{ program notes tour of China with the Gothenburg Symphony and a European tour with the London Philharmonic. Other highlights of the 2015 – 2016 season included debuts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, a recital at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and a second engagement with Gatti and the Orchestre National de France.
On Bastille Day in 2015, Mr. Chen joined the Orchestre National de France for a televised concert on the Champsde-Mars in Paris in front of an audience of over 800,000.
In 2012 Ray Chen became the youngest soloist ever to perform in the televised Nobel Prize Concert for the Nobel Laureates and the Swedish Royal Family.
Mr. Chen, who has more than 2 million followers on Sound Cloud, helps to expand the audience for classical music by increasing its appeal via social media platforms. His quirky, self-made online videos have broadened the reach of classical music through humor and education. As part of his quest to break down barriers between music, fashion and pop culture, Mr. Chen is supported by Giorgio Armani and was recently featured in Vogue magazine.
Mr. Chen’ s“ Virtuoso,” a recital of works by Bach, Tartini, Franck and Wieniawski, and an album of Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos with Swedish Radio Orchestra were both released on Sony.“ Virtuoso” was distinguished with the prestigious ECHO Klassik award. His third recording, an all-Mozart album with Christoph Eschenbach and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, was released in January 2014.
Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Ray was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 15, where he studied with Aaron Rosand and was supported by Young Concert Artists. He plays the 1715“ Joachim” Stradivarius violin on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
Ray Chen last appeared with the BSO in May 2014, performing Tchaikovsky ' s Violin Concerto, Hans Graf, conductor.
About the concert:
Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major
Niccolò Paganini
Born in Genoa, Italy, October 27, 1782; died in Nice, France, May 27, 1840
So astounding were the feats Niccolò Paganini performed on his violin that people whispered he had made a Faustian pact with the devil to obtain his skills. These rumors seemed to be confirmed by his strange appearance and the uncanny spell he cast over his listeners. Wracked by ill health all his life, Paganini was as thin as a cadaver, with a ghostly pale complexion and long stringy hair. Not only did he introduce virtuoso techniques never used before on the violin, he inspired other musicians— notably Franz Liszt— to contrive ear-popping feats on their own instruments. And his technical wizardry— his mastery of double-stopping the strings to produce more than a single note at a time, his use of a challenging new bowing technique and his ability to easily access the highest notes of the instrument— was soon decoded and adopted by subsequent violinists.
Paganini’ s technical wizardry was soon decoded and adopted by subsequent violinists.
However, Paganini was much more than a stuntman on the violin, and his many compositions for the instrument— both solo, in chamber ensembles and with the orchestra— show a fine creative musician at work. His Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major was probably composed around 1817 when he was still only known as a traveling virtuoso within his native Italy. Paganini loved the world of Italian opera and especially the music of its then greatest practitioner, Gioachino Rossini; the irresistible melodies that fill this Concerto pay obvious tribute to him.
Movement one: This is a soloist’ s concerto par excellence. However, first the orchestra builds up dramatic anticipation for the belated appearance of the violinist with a huge exposition, opening with an emphatic chord. Here we meet the orchestra’ s two major themes: the first, a dashing, upward-hurtling melody full of Italian bravura; the second, a touchingly plaintive melody introduced by an ensemble of woodwinds. The violinist enters, not with the orchestra’ s bravura theme, but with a quiet, lyrical one of his own, which displays not only his beautiful singing tone, but also his ability to span big leaps and cover the instrument’ s range from top to bottom. Eventually, he moves on to the woodwinds’ plaintive theme, imbuing it with even more tenderness. This is capped by a spectacular cadenza-like passage of fleet virtuosity.
Often punctuated by big“ look at this!” orchestral chords, the development section is a series of episodes in which the violinist successively demonstrates his prowess both as technician and as lyrical singer.
After this gigantic movement, the remaining two are of more moderate dimensions. In the B-minor Adagio second movement, the orchestra opens with all the melodramatic pathos of a tragic opera scene. And here the violinist is asked to thrill us with his expressiveness rather than his technical chops. Throughout, he must play the great soprano diva, moving us to tears.
The vivacious rondo finale shifts the spotlight back to virtuosity. Its ebullient rondo refrain emphasizes one of Paganini’ s signature abilities: to use the ricochet stroke, in which the bow bounces lightly on the strings to produce a series of quick, short notes. Two episodes intervene between returns of this playful theme. In the second of them, listen to the extraordinary passages where the violin, in extreme high register, imitates the fragile, glistening sound of the flute.
Instrumentation: Two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bassoon, contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion, strings.
March – APRIL 2017 | Overture 31