The Complete Brahms
Siqing Lu × Yingdi Sun
Ten Years Apart — Together Again for Brahms
Overview
Nearly a decade after their first “Complete Brahms” recital at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in 2013, violinist Siqing Lu and pianist Yingdi Sun reunited on November 10, 2022, at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, revisiting Brahms’s three monumental violin sonatas.
Their renewed collaboration — matured through time and experience — offered not only a tribute to Brahms’s genius, but also an introspective dialogue between two artists who have grown alongside his music.
In a world transformed by change, they return to Brahms with heightened understanding — seeking beauty not in brilliance alone, but in restraint, compassion, and truth.
“I feel we now share a deeper resonance with Brahms — we understand the emotions he left unsaid.”
Siqing Lu
“Compared with ten years ago, perhaps we are now at an age that truly belongs to Brahms.”
Yingdi Sun
Program
Brahms’s Three Violin Sonatas represent the summit of Romantic chamber writing — balancing intimacy and structural mastery, passion and restraint. Each work bears the mark of a composer who rebuilt the temple of Classicism with a Romantic heart.
Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78 “Rain Song”
Written in 1878 at Lake Wörthersee, this luminous work is infused with lyric serenity. Themes from Brahms’s earlier songs return here as tender echoes, earning it the affectionate nickname “Rain Song Sonata.”
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100 “Thun Sonata”
Composed in the summer of 1886 in the idyllic Swiss town of Thun, this sonata glows with sunlight and ease. Its gentle optimism and lyrical warmth reveal Brahms’s rare moments of unguarded joy.
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108
Completed in 1888 and dedicated to Hans von Bülow, the third sonata merges violin and piano into a single symphonic organism. It is the most dramatic and virtuosic of the three — charged with intensity and spiritual grandeur.
Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 100
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108
Encore: Homage to Brahms, a piano miniature by Yingdi Sun
Siqing Lu performs on a 1751 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin, generously loaned by the Yu Foundation
Artists
Siqing Lu | Violin
Recognized as one of China’s most celebrated violinists, Siqing Lu is the first Asian to win the Paganini International Violin Competition. He has performed with leading orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, and the Singapore Symphony, under conductors such as Seiji Ozawa and Yuri Temirkanov. Beyond the concert stage, Lu serves as President of the Yehudi Menuhin School (Qingdao Campus), actively fostering cross-cultural music education.
Yingdi Sun | Piano
Gold Medalist of the 7th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition (Utrecht, 2005), Yingdi Sun is renowned for his expressive range and poetic depth. He has performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, and China Philharmonic, and is acclaimed for his interpretations of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Brahms. Homage to Brahms, his own composition, reflects his personal dialogue with the composer’s spirit.
Epilogue