PAUL HUANG, violinist Violinist Paul Huang gave a masterly account of Barber s Violin Concerto. His warm, glowing sound and youthful energy were perfect for the opening movement of this justly popular work. There was nobility and wistful longing to the searching slow movement. In the fiercely difficult perpetual-motion finale, Mr. Huang reined in the breathless tempo just enough to bring clarity and bite to constant streams of notes in the violin part, which actually made the music seem more dangerous and exciting. Mr. Huang was given a rousing ovation. THE NEW YORK TIMES Paul Huang, displayed a brilliance that few 23-year-olds can. Huang captured the Walton Concerto s furiosity while delivering penetrating volume and sparkling technique that would be the envy of violinists twice his age. Soaring high melodies and double-stops and lightning-quick scales played out with fullness and clarity, not merely for spectacle but for musical purpose. AL.com (Alabama) The second half of the concert belonged to 24 year-old Taiwanese-American violinist Paul Huang, who dazzled the audience with his commanding tone and confident diction. THE SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT "Mr. Huang is a rising artist... he played with a coppery, wiry bite, and ample vinegar laced his honeyed tone. This gave his sound focus and cut away at the sentimentality, even in the most poignant lyrical passages." THE NEW YORK TIMES Throughout his programme, the 22-year-old Huang brimmed with enthusiasm, which was matched by stylish and polished playing. The highlight of the programme was a simply outstanding account of Ysaÿe s Sonata-Ballade. THE STRAD Taiwanese American violinist Paul Huang made an impressive debut, sailing through a substantial and varied program, and eliciting several standing ovations. Huang is definitely an artist with the goods for a significant career. THE WASHINGTON POST Mr. Huang sounded sweet and assured throughout, from his perfectly balanced, lucid double-stops in Ysaÿe s Ballade for solo violin to the confident mixture of cool and soufulness in both Messiaen s Theme and Variations and Ravel s tranquil, twinkling Habanera.... Two works by Debussy highlighted Mr. Huang s subtlety, his sense of how to shape the line dramatically but without exaggeration. THE NEW YORK TIMES Paul Huang, the star of the evening, confident and smiling, showed a precocious and magical talent. LE NOUVELLISTE (Switzerland) 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant First Prize, 2011 Young Concert Artists International Auditions The Peter Marino Debut Prize The Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship The Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize The Usedom Music Festival Prize (Germany) The Tannery Pond Concert Prize (NY) The Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize The Friends of Music Concerts Prize (NY) First Prize, 2009 International Violin Competition Sion-Valais (Switzerland) 2009 Chi-Mei Cultural Foundation Arts Award for Taiwan s Most Promising Young Artist 2008 Juilliard Achievement Award YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. 250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222 New York, NY 10107 www.yca.org Photo: Lisa Marie Mazzucco
PAUL HUANG, violinist Hailed by the Washington Post as an artist with the goods for a significant career and praised by The Strad for his stylish and polished playing, Taiwanese-American violinist Paul Huang, who was awarded a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, is recognized for his intensely expressive music making, distinctive sound, and effortless virtuosity. His busy season includes debuts with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Brevard Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, as well as return engagements with the Detroit Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Hilton Head Symphony, Bilbao Symphony, National Symphony of Mexico, and National Taiwan Symphony. He has also appeared as soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke s at Lincoln Center, the Louisville Orchestra, the Budapest Dohnányi Symphony in Hungary, and the Taipei Symphony in Taiwan. This season, Mr. Huang appears in recitals at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC and the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach and performs chamber music on the Caramoor Festival s Rising Stars series. In addition to his sold-out recital at Lincoln Center on the Great Performers series, Mr. Huang has performed at the Morgan Library and Museum, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Jordan Hall, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Stradivari Museum in Cremona, Italy, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, the National Concert Hall in Taiwan, and