Beethoven and Franck

Beethoven and Franck

Two renowned classical music masters, Kam-lung Cheng from the Netherlands and Eri Nakagawa from Japan, collaborate to perform violin sonatas from Beethoven and Franck at the AumAree House. 

Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 12 No. 3

Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 5, Op. 24

Franck Violin Sonata

Japanese pianist, Eri Nakagawa

Eri Nakagawa, a native of Osaka, Japan, has been on the piano faculty of College of Music, Mahidol University in Thailand since 1995. Prior to her appointment at Mahidol, she was Assistant Professor of Music Performance at Ball State University, Indiana, USA. She has been invited as a guest pianist and professor at the University of Northern Colorado in USA, Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Bösendorfer Saal in Vienna, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore, Corfu Festival in Greece, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, Moulin d’Andé International Masterclasses in Normandy, France, Piano Plus Festival in Corfu, Greece, UCSI University in Kuala Lumpur, Beijing China Conservatory, Northwest Minzu University in Lanzhou, NanJing Xiaozhuang University, Zhejiang Conservatory of Music in Hangzhou, Sicily International Piano Festival in Catania, Italy, etc.

At Mahidol University, she gives solo recitals regularly; her programs have included Chopin 4 Scherzos, 4 Ballades, and 24 Etudes; Debussy 12 Etudes, Beethoven last three Sonatas and Diabelli Variations, J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations and Rachmaninoff Sonata No. 2 (1913); Schumann Sonata No. 3 and Brahms Sonata No. 3, and more. Besides solo recitals, she has performed more than ten concertos including Beethoven Concerto No. 4, Bartók Concerto No. 3, Brahms Concerto No. 1, Prokofiev Concerto No. 3, Rachmaninoff Concertos Nos. 2 and 3, etc. with numerous orchestras. Most recently, she performed Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 5 with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2021. She also enjoys working as a collaborative pianist and accompanist with her colleagues in Thailand and distinguished musicians abroad such as Frøydis Ree Wekre, Daniel Perantoni, Johann Kawrza, Joost Christiaan Flach, Gustavo Romero, Michael Vaiman, Asako Tamura, etc.

Dutch Violinist, Kam-lung Cheng

Kam-Lung Cheng was born in Beijing, China, to a musical family. He began violin lessons at the age of  seven with his father, a violin professor at the Central  Conservatory of Music of China, despite the fact that  at the time playing western music was a punishable  offence, and had to be done in the utmost secrecy.

After the Cultural Revolution, his family immigrated  to Hong Kong, where he made his first television  appearance. Kam-Lung had the honour of having Mr.  Christian Ferras who, besides being the visiting artist  in Hong Kong, was also invited by the Hong Kong  television and was present in the audience. So  impressed was Mr. Ferras with Kam-Lung’s  performance that he invited him to Europe to study  under his tutelage. But unfortunately, it was not to be,  as Mr. Ferras died under tragic circumstances. It was a great loss for the music world and more to  Kam-Lung. 

In 1980 he obtained a DAAD scholarship to study at the University of Freiburg in Germany, where  he studied with Wolfgang Marschner and Florin Paul. After receiving his solo-diploma in 1983 he  was invited by Yehudi Menuhin to attend the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad,  Switzerland, where he worked with Felix Andrievsky, Alberto Lysy and Yehudi Menuhin himself,  performing frequently with the Camerata Lysy.  

Mr. Henryk Szeryng whom Kam-Lung met in Badan-Baden, Germany, and whose charismatic  interpretation of Beethoven, so overawed Kam-Lung, that it has embedded deep in his conscience, and after that he decided to dedicate his life, to become an interpreter of Beethoven’s music. He won the third prize at the Michaelangelo Abbado International Violin Competition in Italy, and  went on to study with Viktor Liberman and Philip Hirschhorn (during the final study year, KamLung was his assistant), receiving his solo- and chamber-music diploma from Utrecht  Conservatory in 1987. After graduating from the Conservatory in Utrecht, he continued to visit the master classes given  by Profs. Yfrah Neaman and Josef Rissin and had private lessons with Ilya Grubert, Jean- Jacques  Kantorow and Valentin Zhuk. In the meantime, he made a highly successful appearance on Dutch television, playing the  Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, and giving a recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. 

