Swiss Music Night 2020

 

Beyond the Horizon 

Homage to Sir Yehudi Menuhin  

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A fascinating kaleidoscope of enchanting music and a warm relationship

with Switzerland

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At home all over the world, Sir Yehudi Menuhin had a particularly warm relationship with Switzerland. After moving to his home in the famous village Gstaad in 1957 he was granted Swiss citizenship in 1970. Here, in this spectacular landscape surrounded by mountains of the Bernese Oberland, he found the perfect place to start an international music festival and an academy according to his ideas.

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His commitment to leading young people to music was tireless throughout his life, and his knowledge and experience inspired his many students. The well-known taiwanese violinist Ming-Feng Hsin was discovered and promoted by Menuhin as a young boy. He and his sister Hsing-Chwen studied at the Menuhin School in England, and Hsing-Chwen became a piano partner of Sir Yehudi Menuhin's in chamber music concerts.

 

The this year "Swiss Music Night" is a homage to this great musician of the 20th century and is all about works with a strong connection to Switzerland. 

 

Two brilliant piano trios can be heard this evening by the Swiss composer Paul Juon (1872-1940) as well as the famous Piano Trio op. 66 C-minor by Felix Mendelssohn.

Paul Juon's late romantic style lives from rich harmony and folk music-inspired melodies. He was one of the most respected composers of his time, but felt after the war somehow into oblivion.

Long before Sir Yehudi Menuhin discovered the Bernese Oberland for himself, another child prodigy, Felix Mendelssohn, became a fervent admirer of the area. The Mendelssohn family had a small holiday home in Interlaken. He made no fewer than six journeys to Switzerland and was interested in Swiss folk songs and even used them in his string symphonies. 

 

The two Swiss composers Ernest Bloch and Fabian Müller come from the same village of Lengnau in northeastern Switzerland. Ernest Bloch was inspired by the Swiss landscape in his early works. However, he found his very own style in the search for a Jewish musical language in works such as Bal Shem or Schelomo. For Yehudi Menuhin he wrote two Suites for solo violin and the one-movement piece "Abodah" for violin and piano.

 

The "Tour de Suisse" for violin and piano by Fabian Müller, begins in four movements on an enjoyable musical journey throughout Switzerland and its four language regions by taking up elements of the respective folk music. The piece was written for a Swiss Duo, who's pianist tragically died, before it could be performed. It will be the World-premiere this evening!

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Swiss Music Night 2020 – The Artists

 

Ming-Feng Hsin 辛明峰 - violin (USA-Taiwan)

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Ming-Feng Hsin began his violin studies at the age of six in his native Tainan, Taiwan.

At age twelve he was awarded the first prize in the Cathay Pacific Airlines Violin Competition. As part of the prize, he was invited to attend the Hong Kong Music Festival where Yehudi Menuhin heard him and brought him to England to study with him in his school.

 

Mr. Hsin’s solo career began when he won the Glasgow International Violin Competition at the age of fifteen. He subsequently performed with the Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Orchestra to rave reviews (hailed by the Scotsman as “destined to be one of the giants of the next generation.”) and made his London debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Mr. Hsin has

performed throughout Great Britain with his mentor Lord Yehudi Menuhin and was invited to Washington D.C. as the featured soloist at a special concert for President Ford and Queen Elizabeth of England during the bicentennial celebrations. 

 

After coming to the U.S. to study with Ivan Galamian, Jascha Brodsky and David Cerone at the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Hsin was awarded top prizes at several competitions including the Montreal International Violin competition. Mr. Hsin is also an accomplished conductor. After getting a conducting degree from Juilliard with Otto Werner Mueller, he has worked with numerous orchestras throughout the world, and has led productions of the operas Aida, Flying Dutchman, La Boheme, and Ballo in Maschera.

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He won a first violin position at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York in 1994. In 2017 he retired  from the Met and has now more freedom to pursue solo and chamber music performances. These past few seasons he has performed the concertos of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Barber, Glazunov, Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Sibelius, Mozart and Schumann.

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Hsing-Chwen Hsin 辛幸純 - piano (Taiwan)

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Steinway Artist Hsing-Chwen (Giselle) Hsin is one of the most esteemed pianists from Asia. Her predecessor Fou Ts’ong, internationally the most venerated concert pianist from China, recognizes her as “a true artist”, and praises her for “reaching the highest realm in music, especially in the performances of Mozart”. While her live performances have been telecast and broadcast across Asia, England, and the US, she actively appears in concertos, recitals, recordings, and interviews on air. As one of Taiwan’s leading pianists, she is also a piano professor at the National Chiao Tung University.

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On CD, her recording of Mozart, Ravel and Chopin, published by Decca of Taiwan, has won her critical acclaim, resulting in the selection of Editor's Choice in the All Music Magazine. She has also won several competition prizes internationally. These include the prestigious Chappell Gold Medal from London's Royal College of Music, the Mozart Bicentenary Piano Competition of Asia, and New York's Chopin Piano Competition.

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Among the great concert halls of the world, Dr. Hsin has performed in London's Wigmore Hall, and both the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room; New York’s 92nd Street Y, and Merkin Hall; California’s Lobero and Arlington Theatres (Santa Barbara); Hong Kong’s Cultural Center and City Hall; Guangzhou’s Xinghai Concert Hall and Hunan’s Cultural Center (China); and Taipei’s National Concert Hall and Novel Hall. She has also given numerous performances elsewhere in England, and in France, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

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Pi-Chin Chien 簡碧青 - cello (Switzerland-Taiwan)

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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 Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman, Ruben Gazarian and Wen-Pin Chien. 

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In 2015 Pi-Chin Chien enjoyed enormous success with her album "Taiwan Rhapsody", accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London and released by Sony Classical. 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.

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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 "Episodes Concertantes" and his cello sonata.

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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. 

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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

 

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Artistic direction „Swiss Music Night“

Pi-Chin Chien & Fabian Müller