Chopin - Piano Concertos
Sa Chen (piano)
Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon, Lawrence Foster
…Sa Chen… is more than merely a consummate technician: her playing matches virtuosity with poetry.
Chopin - Piano Concertos
Sa Chen (piano)
Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon, Lawrence Foster
Purchase product
…Sa Chen… is more than merely a consummate technician: her playing matches virtuosity with poetry.
About
PentaTone is proud to present their first release featuring the spectacular new pianist Sa Chen. Already a star in her native China, Sa Chen has won the Leeds Piano Competition (1994) The Chopin Piano Competiton (1996) and the Van Cliburn in 2005.
This SACD comes packaged with a DVD featuring Sa Chen interviewed by James Jolly (Editor in Chief of Gramophone) and footage from the recording sessions showing one complete movement from each concerto. Sa Chen will be featured as “One To Watch” (special page in Gramophone, November issue) and also BBC Music Magazine. We are all aware that Deutsche Gramophone is releasing an album comprising exactly the same works performed by Lang Lang. Actually it is an interesting phenomenon that two young Chinese artists record the same works and we hope and expect that the media will compare both albums.
Contents and tracklist
Awards and reviews
November 2008
…Sa Chen… is more than merely a consummate technician: her playing matches virtuosity with poetry.
Described by the prestigious Emanuel Ax as a “brilliant pianist”, Sa Chen is one of the brightest performers of her generation.
January/February 2009
Possessed of exceptional talent and a grasp of Chopin’s melancholic lyricism both instinctive and thoughtful, Sa Chen is a natural in this repertoire……Chopin’s gently logical harmonies hang in the air just long enough to catch the falling arabesques, cushioning them gently before launching them off
again to explore the wistful inner reaches of delight.
December 2008
The bonus DVD includes a film of the slow movement of the First Concerto and an interview with James Jolly in which Chen comes over as a perceptive and charming personality – both characteristics can be heard in her playing. Recommended
30th November 2008
Sa Chen, born in Chongqing, is a natural for Chopin, sparklingly clear in touch and perfectly attuned to the composer’s breed of stretched, lyrical melancholy. The jewel-encrusted slow movements, the emotional core of
each work, reveal Sa’s freedom of thought which, luckily, the orchestra showed themselves well able to follow.
