account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
Bestiary On Ivory

Hsiang Tu

Bestiary On Ivory

Format: CD
Label: Bridge
UPC: 0090404954429
Catnr: BRIDG 9544
Release date: 05 March 2021
1 CD
 
Label
Bridge
UPC
0090404954429
Catalogue number
BRIDG 9544
Release date
05 March 2021
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
DE

About the album

Pianist Hsiang Tu presents a delightful collection of works from the animal kingdom. Bestiary on Ivory offers a wide-ranging collection from Bolcom and Bartok, through Schumann and Saint-Saens.
Die Pianistin Hsiang Tu präsentiert eine entzückende Sammlung von Werken aus der Tierwelt. Das Bestiarium zu Elfenbein bietet eine breit gefächerte Sammlung von Bolcom und Bartok über Schumann und Saint-Saens.

Artist(s)

Hsiang Tu (piano)

Praised by The New York Times for his 'eloquent sensitivity' and The Boston Intelligencer for his 'impeccable technique,' pianist Hsiang Tu has graced the audience with his creative programming and wide range of repertoire. Hsiang is currently working on the complete cycle of piano solo works by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel and thematic recitals featuring animal-themed music and opus-one compositions. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Mr. Tu has performed twice as concerto soloist at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and appeared in venues all over the world, including the National Museum Cardiff, National Recital Hall in Taipei, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Museum of Modern Art in New York. During the 2019-2020 season, Hsiang Tu is scheduled to appear at the New England Conservatory...
more

Praised by The New York Times for his "eloquent sensitivity" and The Boston Intelligencer for his "impeccable technique," pianist Hsiang Tu has graced the audience with his creative programming and wide range of repertoire. Hsiang is currently working on the complete cycle of piano solo works by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel and thematic recitals featuring animal-themed music and opus-one compositions. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Mr. Tu has performed twice as concerto soloist at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and appeared in venues all over the world, including the National Museum Cardiff, National Recital Hall in Taipei, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Museum of Modern Art in New York.

During the 2019-2020 season, Hsiang Tu is scheduled to appear at the New England Conservatory (presented by Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts Boston), Peabody Conservatory Preparatory Division, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, University of New Hampshire, Wolfeboro Friends of Music in New Hampshire, Utah Valley University, and Beethoven Festival Park City. A winner of The Juilliard School Concerto Competition and a prizewinner at the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the American Paderewski Piano Competition, and the Iowa International Piano Competition, Hsiang has appeared with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, and the World Civic Orchestra, among others.

A successful and dedicated teacher, Tu has given masterclasses at Cardiff University, University of Southern California, Penn State University, Loyola University New Orleans, Utah Valley University, and Colorado Mesa University, and his students have won state-wide competitions and been admitted to top graduate schools in the U.S. Hsiang has also adjudicated in state-wide MTNA competitions in New Hampshire and Virginia, U.S. International Music Competition of the Chinese Music Teachers' Associations of Northern California, U.S. New Star Piano Competition, and SummerArts Competition at University of Utah.

Before being appointed as an Assistant Professor of Piano at Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts in 2019, Mr. Tu taught at the University of New Hampshire, Utah Valley University, and Snow College in Utah. He studied with Hung-Kuan Chen, Jerome Lowenthal, and HaeSun Paik, and holds a B.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Calgary and an M.M. and D.M.A. in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School. An avid baseball fan and foodie, Mr. Tu enjoys fantasy baseball, cooking, visiting breweries, and building Lego sets. His debut solo CD, “Bestiary on Ivory,” will be released by Bridge Records in October, 2020.


less

Composer(s)

Franz Liszt

If you would open any biography of Franz Liszt, you would probably mostly read about his disquiet life as a piano virtuoso, his passionate love life, and the return to his catholic roots at the end of his life. Although all of this might be true, it only scratches the surface of his comprehensive musical personality. Liszt was a pianist, conductor, teacher and organiser, but above all he was a composer of a voluminous, capricious body of work. Even though his piano works formed his core business, he gave rise to the symphonic poem, got rid of the organ's stuffy appearance, and reinvigorated the oratorio. Moreover, with his piano transciptions of Bach's organ works and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he was an...
more

