Pianist Frederic Chiu Teams Up with Joshua Bell for Acclaimed, Chart-Topping CD, Voice Of The Violin
BUENA PARK, Calif. — Yamaha Artist Frederic Chiu's highly successful collaboration with violinist Joshua Bell continues, with a critically acclaimed series of concerts and a new CD release, Voice of the Violin, which is currently number one on the Billboard classical music charts.
In an Amazon.com editorial review of Voice of the Violin, music critic Edith Eisler notes that Bell's appropriation to the violin of well-known vocal music and operatic arias are "slow, sustained, lovely and yes, singing," adding that "In Debussy's 'Beau Soir,' pianist Frederic Chiu partners Bell so beautifully that one wishes he had supplanted the orchestra in all the songs with piano accompaniment."
Calling the recording "Grammy-worthy," Porter Anderson of CNN.com also noted the power of "Beau Soir": "In the 11th track, Bell finally leaves behind even the warm Orchestra of St. Luke's and conductor Michael Stern. He takes along only pianist Frederic Chiu to record the stunning zenith of this CD."
New York Times classical music critic Allan Kozinn was impressed by the synergy of the duo's talents, on display at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival. "In the Mozart, [Bell] played with a bold assertiveness that was matched, gesture for gesture, in Frederic Chiu's clean, transparent piano lines."
The New York Sun's classical music critic Fred Kirshnit was likewise struck by Bell's and Chiu's performance in the Mozart Piano Quintet in G minor (K. 478). "Mr. Bell teamed with pianist Frederic Chiu," he recalls. "Their reading was deliciously politically incorrect, with Mr. Bell's inborn romantic nature sculpting the phrasing in mid-19th-century style.
"Mr. Chiu was especially unMozartean, confidently intoning his lusty piano part as if he was performing Brahms," Kirshnit continues. "No lily-livered periodicity for this group – this realization brought out the underlying passion that always bubbles just beneath the surface in these ostensibly polite Enlightenment works. This was not Mozart playing for purists. I loved it."
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone (714) 522-9011, or email infostation@yamaha.com.
 Yamaha Artist Frederic Chiu |
Calling the recording "Grammy-worthy," Porter Anderson of CNN.com also noted the power of "Beau Soir": "In the 11th track, Bell finally leaves behind even the warm Orchestra of St. Luke's and conductor Michael Stern. He takes along only pianist Frederic Chiu to record the stunning zenith of this CD."
New York Times classical music critic Allan Kozinn was impressed by the synergy of the duo's talents, on display at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival. "In the Mozart, [Bell] played with a bold assertiveness that was matched, gesture for gesture, in Frederic Chiu's clean, transparent piano lines."
The New York Sun's classical music critic Fred Kirshnit was likewise struck by Bell's and Chiu's performance in the Mozart Piano Quintet in G minor (K. 478). "Mr. Bell teamed with pianist Frederic Chiu," he recalls. "Their reading was deliciously politically incorrect, with Mr. Bell's inborn romantic nature sculpting the phrasing in mid-19th-century style.
"Mr. Chiu was especially unMozartean, confidently intoning his lusty piano part as if he was performing Brahms," Kirshnit continues. "No lily-livered periodicity for this group – this realization brought out the underlying passion that always bubbles just beneath the surface in these ostensibly polite Enlightenment works. This was not Mozart playing for purists. I loved it."
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone (714) 522-9011, or email infostation@yamaha.com.
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