Ray Chen & Timothy Young - Stravinsky: Diversions (2010)

Rising star of the violin Ray Chen, winner of the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition, makes his recording debut with Melba, accompanied by another fast-emerging Australian talent, pianist Timothy Young. Diversions is a disc of scintillating chamber music that presents Igor Stravinsky at his most entertaining, his spirit brimming with optimism and bravura.

The pieces – Suite after themes, fragments and pieces by Giambattista Pergolesi, Duo concertante, Divertimento, ‘Russian Maiden’s Song’ from the opera Mavra and the ‘Danse russe’ from Petrushka – are perfect vehicles to showcase Chen’s violinistic bel canto, his luminous tone and his off-the-scale technique, all to be expected given his competition pedigree. But Stravinsky’s music also provides Chen with the perfect vehicle to demonstrate his genius for vivid musical story-telling. This recording marks Chen as an exciting musical personality as well as a remarkable virtuoso.

Ray Chen was born in Taiwan in 1989 and raised in Brisbane, Australia where he began playing violin within the Suzuki school. He was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 15, where he continues to work on expanding his repertoire with Aaron Rosand (himself a student of the great Efrem Zimbalist who was in turn a student of Leopold Auer.) Chen is the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium (2009) and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition in Cardiff (2008). He has recently signed an exclusive recording contract with Sony.