at the Louvre in Paris. His first solo CD, a collection of favorite virtuoso and romantic encore pieces, was released in July 2015 on the CHIMEI label. He also recorded Four Songs of Solitude for solo violin for Camerata Pacifica s album of John Harbison works, which was released on Harmonia Mundi last year. Winner of the 2011 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and recipient of YCA s 2012 Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship, Mr. Huang made critically acclaimed recital debuts in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York at Merkin Hall and in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center. Other honors include the 2014 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award, First Prize at the 2009 International Violin Competition Sion-Valais in Switzerland, the 2009 Chi-Mei Cultural Foundation Arts Award for Taiwan s Most Promising Young Artists, the 2008 Juilliard Achievement Award, and the 2013 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant. An acclaimed chamber musician, Mr. Huang appears as a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center s CMS Two program for 2015-2018. A frequent guest artist at music festivals worldwide, he has performed at the Young Concert Artists Festivals in Tokyo and Beijing, the CHANEL Music Festival in Tokyo, the Moritzburg Festival in Germany, the Sion Music Festival in Switzerland, the Mineria Music Festival in Mexico City, the Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea, the Chelsea Music Festival in New York and Taipei, with Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara and throughout California, and with the Formosa Quartet at Wigmore Hall in London. He has collaborated with notable instrumentalists including Shlomo Mintz, Gil Shaham, Nobuko Imai, Myung-Wha Chung, Roberto Diaz, Jan Vogler, and Frans Helmerson. Born in Taiwan, Mr. Huang began violin lessons at the age of seven. He entered the Juilliard Pre-College at fourteen and continued his studies at the school with Hyo Kang and I-Hao Lee. Paul Huang is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at the Juilliard School, where he earned his Bachelor s and Master s degrees. He plays the Guarneri del Gesù Cremona, 1742 ex-wieniawski on loan through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago. [Surname Pronounced: Hwong] NOTE: IT IS REQUIRED THAT THE HELEN ARMSTRONG FELLOWSHIP NEVER BE DELETED FROM THIS BIO, and please do not delete references to Young Concert Artists. 7/17/2015
Paul Huang, violin REPERTOIRE WITH ORCHESTRA BACH Concerto for Violin in A minor, BWV 1041 Double Concerto for 2 Violins, BWV 1043 BARBER Concerto for Violin, Op. 14 BEETHOVEN Romance No. 2 in F major, Op. 50 Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 BRAHMS Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 77 Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 BRITTEN Concerto for Violin, Op. 15 BRUCH Concerto for Violin No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 Scottish Fantasy, Op. 46 CHAUSSON Poème, Op. 25 GANG/ZHANHAO Butterfly Lovers Concerto GLAZUNOV Concerto for Violin in A minor, Op. 82 HAYDN Concerto for Violin No. 4 in G major, Hob. VIIa: 4 KHACHATURIAN Violin Concerto KORNGOLD Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 35 MASSENET Meditation from Thaïs MARTINU Violin Concerto no. 2 MENDELSSOHN Concerto for Violin in D minor Concerto for Violin in E minor, Op. 64 Double Concerto for Violin and Piano MOZART Concerto for Violin No. 2 in D major, K. 211 Concerto for Violin No. 3 in G major, K. 216 Concerto for Violin No. 5 in A major, K. 219 "Turkish" PÄRT Fratres PIAZZOLLA Four Seasons of Buenos Aires PROKOFIEV Concerto for Violin No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 RAVEL Tzigane SAINT-SAËNS Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61 Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor, Op. 28 SIBELIUS Concerto for Violin in D minor, Op. 47 Humoresque No. 2 in D major, Op. 87 No. 2 Humoresque No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 89 No. 3 SVENDSEN Romance in G major, Op. 26 TCHAIKOVSKY Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 35 Waltz-Scherzo in C major, Op. 34 VAUGHN WILLIAMS Violin Concerto Lark Ascending VIEUXTEMPS Concerto for Violin No. 4 in D minor, Op. 31 Concerto for Violin No. 5 in A minor, Op. 37 VIVALDI Four Seasons Concerto for 3 Violins in F major, RV 551 Concerto for 4 Violin in B minor, Op. 3 No. 10, RV 580 WALTON Concerto for Violin WIENIAWSKI Concerto for Violin No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22
