Fou Ts'ong, PIANO

In the 1930’s, Shanghai was one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world. Fou Ts’ong was born in 1934. His father was Fou Lei, a famous scholar and an unyielding opponent of injustice. The family possessed the latest recordings of the great pianists of that time. Lei was involved in translating great French novelists and philosophers into Chinese. An Italian piano professor taught Fou Ts’ong, who provided the accompaniment for a church choir in a performance of Messiah for his first appearance in public. Rapid musical developments followed a family decision to support his intensive studies, Fou having agreed to give up his former role as an advocate activist. In 1953 he moved to Europe, where the Warsaw Conservatory professors were amazed at his intuitive grasp of mazurka rhythm, elusive to even the best trained Western pianist. Major awards, including the Chopin Competition in Warsaw led him to the class of Zbigniew Drzewicki, who regarded Fou’s talent as natural; teaching by way of suggestions only. A favorite with many of the world’s foremost conductors, his regular London recitals inevitably include many of today’s legendary pianists in the audience; a clear sign that his great art is appreciated and admired not just by the public and press, but also by his peers.

Fou Ts’ong returned in the fall of 1998 to perform in China for the first time since 1989. His tour included festivals in Beijing and Shanghai as well as master classes. He also participates in the Argerich-Beppu Festival in Japan and performs in North America and Canada in the New Year of 1999. His recordings of solo piano music by Mozart and Schumann as well as piano concerts by Mozart and Chopin have been issued by Carlton Classics. His recording of Chopin’s Nocturnes won the instrumental prize of the Japanese critics. Fou Ts’ong has been part of the jury at international piano competitions which include Leeds, Queen Elizabeth, Geneva, Chopin, Dino Ciani, etc.

The year of 2004 marks Fou Ts'ong's seventieth birthday. As a veteran of the keyboard, his enthusiasm and dedication to music remains undimmed. This year he has returned to Shanghai to give his expertise to students at the conservatory on Chopin, Mozart Concertis, and Debussy in a series of master classes over a period of two months. He continues to give classes at the International Foundation for young pianists at Como, Italy. He has performed in London, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Beppu Festival in Japan. Meridian records have released his recordings of Chopin and Mozart concertis as well as other solo piano recordings. Amidst the great number of growing whizz kids springing up from China, Fou Ts'ong remains in spiritual terms true to his art and cultural root. His strength of conviction and personal voice in his music making are individual and unconventional. His depth and ability to evoke real emotional meaning in whatever he plays made TIME magazine call him the greatest Chinese musician alive today. Hermann Hesse called him the only true performer of Chopin.

Aware of many traditions, but part of none, Fou Ts’ong regards the object of his performances as the complete realization of the score. His insistence on the importance of every marking would be didactic were it not for him the only truth in music. In conversation he might be judged as a thinker, in performance emotional involvement in the music seems total. Often, he refers to the masters of Chinese painting, their linear precision rendering what is universal from a prospective that is immediate and part of the landscape, and, like a bird in flight, above it and yet part of it.