Swiss Music Night 2023 音樂瑞士之夜
Jubilee Concert 十年有禧
10 Years Swiss Music Night in Taiwan
Oct.15 Sun. 14:30 高雄衛武營表演廳 Weiwuying Recital Hall
Oct.16 Mon.19:30 台北國家音樂廳 National Concert Hall
The "Swiss Music Night" is marking its tenth anniversary milestone by annually celebrating the friendship through joining world-class musicians from Switzerland and Taiwan.
Since 2013 the Swiss Music Night established itself as an important and sustainable platform of cultural exchange. Outstanding musicians and composers from both countries have engaged in a wonderful dialogue, which ultimately resulted in unforgettable concert experiences.
For the this year jubilee two of Switzerland's most successful cultural ambassadors, world-known recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger, acclaimed Swiss violinist Sebastian Bohren and distinguished Swiss-Taiwanese cellist Pi-Chin Chien will join Taiwan's outstanding musicians Jimmy Hsueh on the violin, Chen-Hung Ho on the viola, Yi-Hsuan Chiu on the double bass, Mei-Ling Chien on the piano and Chia-hsuan Tsai on the hapsichord with a spectacular musical journey from the Baroque to the present day in the National Concert Hall in Taipei and the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts Weiwuying.
The varied program will include a beloved baroque concerto by Georg Philipp Telemann performed by Maurice Steger and Sebastian Bohren will present the virtuoso Devil's Trill Sonata by Giuseppe Tartini to the Taiwanese audience. However, in a newly arranged version with string ensemble.
The exchange between Taiwanese music and Swiss performers, and vice versa, has always been most important to us. For this year's anniversary concert, we have given the special task to the Taiwanese composer Chien-Hui Hung and the Swiss composer Oliver Waespi to write a piece based on a Taiwanese and a Swiss folk song each. We are excited and look forward to this two world premieres!
As well on the program is the Asian premiere of an enjoyable musical journey titled "Fantasia folcloristica" for recorder and string orchestra. Maurice Steger commissioned Swiss composer Fabian Müller to write this piece for him based on old traditional Swiss folk dances. Their origins are the Italian and Romansh-speaking regions.
Paul Juon was born in Russia as the son of Swiss emigrated confectioners. However, he spent most of his life as a composition teacher in Berlin before returning to his native Switzerland for his final years. He died in 1940 in Vevey, in the french part of Switzerland. He can be considered the most important and gifted Swiss composer of the late Romantic period. The Silhouettes for two violins and piano, composed in 1899, wonderfully reflect the various facets of this composer, his love for dance rhythms, his temperament and humor. For this anniversary, Sebastian Bohren and Jimmy Hsueh will perform three of the six Silhouettes.
The Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch grew up in Geneva and worked in French-speaking Switzerland until his emigration to the USA at the age of 36. He never forgot his Swiss roots even in his exile in America, and they are reflected in several of his works. For example, his Concerto Grosso No. 1 features memories of Swiss folk song melodies in the 3rd movement "Pastorale and Rustic Dances," and even an alpine horn melody is involved. So this work fits wonderfully with the 10th anniversary of the Swiss Music Night, as it reflects the stylistic diversity that has always been important to us in our programs.
Taiwan and Switzerland are both small countries with many similarities, starting with their common impressive and beautiful mountainous landscapes. Despite their small size, both offer a great diversity and richness of culture. The opportunities for cultural exchange are limitless, and so, we hope for many more years of wonderful musical dialogues between our two homelands.
Pi-Chin Chien 簡碧青 & Fabian Müller
Program
泰勒曼：C大調木笛協奏曲，作品TWV 51：C1
Georg Philipp Telemann Concerto in C major for Recorder, TWV 51:C1
塔替尼 G小調小提琴奏鳴曲「魔鬼的顫音」
Giuseppe Tartini Violin Sonata in G minor “Devil's Trill ”
保羅‧猶翁 《剪影》第一冊，第1-3首
Paul Juon “Silhouettes” Book 1, No.1-3
洪千惠、奧利佛‧威斯皮 《小禧年組曲》*世界首演
Chien-Hui Hung & Oliver Waespi “Little Jubilee Suite” *World premiere
Intermission
法比安‧穆勒《民俗幻想曲》*亞洲首演
Fabian Müller “Fantasia folcloristica” *Asian premiere
布洛赫 第一號大協奏曲(法比安‧穆勒改編弦樂五重奏加鋼琴版)
Ernest Bloch Concerto grosso No. 1 (arranged for string quintet & piano by Fabian Müller)
Maurice Steger - recorder (Switzerland)
“Maurice Steger's virtuosity and sense of style are admirable"
It is not surprising that he is called "Paganini", "wizard", "the world's leading recorder player" or an "electrifying and inspiring conductor". In order to live up to such high expectations, one requires not only astonishing technique, but also charisma, intellect, and a special sensitivity for the music. Maurice Steger has been proving all of this to his audiences, inspiring with his intense tone and unstoppable energy in various concert formats all over the world.