Seeking Contrasts, Finding Similarities Miranda Cuckson at Spectrum and Paul Huang at Lincoln Center Zachary Woolfe The New York Times January 27, 2015 The violinist Miranda Cuckson started to play Mario Davidovsky s Synchronisms No. 9 (1988) just after 3 p.m. on Sunday at Spectrum on the Lower East Side. While the piece is a duet with electronics, it begins with a plaintive solo line, lonely yet warm, like the glow of firelight spied across a snowy plain by night. It sounded, to my surprise, not so far from Sibelius, whose darkly lustrous Nocturne (1906) another violinist, Paul Huang, had performed at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center just a few hours before. I had chosen to take in these two recitals in the same day as a study in contrasts, a symbol of the variety in the city s cultural scene. Old music, newer music; uptown, downtown. But the continuities and similarities turned out to be more striking than the differences. What I d thought would be a stark separation of classic and modern turned out to be a sustained reflection on Romanticism and its reverberations. Not that these two violinists don t have distinctive styles and sounds. Mr. Huang is a rising artist: A recent prize winner in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he will be a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center s CMS Two program for young musicians from this fall until 2018. Appearing under the auspices of Lincoln Center s sweet Sunday Morning Coffee Concerts series, he played with a coppery, wiry bite, and ample vinegar laced his honeyed tone. This gave his sound focus and cut away at the sentimentality, even in the most poignant lyrical passages. In this rendition, Janacek s Violin Sonata (1914-15) Jessica Xylina Osborne was the alert pianist never seemed quaint, bristling with taut tension before relaxing, a bit, into uneasy calm. Even Sarasate s picturesque Romanza Andaluza, from Spanish Dances (1879), was more wry than over the top. Mr. Huang does well by emotive pieces, like Grieg s poetic Sonata No. 3 in C minor (1886), mainly by doing them with a measure of restraint.
Review: Camerata Pacifica at Hahn Hall Music Academy Hosted Works by Huang Ruo and Bright Sheng on Friday, January 16 Joseph Miller Santa Barbara Independent January 22, 2015 This impressive program revisited two important commissioned works by Chinese-American composers: Bright Sheng s spicy duet for marimba and violin, Hot Pepper(2010) and the monumental-ritual-theatrical work for vocalizing violist and chamber ensemble, In Other Words (2012), by Huang Ruo. Except for the Ruo (which calls for 10 players), all other pieces were duets and trios, with the evening s heavy lifting shouldered by Richard Yongjae O Neill (viola), Nicholas Daniels (oboe), Bridget Kibbey (harp), Paul Huang (violin), Ji Hye Jung (marimba/percussion), and Jose Franch-Ballester (clarinet). Supporting personnel on the Ruo included artistic director Adrian Spence (flute), Agnes Gottschewski (violin), Ani Aznavoorian (cello), and Timothy Eckert (double bass). It is a testament to just how persuasive and pedagogically effective Spence has been all these years, pressing the case for new music against aesthetically conservative audiences, that the 50 -minute first half, devoid of diatonic certainties, was so attentively and enthusiastically received. Elliot Carter s Trilogy (1992) for harp and oboe opened the concert. The 84 year-old s harmonic language was so carefully developed, that the atonal complexity masterfully handled by Daniels and Kibbey seemed to almost make sense. The gravitational mass of the evening was without doubt Ruo s viola concerto In Other Words, written for, and first performed by, Richard O Neill in a memorable Camerata season opener in 2012, with the composer present in the audience. The half-hour work is saturated with Asian and ancient-seeming sensibility, more ritual than art music, with the soloist as the high priest, chanting an unknown language while playing his instrument. O Neill has now truly made this piece his own, and on Friday his powerful baritone voice sizzled with insistence. The second half of the concert belonged to 24 year-old Taiwanese-American violinist Paul Huang, who dazzled the audience with his commanding tone and confident diction. Camille Saint -Saëns s Fantasie for Violin and Harp in A Major (1907), the only non-american composition on the program, stood out as a beautifully Romantic programming contrast. Late in the piece the harp lays down a repeating riff while the solo violin jams Huang s fluency and frenzy flowed like an improvisation. The violinist stepped into big Camerata shoes when he paired up with marimba player Jung for Hot Pepper and played wonderfully. Finally, the evening concluded with Kevin Puts s trio for clarinet, violin, and marimba, And Legions Will Rise (2001), which alternated Philip Glass-like ostinatos with serene atmospheric passages, leaving all of us certain the concert had transported us to distant worlds and back again.
