Le dernier enregistrement de la pianiste vietnamienne américaine Quynh Nguyen (pron. Quin Nwen), The Flower of France, Germaine Tailleferre, Works for Piano [MA-1306], récemment récompensé par la médaille d'or des Global Music Awards, est désormais disponible sur le Label Musique & Arts. L'album comprend des œuvres, organisées par Nguyen, à l'origine pour piano seul, ainsi que des transcriptions et des extraits des ballets de Tailleferre et des musiques de films représentant certaines des meilleures et des plus importantes œuvres du compositeur, y compris un certain nombre de morceaux rarement joués ou enregistrés. Les premières critiques de l'enregistrement l'ont qualifié de "musique séduisante d'un compositeur merveilleux interprétée par un artiste merveilleux" et de "jeu sensible, poétique et communicatif tout au long".

Les œuvres de cet album couvrent 60 ans, du lyrique Impromptu – la première œuvre publiée de Tailleferre, composée en 1912 à l’âge de 20 ans, à Singeries (Monkey Business), qui a été écrit en 1975, vers la fin de sa carrière. Le titre est dérivé de la suite pour piano solo Fleurs De France, un ensemble de courtes pièces de caractère que Tailleferre a composées en 1930, chacune dédiée à une fleur évoquant des paysages de régions distinctes de France.

Nommée l'une des "19 jeunes stars de demain" par Musical America, Quynh Nguyen s'est produite à travers les États-Unis, l'Asie et l'Europe, y compris la Hongrie, l'Allemagne, la Suisse, l'Autriche et la France, dans des salles de concert remarquables telles que Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center , la Freer Gallery, le Konzerthause de Berlin et l'Opéra de Hanoï, au Vietnam. Le Boston Globe l'a saluée comme "une joueuse musicale et expressive" qui est "sensible et poétique, et excelle dans tout ce qui requiert élégance, proportion, équilibre, goût et esprit". Pour ses débuts au Carnegie Recital Hall, le critique Harris Goldsmith a qualifié le pianisme et la création musicale de Nguyen de « agrémentés de beauté et d'exubérance », la saluant « une vraie artiste ; un interprète merveilleusement communicatif.

Nguyen, qui a grandi à Hanoï entouré d'une ville remplie d'architecture et d'influences françaises et vit maintenant à New York, est tombé amoureux du romantisme, de la couleur et de l'inventivité harmonique de la musique de Tailleferre tout en étudiant à Paris grâce à une bourse Fulbright. Dans les notes de l'album, Nguyen dit que les premières compositions de Tailleferre "me rappellent Chopin et ont été fortement influencées par Debussy et Ravel, avec une fraîcheur de mélodies et des modulations inattendues incroyablement séduisantes. La musique qu'elle a écrite plus tard dans la vie combine les caractéristiques et les formes baroques trouvées dans les œuvres de Bach et le style néoclassique de Stravinsky avec l'influence de l'impressionnisme.

La Fleur de France est parrainée par Sorel Organisation et marque les débuts de Nguyen sur le label Music & Arts. Ses trois premiers enregistrements sur le label Arabesque incluent des œuvres de Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel, Schubert et Messiaen. En passant en revue l'enregistrement de Schubert et Chopin, International Piano Magazine a déclaré à propos de Nguyen: "On entend rarement un jeune artiste avec un sens de la ligne mélodique aussi fluide - vif et non forcé - qui permet à la musique de respirer sans inhibition."

Ses prochains enregistrements incluent un album en première mondiale de The Complete Works of Paul Chihara, qui sortira cet automne dans la série Naxos American Classics. Nguyen a interprété la première mondiale du Concerto-Fantaisie pour piano et orchestre de Chihara, qui a été écrit pour elle, en octobre 2022 avec l'Orchestre symphonique national du Vietnam sous la direction de la chef d'orchestre Honna Tetsuji à l'Opéra de Hanoï. Le concert a commémoré la normalisation des relations diplomatiques américano-vietnamiennes. Son interprétation du concerto avec le London Symphony sera incluse dans son prochain enregistrement à Naxos et elle interprétera la première américaine avec le Seattle Symphony en janvier 2024. Parmi les autres faits saillants récents, citons une performance en avril dernier lors de la cérémonie du prix Fulbright à Washington DC. honorant le Dr Fauci, qui a également présenté une performance de Renee Fleming.

