Pianist Sang Woo Kang .::. Official Website

Article first published as Music Review: Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu – The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan: Piano Works on Blogcritics.

Also featured at seattlepi.com…

Perhaps my readers will not be too familiar with enigmatic classical composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920). This comes as no surprise, because though Griffes was a brilliant Impressionist composer with a unique musical language, he only composed a handful of pieces during his short life. He could count among his influences French Impressionism, contemporary European music with its bitonality and tonal ambiguity, and Asian music, a compositional influence that was relatively new at the time. His music is therefore a dynamic and distinct blend of these influences: one hears something of Scriabin and Debussy in music such as the set Three Tone Pictures (1910-1912) or the simply titled Sonata (1917-1919), tied with this undercurrent of Oriental exoticism that makes his work so unique.

It is precisely this composer whom Taiwan-born concert pianist Solungga Fang-Tzu Liu has decided to showcase. The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan, released on Centaur Records, features a selection of Griffes’s most notable solo piano works. Liu, currently Assistant Professor of Piano at Bowling Green State University, is known as a dedicated performer of 20^th-21^st century music. In addition to her performances of Ravel and Prokofiev, she has many premieres and recordings of composers to her name, such as Steve Reich, Gregory Mertl, and Robert Morris. In this latest recording of hers, Liu takes the listener through a sensory experience not unlike an ornate tapestry of sound.

Read more at blogcritics.org…

Article first published as Concert Review: Pianist Junghwa Lee at the Ashburnham Community Church, 10/2/11, with the Frederick Piano Collection on Blogcritics.

On October 2, 2011, the Frederick Historical Piano Collection hosted a concert at the Ashburnham Community Church. Concert pianist Junghwa Lee, who is currently an active soloist and associate professor of piano at the Southern Illinois University, beautifully performed from memory a program of Fauré, Ravel, and Liszt. Native Korean Lee, has upcoming concerts in Missouri, Illinois, London, Paris, and Amsterdam, and has been described by various sources as a pianist of “acute intelligence,” with “flawless technique” and “masterful artistic control.” Lee is also an old friend – she and I actually went to school together at Eastman School of Music. This was her first appearance in the concert series, and it was a superb one as Lee skillfully blended historical authenticity on the centuries old piano she performed on along with dynamic interpretations.

The Frederick’s Historical Piano Collection, which supports this concert series, is a gem for classical music aficionados and the general public alike. Maintained by Patricia and Edmund Michael Frederick, this Center is a wealth of resources, mainly concentrated in their wonderful collection of over twenty early grand pianos. A main feature is their Historical Piano Concerts, a concert series featuring internationally renowned pianists performing works on selected pianos of the collection. The pianos are determined by program choice: if the pianist chooses to focus on Chopin, then the piano of choice is the 1840 Erard. If the pianist chooses to focus on piano literature by Mendelssohn, then the Tröndlin (c. 1839) might be a good choice. Performers like Junghwa Lee painstakingly research and practice, adjusting their own techniques to accommodate the often more delicate touches of these pianos. One cannot simply pound away on these pianos, sturdy as they are. Sometimes a more subtle technique is required.

Read more at blogcritics.org…

From Semi-Simple Variations From the Piano

Article first published as An Eulogy to Milton Babbitt on Blogcritics.

In the past century, there was one composer who, contrary to many of the standards of the mainstream, believed that music shouldn’t always be easy listening; he was a composer who eventually became a giant in the classical music world for the highly unique musical language he developed. And in early 2011, there was one passing which shook the classical music world to its core, a passing which was sorely felt.

Milton Babbitt, who passed away on January 29 at the age of 94, is a name notable in the classical music world, though perhaps not quite as well known to my readers as Bach, Schubert or Beethoven. His music is not performed that frequently. Even within classical circles, Babbit was somewhat renowned for music that was extremely difficult to listen to. In fact, Alex Ross, cultural commentator, music critic and author of The Rest is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century, spoke of Milton Babbitt as an “emblematic Cold War composer” producing music “so Byzantine in construction that one practically needed a security clearance to understand it.” Despite these and other complaints that his music was deliberately inaccessible by mainstream audiences, the innovations he brought to composition and classical music remains.

Read more at blogcritics.org…