Passion and precision: Young violin sensation, guest conductor guide ASO in Masterworks concert Michael Huebner AL.com October 11, 2014 BIRMINGHAM, Alabama The Alabama Symphony s lingering search for a new music director has some distinct advantages. Those who can curb their impatience should pay close attention to the stellar array of guest conductors coming through Birmingham, whether or not they are in the running for the job. Andreas Delfs, the third such maestro in the young 2014-15 season, stepped on the podium Friday night and proceeded to mine the orchestra's strengths - a bold, aggressive sound tempered by sweet lyricism, rolled into a taut, mid-sized ensemble. In the opener, Mendelssohn's "Hebrides" Overture, Delfs Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco drew biting accents and sharply defined phrases while maintaining a nearly chamber-like transparency. In Dvorak's Symphony No. 8, he insisted on passion with precision, evident in his vivid cues and physicality. On several occasions, he was compelled to conduct on his toes, even appearing to levitate at one point. The Adagio was music making of the highest order, its sweeping majesty aligned with confident solos and focused section work. The waltz-like Allegretto swayed and danced. The final movement, heralded by a trumpet fanfare and the cello section's tender legato lines, was edge-of-the-seat listening. This was not the kind of performance "big" orchestras like Cleveland or Philadelphia might offer. It had charm and distinction of its own, and the unique, compact sound ASO regulars have come to know well. But the concert's headliner was William Walton's Violin Concerto. Paul Huang, filling in for the originally scheduled soloist Elissa Lee Koljonen, displayed a brilliance that few 23-year-olds can. Commissioned by Jascha Heifetz and premiered in 1939, the concerto is one of most demanding of the 20th century, both for soloist and the orchestra. Huang captured its furiosity while delivering penetrating volume and sparkling technique that would be the envy of violinists twice his age. It helped that he was playing a 1742 Guarneri del Gesù once owned by Henryk Wieniawski (on loan from the Stradivari Society), an instrument that seemed to effortlessly fill Jemison Concert Hall. Of course, it takes someone with Huang's ability to project it to its full potential, and this combination of soloist and instrument would be hard to beat. Soaring high melodies and double-stops and lightning-quick scales played out with fullness and clarity, not merely for spectacle but for musical purpose. For the orchestra's part, it is no easy task to maneuver Walton's meter changes, motor-driven repetition and dramatic sense, but Delfs adeptly conveyed each nuance from soloist to orchestra. Huang offered an encore, portions of John Corigliano's Paganini-inspired "Red Violin Caprices," a further show of the violinist's lyrical sense and technical wizardry.