Le Dr Nguyen est diplômé de la Juilliard School, du Mannes College of Music et du Graduate Center de CUNY. Elle est récipiendaire de plusieurs bourses et récompenses très prestigieuses, dont le United States Presidential Academic Fitness Award, le American Prize et une bourse Fulbright.


Pour plus d'informations, visitez www.quynhpiano.com
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English Translation:
CD Chronicle: Piano parts by Germaine Tailleferre
Compositrice : Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983)
Album title: The Flower of France
Works: 40 pieces for solo piano
Quynh Nguyen, piano https://www.quynhpiano.com/
Label : Music & Arts MA-1306 www.musicandarts.com
Registration: October 2021 and January 2023
Total time: 78 min. 38
Booklet: 20 pages (English only)
This magnificent selection by Vietnamese-born pianist Quynh Nguyen offers a very representative panorama of French composer Germaine Tailleferre’s solo piano work. It covers a little over 60 years of the career of this underrated member of the Group of Six founded in 1920 including Poulenc, Milhaud, Honegger, Auric and Durey. This anthology has been carefully planned in chronological order, from Impromptu 1912 (her first published work) to one of her latest, Singeries dated 1975, that is, near the end of his professional career.
Facing a number of obstacles to her career as a musician (a stubborn father, two jealous husbands, WWII, two temporary stays in the United States), this child prodigy has still managed to write a corpus of 178 works including a remarkable amount of chamber music and symphonic music; her production for media such as cinema, radio and television arouses curiosity.
Undoubtedly due to the social climate where "if it is clear that a woman [from the small bourgeoisie] has an artistic hobby, it is not possible to make a career out of it" (Anne-Charlotte Rémond), Germaine Tailleferre may have resigned from writing unambitious solo piano pieces when compared to his male colleagues, Debussy and Ravel for example. Yet she doesn't seem to regret anything, saying, "I make music because it makes me happy, it's not great music, I know." It's gay, light music that sometimes compares me to the 18th century grand masters, which I'm very proud of. »
After listening to the record, I came to the same conclusion as two of her friends who defended her, the first, Jean Cocteau, who said she was "a Marie Laurencin for the ear"; the second, Darius Milhaud, added: "Her music has immense merit to be unpretentious, this is because of sincerity of the most attaching. »
So it is in this spirit that I think that this beautiful recording is necessary to be listened to to to appreciate the stylization of an all-Parisian elegance and the soft harmonic hues flowing between impressionism and neo-classicism, as you can hear in the Lullaby of 1936 [ https://www.dropbox.com/t/CGvUIX5Jcbd3laqX ]
After three albums previously released on the Arabesque label (Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Ravel, Messiaen) and obtaining a doctorate, Quynh Nguyen has a lasting commitment to French music culture. Having won a scholarship (Fulbright Fellowship) to improve herself in Paris, it is where she discovered all the inspiration needed to carry out her new record project: to delight the melomaniacs of the unknown repertoire of a woman with subtle and irresistible creativity.
Thanks to her immense talent and interpretive finesse, Quynh Nguyen clearly won her bet. Well-served by a natural and balanced take, this splendid pianist has just gained a reputation as a “wonderfully communicative” performer, according to US critic Harris Goldsmith, who heard her during his Carnegie Hall debut. A graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Mannes College of Music and City University of New York, she is already in demand for other record projects, including one to be released in early September (The Complete Works of Paul Chihara) and another the Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra of the United States. Same composer expected to be released early 2024.
Guy Sauve
July 2023
Guy SauvePassion-Musique-et-Culture-100064738864320/
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Quynh plays with great dexterity and technique, but also with artistry and sensitivity –and a very personal touch of romance in her interpretations. There is poetry in her every phrase and great emotion (often painful sadness and at other times joyful and playful exuberance). Ms. Nguyen is a consummate artist, with an excellent ear (she has perfect pitch), and very traditional music training, excelling in Baroque as well as classical styles. But her very special forte is the music of passion and youthful expression, which makes her every performance an adventure!Paul Chihara - March 2023Paul Chihara - March 2023

