IN THE PRESS
Denver Post 2/10/2011
Denver Post 2/04/2011
Denver Post 1/2/2011
Westward Blog10/11/2010
Opus Colorado 10/9/2010
Highlights of Quotes
Review
Focused piano trio makes strong debut
By
Kyle MacMillan
Denver Post Fine Arts Critic
Posted: 02/10/2011 12:28:30 AM MST
Bring together three of the area's most prominent
musicians in a new chamber ensemble, and it's bound to cause a stir on the
local classical scene.
That's exactly what has happened with the just-formed Hwang-Ainomäe-Hsu Piano Trio, which made its debut Wednesday evening before a nearly sold-out audience at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Arvada.
The group is composed of two leaders in the Colorado Symphony, concertmaster Yumi Hwang-Williams and principal cellist Silver Ainomäe, and pianist Hsing-ay Hsu, who heads the University of Colorado at Boulder's Pendulum New Music Series.
Despite their many other responsibilities, it was clear from their focused, well-rehearsed performance that the three are fully committed to this new venture.
The evening culminated with one of the most beloved masterpieces of the chamber repertoire, Antonín Dvorák's six-movement Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 90, "Dumky."
Its memorable nickname is the plural of "dumka," a Slavic folk song with a pervasive air of melancholia that is relieved with moments of calm and bursts of exuberance.
The threesome delivered a lively, absorbing interpretation, embracing the Eastern European flavor of this appealingly folk-tinged, dance- driven music.
Hwang-Williams has never sounded better, bringing a suitably gypsy-like flair to her spirited playing, and she was ideally matched by Ainomäe, with his deep-hued tone and soulful intensity. Hsu effectively complemented them, with a deft, sure touch.
All three are strong individual performers, but they displayed the kind of teamwork that any successful chamber group needs, with the three intently listening and responding to each other.
The evening's first half consisted of what might best be described as musical appetizers, duets that showcased different combinations of the three musicians.
A highlight was a suitably earthy, seductive version of Astor Piazzolla's "Le Grand Tango" for Cello and Piano.
The concert was part of Second Tuesdays at Trinity, a welcome new monthly classical series at the church.
arts and entertainment
Top Denver-area musicians form Hwang-Ainomäe-Hsu Piano Trio
By
Kyle MacMillan
Denver Post Fine Arts Critic
Posted: 02/04/2011 01:00:00 AM MST
Pianist, Hsing-ay
Hsu, during a practice session at the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Arvada
Saturday morning. (THE DENVER POST | ANDY CROSS)
With three of the area's highest-profile classical musicians as its founding members, the new Hwang-Ainomäe- Hsu Piano Trio can boast instant credibility and appeal right out of the gate.
The powerhouse ensemble will make its debut at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday as part of a new chamber-music series at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Arvada.
The group is composed of two prominent members of the Colorado Symphony, concertmaster Yumi-Hwang Williams and principal cellist Silver Ainomäe, and pianist Hsing-ay Hsu, artistic director of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Pendulum New Music Series.
Although they have performed with one another in one context or another, the three have never performed together
Violinist, Yumi Hwang-Wiliams, left, during a practice session at the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Arvada Saturday morning. (THE DENVER POST | ANDY CROSS)
before.
"What's really great about working with Yumi and Silver is that we have a great chemistry in action, in the moment, and I hope that will really come through in the concert, and I'm sure it will," Hsu said.
Though the group has no future concerts scheduled other than a brief appearance Feb. 12 at Metropolitan State College of Denver's Piano Celebration, it wants to have a regular presence on the local scene.
"We're hopeful, because we're all in the Denver area, and we're really willing to make things work schedule- wise," Hsu said. "In terms of what we actually do, it will have to depend on what opportunities come along."
Tuesday's program begins with a group of duo and solo works by such familiar composers as Johannes Brahms and Astor Piazzolla, and culminates with a chamber favorite: Antonin Dvorak's Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, "Dumky."
"It's always a treat to get to play chamber music with people that you
are simpatico with and you also get along with, too," Hwang-Williams said.
"It's something all of us need to do. We crave it as musicians."
Denver Post, The (CO)
The Pathmakers 2011
January 2, 2011
Section: FEATURES
Page: E-01
They're redrawing the geography of
television and re-creating the rules of classical music. They're catalysts, tossing
off new jokes and drumbeats and helping us rethink
traditional theater, music, painting and education.