Concertos as Sounds of Spring Three Rising Stars Perform in Young Concert Artists Gala Anthony Tommasini The New York Times May 8, 2014 Young Concert Artists, which has been fostering the careers of gifted musicians since 1961, mostly presents the winners of its auditions in recitals, including a popular series in New York. But it has become a spring tradition for this essential organization to present a gala concert featuring select winners from recent years in concerto performances. Hearing young musicians in concertos reveals further dimensions of their artistry. So it was on Wednesday night at Alice Tully Hall for the 53rd Young Concert Artists Gala Concert, hosted by the organization s founding director, Susan Wadsworth. With Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke s, three impressive young musicians played concertos by Copland, Barber and Rachmaninoff. The violinist Paul Huang and the conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto at Alice Tully Hall. Richard Termine / The New York Times Narek Arutyunian, an Armenian-born clarinetist currently studying at the Juilliard School, opened the program with an alluring, stylish account of Copland s compact, two-movement Clarinet Concerto, a 1948 work commissioned by Benny Goodman. Mr. Arutyunian brought a rich, reedy sound to the beguiling first movement, marked slowly and expressively, which has the quality of a mellow, almost lazy waltz. He brought out pensive, subtle depths in the music while shaping the winding melodic line in arching phrases. And he excelled in the jazzy, playful second movement, which is like a 1940s American version of Stravinsky s Neo- Classicism, impishly dispatching riffs and bopping lines while incisively executing the music s rhythmic gyrations and irregularities. The Taiwanese-American violinist Paul Huang, a boyish-looking 23, gave a masterly account of Barber s Violin Concerto. His warm, glowing sound and youthful energy were perfect for the opening movement of this justly popular work, in which a soaring melodic line flows atop the harmonically charged, restless orchestra. Yet, Mr. Huang was also alert to surprising melodic shifts and rhythmic twists in the violin part. There was nobility and wistful longing to the searching slow movement. In the fiercely difficult perpetual-motion finale, Mr. Huang, supported by Mr. Prieto and the orchestra, reined in the breathless tempo just enough to bring clarity and bite to constant streams of notes in the violin part, which actually made the music seem more dangerous and exciting. Mr. Huang was given a rousing ovation. After intermission, Andrew Tyson, a pianist in the artist diploma program at Juilliard, gave a coolly commanding account of Rachmaninoff s Piano Concerto No. 2. Rather than just tossing off the scurrying passagework and virtuosic flights, he dug into the music, bringing out thematic intricacies, making the notes matter. There are several beloved big-tune moments in this popular concerto, and Mr. Tyson played them with pliant Romantic expressivity. But his use of rubato was tasteful and his playing refreshingly direct.
Review: Camerata Pacifica Season Opener at Hahn Hall Violinist Paul Huang Performed a Stunning Debut on Friday, September 20 Joseph Miller Santa Barbara Independent September 26, 2013 The inaugural performance of Camerata Pacifica s 24th season planted itself firmly on this side of the Atlantic and in this moment in history, with works by three American composers (John Harbison, John Serry, and John Novacek) and one Chinese-American composer (Huang Ruo) all of them living today, and all working in diverse genres that extend far beyond the classical concert hall notably jazz, rock, film scoring, and even traditional Chinese ritual. While some analysts bemoan diminishing audiences for classical music, Camerata Pacifica Director Adrian Spence continues to welcome the fertility and vitality of emerging crossovers. Whether or not we are in the midst of a second renaissance, as he has written, it is clear that barriers are falling, definitions are softening, and the tuxedoed concert hall is loosening its tie. Two intensely dynamic solo works broke the evening in, beginning with a stunning debut by the 22-year-old Taiwan-born violinist Paul Huang, who played Harbison s Four Songs of Solitude. Paul Huang s commanding metallic tone gave vividness to Harbison s insistent questioning of the silence. Percussionist Ji Hye Jung once again brought her marimba magic to the group with a stunning performance (from memory) of Serry s Night Rhapsody, a work that pushes instrumental technique to the limit. The most daring feature of the evening