Kuok-Wai Lio
廖國瑋,
piano
https://www.liokuokwai.com/
 A
graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, pianist Lio Kuok-Wai is a
recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant administered by
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Career Advancement Award
given by the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and a Scholarship
award by the Feltsman Piano Foundation.
Praised by the Vancouver Sun as a "musician's musician,” for his
"sensitive playing" by The New York Times, and his “hypnotic” effect by
The Boston Musical Intelligencer, the Macau-born pianist is active as a
soloist and chamber musician worldwide. He has performed at venues such
as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Herkulessaal in
Munich, Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Daiichi Semei Hall in
Tokyo. He has given recitals at the Ravinia Festival, Gilmore Rising
Stars, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Amelia Island Music Festival,
Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Gina Bachauer International Piano
Foundation, Kissinger Sommer, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Hong Kong Arts
Festival, and Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts in Boston. Kuok-Wai
was chosen to step in for the legendary pianist, Radu Lupu, for a
recital in Town Hall, New York to critical acclaim.
Kuok-Wai is currently a student of Stanislav Ioudenitch at the
International Center for Music at Park University. He has studied under
Gabriel Kwok, Gary Graffman, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman,
Jack Winerock, among others. He was invited by Sir András Schiff to take
part in many of his masterclasses in Europe and by Leon Fleisher to
attend a mentorship program at Caramoor Rising Stars in upstate New
York.
A frequent participant in the Marlboro Music Festival and Marlboro on
Tour, Kuok-Wai has performed with musicians such as Kim Kashkashian,
Pamela Frank, Harvey de Souza, Cho-Liang Lin, Christoph Richter,
Hsin-Yun Huang, and the Shanghai Quartet, among others. At an
anniversary celebration of Sándor Végh, founding member of the
International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, Kuok-Wai was chosen to
take part in masterclasses and concerts at Wigmore Hall in London and
the Salzburg Festival. He has also performed at the Schubertiade curated
by Vancouver Recital Society alongside pianists Jonathan Biss and Inon
Barnatan.
As a concerto soloist, Kuok-Wai has performed with orchestras that
include the China Philharmonic, Macau Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic,
Camerata Salzburg, Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony
Orchestra and conductors Li Xin-Cao, Edo de Waart, Francois Xavier-Roth,
and Michael Stern.
A top prize winner in the International Tchaikovsky Competition for
Young Musicians, Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Competition,
Fulbright Concerto Competition, Chopin International Piano Competition
in Asia, International Institute for Young Musicians Piano Competition,
Ettlingen International Piano Competition, Steinway & Sons International
Piano Competition, Kuok-Wai received an Honourific Title of Merit given
by the Chief Executive of Macau. He has also performed for Hu Jin-Tao,
then President of the People’s Republic of China; the late Stanley Ho;
Tung Chee-Wha, former Chief Executive of Hong Kong; and Prince Edward,
the Duke of Kent.
Apart from music, Kuok-Wai enjoys reading, taking walks in nature,
traveling, going to museums, playing with pets, and cooking for friends.
His interests include art, literature, poetry, psychology, philosophy,
theology, history and languages. He speaks English, German, Portuguese,
Mandarin, and is working on Hebrew.
Lio Kuok-Wai was featured in the Asian American and Pacific Islander
Heritage Month in May 2023.