If you would open any biography of Franz Liszt, you would probably mostly read about his disquiet life as a piano virtuoso, his passionate love life, and the return to his catholic roots at the end of his life. Although all of this might be true, it only scratches the surface of his comprehensive musical personality. Liszt was a pianist, conductor, teacher and organiser, but above all he was a composer of a voluminous, capricious body of work. Even though his piano works formed his core business, he gave rise to the symphonic poem, got rid of the organ's stuffy appearance, and reinvigorated the oratorio. Moreover, with his piano transciptions of Bach's organ works and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, he was an advocate of both old and new music.
Together with his son-in-law Richard Wagner, he was in the forefront of the Romantic movement and anticipated the musical revolutions of the early 20th century with his new composition techniques.


less

Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with impressionist music, though Debussy disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed. Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of non-traditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant Among his most famous works are his Clair de Lune, his Three Nocturnes...
more

Claude Debussy was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with impressionist music, though Debussy disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed.
Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of non-traditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant Among his most famous works are his Clair de Lune, his Three Nocturnes and his orchestral piece La Mer.


less

Maurice Ravel

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer who is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the Conservatoire Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of...
more
Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer who is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the Conservatoire Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. He made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies and only one religious work. Many of his works exist in two versions: a first, piano score and a later orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance.

less

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing. Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. Works such as Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie in...
more
Robert Schumann was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.
Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. Works such as Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie in C are among his most famous. His writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication which he jointly founded.
In 1840, Schumann married Friedrich Wieck's daughter Clara, against the wishes of her father, following a long and acrimonious legal battle, which found in favour of Clara and Robert. Clara also composed music and had a considerable concert career as a pianist, the earnings from which, before her marriage, formed a substantial part of her father's fortune.
Schumann suffered from a mental disorder, first manifesting itself in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode, which recurred several times alternating with phases of ‘exaltation’ and increasingly also delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to a mental asylum, at his own request, in Endenich near Bonn. Diagnosed with "psychotic melancholia", Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental illness.

less

Olivier Messiaen

The music by Olivier Messiaen is a combination of devout catholicism, extravagant imagination and love for nature. Initially, he made a name for himself by composing large-scale cycles and verbose titles. At several occasions, Messiaen explicated his intentions, which often included theology, symbology, and extensive considerations of colour, church modes and rhythm. Perhaps ironically, this colour composer was able to leave his mark on the less colourful avant-garde of the 1950s as well. With his 'Mode de valeurs et d'intensités', part 4 of his Quatre études de rythme, pointed the way for his students Stockhausen and Boulez, who developed serialism further.  Messiaen's own development is characterised by the integration of birg song, which he recorded in the wild with his sketchbook and tape...
more

The music by Olivier Messiaen is a combination of devout catholicism, extravagant imagination and love for nature. Initially, he made a name for himself by composing large-scale cycles and verbose titles. At several occasions, Messiaen explicated his intentions, which often included theology, symbology, and extensive considerations of colour, church modes and rhythm. Perhaps ironically, this colour composer was able to leave his mark on the less colourful avant-garde of the 1950s as well. With his 'Mode de valeurs et d'intensités', part 4 of his Quatre études de rythme, pointed the way for his students Stockhausen and Boulez, who developed serialism further. Messiaen's own development is characterised by the integration of birg song, which he recorded in the wild with his sketchbook and tape recorder. The pinnacle of his work is his opera Saint François d'Assise. This colossol work is over four hours long. Its longest scene contains a giant bird choir, with bird species from Umbria (the home country of Saint François) to new Caledonia.


less

Béla Bartók

Next to Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók was a third seminal innovator of European art music at the start of the twentieth century. Bartók, too, sought a way out of the deadlock of tonal music around 1900, and he found it in folk music. Initially, he tied in with the nationalistic tradition of Franz Liszt with his tone poem Kossuth, but eventually he found his own voice with the rediscovery of the music of Hungarian peasants. Together with Zoltán Kodály he was one of the first to apply the results of folkloric research into his own compositions. One major difference between him and composers of the 19th century, was that Bartók did not adjust to the system of tonality, but created...
more
Next to Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók was a third seminal innovator of European art music at the start of the twentieth century. Bartók, too, sought a way out of the deadlock of tonal music around 1900, and he found it in folk music. Initially, he tied in with the nationalistic tradition of Franz Liszt with his tone poem Kossuth, but eventually he found his own voice with the rediscovery of the music of Hungarian peasants. Together with Zoltán Kodály he was one of the first to apply the results of folkloric research into his own compositions. One major difference between him and composers of the 19th century, was that Bartók did not adjust to the system of tonality, but created his own musical idiom from folk music. Because of this, his composition style was flexible to other musical trends, without having to violate his own view points. For example, his two Violin sonates come close to Schoenberg's free expressionism, and after 1926 his music started to show neoclassicistic tendencies, comparable to Stravinsky's music. Bartók was not just interested in Hungarian folk music, but could appreciate musical folklore from all of the Balkan, Turkey and North-Africa as well.
less