Who will be taking Colorado forward this year and beyond? We're betting on
these seven faces.
[photos]
Hsing-ay Hsu
Not just playing music but presenting it
It's not enough for today's classical musicians to be
compelling artists. With audiences and interest on the wane, they have to serve
as ambassadors for this centuries- old form - educating, promoting, even producing their own events.
Since becoming artistic director of the University of Colorado at Boulder's
Pendulum New Music Series in 2005, pianist Hsing-ay Hsu,
34, has taken on this 21st-century role with relish.
Unlike classical artists who perform a cross-section of repertory each season, Hsu
likes to divide her performance schedule into what she calls
"projects" - groups of concerts and events devoted to a composer,
period or region.
This past fall, for example, she concentrated on "The Circa 1950 Project,"
marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of American composer Samuel Barber,
and examined the competing currents running through music in the 1950s.
"My worst fear is for an audience to come to a concert and then go home
and say, 'Oh, she moved her fingers fast,' and not have anything else that
connected with their lives or with their intellectual curiosity," Hsu
said.
Beyond conventional programs, the pianist presents lectures, seminars and
nontraditional events, which can include narration, multimedia and artists from
other fields.
She also uses her projects, such as one in 2008 focused on 20th-
century French composer Olivier Messiaen, as
incentives for collaborations among classical organizations across the region.
"I love the idea of having people go from venue to venue and just have a
larger view of this Boulder-Denver corridor because it really is the perfect size for making collaborations happen," Hsu
said.
Before coming to the Aspen Music Festival as a student from 1994 to '96,
Chinese-born Hsu had never played a work by a living composer. But in
Aspen, she met the man who would become her husband - composer Daniel Kellogg,
who also teaches at CU- Boulder - and he ignited her enthusiasm for
contemporary music.
Besides commissioning him to write a work for her, Hsu has performed
several other premieres, as well. She enjoys the give and take that come with
working with composers. "I think it's the challenge of trying to push each
other to want more and to do more that makes new music really exciting,"
she said.
-Kyle MacMillan
The Denver Philharmonic Orchestra opens up its season with chops to spare
,
Westward Blog: Over the weekend
Maybe it's all those tuxedos they have to buy everybody, but the symphony is expensive. Which is a shame, because it just reinforces classical music's reputation as something reserved for rich people who wear top-hats and monocles, an exclusive party regular folks aren't invited to.
That's not the case for the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1948 (when it got its start as the Denver Businessmen's Orchestra -- for the professional, presumably, on the go), the DPO's mission has been to get quality classical to the common man at a reasonable price. And at its season opener on Friday, with help from one excellent soloist, the DPO threw down.
The centerpiece of the evening, though, was a virtuosic performance from pianist Hsing-ay Hsu, who sat in as soloist on a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 4 in G Major. Currently the head of the Pendulum New Music Series at CU-Boulder, Hsu, who played her first concert at age 4, has led a distinguished career -- the Washington Post once praised her "power, authority and self-assurance."
And the piece itself proved a good showcase for both Hsu and the orchestra; Balancing between characteristically Beethoven-ish solemnity and plenty of chances to let the soloist shine with several series of punishing arpeggios (Hsu never slipped once, by the way), the piece allows the orchestra its time in the spotlight as well -- as far as concertos go, this one is somewhat unusual in that it opens with solo piano and then takes the piano out of the mix altogether for a while as the orchestra lays out the theme.
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Aside from her unimpeachable technical skill, Hsu was also a soulful performer, giving the piece the weight of feeling it deserved. And she was fun to watch; though for the most part, her expression was one of serene concentration, she wasn't above and aw-shucks look or a playful flourish of the hand after executing a particularly impressive move.
Denver Phil. with Adam Flatt hits their stride; Hsing-ay
Hsu dazzles!
October 9, 2010, 12:59 pm
Opus Colorado: Reviews
This
Friday evening, October 8, the Denver Philharmonic orchestra opened its concert
season with a program of Schumann, Beethoven, and Liszt. Their next performance
will be November 19, when they will perform the Stravinsky Firebird and the Tartini violin Concerto with soloist Lina
Bahn.
