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Pushing the Envelope in Sound: An Unbounded Journey of Music

2025.02.17
Pushing the Envelope in Sound: An Unbounded Journey of Music

by CHOU Xuan-hung composer, musician, and teaching artist

In recent years, with all kinds of brilliant music performances, Weiwuying has become a major platform for arts exchange. As a composer, musician, and music educator, I had especially longed for this because now I no longer have to spend a lot of time and money traveling to some other city to be able to interact with some of the best musicians from around the world and to experience different cultures through their musical vocabularies.

The 2025 Weiwuying International Music Festival is to boast several especially brilliant programs. First are the Opening Concert: Love Stories and Fairy Tales, followed by the Inmo YANG Violin Recital: Sensations of Sound, both featuring winner of the 54th Paganini Competition International Violin and the 2022 Jean Sibelius International Violin Competition Inmo YANG, who seems to be one with his violin as a result of his warm, magnetic sound and flawless virtuosity. No matter how many times you see him play, each is awe-inspiring.

The Opening Concert will be conducted by European superstar Constantin TRINKS as YANG interprets K. SZYMANOWSKI's early 20th-century violin classic Violin Concerto No.1, which blends traditional tonality, Romanticism, and a contemporary vocabulary. The orchestration of the ensemble is exceptionally rich, the brilliant blend of timbre is extraordinarily refined, the violin solo is rich with variation, and there is no shortage of parts requiring the acme of skill. Overall, it is a magnificent piece that will blow you away when heard live!

Meanwhile, YANG's solo concert will go further to showcase the extent of his virtuosity and musicality. Besides playing three pieces from N. PAGANINI's 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, he will play many others presenting just how much the violin is capable of. I'm excited most about hearing his interpretation of Salvatore SCIARRINO's 6 Caprices for Violin. This contemporary Italian composer's style is full of highly explorative and innovative contemporary features, and performances of such music in Taiwan are rare. The pieces are not lengthy but constantly push the envelope in terms of musicality and sound, so I'm really looking forward to the combined effect of YANG's handling and the Concert Hall acoustics.

Two other major programs are Weiwuying Contemporary Music Ensemble's Musical Games and American Innovations, both conducted by American conductor Brad LUBMAN. With the various challenges related to the market and box office, it is not often that innovative, artistic pieces from overseas are performed in Taiwan, so these will be quite a rare treat. The programs will respectively see violinist CHANG Ting-shuo and bassoonist WANG Peng-hui putting on solos, and there will also be  World's premiere performances of commissioned pieces by composers chosen through Weiwuying's annual selection process. With the magic of the Recital Hall and the inherent energy of the performances, your body, mind, and spirit will be intertwined with the music, significantly expanding your musical horizons.

In Musical Games, pieces by Czech composer Martin SMOLKA, reputed for his singular style, are sure to exert a strong magnetism. He holds back nothing of humor and creativity in Hats in the Sky and En tractant, as if playing with both music and the audience's ears. Full of surprises, the pieces are far from the contemporary-music stereotypes of being difficult to understand and boring. Also, as both pieces are incidental music for silent films, they seem to bring the listener to a surreal state.

American Innovations has a completely different style. John CAGE's work is characterized by his montage technique, and John ADAMS is celebrated for his rich sound and rhythmic vitality, but I'm mostly looking forward to hearing Augusta Read THOMAS' 2021 piece Dance Mobile, which is so fun, touching, and lively—you can almost see a group of dancers frolicking about within the orchestra! 

These concerts bring us the virtuosity of a violin master, his instrument's exceptional timbre, innovative contemporary music vocabularies and sounds, and the vitality of rhythm, each broadening our horizons and exhibiting the unlimited possibilities for music in the contemporary era. I can’t wait to join this feast for the ears with so many of you!

 

  Programs  

2025/4/11(Fri)19:30

►[2025 Weiwuying International Music Festival] Opening Concert: Love Stories and Fairy Tales

2025/4/13(Sun)14:30

►[2025 Weiwuying International Music Festival] Inmo YANG Violin Recital - Sensations of Sound

 

 

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