被溫哥華太陽報譽為"音樂家中的音樂家",更被紐約時報評論他的演奏為細膩纖細。廖國瑋,一位出生於澳門的鋼琴家,活躍於世界的舞台上的鋼琴獨奏家以及室內樂音樂家。
2014年1月,他代抱恙的拉杜·魯普出演了在紐約市政大廳舉行的人民交響音樂會,而後受到轟動好評。
近期亮相於包括聖達菲(Santa Fe)、拉維尼亞(Ravinia)、普魯士港(Prussia
Cove)、馬爾博樂(Marlboro)、卡拉穆爾(Caramoor)、魯爾(Klavierfestival
Ruhr)、基辛根之夏(Kissinger
Sommer)和香港藝術音樂節。廖國瑋在溫哥華演奏協會(Vancouver
Recital Society)、舊金山演奏系列(San
Francisco Performances)、吉爾摩新星系列(Gilmore
Rising Stars Series)、菲利普洛倫茲追憶鍵盤系列音樂會(Philip
Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts)以及費城室內樂協會上均有舉辦獨奏音樂會。他曾在卡內基音樂廳的威爾音樂廳(Weill
Recital Hall)、蘇黎世音樂廳管弦樂團(Tonhalle
Zürich)和位於慕尼黑的赫拉克勒斯演奏廳(Herkulessaal)等會場進行演出。作為協奏曲獨奏家,他曾與澳門管弦樂團,香港管弦樂團,香港小交響樂團,中國愛樂樂團,廣州交響樂團,汎亞交響樂團,堪薩斯城交響樂團,大急流城交響樂團,加州交響樂團,休斯頓交響樂團,俄羅斯交響樂團和薩爾茨堡室內樂團合作。
國偉是第六屆亞洲國際肖邦鋼琴比賽(東京)、第五屆國際柴可夫斯基青年音樂家比賽(日本)、艾特靈根(Ettlingen)青年鋼琴家國際比賽(德國)、第三屆青年鋼琴家國際比賽(德國)、第65屆施坦威國際青年鋼琴比賽(北京)、2005年吉娜巴考爾(Gina
Bachauer)國際青年藝術家比賽(美國)和2007年國際富布賴特協奏曲比賽(美國)的獲獎者。
2004年1月,他獲得澳門特區行政長官頒發的表彰獎。國瑋是林肯表演藝術中心頒發的富有盛譽的2013年度艾弗里費舍爾職業獎學金獲得者。
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
by Dr. Jannie Burdeti
Robert Schumann
(1810-1856) :
Kinderszenen, Op. 15
“In
man, there resides a tender genius that gently opens up gateways
to new worlds and creations for the eternal child, and that,
unnoticed and as if by chance, leads the youth in his first love
to the blossoming spring with his beloved, uniting and revealing
to each other their dreams.” —Robert Schumann (from his diary)
Throughout his life, the experience of childhood captivated the
imagination of Robert Schumann, whether it was through his
children, literature, or music. While he wrote some pieces
explicitly for children to play,
Kinderszenen
(Scenes from Childhood), Op. 15, was meant for adult
consumption, a reminiscence about life as a child. Composed in
1838, it was conceived as a set of thirty pieces to be a part of
his
Novelletten,
Op. 21, but Schumann later decided on separating the sets.
The first piece,
“Of
Foreign Lands and Peoples,” expresses childlike wonder. Its
melody opens with the notes B-G-F#-E-D, which appear throughout
the entire cycle as a unifying motive.
“A
Curious Story” follows and is full of excitement, portraying an
eager child listening to a captivating tale. The subsequent
“Blind
Man’s
Bluff”
is a reference to a childhood game that Schumann played with
Clara and her younger brother, Alwin, when he lived at their
house. It is in essence a form of tag, similar to
“Marco
Polo.”
“Pleading Child” begins and ends the same way, on an unresolved
chord, as if to ask,
“Please?”
The next piece answers with
“Happy
Enough”—perhaps the child made do with what they had.
“An
Important Event” asserts itself, full of pompous rhythms. The
most famous piece of the whole collection is
“Dreaming,”
or Träumerei,
a favorite encore of Vladimir Horowitz. It suggests a child’s
inner dreamworld, possibly taking place
“At
the Fireside,” the following piece. The twelfth piece,
“Child
Falling Asleep,” is gentle, swaying, and subdued. Schumann later
added the thirteenth and final piece,
“The
Poet Speaks,”
to be included in the publication. Here, Schumann breaks the
fourth wall and emerges as a grown-up for the first time in the
piece, addressing the audience in the most intimate and eloquent
of moments.
He was pleased with these pieces and humorously wrote to his
fiancée, Clara Wieck that they were, “gentle and loving and
happy—like our future,” contrasting them with his next opus,
Kreisleriana.
