Yuzhang Li and Ji Hyo Jung

Performers

Notes on the performers

Yuzhang Li

One of the 10 semi-finalists in the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021, 23-year-old Chinese Pianist Yuzhang Li was also a medallist in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition in 2022. Her performance of Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 with Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra after winning the First Prize in Futian Cup Piano Competition was highly praised by Maestro Lang Lang and reviewed by Shenzhen News as ‘A performance of such composed manner and maturity that exceedingly surpassed our expectation’.

At the age of 14, Yuzhang performed a full set of Etude Tableaux by Rachmaninov in her first recital. Now as a concert pianist, Yuzhang performs in Europe and Asia extensively both solo and chamber music. Her major performance engagements included concerts at the Royal Academy of Music and Steinway Hall in UK, Bechstein KONZERTFLÜGEL in Germany, Yongsan Concert Hall in South Korea, and Central Conservatory, Sichuan Conservatory, Shenzhen Concert Hall, and HUAFA Performance Theatre in China.

In addition to her appearance in the recent international competitions and concerts, she has received recognitions from other competitions throughout the years and collected some top prizes, including the second prize in the Steinway Piano Competition in 2019, the second prize in the “Grotrian” International Piano Competition in 2017, the Special Performance Award in the Wiesbaden International Piano Competition in 2016, and the first prize of the Seiler Cup Piano Competition in 2015.

Scholarships and titles she garnered also indicated her all-round development in musical life. In 2019, Yuzhang was awarded the China National Scholarship, resulting from her excellent performance in both piano playing and academic study. In 2021, she was given the full scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music and became an ABRSM Scholar. In 2023, she was selected as a Tillett Artist, receiving support from the Tillett Trust. Yuzhang was admitted by the best Central mark to the Conservatory in China in 2017, studying with Professor Danwen Wei and Jiajia Shi. After graduating at the top of the class, Yuzhang started studying at the Royal Academy of Music with Professor Ian Fountain in 2021.

Jihyo Jung

Jihyo Jung has performed at various major venues across North America, South Korea and the U.K., and collaborated as a Soloist, Chamber musician and appeared as a soloist in the Orchestra with many major orchestras in North America and the U.K. She has won at the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra Competition and Sejong arts foundation music competition in Korea, the NY music competition in Queens, and received a cash award from the Irving M. Klein international string competition. She received degrees from the Juilliard pre-college, The Manhattan School of Music(BM) and currently pursuing her Master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music, tutelage under Josephine Knight and Jo Cole.

Programme

Programme notes

E.J Moeran

Prelude

Ernest John Smeed Moeran was an English composer of part-Irish extraction, whose work was strongly influenced by English and Irish folk music of which he was an assiduous collector. The Prelude for cello and piano was published by Novello in 1944.This is a simple yet profound piece. A broad and lyrical melody in major and 4/4 time is played over an extremely simple accompaniment. Common chords and sevenths are the staple harmonic feature. The tempo is ‘Adagio ma non troppo’ throughout. Although the piece remains in the opening key, there is a brief modulation towards the middle bars of the piece.

Arnold Bax

Folk tale

An English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works. While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music Bax became fascinated with Ireland and Celtic culture, which became a strong influence on his early development. Folk Tale for cello and piano was dedicated to Felix Salmond, who along with the composer gave the work its premiere in 1918. The piece was written at the conclusion of the Great War. Perhaps the composer was writing a forlorn commentary on the events in Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916. Interestingly, the work was written in same year that the composer left his wife Elsita Sobrino for Harriet Cohen.

Frederic Chopin

Cello Sonata op 65

1. Allegro
2. Scherzo
3. Largo
4. Finale : Allegro

I write a little and cross out a lot’, Chopin wrote to his sister during the composition of his final major work, the Cello Sonata in G minor Op 65, written in Paris in 1845 and 1846. ‘Sometimes I am pleased with it, sometimes not. I throw it into a corner and then pick it up again.’ No work of his gave him more trouble, as manifested by the extensive sketches. It was the last one to be published during his lifetime, written when his health was failing. The four movements (Allegro moderato, Scherzo, Largo and Allegro) show how far Chopin had developed in his ability to form a closely integrated sonata structure, with ideas developing from a variety of short but related motifs.