromatic jeux perlé whispered above.Debussy’s ‘fireworks’ were just that, beginning with just a scintillating spark of extraordinary clarity and precision as it gradually built from a glimmer to a glowing outpouring of quite transcendental mastery only to die away as the Marseillaise was heard in the distance.Some ravishingly atmospheric playing as we listened to the barely whispered anthem before the last spark was extinguished.
There was a classical nobility to the Sonata op 78 that together with the ‘Appassionata’ were the favourites of the composer’s output of his thirty two steps that mirrored his lifetime in music. It lead to the simple beauty of the Allegro with the beauty and delicacy of the embellishments contrasting between the exuberance and the sweetly calm of a Sonata dedicated to a lady of whom Beethoven was evidently very fond.The Allegto vivace saw the return of the irascible Beethoven of dramatic contrasts with Sherri’s crystalline fingers able to bring such subtle clarity and contrasts to this scintillating final movement.The coda was beautifully shaped as the knotty twine just unraveled so eloquently before being swept away on a wave of exuberance.
Chopin’s Polonaise Fantasie was played with nobility and refined beauty with a sense of architectural shape that held this seemingly fragmented work together revealing the masterpiece of a new form that the genius of Chopin had discovered towards the end of his life .A beauty to the central episode of great strength and poignant meaning.The opening vibrating chords were played with a ravishing sense of colour as they gently expanded over the entire keyboard to be rudely awakened by the strident Polonaise rhythm.The build up to the final aristocratic climax was masterful as it was a gradual exhilaration, culminating in the ecstatic final triumphant outpouring before dying away to a mere whisper .
Chopin’s Revolutionary Study played as an encore demonstrated Sherri’s superb technical mastery allied to a scrupulous attention to detail and sense of architectural shape. It was obvious that she had been tutored by Christopher Elton whose many famous students like those of his mentor Gordon Green are magnificently prepared pianists but first and foremost superb and respectful musicians – servants to the masters they are interpreting.
Sherri Lun at Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Trust Mastery,passion and intelligence of twenty year old pianist.
“- tackling the bruising finale with pinpoint clarity and convincing bravura, while the lighter moments danced with an impish joy that brought the audience to their feet after the final bars.” – Chicago Tribune
Born in 2003, Sherri Lun started her first piano lesson at the age of 4. At 7 years old, she was admitted to the Junior Music Program of Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a double major in piano and viola under the tutelages of Ms. Hui Ling (piano) and Ms. Cass Ho (viola). After graduating from Diocesan Girls’ School, she continued her music studies with Prof. Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she receives a full-tuition scholarship supported by the Academy and the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme. She is also a KNS Classical and Keyboard Charitable Trust artist.A Young Scholar of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, Sherri made her concerto debut at the Ravinia Festival with the Midwest Young Artists at just 10 years old. Since then, she has performed in prestigious venues including Wigmore Hall in London, Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, and Millennium Park in Chicago. Her international appearances span the UK, US, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Malaysia, and China. Sherri has also collaborated with esteemed ensembles such as the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Hong Kong Youth Orchestra, and Kölner Kammerorchester. In December 2023, she released her debut album with KNS Classical, featuring works by Robert Schumann and César Franck.Highlights of her 2023/24 season include solo recitals in Steinway Hall London, Drapers’ Hall, Hammerklavier International Piano Series in Girona, as well as a 4-concert tour in Malaysia. Performances in the upcoming season include the Leeds & Bradford Piano Trail Festival as part of the Leeds International Piano Competition, the Festival Musicale delle Nazioni in Rome, and an Italian concert tour in 2025 organized by the Keyboard Charitable Trust.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 