Un-sensationally sensational
Reviews
[1]
“Few and almost intangible are the moments in music that make a room and
the audience within it appear to be afloat. The opening concert of the
Holzhauser Musiktage, held Thursday night in Gut Ried, was such a moment.
The Taiwanese pianist Hung-Kuan Chen comes across as shy, humble, and
artless; completely without sensationalism he offered his artistry to the
listeners and slowly the hall filled with an almost worshipful sense of wonder.”
Katja Sebald, Müchener Merkur, July 5/6, 2003
Concerto's demands impress audience
David Green, Special to The Leader-Post, November 25, 2002
“One rarely hears such animated intermission buzz as followed pianist Hung-Kuan Chen’s brilliant performance of the Bartok. It is
a tough-love piece, almost impossible to genuinely like, because there are almost no identifiable themes to fasten onto. However,
its intricacy and demands impressed the audience. Older one-time piano students marveled that the concerto could be played,
let alone memorized; younger listeners offered such summations as ‘awesome and terribly exciting.’”
Duo mixes elegant with eclectic
Kenneth Delong, Calgary Herald, February 16, 2002
“Although born in Taiwan, as a pianist Chen sounds as if he hails from Germany. His playing of Beethoven is,
admirably, of the ‘old school’ in that he clearly stresses the contrapuntal elements in the music and strives for extreme
clarity in matters of texture. An intense, focused player, he is able to give meaning and significance to every phrase he
plays. In his approach to playing he sounds rather like a modern reincarnation of Wilhelm Kempf, especially in the way
he shapes musical phrases and in his preference for a relatively dry piano sound.”
DNE String Ensemble finds a sound home
Richard Dyer, Boston Globe, September 25, 2001
“Malediction is less a piece than a series of jottings for a piano concerto that Liszt never took the time to develop fully.
But the ideas are strong, and, of course, the writing for the solo instrument is challenging, idiomatic, and brilliant. Hung-
Kuan Chen played it with depth of tone, fire, and a connoisseur’s appreciation of Liszt’s far-seeing harmonies.”
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