Robert Schumann
(1810-1856) :
Kreisleriana, Op. 16
Robert Schumann’s love for literature undoubtedly stemmed from
his father, August Schumann, who believed that it was literature
that kept Germany united as a nation. A publisher, bookseller,
and writer himself, August strongly nurtured his son’s reading
habits. Schumann scholar Eric Frederick Jensen writes, “What
makes Schumann’s literary interests particularly intriguing is
the close association in his mind of words with music.” In
Schumann’s diary from 1828, he wrote, “Music is the higher power
of poetry; angels must speak in tones, spirits in words of
poetry[….] Every composer is a poet, only at a higher level.”
Almost as someone with synesthesia would see colors when hearing
sound, Schumann seemed to experience novels while listening to
music: “When I hear music by Beethoven, it is as if someone were
reading to me a work of Jean Paul. Schubert reminds me of
Novalis.”
Of the many authors who played an influential role in Schumann’s
work, one of the strongest was Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann
(better known as his pen name, E.T.A. Hoffmann, having changed
Wilhelm for Amadeus out of his love for Mozart), whose life
paralleled Schumann’s. As students, their parents persuaded both
to study law. However, most importantly, they held a dual-love
for both literature and music. Although Hoffmann is most
remembered as an author of fantasy and horror, he also was a
composer, music critic, and conductor. One of Hoffmann’s most
famous literary characters was Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler,
appearing primarily in two works by Hoffmann: Phantasiestücke
in Callots Manier
(Fantasy Pieces in the Manner of Callot) and
Lebensansichten des Kater Murr
(The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr), an unfinished,
satirical novel. Kreisler was Hoffmann’s alter ego and must have
struck great sympathies in Schumann: he was a musical genius,
suffered from manic-depressive moods, and was the epitome of the
passionate Romantic artist. Schumann himself suffered from
manic-depressive disorder and expressed them in his alter egos,
Florestan and Eusebius, and near the end of his life, committed
himself to the asylum, much like Kreisler, whose fate ended in
madness.
While Schumann’s title directly points to the literary character
Kreisler, musicologist Charles Rosen argues that Schumann’s
Kreisleriana is not so much based on Hoffmann’s collection
of stories and essays titled Kreisleriana, but more on
Kater Murr. In this novel, the published biography of
Johannes Kreisler is found by his cat, Murr, who proceeds to
inscribe his own autobiography on the back of each torn-out
page. The manuscript is sent in this state to the publisher, who
prints it as he finds it—Kreisler’s impassioned life as a
Romantic artist, interleaved with Murr’s philosophical musings.
While the cat is very erudite and knows German philosophy, he
does not understand humans and Rosen writes that the reader,
too, deduces by this, that we humans do not make sense of our
lives.
Schumann’s Kreisleriana, subtitled Phantasien für das
Pianoforte, reflect the novel’s juxtapositions of expression
and mood. In eight contrasting movements, it explores the
superlatives of emotion: from extremely animated to very inward
to very lively. The opening movement is marked ‘extremely
animated’ and begins with an eruption of wild madness. Following
is a poetic movement, marked “very inwardly and not too
quickly,” which is the longest, containing two contrasting
Intermezzi. The third movement is neurotic, which the
composer marks as “extremely agitated.” A lyrical, intimate
theme emerges, heard between two interweaving voices, perhaps
representing his love affair with Clara. The fourth seems to
hearken to the poetic dreamer—bringing to mind “The Poet Speaks”
from his preceding work, Kinderszenen. A cynical
scherzo ensues. The following, sixth piece, begins with what
feels like the emotional center of the work, with a most
poignant lullaby, that although has moments of foreboding, is
ultimately hopeful. After the dreaminess of this movement, the
penultimate movement wakes us up abruptly with a tumultuous,
driving momentum, brimming with terror. The whirlwind of raw
emotions finally gives way to the last movement, which before
long, trips away into a ghostly silence, leaving one to
contemplate the work’s unsettling nature.
Of his piano works during this time, Kreisleriana was his
favorite.
