Shao-Chia Lü with the Taiwan Philharmonic at Taipeh’s National Concert Hall

American music journalist Richard Ginell took a long trek over the Pacific Ocean to listen to the Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra at their home, Taipeh’s National Concert Hall. 

On 23rd March, the audience had the pleasure to listen to the world-premiere of composer‘s LEE, CHUN-WIE three-movement suite „Picking Up the Sounds of Crops“.

On 30th March, Shao-Chia Lü, Taiwanese music director of the Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra since 2010,  conducted Johannes Brahms Schicksalslied op. 54 and Gustav Mahlers Symphony No. 7 in e-minor.  Read Richard Ginell’s impressive reviews of the two concerts: 

[…]The TPO has been able to develop its sound to such a high level – given, of course its talented ranks and its experienced Viennese- and American-trained Music director Shao-Chia Lü […] He becomes an extraordinary expressive figure on stage […]
[…] Having sampled one tantalizing new piece, The Last Mile by the young Taiwanese composer Chun-Wei Lee in Costa Mesa, it was a pleasure to hear another good one March 23 in Taipei – the world premiere of Lee’s three-movement suite Picking Up the Sounds of Crops […] 

 About Mahler’s symphony: […] One shouldn’t have been surprised for the TPO already has a substantial Mahler tradition in its brief history, having played through all the completed symphonies before and finishing with this  Seventh another cycle under Lü that began in 2010 with his first concert as a music director. I would go as far as to say that I enjoyed this performance of it more than Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic when they played it in Los Angeles in November 2016. Yes, the Berliners played extremely well but they didn’t grapple with the music as fiercely and as emotionally as the Taiwanese did. […]

 More information on the concerts you'll find here 

and also here