She is exquisitely trained as a pianist, pedagogue and scholar. She is a beautiful and exciting performer, a dedicated teacher and a profound writer on music. She exhibits this through her great experience on stage and accomplishments in the classroom. She is a most successful recording artist, adding to her artistic profile.
Jerome Rose - May 2023Founder and Director, International Keyboard Institute & Festival

Germaine Tailleferre: Klavierwerke; Partita für Klavier; Fleurs de France + L'Aigle des rues + Impromptu + Romance + Pas trop vite + Pastorale D-Dur + Hommage à Debussy; + Très vite + Sicilienne + Pastorale As-Dur + Chiens + Pastorale Inca + Menuett B-Dur + Berceuse + Au Pavillon d'Alsace + Fugue du Parapluie + Chant chinois + Pas de Deux & Pastourelle aus Parisiana + Larghetto + Valse Lente + Sonata alla Scarlatti + Rêverie + Barbizon + Escarpolette + Singeries; Quynh Nguyen, Klavier; 1 CD Music & Arts MA-1306; Aufnahmen 1.2021 + 01.2023, Veröffentlichung 07.07.2023 (78'38) - Rezension von Remy Franck

Die vietnamesisch-amerikanische Pianistin Quynh Nguyen spielt ein ganzes Programm mit Miniaturen von Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983), der einzigen Frau, die Mitglied der Komponistengruppe Groupe des Six war.
Tailleferre komponierte in nahezu allen musikalischen Gattungen, mehrere Opern, Ballettmusiken, Konzerte, Klavier- und Kammermusik sowie Musik für Film und Fernsehen.
Madame Tailleferre war auch eine angesehene Pianistin, die im Duett mit Eric Satie oder Igor Stravinsky spielte, und daher komponierte sie ganz natürlich für das Klavier. Ihre Klavierstücke sind neoklassisch und immer atmosphärisch. Sie sind ruhig, verträumt, charmant, rhythmisch energetisch, ernst oder witzig, pastoral oder tänzerisch, einige gehören auch zur Gattung des Pasticcio.
Quynh Nguyen lässt der Musik ihre Natürlichkeit und ihre französische Eleganz. Sie hat ein gutes Gespür für Rhythmik, sowie dynamische und farbliche Nuancen, spielt mit einer brillanten Leichtigkeit und einer bildhaften Raffinesse. Man hört sich dieses Programm daher mit echtem Vergnügen an.
Vietnamese-American pianist Quynh Nguyen performs an entire program of miniatures by Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983), the only woman who was a member of the Groupe des Six group of composers.
Tailleferre composed in nearly every musical genre, several operas, ballet music, concertos, piano and chamber music, and music for film and television.
Madame Tailleferre was also a respected pianist, playing duets with Eric Satie or Igor Stravinsky, so she naturally composed for the piano. Her piano pieces are neoclassical and always atmospheric. They are calm, dreamy, charming, rhythmically energetic, serious or witty, pastoral or dance-like, and some belong to the genre of pastiche.
Quynh Nguyen allows the music to retain its naturalness and French elegance. She has a good sense of rhythm, as well as dynamic and color nuances, plays with a brilliant lightness and a pictorial refinement. One therefore listens to this program with real pleasure.Remy Franck https://www.pizzicato.lu
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Your performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K.453 was splendid virtually from beginning to end. Your artistic approach to the Allegro shared your fluid technique and understanding of performance practice. I sincerely enjoyed how you constructed each phrase and how carefully you listened to and dialogued with the JägerMeister Orchestra and Maestro Zilberkant. Your enthusiasm for Mozart was evident in the Andante and the Allegretto-Presto as well. Mozart sounds like a first musical language for you. There was a clear musical narrative shared throughout the performance.
Congratulations and thank you for sharing such a delightful rendering. _ Micheal BensonMichael BensonThe American Prize

"Her delightful Weill Hall recital offered renditions of Bach's G-minor English Suite (with a witty suggestion of a tambourine in the Gavotte), Schubert's D-major Sonata, D. 850, and vernal, lyrical accounts of Chopin's E-major Scherzo and late E-flat Nocturne (Op. 55, No. 2). Likewise memorable was her fleet, crystalline Ravel Tombeau de Couperin at a later Merkin Hall concert."Harris GoldsmithMusical America

Messiaen: Great feel, colors, phrasing all good. Excellent playing. Chopin: Very beautiful.Jeffrey BiegelThe American Prize