Following
the Schumann came the Piano Concerto Nr. 4 in G major,
Opus 58, by Beethoven. It was performed by Hsing-ay
Hsu, who is on the faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
I
shall quote from the program notes: “Since making her stage debut at age 4,
Chinese pianist Hsing-ay Hsu (Sing-I Shoo) has
performed at such notable venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Alice
Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and abroad in China, Japan, Taiwan, the Czech
Republic, Denmark, and France. Upon reaching the age of eligibility in her
freshman year at Juilliard, Hsu captured the 1996 William Kapell
International Piano Competition Second Prize. She is also winner of the
prestigious Juilliard William Petschek Recital Award
in 2000, a 2003 McCrane Foundation Artist Grant, a
1999-2001 Paul & Daisy Sows Graduate Fellowship, and a 1997 Gilmore Young
Artist Award.”
The
notes go on to list her awards and honors which are so many that there is not
space in this article for them. But I will tell you that she is a true advocate
of new music, and she is married to Daniel Kellogg, who is on the composition
faculty at the University of Colorado in Boulder. What a rare thing it is for a
young pianist to proselytize new music! To continue from the concert program:
“Recent projects include collaborations with the Colorado Ballet,
choreographers David Capps and Viki Psihoyos, pipa artist Fan Wei,
and a series of lecture-recitals for Olivier Messiaen’s
centennial year in 2008. …She has served as visiting piano facuIty
at Ohio University and University of Colorado, given residencies at the
University of Missouri at Kansas City and Xiamen University, and regularly
teaches masterclasses. Ms. Hsu is currently the
Artistic Administrator of the Pendulum New Music Series at the University of
Colorado in Boulder, where she resides with her husband, composer Daniel
Kellogg.”
The
Beethoven Piano Concerto begins with the solo instrument playing unaccompanied,
and it is therefore quite revolutionary because no concerto to this point had
ever begun in such a fashion. Not only that, but it begins softly, and there is
none of the the intensity that was surely lurking
somewhere in his mind as he considered the Fifth Symphony (we do know from his
many notebooks that he was already bearing this symphony in mind at the time he
wrote his Piano Concerto Nr. 4). This is perhaps, due to the fact that his
lawsuits and court hearings were finished, in his attempt to gain custody of
his nephew from an alcoholic brother. Also, he was quite aware of his growing
deafness, and the five opening chords (in D major – not G – which the orchestra
answers in B major) have a certain sense of calm resignation.
Ms.
Hsu has remarkable ability to obtain fine tone out of a very recalcitrant and
unforgiving instrument. But in this performance, the orchestra played with a conviction
that I have never heard. Ms. Hsu’s playing was incredibly sensitive and warm.
And, of course, it was fascinating to see the depth of her concentration. It
was also wonderful to watch the eye contact between Maestro Flatt
and Ms. Hsu. They created the impression that they had performed together many
times, because they seemed quite comfortable in reading and responding to each
other’s artistic abilities. I certainly hope that there were young pianists in
the audience, which was quite large, so that they could see the musical
interchange that was going on between these two individuals. As I have said
before, an orchestra is the conductors instrument, and
Adam Flatt seems to have convinced the orchestra to
play as one. The second movement of this marvelous Concerto Nr. 4 is also quite
revolutionary because it is only 72 measures long. Think of that! 72 measures. And Beethoven requests that the pianist hold the soft-pedal down for all 72 measures. There are so many
small details in a work like this that show Beethoven changing so many rules
out of his own artistic necessity. And I hasten to point out that both Ms. Hsu
and Adam Flatt collaborated on allowing us to revel
in Beethoven, and not flashy technique (though both certainly have that) that
some pianists selfishly display. The third movement is a traditional Rondo form
that begins without pause, and perhaps more than any other Beethoven concerto
movement, sparkles with glittering light. And that is the way it was performed.
It is interesting to note that Mendelssohn admired this concerto very much, and
chose it to perform on his last concert in London in 1846. Ms. Hsu’s
performance of this piece received a standing ovation which was very well
deserved.
Denver Post arts and entertainment
A tribute to Messiaen
CU pianist Hsu heads local centennial fete in his
honor
Article Last Updated: 02/04/2008 03:40:26 PM
MST
Pianist Hsing-ay Hsu
earned her master of music degree in 2001 from Yale University, where she
studied with noted virtuoso Claude Frank. (Cyrus McCrimmon,
The Denver Post )
Famed figures such as Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg have been
long touted as the classical music standard-bearers of the 20th century, but
Nigel Simeone wonders if another name shouldn't be
added to the list: Olivier Messiaen.