was a revisiting of Huang Ruo s To the Four Corners, which Camerata Pacifica premiered in 2009. Ruo s sensibility reaches back to the origins of performing arts in ancient ritual, where sound, vision, and movement were united. Primitive sounds and eerie spotlighting prevailed. The second half of the concert was all fun whimsical and sophisticated 21st-century takes on Americana. Harbison s Songs America Loves to Sing arranges 10 tunes, including Amazing Grace and St. Louis Blues, for five instruments. Novacek s Four Rags for Two Jons was Scott Joplin on steroids, frequently jumping the harmonic tracks Warren Jones (piano) and José Franch-Ballester (clarinet) went out swinging. YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. 250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222 New York, NY 10107 www.yca.org
Interview with... Page 1 of 2 Violinist Paul Huang Opens the 2013-2014 Camerata Pacifica Season How One Young Artist Is Creating Converts to Classical Music at the Airport Tom Jacobs Santa Barbara Independent September 18, 2013 Camerata Pacifica, the area s premier chamber music ensemble, begins its 24th season on Friday, and its programming is as adventuresome as ever. Alongside masterworks by Mozart and Beethoven are numerous works from recent decades, plus several world premieres. Rather than Bach, we ll hear Auerbach. His connection to Camerata was through cellist Ani Aznavoorian, who recommended him to artistic director Adrian Spence. (He s also friends with several of the group s other principals.) And Huang didn t hesitate to accept the invitation. Eighty percent of my season consists of concertos and recital dates, he said. Photo credit Lisa-Marie Mazzucco I grab every chance that I get to play chamber music. Playing it allows me to develop and grow musically. It s really the pinnacle of music-making. A native of Taiwan and resident of New York City, Huang grew up surrounded by music. My parents are great music lovers, he said. Every room in our house back in Taiwan has a CD player! We used to rotate recordings between the rooms. He rejected the violin after an initial lesson at age 4, opting to take up the piano. But at 7, when his parents took him to hear a violinist, something just clicked. It was one of those moments. I had heard many other violin recitals before, but the moment was right. I felt so inspired by the sound of the violin that this little wooden box could project, without amplification, through this amazing hall. I found it so powerful and communicative. I told my parents that I wanted to play the violin. He began taking lessons, and soon his teacher, a Juilliard School graduate, was pressuring his parents to let him study abroad. When he was 14, he and his mother moved to New York, where he joined Juilliard s precollege program. Eight years later, he s still at the prestigious school, now in the master s program. YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. 250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222 New York, NY 10107 www.yca.org
Interview with... (Continued) Page 2 of 2 As a young artist, Huang has noticed his audiences tend to be a lot older in the U.S. than they are in Asia. He admits the subtler joys of this art form are a hard sell in our instant-gratification culture, but he s doing all he can to spread the word. I spend a lot of time in airports, and I always am carrying my fiddle, he said. People are always curious about it. When I m waiting in line, say, they ll come up to me and ask, What s that? Is that a guitar? I always grab the chance to communicate with whoever I come across to spread the word about how great classical music is. So how does he entice wary novices? I say to them, Do you know Vivaldi s Four Seasons? Ninety percent of them say yes. There are cell phone ringtones featuring that music! So it s a place to start. I explain to them it s a baroque piece written for a string ensemble and violin solo. The violin imitates sounds of nature: the birds, a stream, a dog barking. It becomes very pictorial to them, and they can relate to it. Hopefully, at the end of the conversation, when they go home, they will go on YouTube and check out a performance. And if all goes well, they ll gradually wind their way from Vivaldi to John Harbison, whose music is featured on Friday s bill. Huang will join Spence, Aznavoorian, pianist Warren Jones, and clarinetist José Franch-Ballester for Harbison s Songs America Loves to Sing, which incorporates such favorite melodies as Amazing Grace and St. Louis Blues. He ll also perform the Four Songs of Solitude for solo violin, which the composer wrote for his wife. I find the title very poetic, he said. It s very lonely when you re onstage by yourself, playing a 15- minute-long work! The piece is a mirror, a reflection of both the composer and the artist who is playing. In some ways, it s quite the opposite of what we think of as a contemporary piece. It s very melodious, very lyrical. In some ways, it s quite traditional, but it s very demanding for the violinist. He uses a lot of unusual intervals and leaps that we violinists are not used to playing. I love it very much. YOUNG CONCERT ARTISTS, INC. 250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222 New York, NY 10107 www.yca.org
