i
The 53rd HK Arts Festival .Feature
2025.01.10

From Bach to Boulez: the Long Journey of Pi-hsien Chen

Text / Dr. Georg Predota

In 1959, at the tender age of nine, Pi-hsien Chen left her native Taiwan on her own to study music in Germany. She grew up in the home of her teacher Hans-Otto Schmidt-Neuhaus, a professor at the Cologne University of Music, and she won the first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1972. Her interest in new piano music evolved from collaborations with John Cage, Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Kurtág, John Patrick Thomas and Péter Eötvös, to whom she was married. Today, Chen is internationally renowned for her dedicated interest and engagement with contemporary music.

The daughter of two academic who relocated from Mainland China to Taiwan in 1949, Chen grew up in Taipei. Her musical aptitude and perfect pitch were noticed early when she was able to effortlessly recreate melodies and tunes on a toy piano. Chen started formal piano lessons at the age of five, practising in a former military barracks with a communal kitchen that served as the family's living quarters.

A Hong Kong connection
A Hong Kong choir visiting Taiwan became aware of Chen's talent and invited her to come abroad. Her parent had considered that Chen should further her musical education overseas, but the five-year-old girl was simply too young. A few years later, however, a recording of Chen playing the piano came into the hands of Schmidt-Neuhaus, who invited her to join him at the University of Music in Cologne. At that time, the Taiwanese government had just begun implementing gifted and talented education. Pi-hsien Chen's piano skills were validated by experts and scholars, and she was recognized as a "gifted child," which enabled her to study abroad, making her the first person in Taiwan to do so.

Being far from home at such an early age proved to be a serious challenge. Due to the language barrier, Chen felt that loneliness was some sort of punishment and she found refuge in music. "When I played the piano," she explains, "I found myself in a perfect world. Bach and Mozart embodied an idealism, a world of perfection."

A 'Chinese miracle'
While Chen was acclaimed as a "Chinese miracle", she had to assert herself against Western competition and prejudices. From a wunderkind virtuoso, she grew into an artist who believed "good music-making also consists of sensuality and the perception of one's own individuality". Since music represents a mirror of our thinking and culture, Chen has tirelessly worked to connect musical expressions from the past with modern-day representations.

Chen first appeared at the second and third Hong Kong Arts Festivals in 1974 and 1975, respectively. For her return to Hong Kong in 2025, Chen will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Pierre Boulez's birthday, the renowned French composer and conductor of the 20th century. Having collaborated with Boulez many times, Chen will not only pay tribute to the master and her collaborator during the Hong Kong recital but will also perform works by composers whom Boulez admired.

The recital will start with Partita No 4 by Bach who is the composer Chen's interpretation was famous for, while Beethoven's Op 111 enters into a delectable dialogue with sonatas by Alban Berg and Boulez. Beethoven's Op 111 had been featured in Chen's 2024 complete Beethoven Sonatas recordings. Audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy her live performance of this piece during the recital.

Pi-hsien Chen Piano Recital
Date:Mar 30 2025
Venue:Concert Hall, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts

第53屆香港藝術節

下一篇的ID :From Bach to Boulez: the Long Journey of Pi-hsien Chen
ListClose

Acknowledgement