Albums
From Hungary to Taiwan
Formosa Quartet (Bridge Records)
This imaginative recording project offers virtuoso treatment of folk music from Hungary and Taiwan, illuminating many aspects of the two cultures, all within beautifully rendered new classical compositions. In addition the recording incorporates arguably, the greatest masterpiece of 20th century string quartet music — Bartok's incandescent String Quartet No. 4.
Golijov: Azul
The Knights (Warner Classics)
Azul, the evocative Spanish word for ‘blue’, is the title of the contemplative cello concerto by Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov. It forms the centrepiece of this album by Brooklyn-based orchestral collective The Knights, which takes the skies as its theme…
Lei Liang: Luminous
Formosa Quartet (New World Records)
The result of a rich confluence of many different cultural threads, a vivid and open imagination, and a rigorous intellect, Lei Liang’s music has a dimensionality to it that's quite remarkable…
Gernsheim & Brahms: Piano Quintets
Formosa Quartet (Delos)
Late-Romantic German composer Friedrich Gernsheim was acknowledged by Brahms as a master composer, despite his music falling into obscurity. Gernsheim’s Piano Quintet No. 2, featured on this release, is a fantastic example of the composer’s multi-genre output…
Shih-Hui Chen: Returning Souls
Formosa Quartet (New World Records)
The five compositions by Shih-Hui Chen on this recording can be considered variations of an "ethnic style": they reflect her experiences of being able to return to Taiwan for a year in 2010 as a Fulbright Scholar specifically to study its music. Particular Chinese/Taiwanese myths and ideas stand behind these compositions…
Chopin and Schumann Piano Trios
Manhattan Piano Trio (Marquis Classics)
These two four-movement works have more in common than their brooding key signature of G minor. Chopin and Schumann share a use of particularly inventive melodic and harmonic language; and the two trios share an earnest, heartfelt lyricism that is so genuine and really quite irresistible…