Review ( 樂評 ) Chinese-Austrian Pianist Rueibin Chen Wows Crowd with a Rachmaninoff Performance

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May 4, 2015

Rueibin Chen, renowned Chinese-Austrian pianist, performed a Rachmaninoff piece, "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini," in Beijing on April 24, showcasing his world-class skills flared with classical Russian touch.

The pianist played with the China National Symphony Orchestra at the National Center for the Performing Arts. With his passionate performance, Chen was able to captivate the hearts of his audience.

Chen is the only Asian student of the legendary Russian pianist Lazar Berman. Berman was a student of Alexander Goldenweiser, a classmate and friend of Rachmaninoff.

Chen hails from Tainan and was born to a family of an elementary school music instructor. He first went to Austria to study when he was only 13 years old.

In 1984, the pianist won the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition in Italy, becoming the youngest person to receive the tilt.

Chen's piece during the April 24 show was one of the most famous works by Rachmaninoff. The 1980 film "Somewhere in Time" popularized the 18th variation of the rhapsody's melody.

One of the movie's stars, Jane Seymour, was part of the crowd who watched Chen's performance back in Los Angeles.

According to a China Network Television report, Chen stated that "the piece has so many different levels you can savor--passion, as well as serenity," adding that the rhapsody was Rachmaninoff's "most representative work."
The Chinese-Austrian talent played his own version of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 for an encore. He said that he performed the encore to mirror Rachmaninoff's work, making the whole of his performance "100% Russian."

Chen further shared that his performance was a tribute to his mentor, Lazar Berman, and to other Russian music instructors.

Photo : Award-winning Rueibin Chen gives a virtuoso performance of a Rachmaninoff rhapsody.

Review : Rueibin Chen's "Total Rachmaninoff" piano recital Dec. 7- impressive virtuosity

Review ( 樂評 ) :

Rueibin Chen's "Total Rachmaninoff" piano recital Dec. 
7- impressive virtuosity

AXS Entertainment (USA) 

December 14, 2013

This past weekend the internationally celebrated Chinese/Austrian Pianist, Rueibin Chen, performed a solo piano recital featuring an all Rachmaninoff program, on Dec.7, 2013 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts,Costa Mesa, CA.

While people familiar with Rachmaninoff’s famous Piano Concertos may have found this eclectic program challenging, lovers of classical music
were in for a fascinating evening of rarely performed works. Chen, who has performed with all the major orchestras of the world, gave a recital that showed the depth of his musical taste and virtuoso skills.

The impressive Segerstrom Recital Hall was a good venue for Chen's playing, despite the acoustics which sometimes caused his tones to sound blurry. Especially refreshing to see, was the attendance of so many young families with children, along with many classical music supporters from our Asian community.

Rueibin Chen has been on the stage most of his life. He began his career as a child prodigy and went on to win the most prestigious International Piano awards including the Rachmaninoff Piano Competition. With an international solo career already now decades long, he is making another world-wide tour with his new Total Rachmaninoff Recital.

Chen opened the program with Rachmaninoff's playful Lilacs, Op.21, spun out with an alluring warm tone and perfect balance between left and right hands. Without break, he went on to play a completely contrasting work, bringing out the piano’s metallic tones for Rachmaninoff's brilliant arrangement of Bach’s Gavotte, No. 3.

Next was a heartfelt and nuanced performance of the Southern California premiere of Three Nocturnes, Op. 1, the first works composed by Rachmaninoff when he was just 14 years old. Chen then played the astonishingly difficult Rachmaninoff Preludes - Prelude in G Major, Op 32, No.5, Prelude in G Sharp Minor, No.12 and Prelude in D Major, Op.23 No. 4. After these demanding works, Chen closed out the first half with another fabulously intricate work, the Etude-Tableau in D Major, Op. 39, No.9, brilliantly executing complex passages with a myriad of tonal colors.

After intermission, the second half of Chen's ambitious recital presented the more familiar melodic and flashy Rachmaninoff style. Featured were arrangements by the composer of Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby, Bizet’s Minuet from L’Arliesienne, Fritz Kreisler’sLeibeslied and Leibesfreud, along with Rachmaninoff’s Daises, No. 5. In this repertoire, Chen seemed more at ease as did the audience. Concluding his recital with a thunderous Liebesfreude, a rowdy piece all fireworks and cascades of sound played at a tremendous pace, the audience responded with a very appreciative applause, calling the artist back for more.

