Last Sunday, distinguished pianist and Delos artist Andrew von Oeyen paired up with premier violinist Sarah Chang for a concert in the Boston “Celebrity Series” at Symphony Hall, and received glowing praise!
From The Boston Globe:
“… in their Celebrity Series of Boston recital program Sunday afternoon at Symphony Hall, violinist Sarah Chang and pianist Andrew von Oeyen were equals in every way…
“…von Oeyen looked like the reincarnation of Van Cliburn, and when Chang bent toward him, as she did frequently, you could see him listening to her out of the corner of his ear.
“Chang and von Oeyen were having such a lively conversation, it was a shame they had to stop.”
From the Boston Music Intelligencer:
“…beginning with the Sonatensatz (the Scherzo from the F.A.E. Sonata). Sarah Chang and…Andrew von Oeyen attacked this stormy movement with a gusto that gave momentum to the active passages and urgency to the lyrical melodies.
“The third movement [of the Brahms Violin Sonata] again demonstrated the integration of the two instruments in an ensemble of equals in which Chang seamlessly shifted between the foreground and background through subtle alterations in dynamic and timbral intensity. Here, again, the stormy side of Brahms was in full force. Chang and von Oeyen masterfully built and released the tension, allowing the listener to feel the full excitement of the theme’s journey through its development and eventual re-emergence all the way through to the energetic final movement.
“With all their musical power brought to bear, Chang and von Oeyen rendered the Franck sonata as an intensely dark landscape shot through with beams of light that illuminated its beauty.”
Celebrating the Bicentennial of Liszt’s Birth (1811-1886)
LISZT:
Piano Sonata in B Minor
Waldesrauschen (Zwei Konzertetüden)
Vallée d’Obermann (Années de Pèlerinage)
Liebestraum No. 3 in A-Flat Major
VERDI-LISZT:
Concert Paraphrase of Rigoletto
WAGNER-LISZT:
Elsa’s Bridal Procession (Lohengrin)
Isolde’s Liebestod (Tristan und Isolde)
“ANDREW VON OEYEN, KEENLY ATTUNED TO LISZT’S GRAND DESIGN…I would go so far as to say that von Oeyen played the finest all-around performance of Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor that I have heard in many years.” – Washington Post