Virtuoso Paul Huang Made the Audience Part of the Creative Process in Orchestra Season Closer Scott Dowd Arts-Louisville.com May 2, 2013 Performers like violinist Paul Huang are the reason I love live concerts. Recordings are wonderful and I am sufficiently in awe of the smart phone s potential, but there is no substitute for watching a virtuoso performer create a work of art. Those of us attending the Louisville Orchestra s season finale concert last Friday were part of the creative process something to be celebrated in the face of destruction. The concert, marketed under the moniker Pictures and Painters, began with Paul Hindemith s thinly veiled commentary on the mores of the then-emerging Nazi party. Hindemith composed his three-movement symphony Mathis der Maler (Matthais the Painter) in 1939. Themes for the orchestral work were drawn from an opera the composer was developing based on the artistic and class struggles of 16th century German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünwald. Music director Jorge Mester continues to select works with plenty of opportunities for musicians of the Orchestra to demonstrate their abilities. Principal Flutist Kathy Karr s interpretations in the first movement were a joy. Enter the artist, Paul Huang. The lithe 22-year-old violinist already projects an air of quiet confidence, without arrogance. The opening theme of Samuel Barber s Violin Concerto, Op. 14 is introduced immediately by the soloist who emerges from the orchestra as a bird in flight might separate from the flock. Huang s clear tone and mastery of intonation allow him to add subtleties to his performance that had me laughing out loud with the joy of it. The composer opens the second movement with an extended oboe solo, wonderfully performed by interim principal Jennifer Potochnic. Throughout the second movement Huang seemed to be performing a duet with the orchestra, embodied by Maestro Mester. And when it was over, absolute silence hung over Whitney Hall in anticipation of Principal Timpanist James Rago s introduction of the moto perpetuo created by the composer to allow the violinist to demonstrate their virtuosity. What Huang provided was four minutes of the kind of performance Paganini s admirers walked miles to experience. The Louisville audience was no less appreciative and called Huang and Mester back again and again until the violinist offered an enraptured encore of Corigliano s Red Violin Caprices. I was grateful for the opportunity to enjoy the purity of tone manifested by a 1683 Nicolo Amati violin in the hands of a gifted performer.
New York Debut of Concert Review Dennis Rooney The Strad March 2013 Appearing in the Young Concert Artists Series, Paul Huang s local debut was postponed by Hurricane Sandy from late October to pre-christmas December. Throughout his programme, the 22-year-old Huang Taiwanese-born, Juilliard-trained and 2011 winner of YCA s international auditions brimmed with enthusiasm, which was matched by stylish and polished playing. Outstanding Ysaÿe from Paul Huang Beethoven s Sonata in G major op.30 no.3 was an impressive opener, with Huang as sprightly, confident and communicative as could be. In the minuet, he contrasted his often bright upper register with warm middle and lower ones. Fervid Romanticism and poised Classicism were nicely balanced in Saint-Saën s Sonata in D minor op.75, which also showcased the excellence of his ensemble with Jessica Osborne, who was an outstanding partner throughout. The highlight of the programme came after the interval, in a simply outstanding account of Ysaÿe s Sonata-Ballade op.27 no.3. Messiaen s 1932 Theme and Variations offered a somewhat austere amuse-bouche before the confections of the final course. Ravel s Pièce en forme de habanera had perfection of atmosphere as well as fiddling. In Debussy s La plus que lente, Huang caught the languor. Waxman s Carmen Fantasy found him master of changing moods and character. His playing could not have been mistaken for anything but a young man s: brilliant.