Despite having given this demanding recital, Chen seemed visibly more relaxed and plunged into two encores from the famous Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2. Beaming and smiling on stage, he played with great power and flair. Responding to this encore performance, the audience gave him the thunderous applause he deserved.

Review: Taiwanese Pianist Rueibin Chen Hands Masterful Performance at The Wallis

 Review :  

Taiwanese Pianist Rueibin Chen Hands Masterful Performance at The Wallis

LIVING OUT LOUD Los Angeles 

By Humberto Capiro on March 29, 2014 , 

Classical music is seen by many as a white European art form and its audience made up of mostly older fans. Symphony halls and other venues offering this type of music are trying their best to see how to pull in a younger and more diverse audience.

There is one ethnic group though that not only attends these concerts in large numbers but has produced many of today’s most important classical music artists and whose presence in symphony orchestra musicians may be the highest. Asian and Asian-Americans comprise the youngest demographic group attending classical concerts and many of the hot classical performers are coming from this community.

These artists include Chinese pianists Yuja Wang, Lang Lang, cellist Yo Yo Ma (French born of Chinese parents) amongst others.

One of Taiwan’s best pianists, Rueibin Chen performed two sold-out nights at The Bram Goldsmith Theater at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills on Thursday and Friday evening.

A Chinese-Austrian born in Taiwan, Chen has a reputation for a brilliant technique and intense artistic expression as well as an expertise on the works of Russian composer, conductor and master pianist Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff, whose date of death in this city of Beverly Hills coincided with Friday’s performance.

Chen’s selected program titled “Total Rachmaninoff” began with three of Rachmaninoff Preludes, which were written for solo piano. “Prelude in G Major Opus 32 No. 5″ began with a soft, rain-like sound with multiple layers, followed by “Prelude in D Major Opus 23 No. 4,” which had a fuller and stronger sound showcasing Chen’s virtuosity. A more lyrical and melodic piece was “Prelude in D Major Opus 23 No. 4,” which was the longest of the three.

The “Three Nocturne Opus I” (1887), a premier for California, is regarded as the first serious attempt by the composer to write for the piano at all 14-years of age. These included “No.1 in F-sharp Minor,” “No. 2 in F Major” and “No. 3 in C Minor.” The pieces vary in tone and speed from a slow, soft, gentle sound to a full one with increase speed and complexity that Chen was able to transmit with great artistry and command.

“Lilacs Opus 21 No.” was a beautiful, contemplative melody with a more modern feel while the following piece, “Gavotte from Partita No. 3 in E Major,” was a baroque number by Johan Sebastian Bach; it was originally for lute and was transcribed by Rachmaninoff for piano. In “Etude-Tableau in D Major Opus 39,” Chen showcased a very animated, virtuoso technique in fast pace that increased with complexity as time went on.

After the intermission, the audience was treated to several other transcribed pieces for piano by Rachmaninoff such as “Lullaby” by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and “Minuet from L’Arlesienne” by French composer Gerge Bizet. These were followed by two intense pieces by Austrian-born violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler, a contemporary of Rachmaninoff whose “Liebesleid” (Love’s Sorrow) and “Liebesfreud” (Love’s Joy) were packed with layers of complexities and so much power that Chen’s cufflinks flew off of his wrists.

After two standing ovations, Chen finally addressed the audience in his limited English thanking them for attending the concert and The Wallis for hosting him that evening. Not to disappoint he turned to the piano and gave a haunting version of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin’s “Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35,” popularly known as The Funeral March.

Fortunately, the evening’s selections and compositions of Vasilievich Rachmaninoff, interpreted in the power and artistry of Chen, had all in the audience “living it up.”

http://www.lol-la.com/review-taiwanese-pianist-rueibin-chen-hands-masterful-performance-at-the-wallis/

Pianist Rueibin Chen , REVIEWS

Neue Zuercher Zeitung (Switzerland)

“He is one of those geniuses that come along once in twenty years. He has immense energy and intensity that is almost supernatural.”


The Boston Globe (U.S.A.)

Headline: “The Power Piano of Ruei-Bin Chen”

“He plays with the white-hot energy, steel-fingered, power and athletic virtuosity . . . has impetuosity and undeniably impressive technique . . Chen showed that he can play with delicacy and imagination.”


Los Angeles Times Front Page Coverage (U.S.A.)

