Matthew Chin & Julian Chan

Performers

Notes on the performers

Matthew Chin

Matthew Chin has recently graduated at the HEM-Geneve Switzerland under Svetlin Roussev. He has studied with Professor Pierre Amoyal in HEMU-Lausanne with support from the ‘Association des Amis du Conservatoire de Lausanne’, Max D Jost Foundation, and Lalive Foundation for his Bachelor studies in which he graduated with a perfect recital. He continued his studies at the Mozarteum University of Music, Salzburg, and at CNSMDP, France.

Matthew was recently a laureate and received awards in competitions such as the Tunbridge Wells International Music Competition 2021, Internationale Anton Rubinstein Wettbewerb 2019 (Germany), 1st CullerArts International Violin Competition 2019 (Spain), 8th International Arthur Grumiaux Violin Competition (Belgium), Concerto Competition Winner in Pablo Casals festival (France), Atlantic Coast International Young Soloist Competition, Portugal, Musicus Society Young Concert Artist Audition (HK), Helen Porthouse Paganini prize (UK), Ida Carroll Prize (UK), Thomas Edward Wilson Scholarship (UK) and has most recently been supported by grants from MBF (UK), and Tarisio (NY).

Performance highlights have included being Concertmaster for Moritzburg Festival Orchestra 2020, performing in Mayfield Festival UK, 2021 and performing Vivaldi Concerto and solo recital at Musicus 10th anniversary festival in Hong Kong, performing Haydn Violin Concerto with Artis Chamber Orchestra in Pablo Casals Festival 2018, recitals in the International Holland Music Sessions Festival 2019, Sevcik International Festival 2019 whilst appearing on La Radio Espace 2 (Switzerland) as well as appearances in Festival La Grange au Lac, Evian, UN Palais Geneva, Hong Kong City Hall to name a few.

Matthew was a member of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande from 2017-2020. He has also been Concertmaster with Aurora Chamber Orchestra in 2017, RCM Symphony Orchestra UK and have had experience with ensembles such as Sandor Vegh Chamber orchestra at the Salzburger Kammermusik Festival 2015-17 under Henrich Schiff, Wolfgang Redik, and Thomas Zehetmair.

Matthew is currently playing on​ a Michele Deconet violin made in 1750, kindly on loan from Tarisio.

Julian Chan

Julian Chan is rapidly developing a reputation as one of the most innovative pianists of his generation. He has given performances at a number of prestigious venues across the UK, including Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, St John’s Smith Square, and the Sheldonian Theatre. Performing music by a particularly diverse range of composers, he has given alluring recitals featuring works by figures from Sweelinck to Messiaen, from Alkan to Rzewski, unifying these various styles in a captivating manner.

Julian has had masterclasses with numerous pianists of international renown, including Stephen Hough, Imogen Cooper, Jeremy Menuhin, Melvyn Tan, Bobby Chen, and Joanna MacGregor; distinguished conductors with whom he has performed, both as a soloist and as part of the acclaimed Manson Ensemble, include Jessica Cottis, Ryan Wigglesworth, Ben Glassberg, Jonathan Berman, and John Gibbons.

A passionate composer and performer of new music, Julian has collaborated with eminent composers such as Howard Skempton, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Hans Abrahamsen, Deborah Pritchard, Michael Berkeley, and Peter Seabourne.

Recently, Julian was awarded First Prize and Sonata Prize at the Nanyang International Music Competition, Singapore, First Prize at the Norah Sande Award, and First Prize at the Coulsdon and Purley Festival with his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

Julian is currently recipient of the Ronald and Rita McAulay Award at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studies with Ian Fountain and Michael Dussek. He had his first book of compositions published at age 6, earning him the title of Malaysia’s Youngest Composer.

Programme

Programme notes

G.Tartini/F.Kreisler

Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor ‘Devil’s Trill’

1. Larghetto ma non troppo 
2. Allegro moderato
3. Andante
4. Allegro assai-Andante-Allegro Assai 

The Violin Sonata, more familiarly known as the Devil’s Trill Sonata, is a work for solo violin (with figured bass accompaniment) by Giuseppe Tartini (1692–1770). It is the composer’s best-known composition, notable for its technically difficult passages.

Source: Wikipedia

Ludwig van Beethoven

Sonata for Violin and Piano no.7 op.30 no.2

1. Allegro con brio
2. Adagio Cantabile 
3. Scherzo: Allegro
4. Finale: Allegro; Presto

The Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor by Ludwig van Beethoven, the second of his Op. 30 set, was composed between 1801 and 1802, published in May 1803, and dedicated to Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

The work’s opening movement is the first of Beethoven’s sonata first movements that does not repeat the exposition. The development section contains a theme not found in the exposition (this happens in earlier compositions such as the fourth violin sonata also).

The second movement was originally sketched out in G major before taking its current form.

According to Anton Schindler (Beethoven’s notoriously unreliable associate and biographer), Beethoven came to regret the third movement. Schindler wrote, “He definitely wished to delete the Scherzo allegro… because of its incompatibility with the character of the work as a whole.”

The autograph to the sonata turned up in a collection built up by H. C. Bodmer in Zurich, discovered in the mid-20th century.

Source: Wikipedia

Franz Waxman

Carmen Fantasie for Violin and Piano

Carmen Fantasie is a virtuoso showpiece for violin and orchestra. The piece is part of Franz Waxman’s score to the 1946 movie Humoresque for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. The music, based on various themes from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen and unrelated to the similarly titled work Carmen Fantasy by Pablo de Sarasate, was initially meant to be played by Jascha Heifetz. However, he was replaced by a young Isaac Stern for the film’s recording of the score. Stern’s hands can be seen in the close-up shots from the movie.

After seeing the film, Heifetz asked Waxman to expand the work because he wanted to play it on the radio program, The Bell Telephone Hour, where it premiered on 9 September 1946. The work has been played since by many virtuoso violinists in concerts. It has also been adapted for a variety of orchestral/chamber arrangements, such as a versions for trumpet and orchestra, for violin and piano, as well as for viola and piano/orchestra.

Source: Wikipedia