Here we have a
double threat. The sixteen year old Anita Chen appears on this
new disc as both piano and violin soloist. Not only is this
a chance to experience the playing of a new artist, but to
see how the same artist plays two very different instruments.
Ms. Chen was born
in 1991 in New Jersey, outside of New York City. She studies
with Oxana Yablonskaya at the Juilliard for piano and Albert
Markov - of whom more later - at the Manhattan School of Music.
The album begins with the Grieg piano concerto and then moves
to a violin concerto and two excerpts from a concerted work
for violin by Alexander Markov.
I began listening
with the violin as opposed to the piano, specifically the Conus.
The Conus family comprised a number of musicians - all of them
well known in Moscow in the last quarter of the nineteenth
and the first quarter of the twentieth. Julius Edwardovich
Conus was a close friend of Rachmaninov, playing the violin
in several Rachmaninov premieres. The concerto is a one-movement
work with three sections and a lengthy cadenza inserted before
the third section. Ms. Chen makes her entrance in an almost
ethereal fashion which quickly changes to a driven account
of the first section. Her treatment of the melodic lines is
lovely, although she occasionally slips up on intonation. She
gets the maximum amount of drama out of this section and continues
to do so in the second. In the cadenza she cannot compare with
old Itzhak Perlman recording, but then no one would expect
her to. I have not heard the 2002 recording with David Garrett
and cannot make a comparison there. The best way to describe
Anita Chen’s playing is dynamic, not only full of energy, but
never once hesitating in her progress through the piece.
As mentioned above,
Anita Chen studies the violin with Albert Markov. In addition
to teaching and performing Markov is a composer, one of the
few performer/composers around today. Ms. Chen’s talent and
background inspired him to write a suite on Taiwanese themes,
of which two movements are performed here. The first, an improvisation,
is actually for violin solo and gives the violinist a chance
to show off her ability to maintain a single structure. The
second excerpt, a Capriccio for violin and orchestra is less
impressive as music, although the soloist handles it well.
The Grieg Piano
Concerto needs no introduction. What is of greatest interest
here is how much Anita Chen’s playing at the piano differs
from her playing on the violin. Where the Conus performance
was driving and direct, her approach to the Grieg stresses
the poetic over the motoric, perhaps too much. The orchestra
follows suit, playing much more timidly than they do in the
violin works. All seem to be saving their strength for the
cadenza and the end of the movement. The second movement is
delivered more convincingly by all concerned, but the soloist
is a little rough in some of the passagework, although always
quite poetic.
The Russian Philharmonic
plays very convincingly in the Conus - they obviously recognize
a friend of Rachmaninov in the Markov. They have excellent
string tone and play with a lot of energy. Unfortunately, the
recording and the hall let them down. What is very smooth playing
from the brass comes across as blaring and too loud. The winds
are rather flat-sounding and distant. The microphones seem
too close to the soloist much of the time. It is to be hoped
that Ms. Chen will be better served sound-wise in the future.
She looks likely to become a tremendous violinist. She will
need to become more forceful to be as impressive on the piano,
but it would not surprise me if she has talent to spare for
both instruments.
William Kreindler
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Anita Chen
(piano, violin) 
