Young pianists in perfect harmony

Piano duets were an indispensable feature of 19th-century European bourgeois home life. As a Singaporean family today might consume K-dramas from their sofa, so a French family of the 1850s would gather around their Erard to play four-hand works written for domestic consumption.

- Geoffrey Lim

CONCERT PIANO DUO RECITAL BY KATE LIU & ERIC LU Victoria Concert Hall Oct 20

Given their genesis in the drawing room, playing them on modern Steinways in concert settings requires performers to create an impression of hushed intimacy while projecting to the farthest reaches of the hall.

This, in turn, requires an art that disclaims art: utter naturalness of expression underpinned by absolute control of voicing and tone.

Kate Liu and Eric Lu, two of today's most promising young pianists, rose magnificently to the challenge. The two, both American, have pedigree on the international circuit. Lu won the 2018 Leeds Competition, while the Singapore-born Liu placed third in the 2015 Chopin Competition.