SPCO precedes light with a compelling darkness

Concert Review

Pioneer Press Saint Paul, MN May 5, 2011

Among the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's artistic partners, Italian conductor Roberto Abbado is the one most fond of spending two or three weeks delving deeply into the repertoire of a particular composer. But his latest SPCO collaboration has a focus as broad as Russia is wide.

As at last week's concerts during an all-Russian fortnight, this weekend's program pairs the emotive romanticism of Peter Tchaikovsky with the sound of young Sergei Prokofiev finding his voice during the Soviet revolution. But between them came a powerful reality check, a work of such arresting urgency that one could pity Prokofiev for being entrusted with lightening the mood afterward.

The piece is Dmitri Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony in C Minor, a 1960 work that sounded intensely personal in its expression of the composer's inner torment as performed by Abbado and the SPCO strings on Thursday night at Stillwater's Trinity Lutheran Church. It was a gripping performance that brought an ear-opening dose of immediacy to a collection of works inspired by looking backward.

For the forms of earlier eras were the basis for Tchaikovsky's "Mozartiana" suite and "Variations on a Rococo Theme." In each, the composer employs the time-tested structure of delivering a melodic line in a variety of moods and styles, but that sounds somewhat academic for something as expressive and exciting as the "Rococo Variations" sounded Thursday night. It's the closest thing that Tchaikovsky wrote to a cello concerto, and soloist Bion Tsang made a tour de force of the demanding work, a singing, screaming compendium of radically shifting moods, serving sweetness and aggression in equal measure.

Speaking of mood shifts, "Mozartiana" was an ideal showcase for the SPCO's ability to turn on a dime, especially during its final movement's 10 variations, when soloists and sections of the orchestra took impressive turns in the spotlight. Prokofiev's "Classical" Symphony was similarly well executed, but its playfulness couldn't dispel the lingering shadows of the Shostakovich.

By Rob Hubbard

Read the full review... Blog... "Tsang: Tchaikovsky Tzardom"

Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations

Concert Preview

Cellist Bion Tsang makes solo debut with conductor Roberto Abbado and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Cellist Bion Tsang returns to Minnesota next month for four performances of the Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. The concerts on May 5 – 8, 2011, at venues around the greater Minneapolis / St. Paul metropolitan area will mark his solo debut with conductor Roberto Abbado and the SPCO.

“The audience for SPCO is one of the finest and most receptive audiences in the country,” says Mr. Tsang, who has performed with the orchestra for six other weeks in its 2010-11 season, substituting for Principal Cellist Ronald Thomas. “I am honored to return to the stage to perform with Roberto and the orchestra. They have my deepest respect for the brilliant depth and breadth of music that they produce all year-round—SPCO is truly an enviable gem in the performing arts.”

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Bach Suites for Solo Cello

Concert Preview

Cellist Bion Tsang prepares next generation of cello virtuosos for one-of-a-kind recital at UT Austin’s Bates Recital Hall

Six years ago, Bion Tsang performed all six Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello in one sitting at The University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music. Performing any or all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s revered works for cello is a virtuosic accomplishment, an achievement that combines mastery, artistry, discipline and fortitude.

Next month, Tsang is passing Bach’s torch to six of his current and former students, who will perform the Bach Suites in a single evening on Tuesdat, April 19, 2011, at 7:30 PM in Bates Recital Hall. Cellists Nathan Harrenstein, Jun Jin, Samuel Converse Johnson, Francesco Mastromatteo, Jun Seo, and Jeffrey Wang will perform these monumental masterpieces for solo cello including:

1. Suite in G major, BWV 1007 2. Suite in D minor, BWV 1008 3. Suite in C major, BWV 1009 4. Suite in E-flat major, BWV 1010 5. Suite in C minor, BWV 1011 6. Suite in D major, BWV 1012

Tsang believes that performing Bach’s masterworks becomes a driving force for future success for these young musicians.

“I want my students to evoke a response from the audience that will fill them with inspiration they need to succeed for years to come,” says Mr. Tsang. “The growth these students have acquired by learning these Bach pieces is outstanding, and to perform them is to be affirmed as a musician and an artist.”

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Instrumental Minds … plus Hearts

Concert Review

The Boston Musical Intelligencer Boston, MA February 13, 2011

Three syllables’ worth of surnames added up to a startling amount of musicality at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall Saturday evening, February 12th. The Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts presented Nai-Yuan Hu, violin, Bion Tsang, cello, and Ning An, piano in a riveting recital entitled “Instrumental Minds.”

Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 is one of a regrettably limited number of pieces crafted for this instrumental combination. Somber and angular, this work, penned at the start of World War I, seems to reflect the dark mood of the time. Kodály, along with compatriot and contemporary Béla Bartók, was an inveterate ethnomusicologist who ferreted out and catalogued multitudinous Hungarian folk songs. This is readily apparent in his Duo, which, with its generous use of pizzicato technique and modal key structure, evokes a decidedly Eastern European flavor. This impassioned, declamatory, melodically acerbic and technically demanding music was handled with sophistication and reverence by the instrumentalists. Violinist Nai-Yuan Hu, the elder statesman of the group, performed with a high degree of stern-faced competence; Bion Tsang spun a warm, full tone on the violin’s larger cousin. Both players clearly communicated the yearning and pathos of the piece, painting a desolate music landscape with a passionate performance.

Anton Arensky is the only composer I know to have a glacier named after him, the Arensky Glacier in Antarctica, a rather odd tribute bestowed by the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1987. Musically, Arensky’s output during his brief life was anything but glacial. Case in point: his Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 32, a lush, energetic, rhapsodically Romantic work that envelops the listener in a warm blanket of sound. Hu, Tsang, and An combined to weave a flowing, shimmering soundscape with melody lines that rippled through the instruments. The second movement “Scherzo” flowed by in a froth of notes; the nostalgic “Elegia” appropriately paid tribute to cellist Karl Davidov, in whose memory the work was composed. Not surprisingly, the cello figured prominently, and Bion Tsang played with intensity and bravura. All told, hard to imagine a more stirring, glittering performance of this late Romantic gem, a highly appropriate choice for the eve of the eve of Valentine’s Day. Though only their second collaboration, the musicians played as if the Hu-Tsang-An Trio was a long-established entity.

This concert turned out to be much more than the “Intrumental Minds” title suggested. These performers wore their hearts on their sleeves.

By Michael Rocha

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KMFA's 44th Birthday

Bion Tsang CDs featured in KMFA's spring pledge drive

KMFA Classically Austin 89.5 Austin, TX January 21, 2011

Two of Bion Tsang's latest compact discs are offered again as "Thank You Gifts" during the KMFA Birthday Membership Drive on January 26-28, 2011. A contribution at the Bronze Circle/Business Circle level of $500 or more entitles you to a Classically Austin 4-Pack CD Set including the CD "Bion Tsang and Anton Nel Live in Concert: Brahms Cello Sonatas and Four Hungarian Dances" as well as the 2010 Grammy-nominated CD "A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert," in which Mr. Tsang is featured guest artist in three tracks. Make your pledge today to support KMFA!

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