Canadian pianist Lucille Chung staged two passionate and heartening recitals at the Huaxia Arts Center last Thursday and Friday.

This was the first time Chung played in China and she was especially impressed by the many young faces in her audiences.

"Nowadays not so many young people came to piano recitals, so it's nice to see audiences here are young because they are our future," Chung said.

What makes Chung's performance special is her versatility. Her repertoire includes classic, romantic and contemporary music.

"When I was studying (piano), I worked with a lot of classics such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart; when I was a teenager, I did more Liszt and Schumann. But finally I turned to CDs, and they were usually contemporary music," she said.

Born in Montreal and now living in Dallas, Texas in the United States, Chung has won international acclaim for her impassioned, elegant and refined performances.

Her repertoire in Shenzhen was well designed and included Beethoven's Variations on a Theme by Sussmayr, Schumann's Fantasiestucke, Morel's Etude de Sonorite, Scriabin's Nine Preludes and Liszt's Spanish Rhapsody.

"Generally, Chung's renditions of Schumann, Sriabin and Liszt are wonderful and had she added a little more of character variation on Liszt¡¯s work, her performance would have been no better," said Kang Jintian, associate professor of piano at the Shenzhen Art School.

"Ms. Chung's performance shows that she is a pianist of marked individuality who has a good mastery of technical skills, and who is capable of embodying her understandings and feelings with these refined skills,¡± said Yao Lian, a Shenzhen-based member of the Chinese Musicians Association, who has been teaching for more than 40 years.

Chung held another recital in Guangzhou last Saturday. She is scheduled to return to China at the end of this year for another tour.

A CD cover  of the piano performance of Lucille Chung, Scriabin - Piano Works
(Photo Source: www.resmusica.com)

A CD cover of  the piano performance of Lucille Chung
(Photo Source: www.koreanconcertsociety.org)

A portrait of Lucille Chung (Photo Source: www.cinars.org)