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Artist: Quynh Nguyen
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Quynh Nguyen:

Paul Chihara, Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orch.

Award-winning Vietnamese American pianist Quynh Nguyen’s (pron. Quin Nwen) recording, Paul Chihara Complete Piano Works is now available on the Naxos American Classics label (8.559894). The album features four works for piano, including Chihara’s Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra* (2019-21), recorded with Stephen Barlow conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, Bagatelles (Twice Seven Haiku for Piano) (2010, rev. 2011), Four Reveries on Beethoven for piano* (2021 version) and Ami for piano four hands (2008) performed by Nguyen with guest artist Rieko Aizawa. *world premiere recording

Says Nguyen: “I am delighted and honored to record the complete piano works of Paul Chihara. This world premiere recording is the culmination of a three-year collaboration with the composer to interpret the richly multifaceted styles present in his compositions, especially the Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra which he wrote for me. The piece is virtuosic and intensely melodic with French and Eastern harmonies and jazz-tinged sections and phrases reminiscent of Russian classical works. These elements are juxtaposed within the story, reflecting my personal journey of studying music in Vietnam, Russia, France, Germany, and the United States, and how their diverse cultures have shaped my life.”  

The world premiere of Chihara's Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra took place October 2022 with the Vietnamese National Symphony under the baton of conductor Honna Tetsuji at the Hanoi Opera House. The concert commemorated the normalization of US-Vietnam diplomatic relations. She will perform the American premiere with the Seattle Symphony in January of 2024.

Quynh Nguyen:

The Flower of France - Germaine Tailleferre Works

Award-winning Vietnamese American pianist Quynh Nguyen’s (pron. Quin Nwen) newest recording The Flower of France, Germaine Tailleferre, Works for Piano [MA-1306], is now available on the Music & Arts label. The album features works, curated by Nguyen, originally for solo piano, as well as transcriptions and excerpts from Tailleferre’s ballets and film scores representing some of the composer’s best and most significant works, including a number of tracks rarely played or recorded.

The works on this album span 60 years, from the lyrical Impromptu – Tailleferre’s first published work, composed in 1912 at age 20 to Singeries (Monkey Business), which was written in 1975, near the end of her career. The title is derived from the solo piano suite Fleurs De France, a group of short character pieces Tailleferre composed in 1930, each dedicated to a flower that evokes landscapes in distinct regions of France.

Tailleferre (1892–1983) came of age in the explosively creative days of 1920s Paris. Well known as the only female member of Les Six, the group of composers which included Darius Milhaud, Louis Durey, Georges Auric, Francis Poulenc and Arthur Honegger, her circle of friends also included Charlie Chaplin, Picasso, Modigliani, Diaghilev, Ravel, Stravinsky and Monteux.