Edward Leung
St Giles Cathedral Edinburgh 27/1//25
Pianist Edward Leung gave a technically assured, controlled and yet passionate performance of works by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Liszt and Franck at St Giles in Edinburgh this evening – spanning and linking the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras in an enchanting setting.
If anyone was concerned that a spacious cathedral acoustic might lose the intimacy and detail required by such a performance, they need not have been worried. From the outset, Leung demonstrated his depth of feeling on the meditative and dreamy opening to Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in C-sharp minor, K. 247 (L. 256). This reflective piece narrates its melodies across a series of elaborations, and the performance captured its quietly assertive character beautifully.
Beethoven’s Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major, Op. 27 No. 1, is a quite different and scaled-up challenge. Here the German maestro takes the classical sonata form in a fresh and experimental direction. The movements flow directly into one another, but with some significant contrasts. Leung played from memory throughout and delivered an account full of discovery, energy and delicacy. Some of the left-hand figures are almost stride-like and he allowed the closing chord to resonate fully from the peddle. Glorious.
In between each piece the Leung, who is also cofounder of Opus 21, an innovative chamber music collective dedicated to bringing an eclectic repertory to Princeton University and beyond, engaged the audience with a taster of what was to come, outlining the shape of a satisfying programme.
The evening’s third work was Franz Liszt’s ‘Harmonies du soir’, otherwise known as the Transcendental Etude No. 11 in D-flat major. This is a demandingly exploratory piece, with broken octaves, chord leaps and widely-spread arpeggios across an exotic musical journey which finally returns us to a variation on the opening theme before it fades away. Leung navigated the emotional shifts in tone and texture with real feeling.
Last (almost) but not least we were treated to César Franck’s Prélude, Choral et Fugue, FWV 21, written in 1884. As with the previous two works, this integrates its different movements into a larger, overarching form. The procedure here is characteristically cyclical, starting in B-minor and ending in B-major. It also contains references back to earlier eras, notably the Baroque.
Edward Leung concluded this musical feast with a pleasingly light and entertaining encore. Ethan Uslan’s Fur Elise in Ragtime has been something of a hit on the Internet, and beautifully illustrated the young pianist’s scope and ambition in mining treasures from the past as sites of forward-looking adventure.
* Edward Leung, pianist - https://www.edwardleungpianist.com/
Simon Barrow is a writer, journalist, think-tank director and commentator whose musical interests span new music, classical, jazz, electronica and art rock. His book ‘Transfiguring the Everyday: The Musical Vision of Michael Tippett’ will be published by Siglum in 2025.
