Cheng takes first turn with Mozart chamber format

by David Gordon Duke

Edmonton-raised pianist shares her thoughts on marriage to a musician and judging the Esther Honens competition of emerging performers

Pianist Angela Cheng grew up in Edmonton and is currently based at Ohio’s prestigious Oberlin Conservatory. But make no mistake, she’s been an active contributor to the local classical music scene for two decades through her many performances for the Vancouver Recital Society, the CBC Radio Orchestra and the Vancouver Symphony.

Next season she’ll be featured with the VSO; later this month she’s playing at Summer Combustion, the snazzy new name for the venerable Vancouver Chamber Music Festival. She made time to talk to Westcoast Life from the Aria Festival in Muncie, Ind.

Q: Angela, you're unquestionably one of Vancouver’s favourite musicians. When was the very first time you played here?

A: I think it must have been back in 1986, when I performed with Joshua Bell for Leila Getz and the Vancouver Recital Society.

Q: Your husband, Alvin Chow, is also a musician. How does it work with two pianists at home, or more often, on the road working at different gigs?

A: Alvin is a prince: 100-per-cent supportive, not competitive at all. Alvin has an identical twin brother who is also a pianist, so he was used to it—- in fact I was very much the third wheel when I first came into the picture.

Some of my friends have dated or married other pianists for whom it didn't work out. In one instance they even tried to divide up the repertoire: “You can play Liszt, but not Bach.” Our case was different.

Q: But there have got to be problems of just finding time together?

A: Alvin teaches full-time at Oberlin, (which means I can go away during the season to play). We look hard for opportunities to perform together during the summer, as we did last week in Vermont, and this coming week in Indiana.

Q: Back when you were an “emerging artist” from Canada, it was virtually impossible to stay home for advanced training, let alone a career. Has that changed over the years?

A: Well, if you have the right teacher, you could do it at the North Pole! But on a practical career level, to be accepted by a top management agency you pretty much have to perform in major centres right off the bat. They're just not going to attend a recital in Fort McMurray.

Q: Earlier this summer you were the chairwoman of the First Jury for the Esther Honens Piano Competition in Calgary. What was that like?

A: We were in Banff for nine days, during which we heard about 75 pianists. Each submitted 40 minutes of music, and we selected 21 finalists. I was completely exhausted by the end.

Standards are so different now. In my day, the competition repertoire was very standardized; you had choices, but in a narrow range. Today you can play almost anything you want, and I worry that the pendulum has perhaps swung too far in the opposite direction from what it was. It’s so very, very difficult to compare performers in different repertoire in such a short time.

Q: Next season you're slated to play Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the VSO. But you are one of the select few who play both Robert and Clara Schumann’s concertos.

A: I believe my CD was the first of Clara’s concerto. Now I perform it quite often. Her music is so beautiful, it deserves to be heard much more — not just by me!

Q: What will you be playing at Summer Combustion?

A: Mozart, of course: his Quintet in E-flat for piano and woodwind quartet, and the E-flat major Piano Quartet, on one of the morning programs. Then we do his Concerto in A major, K. 414 on opening night. I play the A major Concerto all the time, but this will be Mozart’s chamber version with string quintet instead of an orchestra — my first time in this format. And we end the whole festival with Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet.

The Vancouver Sun
13 July 2006

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