PAUL CHIHARA COMPLETE PIANO WORKS

CONCERTO-FANTASY FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA BAGATELLES, REVERIES & AMI



A NEW WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING BY ACCLAIMED

PIANIST QUYNH NGUYEN NOW AVAILABLE

Award-winning Vietnamese American pianist Quynh Nguyen’s (pron. Quin Nwen) recording, Paul Chihara Complete Piano Works is now available on the Naxos American Classics label (8.559894). The album features four works for piano, including Chihara’s Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra* (2019-21), recorded with Stephen Barlow conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, Bagatelles (Twice Seven Haiku for Piano) (2010, rev. 2011), Four Reveries on Beethoven for piano* (2021 version) and Ami for piano four hands (2008) performed by Nguyen with guest artist Rieko Aizawa. *world premiere recording

Says Nguyen: “I am delighted and honored to record the complete piano works of Paul Chihara. This world premiere recording is the culmination of a three-year collaboration with the composer to interpret the richly multifaceted styles present in his compositions, especially the Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra which he wrote for me. The piece is virtuosic and intensely melodic with French and Eastern harmonies and jazz-tinged sections and phrases reminiscent of Russian classical works. These elements are juxtaposed within the story, reflecting my personal journey of studying music in Vietnam, Russia, France, Germany, and the United States, and how their diverse cultures have shaped my life.”  

Gramophone Magazine praises the album noting that “Nguyen’s touch – in every sense – is pitch perfect. Naxos’s clear yet intimate sound completes a terrific release, one that has grown on me with each playing.” AllMusic calls Nguyen’s playing “ingenious and richly evocative and beautifully and quietly played…this is a wonderful release,” Pizzicato calls the recording “brilliant” and American Record Guide proclaims it “superb.”

The world premiere of Chihara's Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra took place October 2022 with the Vietnamese National Symphony under the baton of conductor Honna Tetsuji at the Hanoi Opera House. The concert commemorated the normalization of US-Vietnam diplomatic relations. She will perform the American premiere with the Seattle Symphony in January of 2024.

Concerto-Fantasy is in four movements, played without pause. The recording notes describe the first movement as beginning with an orchestral statement of the concerto’s principal melody (played by a solo violin), an idėe fixe that haunts the entire composition. The piano enters immediately after this brief orchestral statement with the first movement’s theme, semplice and dolce, introduced by the soloist. The music becomes more animated, and leads directly to the second movement, which is very much in an American jazz idiom, both playful and innocent. This idyllic mood is interrupted by the abrupt entrance of the third movement, with snare drums and distant trumpets. War has come to Hanoi, and the gorgeous traditional and natural world is being destroyed by chaos and violence. The fourth movement begins as a grateful hymn of praise and thanksgiving, and the lyrical materials from the first three movements are reprised. There is a brief and threatening nightmare moment (as if the dreadful memories of battles past still echo in the subconscious). But the moment is fleeting, and the concerto ends with the innocence of the opening movement, in a spirit of reconciliation and hope.

The Bagatelles (Twice Seven Haiku for Piano) was written by Chihara in 2010, a commission from the legendary pianist Jerome Lowenthal. The bagatelles are in two groups of seven little pieces, which the composer calls haiku, “reflecting the stylistic dichotomy of Japanese and American musical and poetic influences.” The pieces, with titles such as Drinking Songs for Kittens, Hip Hop Farmer and Frankie and Annie, are based on popular Japanese songs and the composer’s film scores. 

This world premiere recording of Four Reveries on Beethoven (2021 version) is a set of pieces written as a good-natured Beethoven tribute, including Rag 109, inspired by the wonderfully lyrical Op. 109, which is the composer’s favorite Beethoven Sonata,  Pastorale, inspired by the bucolic “Pastoral” Sonata with more boogie-woogie, Storm, based on the “The Tempest” Sonata and Sayonara, inspired by Beethoven’s “Les Adieux” Sonata.

The final piece on the album is Ami (2008) for four hand piano. Written for the wedding of two of Chihara’s good friends, it suggests the tradition of Fauré and Debussy, with an occasional nod to Ellington and Gershwin, centered around a Japanese children’s song Aka Tombo, a melody that was voted the most beloved Japanese song by the people of Japan. 

This is Nguyen’s second recording released in 2023, following her highly acclaimed album, The Flower of France, Germaine Tailleferre, Works for Piano [MA-1306], on the Music & Arts label. The Flower of France features works, curated by Nguyen, originally for solo piano, as well as transcriptions and excerpts from Tailleferre’s ballets and film scores representing some of the composer’s best and most significant work, including a number of tracks rarely played or recorded. Fanfare gave it 5 stars praising the recording as “alluring music by a wonderful composer performed by a wonderful artist." Pizzacato says Nguyen “plays with a brilliant lightness and a pictorial refinement. One listens to this program with real pleasure.”

Named one of the “19 Young Stars of Tomorrow” by Musical America, Quynh Nguyen has performed extensively throughout the United States, Asia and Europe including Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France, in notable concert venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Freer Gallery, the Berlin Konzerthause and the Opera House in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Boston Globe praised her as “a musical and expressive player” who is “sensitive and poetic, and excels in everything that requires elegance, proportion, balance, taste and wit.” For her Carnegie Recital Hall debut, the critic Harris Goldsmith called Nguyen's pianism and music-making “graced with beauty and exuberance” hailing her “a real artist; a wonderfully communicative performer.”

Nguyen’s recent highlights include a performance this past April at the Fulbright Prize ceremony in Washington DC honoring Dr. Fauci, which also featured a performance by Renee Fleming.

Dr. Nguyen is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, and the Graduate Center of CUNY. She is the recipient of several highly prestigious scholarships and awards, including the United States Presidential Academic Fitness Award, the American Prize and a Fulbright Fellowship.

Composer Paul Chihara is renowned for his film and television scores as well as for an extensive catalogue of orchestral, choral and chamber works. He has composed scores for over 100 motion pictures and television series, including Prince of the City, The Morning After (featuring Jane Fonda), Crossing Delancey, China Beach, 100 Centre Street, and Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service. Chihara was the first composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner, composer-in-residence with the San Francisco Ballet, music director of the renowned Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles, new music advisor to Zubin Mehta at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, music supervisor at the Walt Disney Studios and founder and chairman of the UCLA Film Music Program.

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More information on Quynh Nguyen may be found at:

www.quynhpiano.com

For interview requests, physical copies or more information,

please contact Genevieve Spielberg

at 908-608-1325 or genevieve@gsiartists.com

Other Recordings by Quynh Nguyen: