Concert Review: Sa Chen

Saturday August 2, 2025

Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music

A regular prize-winner in the early 2000s at some of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world (Chopin, Leeds, Van Cliburn), the Chinese pianist Sa Chen was due to make her Australian debut at the Sydney Opera House in February 2025, but after a postponement the Sydney recital finally took place six months later on Saturday 2 August at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. It was not only the venue which had changed: the revised program swapped out Tchaikovsky’s Seasons and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor in favour of works by Bach, Franck, Beethoven and Chopin.

On the evidence of this performance, Ms Chen is a thoughtful and sensitive artist. Not for her any physical histrionics; mostly she sits quietly with minimal bodily movements which belie the considerable sound she is able to produce when needed. Her technical accomplishment is of a very high order, with impeccable passagework and excellent voicing of chords evident throughout the evening.

The performance of Bach’s French Suite No. 5 which opened the concert was performed on a modern concert grand piano, a world away from the instrument for which it was written, of course, but offering many new colouristic possibilities which were well exploited by Chen. The opening Allemande had a pleasing ease to it, followed by a Courante bristling with energy.

A lovely sense of line was conveyed in the soulful Sarabande. It might be noted here that an erratic policy was followed in the matter of repeats in this Suite: both parts of the Sarabande were played twice, whereas in other movements she only repeated the first part, and in still others none was observed. The Gavotte sounded perky and rather robust after the ethereal Sarabande, and the final Gigue started quietly but built to a pitch of restrained joy.

From the title alone, one might imagine that the Prelude, Chorale and Fugue of César Franck was another Baroque-era composition, although it in fact dates from the end of the nineteenth century. Chen handled the architecture of the composition well, keeping a tight lid on the surging arpeggios of the opening, but showing she was capable of opening out when the harp-like chords of the central Chorale reached climaxes. The fugal entries were unmissable, emerging from the thick textures without forcing, and the piece concluded with bell-like arpeggios of the final chord.

The second half opened with one of Beethoven’s oddest works: his Fantasy Op. 77 (better not referred to as Fantasy in G minor, as it was listed in the program: this key lasts for precisely the first 20 seconds of a ten-minute work and never returns). This is as close as we can get today to Beethoven’s legendary improvisations: it traverses a series of different textures and keys without thought for a controlling form, before settling into a concluding set of variations in B major. For my taste, Chen’s rendition, while accomplished, was a bit lacking in the fantastical element. I would have welcomed some more wildness, a little more sense of the oddity of the piece.

The highlight of the concert was Chopin’s Third Piano Sonata, which was delivered with stylistic nuance and panache. The first movement alternated beautifully between passionate outburst and more meditative moments; the scherzo was a brilliant showcase of pearly fingerwork. Her slow movement had a natural flow to the main theme, with some exquisite shaping and tapering of phrases. Maybe she might have let go a bit more in the thrilling finale, but there was still so much to enjoy in her sparkling passagework. Her first encore, a bravura performance of Chopin’s Mazurka Op. 9 no. 2, further demonstrated her career-spanning affinity with the composer.