Han Chen

Han Chen – Thomas Adès: Piano Works (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:37 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos

Composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Ades has been described by The New York Times as among the most accomplished all-round musicians of his generation. His Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face reflects the glamor of the operas subject in the grand manner of Liszt or Busoni, while Still Sorrowing and Darknesse Visible explore John Dowlands haunting lute works. Heard here in its world premiere recording, competition piece Blanca Variations is lyrical and flowing in character, and Traced Overhead is a vivid description of ascent and flight. Ades captures and transforms Polish style in his Mazurkas, and the spirit of Satie and Ravel in a Souvenir from the film Colette.

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Han Chen – Rubinstein: Piano Works (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:27 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos

Anton Rubinstein was the equal of Liszt as a pianist and a technically gifted composer but, in his own words, he was perceived by his contemporaries as too German to be Russian and too Russian to be German, and his music was frequently disparaged. Although occasionally derivative, the first two sonatas are impressively bravura and passionate works which pianist Han Chen approaches as if reading a 19th-century Russian novel, digging down to the very essence of the human soul. It is perhaps an irony of the history of taste that Rubinstein’s very real achievements are beginning to be valued only some 125 years after his death.

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