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Ya-Fei Chuang
莊雅斐,
pianist
 Acclaimed by critics in the United States and abroad for
performances of stunning virtuosity, refinement and
communicative power, Ya-Fei Chuang’s playing has been named the
equal of Vladimir Ashkenazy, Garrick Ohlsson, and Idil Biret (The
Boston Musical Intelligencer), and Alfred Brendel has
praised her as "a pianist of extraordinary ability,
intelligence, sensitivity and command . . . approaching the
height of her powers." Commenting on her newly released (April
2019) Chopin/Liszt recording, he also stated "If you want to
listen to Chopin and Liszt with different ears, Ya-Fei Chuang's
ecstatic performances cannot leave you cold, and her pianism is
staggering"; and Remy Franck wrote "... masterful ...thrilling
...phenomenal" (Journal about Classical Music, Luxembourg).
Ya-Fei Chuang’s international appearances include the symphony
orchestras of Berlin, Boston, Birmingham, Israel, Malaysia, and
Tokyo; and performances at the Berlin Philharmonie and
Schauspielhaus, the Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Queen Elisabeth Hall
(London), Boston Symphony Hall, National Concert Hall (Taipei),
Suntory Hall (Tokyo) and, more recently, performances in New
York, San Francisco, Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Hong Kong,
Taiwan, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and at the International Grieg
Piano Competition in Norway (where she also served as member of
the competition jury several times), and the Grand Piano Series
in Naples, Florida.
Festival appearances in recent seasons include Verbier, Ruhr
Piano Festival (where she regularly performs), Oregon Bach,
Mozartwoche (Salzburg), the Taiwan Maestro Piano Festival (where
she also gave a two-week masterclass), the Mozart Festival
(Romania), Beethoven Festival (Warsaw), Beethoven Festival
(Krakow), European Music Festival (Stuttgart), Bach Festival
(Leipzig), Taipei International Music Festival, and the
festivals of Schleswig-Holstein, Gilmore, Ravinia, Rockport,
Sarasota, and Tanglewood.
Performances on fortepiano include Boston Baroque, Handel &
Haydn Society, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment,
Philharmonia Baroque, and Concerto Köln.
Ya-Fei Chuang has recorded for ECM, Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, and
New York Philomusica Records, and the Ruhr Festival has released
several of her live recordings. Fanfare Magazine hailed
her "delicacy and fluidity of touch" for her Mendelssohn G Minor
Concerto live recording, and her recording of Hindemith chamber
works was awarded a special prize by the International Record
Review. Upcoming CD releases include recordings of the complete
piano solo works by Ravel for Le Palais des Dégustateurs, to be
released worldwide on Harmonia Mundi.
 Ya-Fei Chuang’s mastery of the most challenging solo and chamber
repertoire is complemented by her commitment to contemporary
music. She has given the world premieres of works by John
Harbison, Stanley Walden, Thomas Oboe Lee, and Yehudi Wyner.
She is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and
on the New England Conservatory Preparatory & Continuing Ed,
where she teaches a piano performance seminar. She gives master
classes throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and
since 2008 an annual two-week master class at the International
Summer Academy at Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Prizewinner in the Cologne Inter¬na¬tional Piano Competition at
age 18, Ya-Fei Chuang first performed on television in her
native Taiwan at the age of eight and gave her first public
recital at age nine. She won first prize at the nationally
televised ‘Genius vs. Genius’ Music Competition at age ten and
first prize at the National Competition (Taiwan) at age eleven.
The following year she received unprecedented fellowships and
scholarships from several prestigious foundations in Germany and
Taiwan that enabled her to pursue pre-college, under¬graduate,
and masters-level studies at the Freiburg Conservatory (Musik¬hochschule)
with Rosa Sabater and Robert Levin, completing the six-year
course of study in four. During this time she was awarded
numerous prizes, including the Basel-Colmar-Freiburg Arts Prize,
the Mendelssohn Prize (Freiburg) and Parke-Davis Prize
(Germany). She subsequently concluded her German studies with
Pavel Gililov, receiving a concert diploma (final degree) at the
Cologne Conservatory, and earned a graduate diploma at the New
England Conservatory in Boston, USA, with Russell Sherman. Her
master class teachers included Leon Fleischer, Gil Kalish,
Elisabeth Leonskaja, John O'Conor, Meneham Pressler, Karl-Ulrich
Schnabel. Her mentor Alfred Brendel has been working with her
regularly in recent years.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By Dr. Jannie Burdeti
Franz Schubert
(1797~1828)
Moment Musicaux,
Opus 94 D780
2. Andantino
3. Allegro moderato
5. Allegro vivace
6. Allegretto
The six Moments musicaux (literally, “musical moments”)
by Franz Schubert are, in a sense, poetic utterances boiled down
to their essence. Composed between 1823 and 1828, but mostly
during the final two years of his life, these short gems
epitomize the popular genre of the character piece. Such works
were much in fashion during the Romantic period—they were
accessible to amateurs and had tremendous value for publishers
as products that could easily be monetized. Some precedents of
the Moments musicaux include Beethoven’s Bagatelles Op.
