Willpower surmounts illness

By WILLIAM DART


It is only a few months since John Chen made history for New Zealand by carrying off first prize at the Sydney International Piano Competition and, thanks to the initiative of SIPCA and the ABC, his winning performance of Rachmaninov's Third Concerto is available at record stores.

Although Chen says that playing in the Sydney Opera House to a packed audience was in itself a huge thrill, his main memory is of being extremely sick, with flu verging on pneumonia. But he says that "once you get out on stage you forget the fact you're sick, apart from the dripping nose".

The modest 18-year old describes his performance and the CD as better than he had expected. "Apparently when you're sick you drink a lot, which thins your blood so you get more oxygen and more power."

On Friday, Chen appears with the Auckland Philharmonia in Prokofiev's First Concerto. "It's very much a fun piece to play, a very energetic and vibrant concerto with a very beautiful slow movement that's an immediate attraction."

Chen has been busy since his Sydney success. For six weeks over July and September he undertook 22 concerts throughout Australia. It was an exhausting experience. "Suddenly I had a taste of what life on the concert stage was all about."

Audiences ranged from 1200 in Sydney to 60 in smaller centres. Chen, who regained his health only halfway through the tour, remembers the frightening things more.

"The first concert was in a small place called Margaret River, just south of Perth. I turned up at the concert hall in the morning and the piano was locked. They took over an hour to find the keys.

"You can't always be at your best. And I found myself being put off by seemingly stupid things. One was a cellphone in Melbourne that sent me stomping off. Another was a stage manager I had to go and find so he could turn on the house lights at the interval and the end of the concert."

There have also been learning experiences with conductors. "In competitions the conductor usually lets you do what you want, so that your character comes out. It's not quite the same with concerts. In Melbourne I was stuck with one who forced his opinion of the concerto on me. I knew that things like this would happen, so I had to vary my interpretation of the piece."

In Sydney, Chen's ease with chamber music was one of the factors that contributed to his final success.

"A lot of the semi-finalists had never done chamber music and one of them went on and sightread the Mendelssohn D minor Trio, which was not very wise."

There are two more New Zealand concerts on Chen's schedule this year. Next year he will play at the Seoul Festival in March, followed by a 10-concert tour of China and concerts in France and Germany.

He will also record the complete piano music of Dutilleux for Naxos. "Great stuff, very close to Ravel who is my favourite composer."

Asked about the many musical success stories of Asian students, Chen says it is in part attributable to parental expectation. "It's an Eastern tradition and the children work hard to fulfil these expectations. But Western music is valued so much in Eastern cultures and that's why a lot of Asian students go into some sort of music whether they excel at it or not."

Performance

*Who: John Chen with the Auckland Philharmonia

*Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Friday 8pm