As a soloist, conductor, or both at once, he regularly performs with the top period instrument ensembles, such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel, Venice Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, Il Pomo d’oro or I Barocchisti. He also performs with leading modern orchestras such as the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Canadian Violons du Roy, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur and the NDR Radiophilharmonie. It always astonishes that all these orchestras sound transformed after a period of work: sonically sensitive and individual, always historically informed, and playfully expressive in the here and now.
Chamber music plays a notable role in the richly varied spectrum of Maurice Steger's artistic endeavours. With fellow musicians and friends such as Hille Perl, Rachel Podger, Avi Avital, Daniele Caminiti, Sebastian Wienand, Diego Fasolis, Sol Gabetta and the French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, he dedicates himself to a continuously updated repertoire of Early music. Also, he is available for experimental or new formations, for example, he performs with the pianist Martin Stadtfeld and the percussionist Christoph Sietzen. Within the framework of a world premiere, together with the Kuss Quartet, Steger will apply himself to a new concert form in 2021.
Maurice Steger loves the interaction between different cultures and getting to know other ways of working and interpretive approaches, working as a concert artist, professor, and juror not only in Europe but throughout the world. Tours through North and South America, Asia and Australia have brought him together with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He was the first recorder player from the West to perform with the Traditional Taipei Chinese Orchestra.
His commitment to musical education is also extremely important to him: besides the directorship of the Gstaad Baroque Academy at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, which he took over in 2013 in addition to diverse master classes, he invented the character of Tino Flautino in order to encourage young children to playfully engage with classical music. The recorder playing Tino Flautino is a children's hero in Steger's home country, Switzerland, and the musician now presents his latest adventure with the tomcat Leo Leonardo in many countries and languages.
Through his own unending thirst for knowledge, he succeeds time and again in showing how much there is still to be discovered about Baroque music.
For example, on his recording Souvenirs, he presented works that he found in the private library of Count Harrach in Naples. His album Baroque Twitter with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the singer Nuria Rial was inspired by birdsong.
The latest recording, Mr. Handel's Dinner, with La Cetra Barockorchester Basel was released in the spring of 2019 and reflects on Handel's opera performances and especially their intermissions in London. The recording was received with enthusiasm by listeners and the press.
Steger regularly tracks down baroque and early classical rarities, conducts and plays them or releases them on CD. Maurice Steger has received many awards for his work, including the Karajan Prize and the ECHO Klassik.
One sometimes wonders where Maurice Steger finds all the energy with which he has helped the recorder to make a comeback, as Arte recently presented in a documentary The Recorder: A Comeback.
But when you see how much love for the recorder, the music, and the audience he demonstrates in each of his many projects, it becomes clear that Maurice Steger is carved from the same special material as his beloved instrument.
Sebastian Bohren - violin (Switzerland)
Sebastian Bohren is a violinist who, as both concerto soloist and chamber musician, strikes a distinctive balance in his interpretations and his choice of repertoire, which favours the Classical and early Romantic eras, the 20th century and the present day.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung has described Bohren as “one of the most serious-minded, forthright musicians of his generation” while BBC Music Magazine’s 5* review of his Avie recording of Mozart violin concertos praised his “gorgeous solo playing … vividly alert to the music’s every shift and turn.” Gramophone magazine described the album, recorded in 2021 with CHAARTS Chamber Artists and conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy, as “a listening experience that commands the attention from start to finish,” and asked: “Which way will Sebastian Bohren’s questing approach to repertoire take him next?”
