Warming Up for The Leeds: Pianist Shih-Wei Huang

Last Thursday night, Ann and I hosted a recital by the young Taiwanese pianist Shih-Wei Huang at our home for about 30 friends. Shih-Wei is a May 2009 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied under two of the Institute's most esteemed faculty, Claude Frank and Eleanor Sokoloff. She will be a graduate student at the Yale School of Music beginning in September.

Shih-Wei is on her way to compete in the 16th Leeds International Pianoforte Competition ("the Leeds"), a triennial showdown that begins in the Yorkshire town next week. In this recital, she performed several pieces that she intends to play as she advances to later rounds against 68 other competitors from around the globe, including Beethoven's "Pathetique" Sonata, Chopin's Sonata Op. 58, and a truly exciting piano transcription of Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka adapted by the composer at the request of Artur Rubenstein. While Rubenstein performed the work live, he never recorded it (though one version of the story I heard at our reception was that he in fact recorded it several times but never released it because he was not satisfied with his performances). On piano, Petrushka is a very demanding work that Shih-Wei performed with power and grace.

I know that everyone who joined us wishes Shih-Wei all success at the Leeds. Several rounds of the competition can be heard on the BBC, and I will try to listen in on the Web.