The left hand does the talking

Canadian pianist Avan Yu teams up with music director Eckehard Stier to deliver Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand.

On Thursday Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra presents the final of its three concerts marking the centenary of World War I. Music director Eckehard Stier returns to conduct Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale and Carl Nielsen's Fourth Symphony.

Between these two orchestral offerings is Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand, written a decade after the great conflict for the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm fighting the Russians in Ukraine.

The soloist will be 27-year-old Canadian pianist Avan Yu, known by many for his welter of successes in the 2012 Sydney International Piano Competition, including the main $25,000 prize.

"If you had asked me in 2011 whether I would ever be playing in the Sydney Opera House, I would have said, 'Maybe, in 20 years' time'," says a bemused Yu. "It wasn't on my radar and it was just so exciting when I eventually won."

Yu had toured with Eckehard Stier in 2011, playing Saint-Saens' Egyptian Concerto with the conductor's Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie. The chemistry between them fired and Stier was keen on a return visit the following year.

"He asked me if I wanted to play again that summer, but I was going to Sydney," Yu recalls. "Eckehard then told me that the Australian trip could potentially be more beneficial. All I had to do was win and he'd invite me for some more performances, and it's turned out to be in Auckland."

Currently based in Berlin, Yu is relieved the German capital is "quite tolerant of foreigners", as he has been invited to perform by both the President of Germany and the Speaker of the House. "Who wouldn't be happy in a city with seven professional orchestras and four opera houses?" he asks.

Yu's German background was useful in China with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra earlier this year.

"A lot of the musicians studied in Germany and I was able to talk with them in German - proof that, in the symphony hall, the world is indeed becoming smaller and smaller."

Two years ago in Sydney, Avan Yu carried off the prize for the best performance of a work by Ravel, which augurs well for Thursday's concerto. The French composer fascinates the Canadian pianist. "Ravel was a perfectionist. He was fascinated by inventions and machines and, early on, he must have realised that the piano was such a wonderful machine to create magical sounds."

When we turn to Thursday's concerto, Yu talks of how Ravel expects the pianist "to come up with the sonorities and textures of three hands with just one. It is absolute genius how he, as a composer, can create all those layers with only five fingers."

Next Saturday, Yu can also be heard in recital at Auckland Museum, playing Beethoven and Schumann on its Fazioli piano. Interestingly, the Canadian carried off a special award for playing Beethoven at Sydney in 2012. Two sonatas, the Appassionata and the Opus 110, have been carefully chosen.

"The Opus 110 is a very spiritual work, almost religious. At one point, early on, Beethoven writes that the music is dying. Then there's this resurrection and it ends on a glorious and positive note."

He sums up the celebrated Appassionata as "a very dramatic story that ends in disaster", referring to its storm of a Finale. "One is a middle period work, the other one of the last three sonatas. I like that and it's fascinating to hear how one composer can achieve so much with the same musical language."

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday at 8pm
Who: Avan Yu in recital
Where and when: Auckland Museum, Saturday November 1 at 8pm