33 and Václav Tomášek’s Eclogues (poems).
The second selection of the Moments Musicaux is a dreamy
barcarolle that slips into a F-sharp-minor section with some of
the most sorrowful music ever written. Later in the piece, the
same theme returns with a heart-wrenching cry of despair. The
third selection, marked Allegro moderato, has always been the
most popular of the set. It actually appeared for the first time
in publication in December 1823 and was titled “Air russe” by
the publisher. Passionate, dactylic chords come bursting through
in the fifth movement, the most technically challenging of the
set. The final offering, the complete opposite of the preceding
one, is an Allegretto and Trio, bittersweet in its harmonic
changes; it finds Schubert at the height of his poetic powers,
all the while exposing his innermost sentiments.
Frédéric Chopin
(1810-1849)
Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58
(27’)
Allegro maestoso
Scherzo: Molto vivace
Largo
Finale: Presto non tanto
Chopin experienced the full range of life’s vicissitudes in the
year 1944: the sorrow of his father’s death; the elation of his
sister, Ludwika, visiting him for the first time in fourteen
years; his health taking a turn for the worse at his young age
of thirty-four (he would die five years later); and the
deterioration of his relationship with his partner, Baroness
Aurore Dudevant, known by her pen name, George Sand. Throughout
these events, Chopin worked diligently on his Third Piano
Sonata. Despite a negative initial reception by critics, the
sonata remains one of the most important pieces of the
nineteenth century, with its confluence of styles, rich palette
of emotions, and large-scale craftsmanship.
The key of choice of B minor was unprecedented at the time for a
large-scale piano sonata, and it likely motivated Liszt’s
decision to cast his famous sonata for piano in the same key a
few years later. The first movement of Chopin’s sonata begins
with a bold declaration, containing a half-step motive that will
inform the entire work. Lyricism abounds in the second subject,
with its long, singing melody above a gossamer left hand. The
development section demonstrates Chopin’s mastery of
contrapuntal techniques, the product of a lifetime of studying
Bach’s music. (It has been recorded that the only work that
Chopin took with him during his summer retreats was Bach’s
Well-Tempered Clavier.)
A clear departure from the gravitas of the opening, the second
movement, marked Scherzo, is fleeting in character and
filled with sparkling finger-work. Charles Rosen makes the
argument that the middle trio section not only makes “one
melodic line out of many voices” but “project[s] a single line
to distant regions of the musical space.” While Chopin emulates
Bach in the layered writing, he simultaneously makes the music
entirely his own.
The third movement is a breathtakingly beautiful nocturne. An
arpeggiated middle section spins out a hypnotic meditation where
time seemingly stops. After a return of the opening material,
with subtle echoes of Chopin’s recently completed Berceuse,
the coda concludes the work with a moving synthesis of both
sections.
Compared to the abundance of material in the first movement, the
finale is almost bare in its use of themes. We hear a rather
angular theme combined with dazzling runs. The movement’s
inexorable momentum practically gallops into a roof-raising
close.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
(1714~1788)
Rondo in E Minor, Wq 66
“Farewell to my Silbermann Clavichord”
Poco andante, e sostenuto
“Play from the soul, not like a trained bird,” wrote Carl
Philipp Emanuel Bach in his seminal treatise, Essay on the
True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments. CPE Bach, the
second surviving son of Johann Sebastian Bach and godson of
George Philipp Telemann, influenced generations of keyboard
players, not only through this treatise, but through his
keyboard compositions, which are unfortunately often neglected
today. The term Empfindsamkeit, now deeply associated
with CPE Bach, characterizes the composer’s understanding of
expression. Its meaning most closely resembles the word
sensibility as used by Jane Austin in the novel Sense and
Sensibility. In essence, while CPE’s father, Johann
Sebastian, would often create a single emotion throughout one
piece, intending it to be constant and meditated upon, for CPE
and also his older brother, Wilhelm Friedemann, the focus was on
depicting the ephemeral nature of emotion and its quick changes.
