Sherri just two days after playing in London began her Keyboard Trust Italian tour in collaboration with the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation, with a triumphant appearance in Vicenza.
https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/03/12/sherri-lun-in-perivale-maturity-and-mastery-of-intelligence-and-refined-poetry/

Incontro Sulla Tastiera for young musicians is the series that the tireless Mariantonietta Righetto Sgueglia has been organising for almost fifty years. Now in the magnificent Teatro Comunale this was just the start of a tour that will finish next week in Florence taking in Venice,Padua and The Ritz at Abano Terme

.https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2025/03/19/sherri-lun-in-florence-harold-acton-library-music-al-british-refined-musicianship-and-mastery-of-a-young-star/

A fascinating programme that starts and finishes with two of the most important works in the Romantic piano repertoire. Chopin’s last great masterpiece the Polonaise- Fantasie where Chopin had created a completely new form that was so revolutionary for it’s time that it was only many years after his death that it was finally recognised for it’s genial invention and poetic beauty. Beethoven’s shortest Sonata but one of the composers favourite for its beauty and simplicity, opening the gate to the composers last period of his thirty two sonatas that spanned his entire life story.

Bach’s mighty Chaconne presented in the famous reworking by Busoni in his centenary year and the rebirth for the piano of one of the greatest of Bach’s works originally written for solo violin. ’Widmung’ and the Fantasie were outpourings of love by Robert Schumann for his future wife Clara .It is fitting that Sherri should include a composition by Clara Schumann too, who apart from being the mother of Robert’s eight children was the first woman virtuoso of the piano and a quite considerable composer in her own right.The Nocturne uses Robert’s theme from the Fantasie and was published in the same year.A secret message between Clara and Robert of one of the greatest love stories of all time.

Chopin Polonaise Fantasie in A-flat major, Op.61

Beethoven Sonata No.24 in F-sharp major, Op.78

Bach/Busoni Chaconne in D minor, BWV 1004

—Intermission— 

Schumann/Liszt Widmung

Clara Schumann Nocturne Op.6 No.2

Schumann Fantasy in C major, Op.17

Schumann ,Wieck and Chopin
Good performances of Sherri Lun
Il Giornale di Vicenza 19 March 2025
Eva Purelli
‘Difficult programme played with great ability by the young refined pianist from Hong Kong .With the only exception of Bach.’

‘In partnership with the Keyboard Trust of London and the Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation, the 21 year old pianist from Hong Kong , Sherri Lun, played for the ‘Incontri sulla Tastiera.
This time for the appearance in Vicenza in the historic collaboration with the English Trust,created by Noretta Conci with her husband John Leech, (Noretta had been a student and assistant of Arturo Benedetto Michelangeli) , there appeared another association that sponsors young concert artists on their International tours : The Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation giving scholarships to young pianists from all parts of the world in memory of the young pianist who died of linfoma in 2018.
These realities do not exist in Italy as they do in England where this same pianist, Lun, is perfecting her studies under Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music.
Her visiting card in Vicenza was with a refined programme of above all the music of Robert Schumann. The Fantasie in C op 17 was written in 1836 and revised in 1838 to raise funds for a monument in honour of Beethoven in Bonn, that Robert Schumann dedicated to Liszt, with it’s outpouring of love for Clara Wieck. It is a work of great originality, strong passions and intimate nostalgia of such importance that it became the inspiration for Liszt’s B minor Sonata that he dedicated to Robert Schumann.
A pianistic masterpiece that found in Lun an interpreter of precision with great attention to the dynamics and an authoritative technical command of expressive sensibility .
There can be no doubt that Schumann is the composer that she has most feeling for, with a ravishing tenderness that was revealed also in her performance of his song ( in reality a Lied).
‘Widmung’ op 25 n 1 was composed by Schumann and trascribed for piano by Liszt. It means ‘Dedication’ and is a profound declaration of love and admiration for Clara Wieck. It was her Nocturne op 6 n 2 that Sherri also played. For some years this composer has been rediscovered and admired for herself and not just as the partner of a Romantic German genius. In fact her nocturne was a surprise for its exquisite fullness and creative style.
Well etched also was Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie op 61 .
This important and robust programme also included Beethoven’s F sharp Sonata op 78 in which she revealed a kaleidoscope of colour and sensitive phrasing.
The programme could have finished there with the beautiful romanticism of Schumann without bothering to play the Bach Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004 in the famous reworking of Ferruccio Busoni : where Lun’s interpretation was too romantic, lacking in profundity and contrapuntal shape.
On the other hand she played a glowing encore ‘In des Abends ‘ from the ‘Fantasiestücke’ ………by Schumann of course .

