Musical star power comes to Shanghai

Young pianist Zhang Haochen will play Beethoven with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra this week under the baton of maestro conductor Lorin Maazel.

The concert will be a major highlight for the Shanghai Oriental Art Center's 2012/13 music season. The program will consist of Romeo and Juliet Overture by Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No 4 by Beethoven and Rite of Spring by Stravinsky.

Born in 1990, Zhang got his fame as the gold medalist at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009. He made his debut recital at the Shanghai Concert Hall when he was 5. He moved to the United States in 2005 and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music under Gary Graffman.

"Beethoven's No 4 concerto for the piano is not a piece with a distinctive stance," he says. "You may even say it is ambiguous, but then it allows a player very broad space for interpretation.

"There is something very neat about him, nothing flamboyant. He's sharp and full of tension," Zhang says.

Zhang believes music has its own beauty and doesn't have to serve a story. "It brings out a most primitive idea from you. That's the most immediate response to music - don't try to interpret it with a second media," he says.

American maestro Maazel, 83, is the chief conductor of Munich Philharmonic through 2015.

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