Tyzen Hsiao's Death (1938-2015)

[promusician]

The last romantic of the 21st century, Professor Tyzen Hsiao passed away earlier this morning 9.00am (LA time) due to long-term illness and cancer. He composed three concertos, Requiem 'Formosa', Formosa Symphony, choral and piano works. His most famous works, the piano concerto op.53, said to be the incarnation of the composer himself, was underplayed and never performed in the composer's hometown, Kaoshiung.

Modern recording of the three concertos by NTSO:
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Taiwan%2BPhilharmonic%252C%2BNational%2BSymphony%2BOrchestra/MD005

[eschiss1]

"The last romantic of the 21st century"...
except for the ones after, of course.

[Mark Thomas]

You can hear a performance of his Piano Concerto on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se-JitX_2SI. It's a very pleasant piece, highly melodious, with some excellent writing for both pianist and orchestra (especially the brass) and very reminiscent of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto, I thought. Deeply anachronistic for 1992, of course. Not great music, but the sort of well crafted but undemanding piece which is good to have playing in the background. YouTube also has recordings of quite a few other works by him including both a violin and a cello concerto, which I haven't yet explored.