From 1987 until 2004, he served as the concertmaster in several European Orchestras, such as  “Vlaamse Opera” in Belgium, “l’Orchestre de l’Opera de Lyon” in France, “Hoofdstad Operette  Amsterdam” and the “Noord Nederlands Orkest” in the Netherlands. During his time as a  2 concertmaster in the Netherlands, he was invited to join the string quartet of the “Noord Nederlands  Orkest “, as primarius.  

Meanwhile, he followed the advice and footsteps of Henryk Szeryng and Yehudi Menuhin, who  was deeply impressed by the rare gift of Cheng to interpret the music of German classics, and  continued his profound search for the deeper spiritual meaning and essence of the music by the  “three B’s” – Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, which formed the backbone of his repertoire. However,  the virtuoso music of for instance Paganini and Wieniawsky, attracting him as a child, always  remained part of his repertoire. 

At present, as a resident of Rotterdam, he is concentrating on playing as a soloist, giving private  lessons and playing chamber music. In October 2004, he was appointed as the first concertmaster  of Musica Ducis Brabantie, one of the oldest and leading chamber orchestras in the Netherlands.  In 2004, he played works of Bach, Bartok, Elgar, Français, Vaughan Williams and de Falla as a  soloist with this orchestra. In 2005 he performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and in 2006 he played  the solo works of Bach. In addition to these solo performances, he was invited as a first  concertmaster by ensembles such as Rotterdams Kamerorkest, Continuo-Rotterdam and the  Amadeus Ensemble. In the same year he formed a piano trio and performed works of Brahms and  Shostakovich at the Concertgebouw of Haarlem. 

In 2007 he was appointed as the concertmaster of the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra. He made  a brilliant performance playing Paganini’s Concerto No.1 with the Acapulco Symphony Orchestra  of Mexico. With the famous Italian pianist Adele Arno he formed a duo called “West meets East”,  working intensively on the major duo repertoire. At the beginning of 2008 they gave two concerts  in Milan and Brescia, playing Beethoven, Brahms, Sarasate, Kreisler and Paganini with great  success, and with reengagements by the famous Milanese concert management ''la Societa dei  Concerti” for the 2009/2010 season. He also received engagements again in Mexico to perform  the music of Brahms, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Bach, Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 2  and Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy with diverse orchestras. 

From 2008 till now he is appointed as a visiting professor for violin study at Tianjin and Wuhan  Conservatories in China. He has performed many recitals in both Tianjin and Wuhan. In 2009  he was invited to give master classes at Shanghai and played a successful recital there. In 2010 he  was appointed as the musical director of the First Xiangfan International Summer Music Festival in China. In 2011 he was invited by the mayor of Foshan City of China as a guest professor to  conduct a violin masterclass for specially-gifted children. He also gave a successful recital in  that city. In the same year, he recorded a CD album for Tianjin Radio and TV Station. In 2012, he  concentrated on Beethoven music and gave all-Beethoven recitals in Hong Kong, China and Austria and USA. He performed Beethoven Sonatas Nos. 7 and 10, and gave a masterclass at  Northern Illinois University. 

In 2013, he played Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1, Heifeitz transcription of Gershwin’s Porgy &  Bess, and gave master class again at Northern Illinois University. He also participated in Shanghai  Conservatory Chamber Music Festival, gave a masterclass, and played Beethoven violin sonatas  there. He performed several concerts in Hong Kong. He was also invited as the first violinist to  perform the Schubert string quintet with several famous Chinese soloists. 

