Internationally acclaimed pianist Chen Ruei-bin (陳瑞斌) will be marking the 40th anniversary of the death of talented Taiwanese composer Chiang Wen-ye (江文也) at his concert next Tuesday.
Chen, who was born in Taiwan and moved to Austria to study music as a teenager, has been promoting Chiang’s work across the globe for many years. Chiang died on Oct. 24, 1983.
Chiang, a Hakka who’s been dubbed the “Chopin of the East,” also left Taiwan at a young age, studying in Japan and later working in Beijing as a music professor. He remained in China after the Chinese Civil War and never returned home.
Photo courtesy of Chen Ruei-bin
Chiang often expressed his yearning for his homeland in his work — including Formosan Dance (台灣舞曲), which won a medal for music during the 1936 Olympics. This made Chiang the first Taiwanese to win an Olympic medal and the only Asian to ever win a music medal in Olympic history.
Chen will be presenting Formosan Dance alongside two other works of Chiang at his upcoming recital at the National Concert Hall.
He says that he can hear Chiang’s profound nostalgia and longing for Taiwan in the piece, and the pain of not being able to return home deeply resonates with him.
In addition to Chiang’s pieces, Chen will also perform a number of works by European composers that have been featured in popular movies and dramas — including Chopin’s Balakirev: Transcription of Romance from Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 that appeared in the hit Korean drama Stairway to Heaven, as well as Variation 18 of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini from the beloved American classic Somewhere in Time.
■ Tuesday at 7:30pm, National Concert Hall, 21-1 Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21-1號), tickets range from NT$300 to NT$5,200
■ On the Net: www.facebook.com/rcpianist
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