Schumann wished to dedicate it to his fiancée, Clara Wieck,
whose father at this time, refused to allow Schumann to have
anything to do with his daughter, least of all to have his
daughter’s
hand in marriage. As a result, he replaced the dedication with
Frédéric
Chopin’s name, who unfortunately did not appreciate the piece
except for its title.
Robert Schumann
(1810-1856) :
Fantasie in C major, Op. 17
Robert Schumann’s
Fantasy in C major, Op. 17, written in 1836, directly before his
Kreisleriana Op. 16 (despite the opus numbers), was
originally entitled
Obolen auf Beethovens Monument: Ruinen, Trophäen,
Palmen: grosse Sonate für
das Pianoforte für
Beethovens Denkmal, von Florestan und Eusebius,
Op. 12 (Small Contribution to Beethoven’s
Monument: Ruins, Trophies, Palms: Grand Sonata for the
Pianoforte for Beethoven’s
Memorial, by Florestan and Eusebius). This project of erecting a
statue, with monetary help from Franz Liszt, the dedicatee of
this piece, came to fruition in 1845. The work, in addition to
being a tribute to Beethoven’s
life, was also a passionate declaration of love to Clara Wieck.
As he was forbidden to see Clara at this time by her father, the
work fittingly uses a quote from Beethoven’s
An die ferne Geliebte
(To the Distant Beloved), revealed at the end of the first
movement.
Schumann wrote to Clara in March 1838:
“The
first movement [of the Fantasie] is the most passionate I have
ever composed; it is a profound lament on your account.” In the
beginning of the piece is a quote by Friedrich Schlegel:
Through all the sounds that sound
In the colorful dream of earth
A soft sound comes forth
For the one who listens in secret.
Schumann had written to Clara,
“Are
you not the secret tone that runs through the work? I almost
think you are.” Charles Rosen writes that the
“secret
tone”
is Schumann’s
quotation from the last song in Beethoven’s
An die ferne Geliebte.
For pianist Murray Perahia, the secret tone is the note G, the
opening pitch of the work, which remains a central tone
throughout. However one may wish to interpret the idea of the
secret tone, Schumann’s
quotation at the end of the first movement is a hymnic
culmination after the movement’s
impassioned turmoil. With regard to the second movement, Clara
had a visceral response:
“It
makes me hot and cold all over.” The music’s
march-like quality, filled with unwaning energy is reminiscent
of the League of David fighting the Philistines. In this
movement, Clara heard “an entire orchestra.” Moreover, it brings
to mind Beethoven’s march movement from his Sonata Op. 101. The
sublime last movement is an extended song without words.
Schumann wrote to Clara: “You can understand the fantasy only if
you think back to the unhappy summer of 1836, when I renounced
you; now I have no reason to compose such unhappy and
melancholic music,” in which she responded, “Yesterday I
received your wonderful fantasy—today I am still half ill with
rapture; as I played through it I was drawn involuntarily
towards the window, and there I felt like leaping out to the
beautiful spring flowers and embracing them.”