In 2014 he gave a masterclass and performed a recital at Shanghai Normal University of China.  He played Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in d minor in DeKalb, Illinois. He performed SaintSaëns Violin Concerto No.3 in b minor with Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra and received a  standing ovation. He was invited again to play with the orchestra in the 2015-2016 season. In June of 2014, he gave a masterclass in Henan, China. In the same month, he was the soloist to perform Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major at the 3rd International Celibidache Music Festival in  Wuhan, China, and worked as the coach for Wuhan Youth Orchestra. He gave individual  masterclasses to the players in the orchestra as how to perform in an orchestra and as what is the  European sound culture in symphony music. In August he joined his friends to play a Schubert  program in Hong Kong. 

In January of 2015 he gave a masterclasses at Tianjin, China. In the summer of 2015 he is invited  to perform three Bach solo sonatas and partitas in Illinois, Washington DC and California. He is  invited to serve as a jury member at the 2015 United States International Music Competition at  Stanford University. 

In April of 2016 he was invited to play the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor with Sichuan  Symphony Orchestra in Chengdu, China with his classmate and long-time colleague Peter Sante  as the conductor. Peter Sante has been the conductor for Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra for  which Kam-Lung was the concertmaster. In May, he was invited to play the same concerto with  Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra in the US. In July he served as concertmaster and soloist with  Tianjin Symphony Orchestra for the performance of Mahler Symphony No. 4 and Beethoven  Symphony No. 7 in Tianjin, China. He was invited to coach Sichuan Symphony Orchestra and  Tianjin Symphony Orchestra for the performances. He gave Bach sonata/partita solo concerts in  Wuhan Music Conservatory, Shanghai Music Conservatory, Shanghai Normal University, Tianjin  Music Conservatory and Beijing, and all Beethoven concerts in Harbin, China. He held  masterclasses in the Taihang Music Camp in Henan, China, among other performance activities. In October, he as the concertmaster and Maestro Sante led the Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra  for a China tour to perform Mahler and Richard Strauss symphonies. 

In 2017 he collaborated with the Yellow River Symphony Orchestra in Zhengzhou, China and  performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor. He held masterclasses in Huangshan  in southern China and cities in northeastern China. He presented a number of chamber music  concerts in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Changchun, Harbin, Taizhou and Hunan Province in China. 

In 2018 he performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with a Chicago area orchestra. He continued to  hold concerts in Harbin, Luoyang, Hangzhou, Wuhan and other cities in China. At the end of the  year, he trained and coached the newly established Huizhou Symphony Orchestra, acting as both  soloist and conductor and successfully performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto. 

In 2019 he was invited to join the “National Style and Elegant Music” program in China and was  the instrument keynote speaker to coach students on-line. His violin playing and expression lecture  series was overwhelmingly popular and had strong influence on younger musicians in China. At  the same period, he trained and coached Chongqing Symphony Orchestra in the largest city with  31 million people in southwestern China. He presented several concerts with this orchestra. 

Since 2020 the COVID pandemic has hindered all cultural activities in the whole world.  However, Kam-Lung did not stop teaching. He has been actively involved in a number of online programs to communicate the essence and spirit of the Austro-German violin music to the  world. 

Other activities of Kam-Lung are summerized in the following. 

He collaborated as a soloist with the Hong Kong City Symphony Orchestra, the Koblenz Chamber  Orchestra, the Südwestdeutschen Philharmonie, the Swiss Chamber Orchestra, the Radio  Symphony Orchestra and the Noord Nederlands Orkest from the Netherlands, and frequently  with the Philharmonia Moldova Rumania. Recently he recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto with  this orchestra. As a soloist his name was mentioned in the 1993 edition of the Musical Europe  (famous conductors, soloists and orchestras in Europe). In September 2002 he had the honour to  perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the  Philharmonia Moldova Rumania. (The legendary violinist Enescu performed at the very first  concert of this orchestra!) 

As a recitalist he performed with several pianists in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland,  France, Belgium, Italy, Hong Kong, Thailand, China and USA. He is completely devoted to the  favourite repertoires by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. 

He was also especially invited by Graf Lennart Bernadotte and Gräfin Sonja at their home in Insel  Mainau in Germany to play a recital. 

Kam-Lung was a member of the jury of the Princess Christina Contest for young musicians in the  Netherlands.

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