While CPE Bach favored various keyboard instruments depending on
the musical situation at hand, based on his treatise and his
musical output, it is clear that the clavichord—an instrument
that dates from the 1400s—took a central place in his practicing
and teaching. The clavichord is a small, rectangular stringed
keyboard instrument, with brass blades that strike the string
when played. Unlike the harpsichord or fortepiano (both of which
Bach was familiar with), the clavichord allowed its player to
create vibrato by varying the pressure on the key, a technique
called Bebung. CPE Bach believed that playing the
clavichord allowed one to develop a sensitive touch and musical
finesse.
There was one clavichord constructed by Gottfried Silbermann
that CPE Bach was particularly fond of. The instrument boasted a
beautiful singing tone, stayed in tune, and allowed for a large
range of dynamics. In fact, it remained close to Bach’s heart
for thirty-five years, indirectly shaping his keyboard idiom and
allowing him to develop the freedom of expressivity that is
evident in his later works for solo keyboard. When, in 1781, he
finally parted with his prized instrument, selling it to one of
his students, Ewald von Grotthuss, the occasion prompted him to
write his “Farewell to My Silbermann Clavichord.” According to
Walter Georgii, part of his impetus for composing this affecting
work was to demonstrate “that it [was] possible to write sad
rondos.”
Maurice Ravel
(1875~1937)
Valses nobles et sentimentales
I. Modéré, très franc
II. Assez lent, avec une expression intense
III. Modéré
IV. Assez animé
V. Presque lent – dans un sentiment intime
VI. Vif
VII. Moins vif
VIII. Lent
The title of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales is an
homage to Franz Schubert’s Valses nobles and Valses
sentimentales. Ravel revealed his fascination and utter
enjoyment of the genre through the epigraph he chose for the
score, by the poet Henri de Régnier: “ . . . the delightful and
ever-fresh pleasure of a useless pastime.” In 1906, Ravel had
already begun composing his other waltz-inspired work, La
valse, and by the time he published the piano version of his
Valses nobles et sentimentales, it was 1911; an
orchestral version of the work followed the next year. His La
valse, published eight years later, in 1920, would be, in
his words, the “apotheosis of the Viennese waltz.”
Pianist Louis Aubert premiered Ravel’s Valses nobles et
sentimentales at an event held by the Société Musicale
Indépendante. At the concert, the composer’s name was withheld,
to give the audience an experience of listening without
preconceived ideas. To the embarrassment of the listeners, some
of whom were Ravel’s best friends, all guessed incorrectly and
even scorned the work due to its harmonic daring—until they
learned that it was written by Ravel.
Ravel described the work as “a simpler and clearer way of
writing in which the harmony is sharper and the contours of the
music are made to stand out.” Bold and “noble” waltzes—to be
played without a pause—stand in contrast to the sweet and
enchanting. After the climax in the penultimate movement, the
last of the set is marked “Epilogue”; it offers a dreamlike,
otherworldly conclusion to this kaleidoscopic exposé of the
waltz. Ravel would later orchestrate this set into his ballet,
Adélaïde.
Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873~1943)
Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 36
(1931)
I. Allegro
agitato
II. Non allegro-Lento
III. Allegro molto
In his memoirs, Sergei Rachmaninov wrote, “The sound of the
church bells dominated all the cities of the Russia I used to
know. . . . If I have been at all successful in making bells
vibrate with human emotion in my works, it is largely due to the
fact that most of my life was lived amid vibrations of the bells
of Moscow.” It is no wonder then that one hears bell-like
sonorities throughout Rachmaninov’s oeuvre, and the Second
Sonata, dedicated to friend and classmate Matvey Pressman, is no
exception. In 1913, during a family trip to Rome, Rachmaninov
made sketches for the Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36, and The
Bells, Op. 35, a choral symphony.
The sonata’s interrelated three-movement structure is played
without interruption, as in his Third Piano Concerto, composed
four years earlier. The sonata begins with a tumultuous
thunderclap that cascades into the deep bass of the piano. A
descending-third motive that saturates the rest of the sonata,
including the main theme of the middle movement, follows the
opening gesture. The second element that permeates this work is
a descending chromatic line in the left hand, which later
transforms into a plaintive second theme. It reappears in the
middle of the second movement, as the contrapuntal web spun
around the subject.