音樂會後新聞稿
Post Concert Chinese Press :
Pianist Kuok-Wai
Lio at NEC’s Jordan Hall, April 13, 2024
中華表演藝術基金會，於4月13日週六晚上八時，邀請鋼琴名家
廖國瑋
Kuok-Wai Lio
在紐英崙音樂學院喬登廳(Jordan Hall)
盛大而成功的舉行了一場獨奏會。那晚上,
大約200名熱情的觀眾，為此場令人難忘的音樂會,
高水平成功的演出,
報以歡呼及掌聲,欲罷不能。
音樂會曲目包括：舒曼作品:《兒童場景》Op.15、《克萊斯勒》Op.16和《幻想曲》Op.17。
出生於澳門的廖國瑋擁有驚人的履歷。他畢業於柯蒂斯(Curtis)音樂學院，曾獲
2013 年著名的艾弗里·費舍爾職業獎(Avery
Fisher Career Grant)，及費城音樂基金協會職業發展獎。師從
Gabriel Kwok, Gary Graffman, Claude Frank,
Peter Frankl, Boris Berman, Jack Winerock
等人。他應安德拉斯·席夫(Andras Schiff)
的邀請，在歐洲參加了許多大師班，並應里昂·弗萊舍爾(Leon Fleisher)
之邀參加了一個指導計劃。他曾與喬納森·比斯(Jonathan Biss)
和伊農·巴納坦(Inon Barnatan)
一起在溫哥華舒伯特音樂節(Schubertiade)上演出，並被選中在紐約代替傳奇的拉杜·盧普(Radu Lupu)，受到了好評。廖國瑋曾與世界各地的管弦樂團合作演出獨奏。
溫哥華太陽報(The Vancouver Sun)
稱讚廖國瑋為"音樂家中的音樂家"，而《紐約時報》則稱其演奏"細膩動人"
波士頓音樂情報(The Boston Musical Intelligener)
樂評詳細地討論了廖國瑋
4 月13
日每一首作品，並對他大加讚揚。說到:
"廖國瑋的表演精湛絕倫：敏感、深思、創新，手指靈活迅速，觸控令人驚嘆。
廖的藝術才華在《幻想曲》中的靜謐時刻尤為突出，他對旋律的精妙塑造輕鬆自如，第三樂章中的空靈溫柔更是令人心馳神往。
在結束安可時，他為觀眾奉上了巴赫《哥德堡變奏曲》中的詠嘆調，觀眾再度陷入了嘆息和更熱烈的掌聲中。
"
《國際鋼琴雜誌》英國版的資深樂評家史蒂芬·威格勒(Stephen Wigler)
在他題為"深入其中"的評論中說：
"在19世紀的偉大鋼琴作曲家中，舒曼可能是最難演奏得好的。這不僅僅是關於音樂被廣泛承認的技術困難，而是關於他的詮釋者的勇氣。舒曼有一種探索靈魂黑暗之處的傾向。因此，演奏他的音樂需要勇氣。全舒曼節目要求更大的勇氣,
廖國瑋選擇的三部作品幾乎是瘋狂地勇敢。這不僅僅是一個危險而艱難的曲目，而且，更增加的危險是，它們每一首都是安靜的結束。
然而，事實證明，這個曲目不僅僅是對鋼琴家的一場勝利，也是對作曲家的一場勝利。廖國瑋在智慧和情感之間取得了良好的平衡。他非凡的流暢度,
能夠把一句抬起來然後讓它平息,
以及對音調的微妙變化，使這個非常熟悉的作品聽起來有了全新的狂喜。音樂會的曲目以舒曼最偉大作品《幻想曲》為結束。我從未聽過比當晚更美麗的表演，它揭示了在其進入寂靜的旅程中層層不同的深度。"
在音樂會後慶祝酒會上，超過20位跨代知名音樂家齊聚一堂，向他表示祝賀。
該音樂會的視頻將放上中華表演藝術基金會
YouTube上.
免費供大家欣賞。也請關注中華表演基金會的
Instagram: @ cathychanfcpa.
Press Chinese: pianist Kuok-Wai Lio
廖國瑋
at NEC’s Jordan Hall, Saturday, April 13, 2024, 8 pm
中華表演藝術基金會第35屆音樂季第4場音樂會，將於4月13日週六晚上八時，邀請澳門出生的鋼琴家名家
廖國瑋在紐英崙音樂學院喬登廳
(Jordan Hall)
舉行一場鋼琴獨奏會。曲目包括舒曼的作品：兒童場景(Kinderszenen)、克莱斯勒
(Kreisleriana)
和
幻想曲
(Fantasie ) .