The pianist, Rueibin Chen, who is a competition champ. His biography in the program book noted 18 international metals, five of them gold. He has very fast fingers……。


Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Germany)

“…that he has worked out a stupendous technique, is beyond doubt.”


Alicia de Larrocha (Spain)

“…finds his performance a magnificent one!”


Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (U.S.A.)

“...so many fine achievements and excellent performances.”


Kurier (Austria)

Concert in the Musikverein:

“The pianist Ruei-Bin Chen gave proof that he merits the many prizes he has already won. He performed Ravel's “Gaspard de la Nuit,” first delicately, then swelling in mood and very securely throughout, completely engrossed in his act.”


Wiener Zeitung (Austria)

Headline: “Climax of the Chopin Festival”

“Chen performed the pieces with technical brilliance and a surprisingly high degree of emotional penetration for such a young musician . . . "Trois Mouvements de Petrouschka" by Stravinsky, with the rhythmical and technical difficulties, was mastered in sovereign fashion.”


Salzburger Nachrichten (Austria)

“. . . A pianist's refinement of touch can be anticipated already from the opening bars of “Ondine” from “Gaspard de la Nuit” by Ravel and Ruei-Bin Chen was successful in his rendering of the triple pianissimo of the introductory chords constantly changing in tone colour, which in the beginning overlie the melody line in the bottom part; he presented the piece, which, in terms of sound language, is evocative of Debussy, with intensity in sustaining and increasing the tension: he painted “Le Gibet” in sombre colours and demonstrated all nuances of a pianist's art of touch. “Scarbo,” the last part of Ravel’s “Trois Poemes” after the poems by Aloysius Bertrand calls for the pianist's highest technical skills. Ruei-Bin Chen, however, kept control, lent the work an inner stability and mastered the expressiveness of the piece by constantly changing the dynamics of his performance . . .”


The Times (U.K.)

“He mesmerized the audience as his fingers traveled the ivories with at times mind-boggling precision and swiftness and a level of emotion which delivered each note, each chord, to the heart of each member of the audience.”


Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

Independence (U.S.A)

The combination of Chinese-Austrian pianist Rueibin Chen and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini appeared to provide a box-office boost and Chen did not disappoint in his latest appearance with the orchestra……Both Chen and Outwater offered interesting dynamic shadings throughout the “concerto.”。


South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)

“. . . one could never doubt Mr. Chen's brilliance, and his instinctive feel for the music.”


Et B News (Austria)

“. . . Ruei-Bin Chen who performed his difficult and extensive program with stupendous technical brilliance. With Stravinsky's "Trois Mouvements de Petrouschka" he proved to be a true wizard of the keys, wielding a thunderous stroke.”


Polytika (Poland)

“He succeeded brilliantly in uniting the vigorous themes and the scurrying runs and thrills into a polished whole.”


Min Sheng News (Taiwan)

“In the Third Piano Concerto by Rachmaninoff, Chen brought out his unique talent -- the delicacy and swift precision of his fingers. Even the most complex passages did not unsettle him as the agility of his wrists allowed him facility in playing strong and fast octaves. Towards the end of the piece he put in much force from his upper body and arms to produce the enormous thunder of the music. Rachmaninoff's charm and passionate temper was poignantly expressed through Chen's complete emotional involvement and resolute commitment to his performance and carried the mesmerized audience's fascination to a climax.”


Arts in Season (U.S.A.)

“PCAC brings Carnegie Hall to Pleasanton.....Pianist Rueibin Chen is one of the best.....The event sold out. The audience was entranced.”


Pleasanton Weekly (U.S.A.)

“A rare opportunity to see a world class pianist in a theater setting.”


DAY&NIGHT (Malaysia)

“He is good; that was quite obvious. The audience couldn’t take their ears off him, so to speak. He’s got technique, control, good tone and that elusive quality called “feel”.


Sunday Star (Malaysia)

Headline: “Markings of a master pianist”

“In the Appasionata Sonata, Ruei-Bin demonstrated his Horowitzian finger power. Indeed, it is not Ruei-Bin's repeated display of virtuoso skills but rather two quiet passages (both in the Chopin works), which their reviewer would want to remember his recital by.”


Waschauer Chopin Blaetter (Poland)

“By performing the Chopin Sonata in B-minor (op. 35) the sixteen year old Ruei-Bin Chen from Taiwan made a name for himself as an exceptional talent. Chopin's mature work had a fresh appeal, not the stale and perfunctory renderings one hears so often. The Taiwanese allowed the music to unfold flourish in a rarely noted fashion. Particularly the rather trite funeral march arrested the audience's attention in virtually breathless thrill, and at the conclusion of the last movement, it reaped a wave of thundering applause.”