"[On] Saturday night, she made her local debut, and it was easy to understand why even people who are hard to please like her so much. She is a musical and expressive player who commands a flexible, singing sound. She is often sensitive and poetic, and when she should dazzle with lively rhythm, piquant inflexions, and dashing virtuosity -- as in Chopin's ''Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise brillante,'' or in the Chopin waltz she offered as an effervescent encore -- she knows how to. Quynh opened with an unusual Sonata in F Minor by Muzio Clementi, which she played in an operatic and romantic style. Her playing of Ravel's ''Tombeau de Couperin'' was marvelous: she excels in everything that requires elegance, proportion, balance, taste, and wit...Schumann's ''Kreisleriana'' was almost too beautifully played, with subtle interplay of inner voices... "Richard DyerThe Boston Globe

. . . her pianistic ability is beyond question; proven by her many concerts, reviews and recordings. She demonstrates in her performances a unique combination of virtuosity, poetry and passion. It is always a joy to be in the audience when she performs . . . [She is] a brilliant pianist . . . she has worked with me as well asBella Davidovich and is a truly wonderful artist . . . she is extraordinary in every way . . . there is a loveliness and strength to her playing and true qualities that make her a superb performer of Chopin.Jerome Rose,Faculty, Mannes College of Music

The Hanoi, Vietnam-born pianist Quynh Nguyen, now an American citizen, was born in 1976 and studied at the Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music, after debuts in Hanoi and some early training at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, studying with Oleg Musorin. In New York her teachers have included Martin Canin, Jerome Rose, Jacob Lateiner, Bella Davidovich, and Robert Turner. She has concertised in Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United States. She is gifted with a tender musicality, allied with a dazzlingly deft balance between the hands that make her performances of Schubert and Chopin, as heard on this new disc, irresistible. In Chopin's Nocturne in E flat, her trills have a poignancy that is entirely suited to the music, while she expresses the joyous dash needed for the same composer's showpiece: the Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise.

When Nguyen made her New York recital debut last year at Weill Hall, she was greeted by a rave notice from the usually judicious keyboard connoisseur Harris Goldsmith, who exclaimed, 'Ms. Nguyen's pianism and music-making are graced with beauty and exuberance. She is a real artist; a wonderfully communicative performer obviously intoxicated with the joy of living her music and sharing it with those lucky enough to hear it spring from her soul. What a compendium of intellect, sophistication and taste! True enough, Nguyen's Schubert is fresh and fleet, with a kind of poetic approach allied with digital dexterity in the tradition of the late Russian virtuoso Yuri Egorov, although more pliant and endearing than the splashy Egorov generally sounded...

Rarely does one hear a young artist with such a naturally flowing sense of melodic line - vivid and unforced - that permits the music to breath uninhibited. This flexible way of playing allows poetry and emotion to expand organically. Quynh Nguyen is already a major talent of the younger generation of keyboard artists, to be placed alongside Klara Wurtz and Irina Rees.Benjamin IvryInternational Piano Magazine

Take Vietnamese-American pianist Quynh Nguyen. Last year, she made her New York debut to a rave review from the dean of US piano critics, Harris Goldsmith. He cheered Ms. Nguyen's performance of Chopin, saying that she played more eloquently than such great keyboard heroes as "Ignaz Friedman, Perahia, Horowitz, Rubinstein – or anyone whose interpretations linger in the mind's ear.

This kind of reaction would, in other days, have guaranteed a recording contract, especially since she is young and photogenic. Instead, she has paid to publish two CDs, which are available on her website.

"... it would be better to have a recording contract with a big company," says Nguyen. But "I am happy that my music has reached a much wider audience...Benjamin IvryChristian Monitor Science Magazine

This young pianist, born in Vietnam and trained in Russia as well as in the United States, received high praise from reliable quarters for her New York debut recital last year. Now she offers an interesting and well-varied program of Clementi (Sonata Op. 13 No. 6), Schumann ("Kreislariana"), Ravel ("Le Tombeau de Couperin") and Corigliano ("Fantasia on an Ostinato").James OestreichThe New York Times