PART 2 Venice – Padua – Abano Terme for Agimus Padua

Beauty everywhere and nowhere more than in Palazzo Albrizzi with an inspired Sherri Lun.

The Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61 was dedicated to Mme A. Veyret, and written and published in 1846. It was slow to gain favour with musicians, due to its harmonic complexity and intricate form.Its shape and its style caused much consternation and it was quite some time before listeners could come to terms with it as ‘the piano speaks here in a language not previously known’.The “Polonaise-Fantaisie” is among Chopin’s last great piano works, and is a testament to his mastery and maturity. The unusual title betrays the fact that Chopin was uncertain about which genre to assign it to. While the typical rhythm and noble character of the Polonaise repeatedly shine through the notes, the Polonaise-Fantaisie is characterized above all by a great freedom in its thematic and formal aspects. The work brushes through a great variety of keys, moods and motifs, and leads into a grandiose closing apotheosis as if at the end of a long journey.One of the first critics to speak positively of the work was Arthur Hedley,writing in 1947 said that it “works on the hearer’s imagination with a power of suggestion equaled only by the F minor Fantasy  or the Fourth Ballade .He suggested that the Polonaise-Fantaisie represents a change in Chopin’s style from ‘late’ to ‘last’.It is suggested that the formal ambiguities of the piece (particularly the unconventional and musically misleading transitions into and out of the lyrical inner section) are the most significant defining qualities of this ‘last style’, which only includes this and one other piece—the F minor Mazurka op 68 n. 4 Chopin’s last composition.”,

The Piano Sonata No. 24 in F sharp major , Op. 78, nicknamed “à Thérèse” (because it was written for Countess Thérèse von Brunswick in 1809.

It consists of two movements:

1. Adagio cantabile — Allegro ma non troppo
2. Allegro vivace

According to Carl Czerny , Beethoven himself singled out this sonata and the “Appassionata ” Sonata as favourites (once written, the “Hammerklavier “ Sonata” would also become one of Beethoven’s favourites

Who isn’t familiar with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Chaconne, the final movement in his Partita in D minor for Violin solo? Time and again composers have been inspired to make this exceptional piece accessible for other instruments. Perhaps the best-known arrangement is by Ferruccio Busoni. 
Without distancing himself too greatly from Bach’s original, he endeavours to transpose the virtuosity of the string writing onto the piano. Thus Busoni wrote for the piano in a way that congenially makes the most of the capabilities of the modern piano.

Ferrucio Busoni, born in Italy of an Italian father and a German mother, displayed a passion for Bach at an early age. A prodigy who played some of his own compositions in a piano recital in Vienna when he was 10 years old, Busoni made an exhaustive study of Bach’s music and throughout his adult life worked tirelessly at editing and making transcriptions of works by the Baroque master. His philosophical notions of music and the advanced practices of composition that he applied to his own pieces seem now to be at odds with such a bravura, flamboyant piece of work as his transcription for piano of the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita No. 2 for solo violin. The transcription was made sometime in the late 1890s and was dedicated to the pianist Eugene d’Albert; Busoni himself played it frequently in his own blazingly brilliant recitals.

