Recent Quotes
"The Taiwanese pianist Han Chen, a noted interpreter of the Ligeti Etudes and other modernist repertory, has made a blistering album of [Liszt's] opera transcriptions." —Alex Ross, The New Yorker
"This young pianist revels in modern and cutting-edge pieces. After making his recorded debut on the Naxos label with some sterling interpretations of Liszt, he has since taken on the piano works of Gyorgy Ligeti as well as those of contemporary artists like Thomas Adès." —Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times
"Infinite Staircase was a marathon of canonical music and new works that displayed exquisite programming, stupendous technique, and forward-thinking expansion of classical music’s best traditions... Han Chen’s perfectly calibrated touch and transitions created an immersive and seamless musical universe." —Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen
"Han Chen was astonishing, with some of the finest pianism one has ever witnessed. Beyond sheer dexterity, this was tremendously musical playing, with every phrase clear and pointed in a certain direction, fluid control of dynamics and form, a combination of articulation and force that was hard to believe. One had the feeling that Chen was deep inside the work, opening up every detail of Ligeti’s musical personality." —George Grella, New York Classical Review
“Oxygenated by powerful intellectual bellows and endowed with muscular forearms, Chen didn’t just hammer Beethoven’s formidably relentless and ever-modern challenge to pianists and listeners; with fire and tempering plunges he alternately annealed, welded, sintered, and sensitively stretched the well-wrought iron into impressive curls and shapely forms. His carefully plotted interpretations conveyed nuance and compelling gesture through very well-graduated colorations and dynamics from white hot to warmly glowing. No two repeated chords sounded the same. Chen’s Beethoven seemed to anticipate Berg and Ligeti on this night.” —Lee Eiseman, The Boston Musical Intelligencer
“Han Chen played the selections [of John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes] with a graceful touch and attention to the score’s rhythmic precision, and his reading brought out the music’s hypnotic charm.” —Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
“Far more interesting, though, are Schnittke’s “Five Aphorisms” (1990), which the pianist Han Chen played with a sure, subtle touch, ending the fourth with a creepy low chord that hovered in the air like a dying sigh.” —Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times
“Han Chen and Fei-Fei Dong… are fine pianists who graciously channeled their technical abilities into the demanding but thankless parts required of them.” —Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times
“Han Chen gives a more muscular and, frankly, even more thrilling performance… Han Chen is impressively commanding and authoritative. What’s more, he seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself.” —Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone
“Chen’s playing, close to superhuman, astonishes, again and again. There seems nothing he cannot do, and with grace, musicality, even bounce.” —David Moran, The Boston Musical Intelligencer
“Im Allegro [of Schubert’s Sonata in A major, D. 664] kann er sein technisches Können in den Tempi beweisen, leicht perlend und unaufdringlich virtuos kommen die Läufe daher. Dabei gestaltet er immer fein nuanciert; mal kommt ein keckes Spiel heraus, dann gibt er ihm einen heiteren tänzerischen Charakter und dies alles mit großer Leichtigkeit.” —Gabriele Knoll, Rheinische Post Online