Pianist Hu Ching-yun (胡瀞云), these days resident in the US, is one of Taiwan’s most celebrated musical luminaries. It’s true that Taiwan is particularly adept in producing these classically trained superstars, but among the younger ones Hu stands close to the top of the A-list. Her appearance with the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra (長榮交響樂團) on Sunday evening in Taipei’s National Concert Hall is therefore a major event.
Hu was born in Taipei but moved to the US at the age of 14. Now she’s an international celebrity, and it’s a huge tribute to the Evergreen orchestra that she’s chosen to perform with it on this particular visit back home. Her Web site at www.chingyunhu.com is very informative, and also provides a link to her YouTube channel
and an interview she gave in Israel in October 2008 in which she describes her feelings on revisiting Taiwan.
Summer in Taipei is generally a slack period for classical concerts. The National Symphony Orchestra (國家交響樂團) doesn’t kick off its new season until Sept. 17, though the Taipei Symphony Orchestra has a keenly anticipated opera production of Rigoletto in Taipei’s Metropolitan Hall on Sept. 3 and Sept. 5. But the ever-welcome Evergreen Symphony Orchestra is here to plug the gap with this concert on Sunday evening.
The program, conducted by Gernot Schmalfuss, consists of Weber’s Oberon overture, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Richard Strauss’ tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life).
Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto is probably the most popular piano concerto ever written. With its jazz-like overtones anticipating such populist composers as Gershwin, it’s a surefire success. But the real draw this weekend will of course be the soloist.
In Ein Heldenleben, Strauss created another of his famous “tone poems,” orchestral works that tell stories and summon up atmospheres without recourse to the traditional symphonic format. Heldenleben is one of the best of them, a typically Straussian mix of sumptuous harmonies and astringent novelties. The hero, Strauss himself, emerges, encounters his foes (the critics), finds happiness with his wife, then meets his final “consummation.” Rich horns and strident piccolos interweave and carry you away in the manner of an enfant terrible of music now grown middle-aged, but no less the wizard for that.
Sunday’s concert is primarily important because of the appearance of Hu, but also because Schmalfuss is such a great and lovable enthusiast, and Ein Heldenleben such very wonderful music. Together they should make an electrifying combination.
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