Over the coming seasons, Bohren’s performances as a soloist will embrace works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartók, Szymanowski, Korngold, Frank Martin, Magnus Lindberg, Alfred Schnittke, Peteris Vasks, Loris Tjeknavorian and Peter Eötvös. He has made concerto appearances in his native Switzerland with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Orchestra Svizzera Italiana, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Argovia Philharmonic, Zürcher Kammerorchester, Kammerorchester Basel, Festival Strings Lucerne, Camerata Zürich, Orchestre de chambre fribourgeois, Berner Kammerorchester, Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden and CHAARTS Chamber Artists, and internationally with the St. Petersburg State Academic Cappella, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Münchner Kammerorchester, Kölner Kammerorchester, Göttinger Sinfonieorchester, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, KKO Mannheim, WKO Heilbronn, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Romanian Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include Philippe Bach, Douglas Boyd, Elim Chan, Thierry Fischer, James Gaffigan, Clemens Heil, Heinz Holliger, Axel Kober, Patrick Lange, Andrew Litton, Cristian Macelaru, Andrew Manze, Leo McFall, Christoph Poppen, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Mario Venzago.
In 2019 he gave the premiere of an arrangement for violin and orchestra of Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No 1, which he commissioned from Ukrainian percussionist Andrei Pushkarev; a live recording with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt was released on Sony Classical in 2019. Among his future recording projects is the Violin Concerto No.1 by Magnus Lindberg. This will expand a discography that already includes concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Britten (praised by The Strad for “a varied tonal palette that is as beguiling as his technique is striking”), the first instalment of a projected complete recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas (judged “consistently enlightening” by Fanfare and of “radiant insight” by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung), and works by Schubert, Schumann, Respighi, Shostakovich, Vasks and Kancheli.
As a chamber musician, Sebastian Bohren spent seven years as a member of the Stradivari-Quartett (2013 to 2020), performing in such venues as the Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Shanghai Symphony Hall, and Victoria Hall in Singapore. In recital, his partners have included violinists Roby Lakatos, Benjamin Schmid, Hansheinz Schneeberger and Dmitry Sitkovetsky, pianists Andreas Haefliger, Konstantin Lifschitz and Yekwon Sunwoo, violist Antoine Tamestit, cellists Thomas Demenga and Christian Poltera, and clarinettist Reto Bieri.
Sebastian Bohren, who was born in 1987, trained in Zurich with Jens Lohmann, and subsequently Robert Zimansky and Zakhar Bron, before studying in Lucerne with Igor Karsko and at Munich’s University of Music and Performing Arts with Ingolf Turban. Musicians he cites as a decisive influence are Ana Chumachenco, Hansheinz Schneeberger, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Christian Tetzlaff and Heinrich Schiff.
While making Zurich his base, Sebastian Bohren maintains close links with the Swiss canton of Aargau, where he grew up, and since 2006 he has run a successful concert series, Stretta Concerts in Brugg. He plays a 1761 violin made in Parma by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, the “Ex-Wanamaker-Hart”.
Pi-Chin Chien 簡碧青 - cello (Switzerland-Taiwan)
Pi-Chin Chien is a sought-after, internationally active soloist and chamber musician. She has performed in major concert venues around the world, including New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic and Tonhalle Zurich. She appears as a soloist on recordings with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman, Ruben Gazarian and Wen-Pin Chien.
Pi-Chin Chien has performed and recorded world premieres of a number of violoncello concertos and chamber music works, including several compositions dedicated to her.
In 2015, Pi-Chin enjoyed great success with “Taiwan Rhapsody”, an album of romantic-symphonic rhapsodies for violoncello and orchestra based on folksongs of her native Taiwan, written by her husband, the Swiss composer Fabian Müller and released on the Sony Classical label. On this recording she is accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London under the direction of Wen-Pin Chien. In January 2015, Pi-Chin premiered “Taiwan Rhapsody” together with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. Further performances took part in 2017/18 concert season in Germany, including the Berlin Philharmonic, and in 2019 in the National Concert Hall.
2019 the successful album "Tea for Two Cellos" (Solo-Musica) was released. Current albums are "Strings on the Move" (2020), as well as the premiere recording of the complete work for cello and piano by the Swiss late-romantic composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (former professor at the Geneva Conservatory and founder of the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze), which was released 2022.
Pi-Chin Chien is a champion of works by lesser known composers. In the 90ties Pi-Chin Chien contributed significantly to the rediscovery of the late romantic Swiss composer Paul Juon with numerous concerts of his chamber music and first recordings of his cello concerto "Mysterien", the Triple Concerto "Epidodes Concertantes" and his cello sonata.
In 2016, the Triple Concerto was first performed in Asia at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Together with Willi Zimmermann, violin and Pi-Hsien Chen, piano, she played the work accompanied by the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra NTSO under the direction of Kaspar Zehnder.
She performed at the Kaiser-Otto Medal award ceremony in honor of the late former German President Richard von Weizsäcker, and twice (1998 and 2016) at the renowned concert series at Taiwan’s Presidential Office on invitation of the President of Taiwan.
