Thursday sees a solo recital by the young South Korean violinist Shin Hyun-Su in the National Concert
Hall, Taipei.
To begin such an event with Bach’s Ciaconne is already making a bold
and confident statement. Bach wrote three sonatas and three partitas for
solo violin (the two forms seem indistinguishable to modern ears), and the Ciaconne forms the final movement of the second partita. It has long been viewed as the Everest of all Bach’s violin compositions.
Of the 31 movements of the combined sonatas and partitas it is, at some 15 minutes, far and away the longest. It combines difficulty with exceptional brilliance. Beginning with a theme that is then given 14 variations, a second theme follows, which is subjected to a huge variety of treatments. There can be no doubt that Bach knew he was setting down something exceptional, even for him, when he penned it.
But then Shin Hyun-Su is no ordinary talent. Just 23 years of age (today is her birthday), she’s already a force to be reckoned with in the fiercely competitive world of classical violin playing. She made her debut at the age of 10, and in 2008 won first prize in the Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris. She was named “New Artist of the Year” by the Music Association of her native South Korea in 2007.
After her giant-killing opening number, Shin will play Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 3, and then end the first half of the evening with the Polonaise Brillante No. 1 by 19th-century Polish virtuoso Henryk Wieniawski. After the interval there will be a Mozart sonata (K.301), and then Cesar Franck’s Violin Sonata. Neither the Mozart nor the Beethoven sonatas are widely known, but the Franck is a major item in the composer’s output, and a fit piece to close with. The Beethoven, Mozart and Franck numbers will all require an accompanying pianist.
Shin Hyun-su is appearing as part of New Aspect’s Rising Stars concert series. She has a page on Facebook under the name “Hyun-su Shin, violinist” where many performance clips, often complete concerto movements, can
be accessed.
Shin Hyun-Su performs at the National Concert Hall, Taipei, on Thursday at 7:30pm. Tickets are from NT$400 to NT$1,500, available from NTCH ticketing or online at www.artsticket.com.tw.
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday delivered an address marking the first anniversary of his presidency. In the speech, Lai affirmed Taiwan’s global role in technology, trade and security. He announced economic and national security initiatives, and emphasized democratic values and cross-party cooperation. The following is the full text of his speech: Yesterday, outside of Beida Elementary School in New Taipei City’s Sanxia District (三峽), there was a major traffic accident that, sadly, claimed several lives and resulted in multiple injuries. The Executive Yuan immediately formed a task force, and last night I personally visited the victims in hospital. Central government agencies and the
Australia’s ABC last week published a piece on the recall campaign. The article emphasized the divisions in Taiwanese society and blamed the recall for worsening them. It quotes a supporter of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as saying “I’m 43 years old, born and raised here, and I’ve never seen the country this divided in my entire life.” Apparently, as an adult, she slept through the post-election violence in 2000 and 2004 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the veiled coup threats by the military when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president, the 2006 Red Shirt protests against him ginned up by
As with most of northern Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) settlements, the village of Arunothai was only given a Thai name once the Thai government began in the 1970s to assert control over the border region and initiate a decades-long process of political integration. The village’s original name, bestowed by its Yunnanese founders when they first settled the valley in the late 1960s, was a Chinese name, Dagudi (大谷地), which literally translates as “a place for threshing rice.” At that time, these village founders did not know how permanent their settlement would be. Most of Arunothai’s first generation were soldiers
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan.
RSS