"I
think that the sheer originality of his music is something that we're beginning
to find really a very important voice in the 20th century, in much the same way
as a composer like (Benjamin) Britten," said Simeone,
co-author of an authoritative 2005 biography of the composer and a musicologist
at the University of Sheffield in England.
"As
a composer who really engaged with nature, who really was inspired by his faith
but who above all produced stuff that sounds like nobody else, I think he is
very important figure. I'd certainly put him in the top 10."
Messiaen's continuing rise in prominence is likely to
accelerate this year with a worldwide celebration of the centennial of his
birth — a milestone sparking the biggest burst of attention on the French
composer since his death in 1992.
Among
the hundreds of events taking place will be a year-long festival in London,
multiple offerings in France and a pair of upcoming programs at New York's
Carnegie Hall, including a Feb. 15 exploration of the composer's "Turangalîla" Symphony.
Colorado's
observance of the centennial kicks into high gear Friday with the launch of a
series of concerts and lectures spearheaded by pianist Hsing-ay
Hsu, artistic administrator of the University of Colorado at Boulder's Pendulum
New Music Concert Series.
It
climaxes at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 with a free CU-Boulder faculty concert featuring
Hsu, 1997 winner of the prestigious Gilmore Young Artist Award, and pianist
Alejandro Cremaschi and violinist Mintze
Wu.
Hsu
was introduced to Messiaen's music in 1994 during the
first of three summers she spent at the Aspen Music Festival. Composer Daniel
Kellogg, a fellow student who later became her husband, played her a recording
of Messiaen's "Twenty Aspects of the Infant
Jesus."
"It
was just very, very striking," she said. "It was music unlike
anything I had heard. He had a very unique voice, and I remember thinking,
'Boy, is this difficult and so challenging.' It stayed in the back of my
mind."
Since
joining the CU-Boulder faculty in 2005, Hsu has been looking for a chance to
delve more deeply into the composer's music, and this anniversary provided the
ideal opportunity.
A
student of a trio of noted French composers, including Paul Dukas
of "Sorcerer's Apprentice" fame, Messiaen
wrote highly original music inspired by nature and infused with his deep
Catholic faith.
"Whether
you're a religious person or not, what you get with Messiaen
is a fantastic sense of explosive colors and playfulness in an awful lot of his
music," Simeone said. "And I think people
find that emotionally a very moving thing. It grabs you."
The
composer created what the musicologist calls a "very crazy sound
world," one that audiences in the 21st century, who have experienced
everything from bebop to rock 'n' roll to hip-hop, are much better equipped to
understand and appreciate.
"He
never uses a harp," Simeone said. "He never
uses timpani. The harp, how much more French an instrument
can you get? And there's not a single Messiaen
piece that uses one.
"So,
he is a very French composer, but in a lot of ways like that, the sounds he was
looking for were ones that nobody else had tried before and, frankly,
In the 16 years since his death, French composer
Olivier Messiaen's place in 20th-century classical
music continues to rise. This 1940s photo shows the composer outside the Trinité Church in Paris, where he was organist. (Private
collection of Nigel Simeone)
no one else has tried to imitate
them (since). How can you?"
His
career went through a series of phases, even brief experimentation with
atonality in the late 1940s and '50s. But he was never a revolutionary in the
vein of Stravinsky or Schoenberg, always preferring to go his own way, even if
it seemed out of step with the times.
"Messiaen is a composer who was never frightened of using
the beautiful sound of a major triad, which was a very bold move for a composer
claiming himself to be very much of the avant garde — and he was," Simeone said.
Early
in his career in the 1930s, he was well received by the critics. But in the
1940s, they began to turn against him, in part because of his
independent-mindedness and what was seen as his religious proselytizing.
This
negativism extended to the United States, where the composer's massive,
10-movement "Turangalîla" Symphony, which
is now viewed as a 20th-century masterpiece, was panned by critics after its
Boston Symphony debut in 1949 with Leonard Bernstein conducting.
But
in recent decades, opinions have turned decidedly in Messiaen's
favor.
The
selections featured during Hsu's centennial series include some of the composer's
best-known works involving keyboard:
•
Two Preludes. Written while he was still a student at the Paris Conservatoire,
the set of eight Preludes became his first published work in 1929. Though
strongly influenced by Debussy, they already display his distinctive sound.
•
Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano. Messiaen
wrote this piece in 1932 as a kind of wedding present to his first wife,
violinist and composer Claire Delbos, and they
performed it together frequently before she became mentally ill in the 1940s.
•
Final movement of "Visions of the Amen." This 1943 work for two
pianos was inspired by one of his students, Yvonne Loriot,
who later became his second wife. "You get this tremendous kind of joyous,
ecstatic spirit at the end of the piece. It's quite extraordinary," Simeone said.
•
Two pieces from "Twenty Aspects of the Infant Jesus." This 1945 work
for solo piano tells the nativity story of Christ and was originally
accompanied by religious commentaries that angered music critics of the period.
In
addition to his rich trove of works, Messiaen
continues to influence the direction of contemporary music through his many
students, including such significant composers as Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
"He
was a remarkable composition teacher, because he was so undoctrinaire,
if you like," Simeone said. "He didn't ever
tell people to compose like he did, but what he did do was encourage them to
set their imaginations free."
Kyle
MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost
Local Messiaen
events
Pianist
Hsing-ay Hsu will present several events to the mark
the Messiaen centennial:
Piano
Celebration 2008
Concert. King Center, Auraria
campus. A diverse piano program that will include Hsu
performing excerpts from two Messiaen works.
7:30 p.m. Friday. $10, $8 seniors. 303-556-2296
ahec.edu/kingcenter.
"Enter
the World of Messiaen"
Lecture/recital. King Center, Auraria
campus. A program that will include two of the composer's Preludes and
the final movement of "Visions of the Amen." 1 p.m. Saturday. Free. 303-556-2296 or pianocelebration.com.
"Messiaen Centennial"
Chamber Concert. University of Colorado at Boulder, Grusin Music Hall, Imig Music
Building, 18th Street and Euclid Avenue. As part of the CU College of Music's
faculty series, this concert will include two pieces from "Twenty Aspects
of the Infant Jesus" and Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano. 7:30
p.m. Feb. 12. Free. 303-492-8008 or colorado
.edu/music.
"A
French Connection"
Recital. Boulder County Public Library,
1000 Canyon Blvd. A program of French music including Messiaen's Theme and Variations for Violin and Piano.
4 p.m. Feb. 24. Free. 303-441-3100 or boulder.lib.co.us.
"Faith
Inside the Music"
Lecture/recital. Room C-199, Imig
Music Building. A presentation examining the theological ideas
underlying Messiaen's music as part of a colloquium,
titled "Faith, Reason, Doubt." 5:30 p.m. March 3. Free. 303-492-1423
or colorado.edu/. artssciences/cha.
Daily Camera
Artists
celebrate Messiaen
Pianist Hsing-ay Hsu, who directs CU's Pendulum New Music Series, has put together a centennial celebration of composer Olivier Messiaen.
If you go
MESSIAEN CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
7:30 p.m. Friday: Introduction. Metro State College of Denver. Free and open to the public. 303-556-5715
1 p.m. Saturday: "Entering the World of Messiaen," lecture/recital. King Center, Metro State College of Denver, Auraria Campus. 303-556-5715
2 p.m. Saturday: Master Class. King Center, Metro State College of Denver. 303-556-5715.
7:30 p.m. Feb. 12: CU Faculty Series: Hsing-ay Hsu, piano with Mintze Wu, violin and Alejandro Cremaschi, piano. Grusin Music Hall, University of Colorado. 303-492-8008
4 p.m. Feb. 24: "A French Connection," featuring works by Messiaen, Couperin and Debussy. CU violinist Judith Ingolfsson. Boulder Public Library, 1000 Canyon Blvd. 303-441-3100
5:30 p.m. March 3: "Faith Inside the Music," CU Center for Humanities and the Arts Annual Colloquium. C-199, CU Imig Music Building. 303-492-3929
For more detailed information, visit www.hsingayhsu.com All events are free and open to the public.
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) is widely regarded as one of the most significant -- and original -- composers of the 20th century.
He wrote an immense amount of music, including an opera of Wagnerian dimensions on St. Francis of Assisi.
Yet, 15 years after his death, his music is only rarely encountered "live" in this country.
That makes the series of local events celebrating the centennial of Messiaen's birth a program of special significance.
Mastermind of the project, which opens Friday at Metro State College in Denver, is pianist Hsing-ay Hsu, who first encountered the composer when she was a 17-year-old piano student in Aspen.