A native of Taiwan, Pi-Chin Chien studied with Markus Stocker, Claude Starck, Marek Jerie and Stanislaw Apolin in Zurich, Lucerne and Prague, graduating with a soloist’s diploma with distinction. She received further artistic impulses in masterclasses with Pierre Fournier, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, Daniil Shafran and Arto Noras. Pi-Chin Chien has won numerous awards at national and international music competitions.
Pi-Chin Chien is the artistic director of the "Swiss Music Night" concert series in Taiwan and of the "Confluence" Music Festival in Zurich. www.pichin.net
Chih-Chang (Jimmy) Hsueh 薛志璋 - violin (Taiwan)
Jimmy Hsueh is currently assistant professor at the Taipei National University of the Arts.
He holds an Artist Diploma from Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany, where he served as the second violin principal in the Landestheater Detmold and the first violin in Klassische Philharmonie Bonn during his studies. He has also held positions as the assistant concertmaster of the Macao Orchestra, concertmaster of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, concertmaster and chamber musician of Taiwan Connection Festival Orchestra, and concertmaster of Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra.
As a soloist, he has collaborated with many orchestras, including the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, TNUA Orchestra and Strings Orchestra, Ensemble des Landestheater Detmold, Macao Orchestra, TC Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra, Taichung City Orchestra, , One-Song Orchestra, Taiwan Artist Symphony Orchestra, Taoyuan Chinese Orchestra, and Taipei Chinese Orchestra, among others.
Jimmy Hsueh has released several recordings, including "Bach's 3 Solo Partita" and "Taiwan Pure String - Dancing Strings". In Spring 2017, he gave recitals in Kaohsiung and Taipei, featuring the complete Paganini 24 caprices in the program, alongside a book publication titled "Begin with Open String - Simple Essence of Sound Production, Practicing, and Performance".
Chen-Hung Ho 何君恆 - viola (Taiwan)
Following his graduation from the National Taiwan Acadamy of Arts, Chen-Hung Ho went to France to further his studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris with Prof. Maurice Husson, Prof. Dominique Richard and famous violist Prof. Gérard Caussé. Also joined the class of preparative orchestra at Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, studied with Prof. Jean Dupouy and Laurent Verney.
Ho has also appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of Taiwan Strings, Taipei Century Symphony Orchestra, Voice of Spring Symphony Orchestra and LongTan Philharmonic Orchestra.
Now he is the Principal Violist of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and Associate Professor at the National Taipei University of Arts, the National Taipei University of Education, the University of Taipei, the National Taiwan University of Arts, the Fu-Jen Catholic University, the New Taipei Municipal New Taipei Senior High School.
Yi-Hsuan Chiu 邱苡軒 - double bass (Taiwan)
Taiwanese double bassist Yi-Hsuan Chiu is the first ever female Asian bassist to have won a contract position (Akademie 2020-22) with the renowned Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonieorchester) in Germany.
While performing as an orchestral player, Chiu also received her Solo-Konzertexamen degree with Distinction from Hochschule für Musik Saar in 2021 under the guidance of her mentors including Bogusław Furtok, Cristian Braica, and Alexis Scharff.
In 2017, Chiu graduated from The Juilliard School in New York with a Bachelor of Music degree and two years later a Master of Music degree as a proud recipient of Kovner Fellowship under the guidance of Prof. Albert Laszlo.
She was a two-time Aspen Music Festival Bass Fellow and was the principal bass with Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra and Taiwan Connection Chamber Orchestra.
Chiu is also enthusiastic about chamber music. She has performed with Israeli Chamber Project in New York, and with pianist Enrico Pace and violinist Nai-Yuan Hu in Italy.
Chiu is currently the adjunct assistant professor at National Kaohsiung Normal University and the principal bassist with One Song Orchestra in Taipei, Taiwan.
Mei-Ling Chien 簡美玲 - piano (Taiwan)
Chien graduated from the Music Class of the Affiliated Senior High School of the National Taiwan Normal University. She was recommended for admission to the Department of Music, National Institute of the Arts (now Taipei National University of the Arts). She studied at the Cologne Conservatory of Music, received her Artist Diploma with Distinction and her Performance Diploma (Konzertexamen).
Currently, she teaches at the Department of Music, Taipei National University of the Arts.
