Debra Li

    Debra_lidan@163.com

    FOR local classical music fans, John Chen is a new face. Similar to Li Yundi and Zhang Haochen, Chen made his name early as a child prodigy. However, since he moved to the United States to study the piano at age 5, the 21-year-old is more famous in Washington D.C. than in his hometown of Beijing.

    The young man, a graduate of the Julliard School of Music and TCU School of Music, will make his Shenzhen debut this Friday night, presenting works from Bach, Liszt and Chopin.

    Opening the concert will be two pieces from Bach’s “Prelude & Fugues.” “Bach’s music is very pleasant to hear, but there is complexity in the apparent simplicity,” Chen said. “A pianist may play Bach all his life and still not get what he wishes for, but Bach will never bore you. His music is full of romantic fantasies, which brings instant peace and tranquility to me.”

    The pianist will also play Liszt’s “Sonata in B Minor” and Chopin’s “4 Ballades” at the recital. “I have loved playing Chopin ever since I was very young,” he said.

    Chen spent six years in a mountain villa in Virginia, playing the piano every day and imagining sad looks on the composer’s face. “I had portraits of many composers by my piano. Chopin was not handsome; he thought a lot and had some bitter feelings about the world, which was not very important to him. What mattered was his music.”

    Chen said he enjoys playing concerts, especially the darkness and silence of the stage. “There is only light shining on me and my piano — as if the world is just me and music. Whether it’s Beethoven or Chopin, Schubert or Rachmaninov, at that moment, they are there with me.”

    Praised as a “future master” by Lang Lang during a master class in 2005, Chen made his debut at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at age 8. He has performed at Carnegie Hall several times as well as given a recital at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, collaborating with renowned orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the China National Symphony Orchestra.

    Behind the aurora of his youthful fame is hard work beyond imagination for a “normal” child because Chen spent almost all his childhood playing the piano. There was only one instance where he wanted to go play before finishing his daily practice. His mom could tell from his music, that he was only going through the motions and asked him to stop. “If you don’t want to play, just quit once and for all,” she told him. By the third day, Chen was begging his mom to let him return to the piano. Since then, it has always been his mom who begs the boy to take a break from the piano.

    “He plays the piano like crazy sometimes. He would play 16 hours a day before competitions,” Chen’s mother said.

    “I love music, which brings me light and heat like the sun,” the pianist said. “I get immersed in the music while playing, which sometimes means I feel the sadness of the composer resonating. But most of the time, the piano and music help detach me from unhappy moments in real life, such as personal setbacks or not doing so well in a competition.”

    Music critic Liu Xuefeng said, Chen has not only a “powerful command of highly demanding pieces” but a “unique interpretation” as well. “It’s very rare for so young a pianist to have his own ideas and stick to them, oozing with confidence all over. His music is tasteful, pleasant to the ear and never boring,” the critic said.

    Piano recital by John Chen

    Program:

    Bach — Prelude & Fugues No. 1 in C, BWV846; Prelude & Fugues No. 1 in D, BWV850

    Liszt — Sonata in B Minor

    Chopin — 4 Ballades

    Time: 8 p.m., Jan. 30

    Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall

    Tickets: 80-580 yuan

    Hotline: 8284-1888, 8284-1666