"Dan had a CD of Messiaen's 'Vingt regard sur l'enfant Jesus,'" says the pianist, who directs the University of Colorado's Pendulum New Music Series. "I was immediately attracted by it -- by its harmonic beauty."
("Dan" is CU composer Daniel Kellogg, aka Hsu's husband and a modern master in his own right.)
Hsu, however, didn't immediately try her hand at Messiaen.
"At the time I was learning Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto," she says. "It's also a very hard piece."
But her fascination with Messiaen continued, and eager to face the challenge of his music, Hsu had her chance in 1997, when she went to France to study with Michel Beroff, a Messiaen protégé, at the Academie d'Ete in Nice.
"I'm especially impressed by his intuitive ear for harmony." she says of the composer. "I was lucky enough to have private ear training when I was 6, and it has made a world of a difference for me.
"I think all children would benefit from lessons in harmony, which often gets overlooked in children's musical education.
"Messiaen got this training in grade school."
On the Feb. 12 Boulder program Hsu will perform two pieces from Messiaen's "Vingt Regards de l'Enfant Jesus," two Preludes and the final movement of "Visions de l'Amen."
Given his stature, why is so little Messiaen heard today?
"His pieces are extremely demanding -- both physically and emotionally," Hsu says. "For students I recommend his Preludes; they are short and absolutely beautiful."
Messiaen, organist at Paris' La Trinité throughout his professional life, was firmly rooted in Catholicism, an influence evident in most of his compositions.
"I think his faith gives his music an optimism and a love that is often absent from the works of his contemporaries," Hsu says.
Hsu, the producer of this mini-festival, is proud that three local organization are involved in it: CU, Metro State and the Boulder Public Library.
"I think it's wonderful -- and terribly important -- that we are celebrating the beauty of Messiaen's music with my new hometown of Boulder," she says.
"And I'm very excited to be playing with such wonderful musicians.
The artists, she points out, are all either CU professors or alumni of the university.
Among those on stage with Hsu at the Boulder Public Library concert is CU violinist Judith Ingolfsson; the two will play Messiaen's 1932 Theme and Variations, a 15-minute set of five variations on a theme.
"It's my first performance of the work," says the violinist. "I've wanted to play it for a long time and I'm delighted to have this opportunity."
Collected
Quotes
Thisted Dagblad - Denmark
BRILLIANT
PIANIST STOLE THE SHOW
“Hsing-ay Hsu
presented a most outstanding
performance with sublime
sound and technical
surplus, which cast a
spell on the audience...
She demonstrated mature and brilliant
playing...
it was dazzling.”
WORLD
MASTERS PERFORM MUSIC IN
SECOND
INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
“From the opening, the audience were drunk
on the beauty of
the music...the depth
and romanticism of
her performance
gained the crowd’s deep
admiration.”
The Houston Chronicle
"Hsu was an intriguing interpreter.
Her intelligence was enhanced by elegant
style and beautiful
tone. She moved
effortlessly through swings
of mood
and technical
demands."
"Hsu played with a power,
authority,
and self-assurance
that would be
impressive in any
pianist."
The
"Her performance was masterly in its
strength and authority
and was
sustained by exquisite
lyricism."
The
New York Times
"[Hsu] played the appealing
gritty,
rhythmically vital Momentum
with an
explosion of energy and
texture."
The
"Hsing-ay
Hsu played Liszt, Debussy,
and Chopin with
bravado, charm,
and unerring
accuracy."
The
"Hers was a carefully
voiced, sensitive,
clear and warmly hued
interpretation
[of the Schumann concerto]..."
The
"She is one young artist who deserves
every piece of gold,
silver and bronze
she's won. Hsu's
eloquent ideas created a
magical rendition of a
composition, endowed
with beautiful
harmonics and a dreamy
tone... Hsu gave a
broadly dramatic
yet carefully
nuanced reading."
Piano Artistry Magazine (
She played [the
Huang's Concerto No.2] with
masculine
authority. Her
performance was grand,
forthright, and
powerful...and emotionally
moving...her technique
was effortless."
The Star-Ledger (
"She played Rachmaninoff's Piano
Concerto No. 3 with sweep and
intelligence...the magic of
her
will-o'-the-wisp fanfares and
filigrees caught the
ear."
MetroWest Jewish News (
"Hsing-ay
stole the show with her
technically dazzling,
crystal-clear
reading...[she] brought
the audience to
its collective feet
in a wave of deserved
applause [in Alice Tully
Hall]."