Wiener Chopin Blaetter (Austria)

“The degree of the young Chinese's mastery of piano technique is exceptional, yet all the more prominently he brought out the young Liszt's capacity for creative, artistic expression.”

Los Angeles Times《Front Page Coverage》(U.S.A) 6.Nov. 2012

The pianist, Rueibin Chen, who is a competition champ. His biography in the program book noted 18 international metals, five of them gold. He has very fast fingers……。

Rueibin Chen take in applause at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena.

Rueibin Chen and Pasadena Symphony Performs Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff

Posted by Temple City Tribune
Published: Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

Rachmaninoff International Award winning pianist Rueibin Chen joins conductor Edwin Outwater and the Pasadena Symphony in concert at both 2 and 8 pm on Saturday, November 3 at the acoustically acclaimed Ambassador Auditorium. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations for Piano and Orchestra are the featured masterworks on the program.

Tchaikovsky’s breakthrough Fourth Symphony is a bounding creative leap in scale, intensity and ambition combining theatrical flair with emotional contrasts that reach epic proportions. Chen will perform his talisman, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – brilliant with delicious wit and one of the world’s most irresistible melodies popularized by the movie “Somewhere in Time.” In this concert, conductor Edwin Outwater and the Pasadena Symphony will deliver music so personal, it becomes universal.

Chen, who recently performed as part of the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s “Play Me I’m Yours” project, is a favorite among Chinese and American audiences. He has earned countless accolades and awards for his appearances in concert halls and international piano competitions, including competitions in Tel Aviv (Rubinstein), in Warsaw (Chopin) ,Salt Lake City (Bachauer), Vienna, Manresa, and Italy (Rome, Rachmaninov, Bellini, and Stresa).

Rachmaninoff’s virtuosic Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini was one of the composer’s later works, written in 1934. Based on a famous violin theme by Niccoló Paganini, Rachmaninoff’s work takes the artist on a grand adventure reveling in inventiveness and sheer speed. With its technical mastery and captivating melodies, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini became an instant hit with audiences.

Tickets to see Rueibin Chen and Edwin Outwater in concert with the Pasadena Symphony on Saturday, November 3 at Ambassador Auditorium are on sale now. For tickets or more information, contact the Pasadena Symphony box office online at PasadenaSymphony-Pops.org or call 626.793.7172What: Tchaikovsky’s Fourth with the Pasadena Symphony, Who: Rueibin Chen, piano
Edwin Outwater, conductor, When: Saturday, November 3 at 2:00pm and 8:00pm, Where: Ambassador Auditorium; 131 St. John Ave, Pasadena, CA 91123, Cost: Tickets start at $35.00, Parking: Valet on Green Street, $10 general parking available adjacent to the theater in Maranatha parking lots.

Full Program: Li Huanzhi: Spring Festival Overture
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4

Pre-Concert Conversation: Pasadena Symphony Association’s CEO Paul Jan Zdunek visits with Guest Conductor Edwin Outwater about the program, his musical journey and much more an hour before each concert (1 pm and again at 7 pm on stage at Ambassador Auditorium)

Taiwan fun.com
CD Review

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The COMPASS Group, October 2006
Artist: Rueibin Chen
Title: The Dream of Cinema
Label: Jingo



I can still remember movie soundtracks that touched many people's hearts. While the visual film images have faded, the melodies still remain in my mind. Born in the 1970s, I probably have not seen more than half of the movies whose soundtracks are included on this CD. Nevertheless, the tunes all sound so familiar to me. All the notes seem to express the films' dialogues in a way that can't be put down in words. Eight selected works from seven movie soundtracks will put you in different moods; some are soft and tender, while others are light and lively. For example, "The Crave" from the movie "The Legend of 1900" delivers jazz in its fullest. "On a Theme of Paganini" from "Somewhere in Time" absolutely connects you to the concept of love beyond time and space. What's more, the album, recorded in a 24-track format, results from cooperation between the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and renowned pianist Rueibin Chen. Listen to this CD with your eyes closed and experience the feeling of having an orchestra play right in front of you.

--By James Su, translated by Sho Huang

You can also see the origial weibsite version of the CD review here, please click.