曾獲著名的艾弗里·費舍爾職業獎
(Avery Fisher Career Grant),
及費城音樂基金協會職業發展獎的廖國瑋畢業於柯蒂斯
(Curtis)
音樂學院，和耶魯大學。他應安德拉斯·席夫爵士
(Sir András Schiff)
之邀，在歐洲參加了許多他的大師班，並應里昂·弗萊舍
(Leon Fleisher)
的邀請參加了紐約州北部
Caramoor
的新星指導計劃。
他在世界各地與頂級音樂家以及室內樂音樂家合作和演出，例如
Kim Kashkashian, Pamela Frank,林昭亮、黃心芸以及上海、茱莉亞、多佛
(Dover)
和愛默森
(Emerson)
弦樂四重奏等合作。
溫哥華太陽報
(The Vancouver Sun)
稱讚鋼琴家廖國瑋為“音樂家中的音樂家”
。而《紐約時報》(The New York Times)則稱其演奏“細膩動人”。受到高度關注。
波士頓音樂情報
(The Boston Musical Intelligener)
稱讚廖國瑋在中華表演藝術基金會2022年夏日系列音樂會8
月15
日NEC威廉姆斯
(Williams Hall)
音樂廳的表現說: “這是音樂中罕見的超凡時刻之一，將觀眾帶入了不同的境界。廖國瑋的三首古典曲目,
以壓倒性的美感讓我們著迷。”
該音樂會的視頻在中華表演藝術基金會
YouTube
上.
免費供大家欣賞。
音樂會票價為
$20 (7- 13歲)、$40、$60。提供14歲以上學生免費票，及非學生贈送卷。需事前預訂。6歲以下兒童請勿入場。詳情請在中華表演藝術基金會的官網查詢。線上售票4月13日下午2時將關閉。現場門票售價為10美元，僅限現金支付。
Into the
Deep
Of the 19th century’s great composers for
the piano, Schumann may be the most difficult to play
well. This is more than the matter of the music’s widely
acknowledged technical difficulties, but of the courage
of his interpreters. Far more than any of his
contemporaries — Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn —
Schumann had a propensity for exploring the dark places
of the soul. Throughout his life, which ended in an
insane asylum, he was tormented by demons that included
the symptoms of tertiary syphilis — paranoia, behavioral
changes, hallucinations, mania, and cognitive
impairment. And those demons express themselves in his
music.
So programming his music demands courage.
An all-Schumann program demands even greater bravery;
but the three works — Kinderszenen (Opus 15),
Kreisleriana (Opus 16) and the Fantasy in C (Opus 17) —
that Kuok-Wai Lio chose for his recital in the
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts series (13 April,
Jordan Hall) seems almost insanely valorous. Not only is
this a treacherously difficult program, but, adding to
the hazards, is that each of them ends quietly.
As it turned out, however, this program
was a triumph not only for the pianist, but also the
composer. Most of the 13 pieces that comprise
Kinderszenen are relatively simple technically, though
difficult musically. Kuok-Wai Lio struck a fine balance
between intellect and emotion by not playing down to the
audience and molding his phrases with care. The
subtleties of his performance included bringing out
inner voices, accenting certain notes in the bass line
and distinctive pedaling, His extraordinary fluidity —
his ability to lift a phrase and then let it subside —
and nuance in tone made this thrice familiar work sound
newly rapturous.
His playing in Kreisleriana impressively
held together what can seem a rambling work. Without
overpowering the music, he used his wide tonal palette
to illuminate the music’s occasional descents into
nightmarish depths. The program concluded with a
triumphal traversal of what may be Schumann’s greatest
work, the Fantasying C. He played the first movement at
an unusually slow pace that enabled him to emphasize its
sudden explosions of passion. The second movement’s
march, on the other hand, moved at a ferocious clip that
never suggested a lock-step rhythm, but which unfolded
in an almost improvisatory manner. Unlike many pianists,
he did not proceed with caution when he arrived at the
fearsome coda. Scarcely any pianist manages to get
through without a few slips — — and Kuok-Wai Lio was no
exception. But the fire of his temperament and the focus
of his insight into the music’s passion carried him
through. The Elysian final movement can, in less
skillful hands, sound repetitious, but that was not the
case here. I’ve never heard a more beautiful performance
of this movement, which rarely rises above a mezzo-forte
level, and it revealed layer after layer of unsuspected
depths in its voyage into silence.
Stephen Wigler
(a contributing writer for
International Piano, UK, and a longtime staff
music critic at three newspapers)
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