Although Rachmaninov’s premiere of the work in 1915 was
reasonably well received, he was unsatisfied and felt that it
was too sodden—in length, texture, and technical difficulty. He
compared it to Chopin’s Second Sonata, a staple in his concert
repertoire, and wrote that Chopin’s masterpiece “last[ed]
nineteen minutes, and all has been said.” In 1931, he published
an alternate, nineteen-minute version, not only taking out 120
measures but cutting other passages as well. There also exists
the famous Horowitz edition, endorsed by Rachmaninov himself,
which combines elements from the original composition and the
1931 revision. To this day, it is left to the taste of the
performer, as great pianists perform all three versions.
新聞稿
for 10-01-2022
中華表演藝術基金會第34屆音樂季
(2022-2023)第一場音樂會，將於10月1日週六晚8時，在新英格蘭音樂學院喬頓廳
(Jordan Hall)
舉行。由鋼琴家莊雅斐演出鋼琴獨奏會。曲目包括拉威爾，蕭邦，CPE巴赫，舒伯特,
拉赫瑪尼諾夫等作品。須出示打過疫苗或測試陰性證明方可入場。票價為
$15 (7-13歲)、$30、$50。提供學生免費票
(14歲以上)，及非學生贈送卷。需事前預訂。6歲以下兒童請勿入場。詳情請查官網。
鋼琴家莊雅斐精湛的琴藝，受到樂評家的驚嘆及好評。已在國際舞台贏得肯定與讚賞。她的恩師
Alfred Brendel
讚美她
『是一位具有特殊才華，智慧，精細敏感，並富駕馭能力的鋼琴家』
莊雅斐出生台灣，從小音樂天份即被發掘。之後遠渡德國學習再到美國深造，在德國弗萊堡
(Freiburg)
音樂學院，以四年時間完成六年的課業，從大學預科，本科，及碩士學位，還得到了榮譽藝術家文憑。在科隆
(Cologne)
音樂學院完成了獨奏家最高文憑。並獲得多項國際競賽大獎。
還在新英格蘭音樂學院取得了研究生文憑。
莊雅斐經常在世界各大音樂廳表演。與著名指揮家及樂團合作。她曾出現在眾多國際音樂節，包括華沙貝多芬，歐洲Musikfest
Stuttgart，德國Leipzig,巴哈，Ruhr，Schleswig-Holstein，美國Gilmore,
Sarasota和Tanglewood
等。她是挪威國際格里格
(Grieg)
鋼琴比賽及維也納貝多芬鋼琴比賽的評審。
德國ECM，法國Harmonia
Mundi,
瑞典Naxos，和紐約Philomusica等唱片公司都曾為她錄音。德國魯爾Ruhr音樂節發行了許多她的現場錄音，包括一張她的個人專輯。這張專輯在福諾論壇
(Fono Forum)
雜誌以頭版登出。雜誌稱讚她
: “恬淡流動性的琴藝,
雅緻且細膩.”
她所錄製Hindem室內樂作品受到國際唱片評論
(International Record Review)
授予特殊的獎項。「音樂樂迷雜誌」(Fanfare
Magazine)
將她的孟德爾頌
(Mendelssohn)
第一號鋼琴協奏曲的現場錄音列入與
Perahia, Rudolf Serkin, John Ogdon等大師齊名的等級中。
莊雅斐的雙鋼琴演奏合作對象包括Noah
Bendix-Balgley，Martin
Chalifour等世界級大師，並與Steven
Isserlis
和Robert
Levin
二人定期合作演出。莊雅斐詮釋了許多最具挑戰性的現代獨奏和室內樂曲。她為作曲家John
Harbison, Stanley Walden和Thomas
Oboe Lee
的作品做了世界首演。
莊雅斐目前任教於波士頓音樂學院和新英格蘭音樂學院預科。她極受歡迎的大師班遍及美國，歐洲和亞洲，並每年定期在歐洲薩爾茨堡
(Salzburg)
的Mozarteum
開班教授。
當晚曲目有:
舒伯特:音樂時刻，作品94,D.780
(Moment Musicaux, Op.94,D.780)
蕭邦:
B小調第三奏鳴曲，作品
58
(Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58)
CPE巴赫:
E小調迴旋曲
Wq 66
『告別我的西爾伯曼古鋼琴”
(Rondo in E Minor, Wq 66 “Farewell to my Silbermann Clavichord”)
拉威爾:
高貴與感傷的圓舞曲
(Valses nobles et sentimentales)
拉赫瑪尼諾夫:
降B小調第二奏鳴曲，作品36
(Sonata No.2 in B-flat Minor,Op.36)
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童請勿入場 。網站購票: http://www.ChinesePerformingArts.net
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