Rachmaninov's "Piano Concerto No 3 in D Minor, opus 30" is notorious as one of the most difficult piano works to play, but 19-year-old pianist Shen Wenyu performed it with ease at Friday night's China National Symphony Orchestra concert at the Beijing Concert Hall.

Shen, although not very well known yet, seems to have become an expert on the work. After Friday's concert he will perform it in Slovenia with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra on September 28, and at the Hong Kong Arts Festival with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra on March 1, 2007.

Shen made a name for himself and his ability to play the work in 2005 when he won first prize at the Rachmaninov International Piano Competition in Los Angeles after delivering a convincing interpretation. But his connection to the work really began when he was 11.

In 1998, Shen was invited by the Hong Kong Children's Symphony Orchestra to play Chopin's "Piano Concerto No 1 in E Minor, opus 11" in Hong Kong.

After the concert, Yip Wai-hong, conductor of the Hong Kong Children's Symphony Orchestra, wanted to send Shen a gift. He took Shen to the Tom Lee music store in Hong Kong and asked him to pick something; Shen chose the musical score of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 3.

Before that Shen had seen an Oscar-winning film called "Shine," which portrays the life of contemporary Australian pianist David Helfgott. A child prodigy, Helfgott later suffered from schizoaffective disorder. Running through the film was Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 3, which Helfgott practised hard and which contributed to his mental illness.

Shen wondered how a piano work could be so demanding that it might drive one crazy. He received the score as a gift from Yip and went home to practise it. One week later he could play it.

Shen continued to practise the work until he beat three Russian players in the final of the Rachmaninov International Piano Competition in 2005, making a name for himself as one of its best interpreters.

"Because of its technical difficulty, many people have to play it slower, which hinders the passion required by the work," said Shen. "Some others try to play it faster and more passionately, which often ends in wrong notes. I'm confident that I can play it with both speed and correct notes."

Shao En, the newly appointed artistic director of the China National Symphony Orchestra, conducted Friday night's concert which opened the orchestra's 2006-07 season. Shao agreed that Shen's treatment of the work is fast.

"At certain points he played a little faster than the tempo of the orchestra, but it's natural that Shen has his own understanding of the work," said Shao. "As a professional orchestra, we fully supported him in the performance."

Shao said he could easily find famous foreign musicians to play with the China National Symphony Orchestra, but for the opening concert of the orchestra's new season he wanted to invite a Chinese musician. And when the three most famous Chinese soloists Lang Lang, Li Yundi and Wang Jian were unavailable, he thought of Shen.

Shen was born on October 13, 1986 in Wanzhou of Southwest China's Chongqing. None of his family members had a musical bent his parents ran arcades for a living.

Legend of a musical prodigy

When Shen was 5, a martial arts TV series called "Legend of Chu Liuxiang" was very popular. Shen's family also watched it. One day, Shen's father heard his son playing a familiar melody with one finger on his 20-yuan toy piano. Asked what the melody was, Shen replied that it was the song from "Legend of Chu Liuxiang."

Shen's father was so pleased he bought an electronic keyboard for his son to develop his musical talent. Shen played it for three months and got bored. He asked his father to buy a piano for him.

At that time no piano was even available in the small town of Wanzhou. Shen's father went to the nearby big city of Chongqing and bought a Pearl River piano for 9,000 yuan (US$1,125) a substantial purchase for the family.

His father found him the best piano teacher in Wanzhou, Liu Jianping, who was chairman of the Wanzhou Musicians' Association.

"Liu was the teacher who initiated me into the world of piano," said Shen. "Now I have an ability to read the score very fast, which basically comes from Liu's training."

Shen progressed very quickly. In one year he was playing Czerny's "School of Velocity, opus 299," and had passed the sixth grade of the national piano examination. Seeing Shen's talent, Liu recommended that he go to Chengdu to study with Zheng Daxin, dean of the Piano Department of the Sichuan Conservatory of Music.

With talent and hard work, Shen was on his way to becoming a professional pianist. He held his first recital at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music at the age of 9.

In 1997, he was invited to visit South Africa where he gave over 10 solo recitals, including a well-received solo performance at the opening ceremony of the South Africa Music Festival. He shared the stage with the Capetown Symphony Orchestra in a memorable performance of the "Piano Concerto in C, K488" by Mozart.

Further study

In 1998, Shen moved to Germany to take his study further. He began at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music, and later went to the Hannover Conservatory of Music and Drama, where he was schoolmate with Li Yundi, who shot to fame after winning first prize in the Warsaw International Chopin Competition in 2000.

Both Shen and Li come from Chongqing. When they met on campus they would chat in Chongqing dialect. Li once invited Shen for dinner at his home, but they were both busy and didn't see each other often.

"Several young pianists have come from Chongqing in recent years, like Li, Chen Sa and me," said Shen. "Maybe one of the reasons is that the hot Sichuan cuisine endowed us with more passion."

Another reason, he said, is because Chongqing has a big population so that competition is fierce and people are hardworking and good at self-study.

"Self-study is very important," said Shen. "CDs and musical scores are my best teachers."

Shen finished his study in Germany and returned to China at the end of last year. Since then, he has worked through more than 100 books of musical scores.

Besides first prize in the Rachmaninov International Piano Competition, Shen also won second prizes in the 2003 Queen Elizabeth International Piano Competition in Brussels and the 2005 Hong Kong International Piano Competition. But he has plans for more, including the Shenzhen International Piano Concerto Competition in October and the sixth Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan in November.

Unlike Li and Lang Lang, who have contracts with big record companies and tight schedules touring worldwide, Shen still has to work hard for more recognition, though he is confident that he is already one of the best pianists in the world.

"I hope more people will get to know me through these competitions," he said.

Shen will also become artist-in-residence at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and plans to hold more concerts in China he will play a solo recital at the Shanghai Concert Hall at 10 am on Sunday.

The programme will feature Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No 2," Paganini's "La Campanella," Mozart's "Don Juan Fantasy" and Beethoven's "Symphony No 5."

The concert is one of the "Weekly Radio Broadcast Concert" series, and will be broadcast live by East Radio in Shanghai.

(China Daily 09/16/2006 page9)