Review of New York Debut in the Young Concert Artists Series A Debut with a Proustian Touch Zachary Woolfe The New York Times December 20, 2012 The violinist Paul Huang s Francophile New York recital debut on Tuesday evening at Merkin Concert Hall had an unlikely literary connection. At one point in Proust s In Search of Lost Time, Charles Swann remembers Vinteuil s sonata for violin and piano, a work inextricable in his mind from his love for Odette. Below the delicate line of the violin part, he recalls, slender but robust, compact and commanding, he had suddenly become aware of the mass of the piano part beginning to emerge in a sort of liquid rippling of sound. Proust later suggested that the fictional Vinteuil s sonata was inspired by a real work, perhaps Saint-Saëns s Sonata No. 1 in D minor, which the author had heard in a recital and loved. The little phrase that Proust describes in Vinteuil s sonata, the one that emerges over the piano s rippling, may well be the second theme of Saint-Saëns s first movement. When Mr. Huang played the Saint-Saëns sonata on Tuesday with the pianist Jessica Osborne, under the auspices of the venerable Young Concert Artists series, his sound was not far from the slender but robust, compact and commanding tone described by Proust. He sounds like a wire filament: lithe but with a metallic bite even, in intense moments, a satisfying squeal of vehemence. In a program note Mr. Huang wrote that French music, which dominated the program, held particular appeal for him, and he plays that repertory with sensitivity, a range of color and a light touch. (The opener, Beethoven s Sonata No. 8 in G, seemed a remnant of the convention that a debut recital must include a canonical Classical or early Romantic selection; there was no reason for the recital not to be entirely French.) Mr. Huang sounded sweet and assured throughout, from his perfectly balanced, lucid double-stops in Ysaÿe s Sonata No. 3 in D minor for solo violin to the confident mixture of cool and soulfulness in both Messiaen s Theme and Variations and Ravel s tranquil, twinkling Pièce en forme de Habanera. Two works by Debussy, the smoky slow waltz La plus que lente and the gentle song Beau soir, highlighted Mr. Huang s subtlety, his sense of how to shape the line dramatically but without exaggeration. Paul Huang making his New York debut at Merkin Concert Hall, accompanied by Jessica Osborne. ( Photo: Ruby Washington/The New York Times) Even his moments of virtuosic showmanship felt earned and natural. The fantasy on themes from Bizet s Carmen that Mr. Huang chose, the film composer Franz Waxman s rather dull version, is less sparkling than, say, Sarasate s. But when it heats up near the end, Mr. Huang was ready with fingerbending agility and more of those gorgeous double-stops.
Review of Kennedy Center Debut in the Young Concert Artists Series Violinist Paul Huang makes impressive debut at Kennedy Center Robert Battey The Washington Post October 26, 2012 Only 22, Taiwanese American violinist Paul Huang made an impressive debut Thursday evening, sailing through a substantial and varied program, and eliciting several standing ovations. Everything was propitious; the loan of a Stradivarius from a cultural foundation, the collaboration of a superb pianist in Jessica Osborne, joint sponsorship by the Young Concert Artists of Washington and the Washington Performing Arts Society (ensuring a nearly full Kennedy Center Terrace Theater), and Huang s remarkable gifts. Huang s comportment is professional, but there is a wide-eyed youthfulness, as well; he looks directly at the audience in expressive moments and unabashedly milks climaxes. His technical equipment is fully formed and equal to anything. Whether it was the fingered octaves in the Waxman Carmen Fantasie, the perfectly articulated staccato strokes in the third movement of the Saint-Saens D minor Sonata or the modern acrobatics of Corigliano s Red Violin Caprices, Huang never betrayed a hint of strain. He draws his bow at a precise right angle to the strings at all times and makes the sound though bow speed rather than pressure. The result is a sparkling clean, airy tone, further enhanced by pinpoint intonation, so the entire instrument rings. Huang is definitely an artist with the goods for a significant career.
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