Chia-Hsuan Tsai 蔡佳璇 harpsichord (Taiwan)
Taiwan renown harpsichordist Chia-Hsuan Tsia, whose solo harpsichord album “Through the Ages” (2017, ArchiMusic) received the best classical/contemporary music album award by the 29th The Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music. Ms. Tsai studied harpsichord with Prof. Mitzi Meyerson at University of Art Berlin and Prof. Tobias Schade at University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig. Tsai is the winner of 16 Grand Prize Competition of Konzertgesellschaft München in 2003. Her concert recordings were played on Radio Kultur Berlin and Bayerischer Rundfunk. She is now the Artistic Director of Barock Ensemble Taipei.
Chien-Hui Hung 洪千惠 - composer (Taiwan)
Hung, Chien-Hui is the composer in residence of the JU Percussion Group. She studied composition with Ma, Shiu-Long and Lu, Yen while studying percussion with Ju, Tzong-Ching and Kuo, Kwang-Yuan.
Hung furthered her studies in France from 1987 to 1995. She studied composition with Yoshihisa Taira and received Diplome Superieur of Composition. Hung has studied composition with Alain Bancquart and Paul Mefano as well.
In November 1997, Hung presented All Hung's Music in concert at the National Concert Hall. Her composition "Les Douze Lunes Du Serpent" (2001) was a collaborative project with the French composer Francois Bernard Mache. The work, commissioned by Les Percussions de Strasbourg, was premiered at Les 38e Rugissants in Grenoble, France in 2001. The composition "Mulan" (2010 and 2013) was a successful integration of percussion and Beijing Opera and tap dance which created a new performing style – Percussion theatre and took the percussion to a new high level. "Mulan" was invited to perform at the Chekov International Arts Festival in Moscow, Russia in 2017.
Oliver Waespi - composer (Switzerland)
Oliver Waespi studied composition as well as conducting and film music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Zurich and completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
As a composer, he cultivates a variety of musical interests, which brings him together with performers in different fields. His music is performed by numerous renowned symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists, choirs, symphonic wind orchestras and brass bands all around the world.
His music was featured at the George Enescu-Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the «Hear and Now»-concert series of the BBC, CBDNA Conferences, Swiss National Band Conventions, several WASBE World Conferences and European Brass Band Championships and many other concerts and festivals all around the world.
In addition, Oliver Waespi regularly conducts workshops, works as a juror at music competitions and is a lecturer at the Berne University of the Arts. For his music.
Oliver Waespi received numerous awards, including the International George EnescuComposition Prize in 2003, the London Fellowship awarded by the Landis&Gyr Cultural Foundation in 2005/2006, a prize at the 2009 Uuno Klami Composing Competition in Finland, composition grants of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and the Dutch Eduard van Beinum Foundation, the 2011 Composition Prize of the Swiss Federation of Orchestras, the 2013 NBA Revelli Award in the USA, the 2014 Stephan Jaeggi-Preis or the 2015 International BUMA Brass Award in the Netherlands.
Fabian Müller - composer (Switzerland)
Fabian Müller is one of the leading Swiss composers of his generation. His works were premiered by great musicians of our time such as David Zinman, Andris Nelsons, Sir Roger Norrington, Andrey Boreyko, Christopher Hogwood, Steven Isserlis, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Antonio Meneses and Henning Kraggerud, and were heard in the prestigious halls of the world including the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Tonhalle Zurich, the KKL Luzern, St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Teatro Colón.
He got commissions from the Lucerne Festival, the Interlaken Music Festival, Cully Classique or the Vestfold Festspillene in Norway, and his works were performed at the Festival La Chaise Dieux in France, the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado or at the Festival Internacional de Ushuaia in Argentina.
Numerous CD recordings show his versatile oeuvre with among others, the Philharmonia Orchestra (David Zinman), the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra or the Petersen Quartet Berlin (for ARS Produktion, col legno, Capriccio, Sony Classical, etc.).
Following his cello studies at the Zurich Conservatory with Claude Starck, Fabian Müller studied composition in Zurich and the USA, where in 1996 he won the Jacob Druckman Award for Orchestral Composition. In 2006, he received a cultural award from the Canton of Zurich and, in 2012, the Zollikon Art Prize for his work to date. In 2016 he was one of the nominees of the Swiss Music Prize of the Federal Office of Culture.
In addition to his work as a composer, he is interested in folk music. For ten years (1991-2002), he worked on the publication of the Hanny Christen Collection, a ten-volume folk music anthology with over 10,000 tunes from the 19th century. www.swisscomposer.ch
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Artistic direction „Swiss Music Night“
Pi-Chin Chien & Fabian Müller
© by Swiss Music Night in Taiwan