Haochen Zhang

Haochen Zhang – Liszt: 12 Études d’exécution transcendante, S. 139 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:49 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

The Transcendental Études form a cycle of twelve pieces whose composition began in 1826 and was completed in 1851. Starting from the idea of an encyclopædic collection which, in the manner of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Liszt’s Transcendental Études became something of a seismograph of his compositional aesthetic, first strongly under the influence of Paganini, later more in the style of character pieces. These études are among the most difficult works ever written for the piano. Together with Chopin’s Études, they serve as a basis for piano technique, some of them already prefiguring musical impressionism, and they had a significant influence on subsequent piano music, most notably that of Debussy, Rachmaninov, Bartók, and Ligeti.

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Haochen Zhang – Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1 – Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:29 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

Winner of the 2009 Van Cliburn competition, Haochen Zhang is no stranger to a challenge. On this début concerto recording he proves this once more, boldly jumping in at the deep end as he takes on Sergei Prokofievs Piano Concerto No. 2. The demands posed by Prokofievs concerto are famous, starting with a huge cadenza already in the first movement. This may explain why the concerto was for a long time relatively unknown and, unlike the First and Third Piano Concertos, has only recently taken its rightful place in the repertory. The work was premièred by the composer himself in 1913, shocking the audience with its modernistic sounds and jagged rhythms. But even though Prokofiev was happy to nurture a reputation for badboy modernism, there is also a rich seam of Russian tradition which underlie his music from the beginning to the end of his career. It is therefore fitting that Haochen Zhang has chosen to complete the album with one of the best-loved concertos from that tradition: Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto in B-flat minor. In both works, Zhang is supported by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its principal conductor, Dima Slobodeniouk.

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Haochen Zhang – Schumann, Liszt, Janáček & Brahms: Piano Works (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:05:46 minutes | 971 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

In 2009, at the age of 19, Haochen Zhang became one of the youngest musicians ever to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Since then he has had a busy concert schedule, primarily in his native China and in the U.S.A. but also in Europe where he made his début at the BBC Proms in 2014. Recording has been less of a priority for Zhang, and it is only now that he releases his first studio album, recorded at the Reitstadel, the well-known audiophile venue in Neumarkt in Germany. For this recital, Haochen Zhang has devised a programme made up of works that he feels particularly close to. As he writes in his own liner notes, they ’not only speak to me in a very intimate way, but also connect with one another at a corresponding level of intimacy: as a whole they form a unique musical narrative.’ The pieces all share a reflective and introspective quality, albeit reflective in different ways. Opening the disc Schumann’s Kinderszenen were described by the composer as ‘reflections of an adult for adults’ and in the closing Op. 117 Intermezzi, Brahms also seems to be looking backwards – but with resignation rather than intimate tenderness. Framed by these two, the works by Liszt and Janá?ek contain overtly dramatic episodes, but contemplative interludes form a recurrent feature of the Ballade, and in Presentiment, the first movement of Janacek’s Sonata, the dark forebodings seem to rise up from the composer’s own soul.

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