Moye Chen - Four Worlds (CD ALBUM)

Moye Chen - Four Worlds (CD ALBUM)

A clear crowd favouriteat the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition (SIPCA)due to hisincendiary technique and warm stage presence, Moye Chen was awarded the George Frederick Boyle Prize and was signed to Universal Music Australia shortly after.For his debut recording –released in Australia on the legendaryDeutsche Grammophonlabel –the Chinese pianist coalesces four worldsas he traces the journey of three composer-pianists who, like Chen himself, followed their destinies to the 'New World'. Russians Sergei Rachmaninov and Vladimir Horowitz both found renewed fame in America, and Percy Grainger's uncommon musical versatility found a second voice when he moved from Australia via England to America.

It's an album that will appeal to the widest possible market. Who can fail to be seduced by Gershwin's "Love Walked In" in the smoochytranscription by Percy Grainger. Or his Londonderry Air (which worked its way into one of the century's biggest songs You Raise Me Up!). Vladimir Horowitz, one of the greatest virtuosos of all time, makes an appearance as both composer and transcriber. The transcription of The Stars and Stripes Forever is one of the most difficult pieces ever written for piano.

Rachmaninov is one of Moye Chen's many specialitiesand he presents a range of pieces from this composer's output –the gorgeous Melodie, the cheeky transcription of the 'Menuet' from Bizet's L'Arlesienne, and the all-engulfing Second Sonata. Listen to the last couple of minutes of the finale. If that doesn't move you, as someone once said, you need to see a specialist!

Tracklistings:

RACHMANINOV

1 Polka de V.R.

GRAINGER

2 Colonial Song

HOROWITZ

3 Danseexcentrique(Moment exotique)

4 Valse in F minor

GRAINGER

5 Love Walked In(George Gershwin)

6 Ramble on Love(after the Love Duet from Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier)

RACHMANINOV

Morceaux de fantasie, Op. 3

7 No. 3: Mélodiein E major

8 No. 5: Sérénadein B flat minor

Morceaux de salon, Op. 10

9 No. 5: Humoresque in G major

10 Menuetfrom L'ArlésienneSuite No. 1 (Bizet)

GRAINGER

11 Irish Tune from County Derry (Londonderry Air)

12 In Dahomey(Cakewalk Smasher) transc. HOROWITZ

13 The Stars and Stripes Forever(John Philip Sousa)

RACHMANINOV

14–16 Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36

(1913 & 1931 versions, ed. Horowitz)

MOYE CHENpiano