Lest it be thought that Busoni was being irreverent in appropriating the lofty Chaconne for showpiece purposes, one must remember that Brahms made a piano transcription of the selfsame piece, for left hand alone. Wheras Brahms imitates the original as closely as possible, Busoni ventures an arrangement that seems to be a piano realization of a grand orchestral or organ work rather than one for a single violin.In fact, the Chaconne, the final movement of the Partita, is monumental in its original version—a set of more than 60 variations on a simple bass theme. The great Bach scholar Philipp Spitta (1841-1894) gave a description of the Chaconne that might have quickened Busoni’s fascination with it. Wrote Spitta:

“The overpowering wealth of forms displays not only the most perfect knowledge of the technique of the violin, but also the most absolute mastery over an imagination the life of which no composer was ever endowed with… What scenes the small instrument opens to our view!… From the grave majesty of the beginning to the 32nd notes which rush up and down like very demons; from the tremulous arpeggios that hang almost motionless, like veiling clouds above a gloomy ravine, till a strong wind drives them to the tree tops, which groan and toss as they whirl their leaves into the air; to the devotional beauty of the movement in D major, where the evening sun sets in the peaceful valley. The spirit of the master urges the instrument to incredible utterances; at the end of the major section, it sounds like an organ, and sometimes a whole band of violins seems to be playing. [Busoni took this reference seriously.] The Chaconne is a triumph of spirit over matter such as even Bach never repeated in a more brilliant manner.”

The Fantasie in C, Op. 17, was written by Robert Schumann in 1836 and revised prior to publication in 1839, when it was dedicated to Franz Liszt. It is generally described as one of Schumann’s greatest works for solo piano, and is one of the central works of the early Romantic period.

Its three movements are headed:

1. Durchaus fantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen; Im Legenden-Ton 
2. Mäßig. Durchaus energisch –
3. Langsam getragen. Durchweg leise zu halten.
   The piece has its origin in early 1836, when Schumann composed a piece entitled Ruines expressing his distress at being parted from his beloved Clara Wieck (later to become his wife). This later became the first movement of the Fantasy.Later that year, he wrote two more movements to create a work intended as a contribution to the appeal for funds to erect a monument  to Beethoven  in his birthplace, Bonn . Schumann offered the work to the publisher Kirstner, suggesting that 100 presentation copies could be sold to raise money for the monument. Other contributions to the Beethoven monument fund included Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses
   The original title of Schumann’s work was “Obolen auf Beethovens Monument: Ruinen, Trophaen, Palmen, Grosse Sonate f.d. Piano f. Für Beethovens Denkmal”. Kirstner refused, and Schumann tried offering the piece to Haslinger in January 1837. When Haslinger also refused, he offered it to Breitkopf & Hartel in May 1837. The movements’ subtitles (Ruins, Trophies, Palms) became Ruins, Triumphal Arch, and Constellation, and were then removed altogether before Breitkopf & Härtel eventually issued the Fantasie in May 1839.
   The work was dedicated to Franz Liszt , who replied in a letter dated June 5, 1839: “The Fantaisie dedicated to me is a work of the highest kind – and I am really proud of the honour you have done me in dedicating to me so grand a composition. I mean, therefore, to work at it and penetrate it through and through, so as to make the utmost possible effect with it.”
   The Beethoven Monument was eventually completed, due mainly to the efforts of Liszt, who paid 2,666 thaler,the largest single contribution. It was unveiled in grand style in 1845, the attendees including Queem Victoria  and Prince Albert, and many other dignitaries and composers, but not Schumann, who was ill.
   Schumann prefaced the work with a quote from Friedich Schlegel :
   Durch alle Töne tönet
   Im bunten Erdentraum
   Ein leiser Ton gezogen
   Für den, der heimlich lauschet.
   (“Resounding through all the notes
   In the earth’s colorful dream
   There sounds a faint long-drawn note
   For the one who listens in secret.”)
   The musical quotation  of a phrase from Beethoven’s song cycle An die ferne Geliebte  in the coda of the first movement was not acknowledged by Schumann, and apparently was not spotted until 1910.The text of the passage quoted is: Accept then these songs [beloved, which I sang for you alone]. Both the Schlegel stanza and the Beethoven quotation are appropriate to Schumann’s current situation of separation from Clara Wieck. Schumann wrote to Clara: The first movement may well be the most passionate I have ever composed – a deep lament for you. They still had many tribulations to suffer before they finally married four years later.

