Sherri Lun (solo piano)
With fingers like tempered steel but capable of a feathery lightness of touch, Sherri Lun’s first chord awoke the Steinway which then began Bach’s sombre chorale, Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ. Her ornamentation was exquisite as the tune sang over the flowing accompaniment. It was a very gentle introduction to this beautiful programme of composers paying homage to earlier masters. It takes extraordinary skill and musicality to make Busoni’s arrangement sound so tender yet also so full and resonant. We knew then that these were good hands for the great Chaconne. This sublime work is a great challenge and would make a splendid climax to any concert. Today it served to take the solemnity of Bach up to a higher level in what was turning out to be a magnificent performance. Then, after just a brief moment of applause, Lun slipped into the delicate other-worldliness of the Ravel, a totally different atmosphere. With the same mix of lightness and strength, Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, the prettily articulated or mysteriously sonorous waltzes, carried me into a reverie.
Sherri Lun
Another abrupt change took us back to the Baroque opening of Brahms’ Handel Variations with all its silvery trills and turns that rang like little bells. Lun dug deep into the piano’s chambers for all kinds of effect, building grandeur and delight with each new variation, culminating in some majestic tolling chimes in the climactic fugue. What skill! what art! What thunderous applause and after three acknowledgements Lun treated us to an encore (where did she get the energy??), her own arrangement of Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita, (My Little Star), a sensuously nostalgic tune given a deliciously virtuoso make-over that gave homage to Liszt, or Rachmaninoff, or perhaps Scriabin – no, surely to that great chameleon of Romantic music, Erich Wolfgang Corngold.
Andrew Connal
Brighton Dome Studio Theatre,
14 May 2026
Rating:
Programme:
Bach/Busoni – Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ
Bach/Busoni – Chaconne in D minor
Ravel – Valses Nobles et Sentimentales
Brahms – Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