A New York debut of exceptional distinction was played by pianist Quynh Nguyen on March 3rd at Weill Hall as part of Artists International’s Debut Winners Series. Ms. Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam to a family of musicians, played her first recital at the age of nine, and at eleven made her orchestral debut performing Mozart’s Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. That same year she gave a recital in Moscow, and at 13, received a full scholarship to study at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow. She continued her studies as a scholarship student at the Juilliard School and at the Mannes College of Music, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees respectively. She is currently enrolled in the DMA program at CUNY. Her teachers include Oleg Mussorin, Robert Turner, Bella Davidovich, Alexander Paley, Jacob Lateiner and Jerome Rose. And, as her bio for the recital adds, “she has performed in master classes given by Tatiana Nicoleiva, Garrick Ohlsson, Bryce Morrison, Pavlina Dokovska, Peter Frankel, Richard Goode, and András Schiff”. Ms. Nguyen’s credentials are indeed impressive, and little wonder that she has distinguished herself in various piano competitions and gained extensive concert experience worldwide—in Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the United States.

But even my fondest hopes and expectations were gloriously sustained and surpassed by this dream of a recital. Ms. Nguyen’s pianism and music making are graced with beauty and exuberance. She is a real artist; a wonderfully communicative performer obviously intoxicated with the joy of living her music and sharing it with those lucky enough to hear it spring from her soul. What a compendium of intellect, sophistication and taste! And she is also (in her unobtrusive way) an accomplished virtuoso, equipped to dispatch even some of the most difficult and subtle compositions on her program (J.S. Bach’s English Suite in G minor BWV 808, Schubert’s Sonata in D major, Op. 53, D. 850; and three of Chopin’s most rarified masterworks, his Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54; his late Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 55 No. 2; and earlier but demanding Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise, Op. 22).

The Bach Suite took wing with infectious brio. Her propulsive way with the opening Preludium may have initially seemed too dangerously precipitate but the rhythmic control was secure and admirable steady. The ensuing Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gavotte and Gigue all likewise shared that same lustrous singing tone. The Sarabande was especially modest and eloquent, and she brought a delightful sense of humor to her fleet delivery of the Gavotte (with the tambourine-like repeated bass notes in its second strain deliciously and tastefully emphasized; and the almost Schumannesque maggiore central Trio poignantly savored).

The first movement of the Schubert Sonata took wing at an almost wicked clip. Here, if there is any room for reservation, Ms. Nguyen might have allowed for just a hairbreadth more tonal solidity and breathing space to make the most of this extremely Beethovenian writing. But, no matter, the potentially quirky crossing of hands and such were admirably under rhythmic control (no Schnabel-like desperation this time!). And how Ms. Nguyen’s spot-on sense of color and timing kept the potentially repetitious Con moto second movement airborne. (All of the myriad variations of filigree were splendidly creative and engaging and never once did interest flag). For once, there were no “editorializing” of rhythm in the Allegro vivace Scherzo (again that “Tradition” established almost reflexively by that famous old Schanbel recording), and in retrospect it was a pleasant and unpretentious departure from precedent. The Rondo: Allegro moderato, taken a bit more rapidly than usual, delectably recreated the nursery-rhyme “Sing a Song of Six Pence” quality in this fleet and lovely version.

And so it was with the Chopin group heard after intermission: the Fourth Scherzo had an almost Mendelssohn-like gossamer quality. Filigree was impishly tossed off, the octaves sonorously in place, and the central Trio section again achieved without fuss or contortion. The Nocturne was, if anything, even better: the absolute highpoint of the afternoon: I have never heard it played more eloquently, by Ignaz Friedman, Perahia, Horowitz, Rubinstein—or anyone whose interpretations linger in the mind’s ear. (Yes, this performance was truly sublime.) The Andante Spianato had a classical simplicity and proportion, and the following Grande Polonaise—a brilliance and swagger—with some effective left hand anticipations and octave amplifications making the proceedings all the more stylish and effective.

We will, no doubt, be regularly hearing much more from Quynh Nguyen: Remember her name!Harris GoldsmithNew York Concert Review

She was my student at The Juilliard School for four years during which time she showed herself to be a wonderful young artist. She has impressive technical and musical assets, along with discipline and desire to develop herself. She made wonderful progress while studying with me and I look forward to watching her life as professional pianist evolve.Bella DavidovichFaculty, The Juilliard School