ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
These Symphony-commissioned feature articles offer insights into the music you’ll hear in the concert hall.
Jan 2, 2024
3 Questions with Pianist Eric Lu
Tell us a little about what you’re playing in your Shenson Spotlight Series recital on January 31.
I am performing Schubert’s Four Impromptus, Opus 90 and Chopin’s Third Piano Sonata in B minor. I think these two opuses contain some of the greatest music out there in the repertoire—truly emotionally touching and powerful music.
What’s your process for preparing for a concert and how do you know when a piece is ready for an audience?
This is very difficult to pinpoint into words, but on specific levels the process is always changing and evolving, like a living organism. On a general level, I will try to live with a piece for some time, and preferably have played it many times on stage prior as well. You absolutely feel like you go on a journey with the pieces you perform and work on intensively during any given time. You never really know whether a piece is ‘ready’ for an audience until you go there and do it and prove to yourself that you can do it to a certain level and expectation that you have for yourself.
What inspired you to pursue a career in classical music?
Ultimately, the music itself is the greatest source of inspiration. Beyond that really—an all-consuming part of life, and vocation.
I am performing Schubert’s Four Impromptus, Opus 90 and Chopin’s Third Piano Sonata in B minor. I think these two opuses contain some of the greatest music out there in the repertoire—truly emotionally touching and powerful music.
What’s your process for preparing for a concert and how do you know when a piece is ready for an audience?
This is very difficult to pinpoint into words, but on specific levels the process is always changing and evolving, like a living organism. On a general level, I will try to live with a piece for some time, and preferably have played it many times on stage prior as well. You absolutely feel like you go on a journey with the pieces you perform and work on intensively during any given time. You never really know whether a piece is ‘ready’ for an audience until you go there and do it and prove to yourself that you can do it to a certain level and expectation that you have for yourself.
What inspired you to pursue a career in classical music?
Ultimately, the music itself is the greatest source of inspiration. Beyond that really—an all-consuming part of life, and vocation.
