At the age of two, Chen was reportedly able to hum any melody she had heard during the day, right down to the minutiae. At four, she surprised her parents by playing an array of tunes from memory on a toy piano. Yet compared with this obvious abundance of talent, her passion for music since childhood is far more intriguing.
“One time I was exhibiting a high fever. My parents tried every way they could possibly imagine to bring it down, but nothing worked. Yet according to my mom, as soon as I started playing the toy piano, my temperature began to drop,” Chen said. The soothing effect of the music convinced her parents that their daughter was born to be a pianist of some renown.
Chen began taking piano lessons at four and made her stage debut at five. Two years later, her performance of Mozart’s Sonata for Piano and Violin in E minor with renowned violinist Deng Chan-guo took Taiwan’s classical music circle by storm. By nine, Chen’s piano teacher concluded that the burgeoning talent could no longer profit from her tutelage and suggested Chen’s parents send her abroad. “Taiwan was under martial law [1949-1987] back then. My father had to take me to perform in front of key government figures,” Chen said. “They needed to see for themselves if I deserved a chance to study abroad.”
Persuaded by her undeniable talent, the officials permitted Chen to become the island’s first “gifted child” to study abroad. Rather than opting for countries favored by most music students, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, Chen went to Germany. “I’ve always loved German composers. Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, just their names were enough to tell me that Germany was where I ought to go,” she said.
A commonly held belief in Taiwan was that Chen studied overseas on a government scholarship. Yet, the reality was markedly different, with her family footing the bill. “My father secured a patent in the United States on his water distilling technology,” she said. “The money was enough to buy a house back then, but he elected to spend it on my air ticket to Germany.”
Chen studied at Cologne University of Music with Hans-Otto Schmidt-Neuhaus, and received her diploma as a classical pianist in 1970. She also pursued her studies with Hans Leygraf and took part in piano courses given by Wilhelm Kempff, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Cloudio Arrau and Geza Anda.
In 1972, purely on a whim, Chen took part in the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium International Music Competition without preparing for the pieces. Finishing in 12th place came as great surprise to the child prodigy, affirming her suspicion that such talent deserved to shine on a bigger stage. Three months later—this time well-prepared—Chen won first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. Later, she claimed titles at the Arnold Schonberg Competition in Rotterdam and the J.S. Bach Competition in Washington.
Since then Chen has been an active pianist on the world stage, playing with famous orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and all German Radio Symphony Orchestras. Conductors, with whom she has worked include Bernhard Haitink, Paul Sacher, Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Marek Janowsky, Hans Zender and Peter Eotvos.
She was partner of Hermann Baumann, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Augustin Dumay, Alyssa Park, Wolfgang Meyer and Julius Berger. Chen also took part in numerous music festivals, including the Hong Kong Arts Festival, the Festival d’Automne Paris, the Festival Wien Modern and the Triennale Cologne 1994 and 1997, as well as the Festivals of Lucerne and Osaka.
She has been dedicated to teaching as well. Apart from being a piano professor at Cologne University of Music from 1983, she took up another teaching position at the Freiburg University of Music in 2004. And whenever Chen has a chance to perform in Taiwan or tour in Asia, she tries to stay on the island for as long as her schedule permits so as to offer master classes.
Through collaboration with composers such as Pierre Boulez, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen in recent years, Chen has earned a high standing in the area of contemporary music. While most classical music followers have a strong antipathy toward the avant-garde, Chen praised it as a breakthrough of aging and diminishing classical music. “We’ve seen numerous masterpieces over the past three to four hundred years,” she said. “There is no way Chopin or Mozart can be surpassed if we stick to traditional approaches.”
Chen has produced several authoritative recordings, with her Bach’s Goldberg Variations deemed a representative work.
She is generally acknowledged as an expert Bach and Mozart pianist, but many of her fans feel this accolade does not do her expansive talent justice.
“Her Beethoven is the best I have heard,” said Wang Jie-zhen, a music professor at National Normal University, referring to an occasion at which Chen played the third movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 106. “She was playing an ordinary piano in a humble classroom, but it was the closest to Beethoven that I have ever got,” Wang said. “Her performance would make you realize that those so-called authoritative interpretations are too conservative, too romantic, and involve too much of the pianists themselves,” she explained.
How the world sees her music does not seem to affect Chen at all. When it comes to musical belief, the soft-spoken pianist can be very firm. “I argue with my colleagues and often get criticized,” she said. “But it doesn’t bother me. I know perfectly what stands behind my belief.”
Commenting on the state of Taiwan’s music education, Chen stated she was pleased to see noted musicians from overseas teaching here. “This will help broaden students’ musical vision,” she said. Nevertheless, Chen pointed out that young, up-and-coming talent often mistakenly emphasize the importance of superficial images or presentational skills, hence they tend to favor pieces that are loaded with chunky chords and showy passages, forgetting their own musical thoughts and attitude.
“It is only normal that young musicians are eager to win appreciation by copying the styles of so-called ‘maestros,’” Chen explained, adding that she once lost herself in mimicking Kempff after taking his lessons at 18. “But I soon realized that wasn’t what I wanted and began to pursue my own music style.” The pianist urged young hopefuls to adopt a calmer approach and return to the fundamentals of music. “Only when you have a peaceful mind can you recognize the right attitude for music and produce good art,” Chen said.
Write to Ellen Ko at ellenko@mail.gio.gov.tw