The six Soirees musicales, Op. 6. Robert Schumann himself was appreciative enough of Clara’s romantic ”Notturno”, Op. 6 No. 2, (growing from the five falling-note motif so symbolic for both of them while forbidden all communication by Clara’s father) to quote it as the ”Stimme aus der Ferne” in his last Novellette.

Widmung is much more than a mere showpiece – containing probably the most passionate music writing and most heartfelt feelings. Written in 1840 (this piece was from a set of Lieder called Myrthen, Op.25), this piece was later arranged for piano solo by Liszt . Myrthen was dedicated to Clara Wieck  as a wedding gift, as he finally married Clara in September, despite the opposition from Clara’s father (who was also Robert’s piano teacher).

Below is the text of Widmung, with English translation:

Original Text by Friedrich Rückert

Du meine Seele, du mein Herz,

Du meine Wonn’, o du mein Schmerz,

Du meine Welt, in der ich lebe,

Mein Himmel du, darein ich schwebe,

O du mein Grab, in das hinab

Ich ewig meinen Kummer gab!

Du bist die Ruh, du bist der Frieden,

Du bist vom Himmel mir beschieden.

Dass du mich liebst, macht mich mir wert,

Dein Blick hat mich vor mir verklärt,

Du hebst mich liebend über mich,

Mein guter Geist, mein bess’res Ich!

You my soul, you my heart,

You my rapture, O you my pain,

You my world in which I live,

My heaven you, to which I aspire,

O you my grave, into which

My grief forever I’ve consigned!

You are repose, you are peace,

You are bestowed on me from heaven.

Your love for me gives me my worth,

Your eyes transfigure me in mine,

You raise me lovingly above myself,

Sherri Lun, named ‘2020 Performing Artist of the Year’ by the South China Morning Post, has garnered acclaim for her “pinpoint clarity and convincing bravura” (Chicago Tribune). Born in Hong Kong and currently based in London, Sherri has swiftly established herself as a rising soloist on the international stage. 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. Recent performances include the Hammerklavier International Piano Series in Girona, the Festival Musicale delle Nazioni in Rome, a 4-concert Malaysian tour, recitals in Steinway Hall London and Drapers’ Hall. In December 2023, she released her debut album with KNS Classical, featuring works by Robert Schumann and César Franck. Sherri’s artistry has been recognized with top prizes in numerous national and international competitions. Most recently, she won First Prize and Audience Prize in the 2024 Birmingham International Piano Competition, following her First Prize win at the 2023 Hong Kong Generation Next Arts Competition. Sherri also won top prizes in the Robert Schumann Competition (Du¨sseldorf), Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians, ASEAN International Chopin Piano Competition, Singapore International Piano Competition, and Steinway & Sons Youth Piano Competition, to name a few, and is a quarter-finalist of the 2024 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. At the Royal Academy, she won consecutively the 2022 Sterndale Bennett Prize, 2023 Chung Nung Lee Prize, and 2024 Harold Craxton Prize. She was also invited to perform in RAM’s 2022 Bicentenary celebration concert in Wigmore Hall. In Hong Kong, she is a frequent winner of local competitions, and her performance has been broadcasted by the Radio Television Hong Kong. Born in 2003, Sherri majored in piano and viola as a junior student of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She is currently studying under Prof. Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music on a full scholarship, supported by both the Academy and the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme. She is also an artist with KNS Classical and the Keyboard Charitable Trust. For more information, visit http://www.sherrilun.com.

Sherri Lun in Perivale ‘Maturity and mastery of intelligence and refined poetry’

The Strand Rising Stars Series – Sherri Lun The magic and artistry of a star shining brightly

Sherri Lun at St James’s Piccadilly Poetry and grandeur with crystalline clarity and impeccable musicianship

Sherri Lun at Steinway Hall for the Keyboard Trust Mastery,passion and intelligence of twenty year old pianist.