Philippe Chiu is known as one of those excellent behind-the-scenes artists who were formerly called “accompanists”, now “collaborating pianists” when they work with singers and who are in fact major chamber musicians. Cameron Crozman, Jonathan Crow, the New Orford String Quartet, Pentaèdre are his regular partners. Solo disc, therefore, here, which is distinguished by a very beautiful idea: the integration of a commissioned work, Nostalgia for Hong Kong, by Alice Ping Yee Ho (born in 1960), between Images, book I And Prints by Debussy. The mirror, and questioning may be: “What is an Asian musical idiom; what is inspiration (Pagodas opens Prints, Reflections in the water is the first of Pictures) ? » It relays a question about the feeling of belonging. “What are the places to which we belong? » asks Chiu. From this point of view, his commission is judicious, he made it to the right composer and it significantly enriches an otherwise poetic and balanced disc.
To watch on video