Enrique Granados

Enrique Granados Campiña was born in Lleida, Spain, the son of Calixto Granados, a Spanish army captain, and Enriqueta Campiña. As a young man he studied piano in Barcelona, where his teachers included Francisco Jurnetand and Joan Baptista Pujol. In 1887, he went to Paris to study. He was unable to become a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but he was able to take private lessons with a conservatoire professor, Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, whose mother, the soprano Maria Malibran, was of Spanish ancestry. Bériot insisted on extreme refinement in tone production, which strongly influenced Granados’s own teaching of pedal technique. He also fostered Granados's abilities in improvisation. Just as important were his studies with Felip Pedrell. He returned to Barcelona in 1889. His first successes were at the...
more
Enrique Granados Campiña was born in Lleida, Spain, the son of Calixto Granados, a Spanish army captain, and Enriqueta Campiña. As a young man he studied piano in Barcelona, where his teachers included Francisco Jurnetand and Joan Baptista Pujol. In 1887, he went to Paris to study. He was unable to become a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but he was able to take private lessons with a conservatoire professor, Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, whose mother, the soprano Maria Malibran, was of Spanish ancestry. Bériot insisted on extreme refinement in tone production, which strongly influenced Granados’s own teaching of pedal technique. He also fostered Granados's abilities in improvisation. Just as important were his studies with Felip Pedrell. He returned to Barcelona in 1889. His first successes were at the end of the 1890s, with the zarzuela Maria del Carmen, which attracted the attention of KingAlfonso XIII.
In 1911 Granados premiered his suite for piano Goyescas, which became his most famous work. It is a set of six pieces based on paintings of Francisco Goya. Such was the success of this work that he was encouraged to expand it. He wrote an opera based on the subject in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I forced the European premiere to be canceled. It was performed for the first time in New York City on 28 January 1916, and was very well received. Shortly afterwards, he was invited to perform a piano recital for President Woodrow Wilson. Prior to leaving New York, Granados also made live-recorded player piano music rolls for the New-York-based Aeolian Company's "Duo-Art" system, all of which survive today and can be heard – his very last recordings.
The delay incurred by accepting the recital invitation caused him to miss his boat back to Spain. Instead, he took a ship to England, where he boarded the passenger ferry SS Sussex for Dieppe, France. On the way across the English Channel, the Sussex was torpedoed by a German U-boat, as part of the German World War I policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. In a failed attempt to save his wife Amparo, whom he saw flailing about in the water some distance away, Granados jumped out of his lifeboat and drowned. However, the ship broke in two parts and only one sank (along with 80 passengers). Ironically, the part of the ship that contained his cabin did not sink and was towed to port, with most of the passengers, except for Granados and his wife, on board. Granados and his wife left six children: Eduard (a musician), Solita, Enrique (a swimming champion), Víctor, Natàlia, and Francisco.

less

Heitor Villa-Lobos

Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as 'the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music'. Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time.A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces). His Etudes for guitar (1929) were dedicated to Andrés Segovia while his 5 Preludes (1940) were dedicated to Arminda Neves d’Almeida, a.k.a. 'Mindinha', both are important works in the guitar repertory.
more
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time.A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959.
His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas Brasileiras (Brazilian Bachian-pieces). His Etudes for guitar (1929) were dedicated to Andrés Segovia while his 5 Preludes (1940) were dedicated to Arminda Neves d’Almeida, a.k.a. "Mindinha", both are important works in the guitar repertory.

