Acclaimed Violinist Ray Chen Debut Album Virtuoso Available Feb 1st

By -
“Ray Chen can do pretty much anything he wants on the violin" - The Washington Post

Sony Classical announces the release of Virtuoso the debut album on the label from the acclaimed young violinist Ray Chen. Winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2009) and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition (2008), Chen has received rave reviews from critics, and high praise from distinguished musicians around the globe for the fresh insight he brings to his performances and a musical authority far beyond his age.

Maxim Vengerov, impressed by Chen’s charisma, stunning technique and natural ability to communicate, has described him as “a very pure musician with great qualities such as beautiful, youthful tone, vitality and lightness”. Chen’s upcoming engagements include performances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester at Berlin’s Philharmonie, and with the Munich Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Spanish National Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, as well as recitals and chamber music at today’s most prestigious venues and festivals, such as Verbier and Ravinia.

Virtuoso, Chen’s first recording for Sony Classical represents a selection of his personal favorites from different strands of the violin repertoire. The album opens with the fiendishly difficult “Devil's Trill” Sonata by Tartini - a remarkable virtuoso and something of a rock star in his own time, whose phenomenal technique was reportedly explained by the fact that he had six fingers on his left hand. Legend has it the Devil appeared to the composer in a dream and tempted him into a pact by playing a beautiful melody on a violin. Chen considers the “Devil's Trill” Sonata, with its haunting opening melody, to be the ideal curtain-raiser. In total contrast to the brilliant fireworks display of the first piece, the album continues with Bach’s Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor. Chen considers this piece - based on a simple but moving theme which evolves into myriad intricate musical figures - to be a study of a whole range of human emotions: melancholy, delight, grief and rapture in the magnificent chorale finale. He describes it as the epitome of the solo violin repertoire. Henryk Wieniawski is among Chen’s favorite composers whose music features not only breath-taking technical display but also true passion. He first played the beautiful Légende in G minor op. 17 at the age of eight and it has remained special to him ever since. The epic Variations on an original theme in A major op.15, however, is a work to be attempted solely by musicians in the very top flight. Chen confesses to learning it only when he felt that his fingers were “well-oiled enough to meet the challenge of this massive-monster-mammoth of a piece.” The mood shifts once again with César Franck's intimate and poetic Violin Sonata in A major. This composer wrote very little chamber music, yet this late work is regarded as a major masterpiece. Chen chose to end his first album with this sonata, as it examines the different stages of human existence: “A lifetime of experiences, all represented in one single piece.” Dedicated as a wedding gift to the Belgian composer and violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, it provides a fitting conclusion to this imaginative and far-ranging debut recording, an important milestone in the increasingly exciting career of the young musician.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more