The Philadelphia Inquirer: For up-and-coming musicians, putting in work means starting at the top

The Philadelphia Inquirer
By David Patrick Stearns

Increasingly, young artists like Haochen Zhang, Yuja Wang, Stewart Goodyear, and James Ehnes take on heavy-weight repertoire they are often advised to save for middle age — or older.

Complete Beethoven piano concerto recordings just don’t just arrive out of thin air. But so it may seem in the just-released set — Nos. 1-5— by pianist Haochen Zhang and the Philadelphia Orchestra under principal guest conductor Nathalie Stutzmann.

All five concertos were recorded over three days at the Kimmel Center after only one two-hour rehearsal session.

Any project this big would be typically preceded by concert performances or recorded live. But having been planned before lockdown the ambitious recording session left the Philadelphia-based Zhang “shocked and uncertain but also excited. I know how scarce the opportunity is to record with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and not one, but all five of the Beethoven concertos.”

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