less

Henry Cowell

The composer, pianist and music theorist Henry Cowell was one of the most important figures of the 20th-century American musical life. He is primarily known for his experimental compositional techniques, like the use of clusters, chords comprised of adjacent tones. He also experimented with a variety of techniques for directly playing the strings of the piano, which he dubbed ‘string piano’. Cowell described the innovate harmonic and rhythmic concepts that he used in his compositions in his book New Musical Resources, which influenced American avant-garde composers significantly for years. Cowell also devoted himself to the music of these composers. He was the central figure in a circle of avant-garde composers known as the ‘ultra-modernists’. In 1925 Cowell founded the New Music ...
more
The composer, pianist and music theorist Henry Cowell was one of the most important figures of the 20th-century American musical life. He is primarily known for his experimental compositional techniques, like the use of clusters, chords comprised of adjacent tones. He also experimented with a variety of techniques for directly playing the strings of the piano, which he dubbed ‘string piano’. Cowell described the innovate harmonic and rhythmic concepts that he used in his compositions in his book New Musical Resources, which influenced American avant-garde composers significantly for years.
Cowell also devoted himself to the music of these composers. He was the central figure in a circle of avant-garde composers known as the ‘ultra-modernists’. In 1925 Cowell founded the New Music Society, which was devoted to staging concert performances of the works of the ultra-modernists and similar composers. Three years later, the Pan-American Association of Composers was founded, which focused on the promotion of composers from around the western hemisphere.
From the 1940’s onwards, Cowell began to compose less radical works, with more traditional harmonies and simpler rhythms. Many of these later works are based on non-Western music or American folk music.

less

Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist. He was a musical prodigy, writing his first pieces of music at the age of four and making his concert debut at the age of ten. During this concert he astonished the audience by playing one of the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven at its request. After his studying at the Conservatory of Paris he followed a career as a church organist at Saint-Merri and later La Madeleine in Paris. He was also a successful freelance composer and pianist in France and abroad. Saint-Saëns initially helped to introduce German composers such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner in France. However, from 1870 onwards anti-German sentiments began to arise in France as...
more
Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, conductor, pianist and organist. He was a musical prodigy, writing his first pieces of music at the age of four and making his concert debut at the age of ten. During this concert he astonished the audience by playing one of the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven at its request. After his studying at the Conservatory of Paris he followed a career as a church organist at Saint-Merri and later La Madeleine in Paris. He was also a successful freelance composer and pianist in France and abroad.
Saint-Saëns initially helped to introduce German composers such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner in France. However, from 1870 onwards anti-German sentiments began to arise in France as a result of the Franco-Prussian War, which enhanced support for the idea of a pro-French musical society. In 1871 Saint-Saëns consequently founded the Société Nationale de Musique together with Romain Bussine, that was devoted to the promotion of French music and organised concerts on which young composers could perform their works.
Saint-Saëns was a keen traveler, and made 179 trips to 27 different countries during his life. He favoured Algeria and Egypt, were he gained inspiration for compositions such as the Suite Algérienne and the Fifth Piano Concerto, also known as The Egyptian.
Saint-Saëns' best-known works include the First Cello Concerto, Third Symphony, the opera Samson et Dalila, Danse Macabre and Le carnaval des animaux, a humorous suite in which various animals are musically portrayed. However, he never wanted the last work to be performed, since it was contrary to his image as a serious composer.
less

Press

Play album Play album

You might also like..

Catharsis
Michiel Stekelenburg
Frédéric Chopin
The poor, sad angel (re-issue)
Nikolai Lugansky
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The First Vienna Concertos | Piano Concertos Nos. 11-12-13
Ben Kim | Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra
Being Human
Lynne Arriale Trio
Traveller's Ways
Jasper Somsen | Enrico Pieranunzi | Gabriele Mirabassi
Robert Schumann
Schumann Symphonies 1 & 2
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra | Jan Willem de Vriend
Michael Haydn, Joseph Haydn
Violin Concerto No. 4 | Concerto for Viola and Harpsichord
Noriko Amano | Ryo Terakado
Prisma | Jazz Thing Next Generation Vol. 101
Clemens Gottwald
Johann Schenck
L’Echo du Danube
Sofia Diniz
Drop Me Off
Reinhardt Winkler
Antonio Bononcini
Cantate per Contralto con Violini
Ars Antiqua Austria
Portais
Henrique Gomide