Claude Gingras of La Presse hails Chung as “a true tour de force”. May 15, 2010
“Lucille Chung, who is now 30 years old (or thereabouts), has signed an exclusive contract with Disques XXI and dedicated a program to Camille Saint-Saëns, which is a true tour de force. Lucille Chung sails through the score with impressive virtuosity and power. The most challenging passages do not diminish the immense pleasure this performance provides, in which nuance and subtlety have their own place.”
Janos Gardonyi of Wholenote.com May 2010
“Saint Saëns may not be the greatest composer or even one of the greatest, but he certainly never wrote boring music. And he couldn’t have picked a better performer of his piano music than the young, immensely talented Montreal-born virtuoso, Lucille Chung. Since 1989, she has built an impressive career with the world’s leading orchestras and performed in over 30 countries. Her playing has self assured attack, virtuosity, romantic abandon and a sense of youthful exuberance.”
One of the most exciting young pianists of her generation, Lucille Chung offers a spectacular selection of Camille Saint-Saëns Piano Transcriptions for her first XXI-21 recording.
Chung unearths 6 rare compositions by Saint-Saëns spanning a period of 30 years, including works originally conceived for piano with orchestra such as the Concerto no. 2 transcribed by Georges Bizet for solo piano, “Wedding-Cake” and exotic “Africa” in Saint-Saëns’ own finger-twisting solo version. Chung has also chosen Saint-Saëns’ transcriptions of Bacchanale from Samson et Dalila, the Bourrée from Bach’s Violin Partita no. 1 and Romance sans paroles, to conclude a masterful and exhilarating program.
The album has already been chosen as Discovery CD of the Month in Scena Musicale November 2009.
Universal Canada released the album on February 9, 2010.
UPCOMING EVENTS
May 13 Lübecker KammermusikFest, Germany. Saint-Saëns Concerto no. 2
May 20-23
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with Jacques Lacombe, conductor. http://www.njsymphony.org/09_10calendar/May.htm#comp
20 Community Theatre at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts, Morristown, NJ.
21 War Memorial, Trenton, NJ.
22 Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ.
23 bergenPAC, Englewood, NJ.
June 6-11
Schloss Elmau, Germany. Chamber music with Alessio Bax, Nicolas Altstaedt and Joseph Lin. Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn.
June 28-29-30
Disques XXI Recording, Montreal, Canada.
July 16-17
Mimir Festival, Fort Worth, TX. Chamber Music. Schubert, Mussorgsky, Muzcinsky
July 24
Westport Art Center Chamber Music Series. Saugatuk Congregational Church, Westport, CT with Alessio Bax. Schubert, Ravel, Stravinsky.
August 15
Bard Music Festival. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Music by Adorno, Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler, Berg.
August 29-September 5
Shinsegae Chamber Music Society Festival. Seoul, Korea.
September 9-11
Bravissimo Festival
9 Guatemala City
11 Antigua