Tony Yan Tong Chen - Homecoming

Pianist Tony Yan Tong Chen

“…revelling in some of the most beautiful piano music ever written.”

Opening his new album, Homecoming, with selections from Book 2 of Franz Liszt’s masterwork Années de Pélerinage (Years of Pilgrimage) was clearly a considered decision by New Zealand pianist Tony Yan Tong Chen.  This outstanding young musician came back to Aotearoa because of the pandemic, following years of travel, living and studying in the US and Europe. “I realised,” he wrote after returning, “that the essence of travel lies in the accumulation of experiences and newfound perspectives that broaden one’s outlook, regardless of where one chooses to call home.”    

From the first Liszt track, Spozalizio in E major, inspired by Raphael’s painting The Marriage of the Virgin, Chen lays out his lyrical approach to the piano. It’s a gentle, thoughtful opening with a warm piano sound, melodic shapes full of timbral variety and arpeggios rippling easily. The buildup to the passionate climax with strong left-hand octaves is beautifully controlled. In the three tracks that follow, movements based on Petrarch Sonnets, we discover Chen as a storyteller as he finds the character in Liszt’s works while revelling in some of the most beautiful piano music ever written. The darker dramas of the Petrarch Sonnet in E major give way to more joyous romanticism in Liszt’s arrangement of Schumann’s wedding-gift song for his wife, Clara, Widmung.

Mozart’s Fantasia No 3 again demonstrates Chen’s poetic inclination. This is Mozart in “fantastic” mood played with relaxed flexibility, exploiting the possibilities of the modern piano. A complete change of flavour follows with two charming pentatonic miniatures by Chinese composer Tan Dun, the bouncing Staccato Beans and pastoral Herdboy’s Song. With another mood shift, John Psathas’ percussive, repetitive Jettatura offers Chen scope for impressive technical display.

Tony Yan Tong Chen at the piano

“…relaxed flexibility.”

This beautifully constructed recital ends by balancing the opening Liszt with music by Sergei Prokofiev, another composer with deep feelings for his homeland. An artless Prelude introduces the Russian composer’s fierce Piano Sonata No 7, subtitled “Stalingrad”. The pounding conflict of the 1st movement is followed by bittersweet dissonance in the 2nd and a final urgent Precipitato allows this remarkable young pianist to close his album with powerful virtuosity. 

Chen is now back in the United States where he has resumed his undergraduate studies. This fine release whets the appetites of New Zealand audiences for his next visit home.

HOMECOMING Tony Yan Tong Chen (piano): music by Liszt, Mozart, Tan Dun, John Psathas and Prokofiev. Available from Rattle.

This review was first published in the NZ Listener issue 4 September 2021