The bicentenary of the birth of Frederic Chopin in 2010 was observed all over the classical world, not least in Miami, where the U.S. version of the Chopin Competition was held.
The winner of that February competition was Claire Huangci, a daughter of immigrants from Beijing who grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in her hometown.
“It was such a warm atmosphere, I was staying with a great host family, and the whole competition was organized in such a relaxed, friendly way that it didn’t feel like a competition at all,” Huangci said Tuesday. “What came out of it was a lot of concerts and a lot of support from the Chopin Foundation, and I’ve been very happy to work with them since then.”
Now 22, Huangci returns to South Florida this weekend for a concert with the Boca Symphonia and a recital at the Boca Steinway Gallery. Her recital Saturday night will feature the Sonata No. 30 (in E, Op. 109), the Symphonic Etudes of Robert Schumann, and selections from Mikhail Pletnev’s transcription of Tchaikovsky’s score for the ballet Sleeping Beauty. This is a difficult and ambitious program, in part because the erudite atmosphere of the Beethoven is a challenging thing to bring off successfully.
“I’ve always been fascinated by the last three Beethoven sonatas,” she said. “I feel he was really searching for a different sound world. He was going beyond the way he had been composing, and looking for something new.
I find that the (Op.) 109 is a very interesting bridge because the beginning doesn’t sound anything like Beethoven. It’s more like Schubert or Schumann,” Huangci said.
For the Boca Symphonia, which will be led by its artistic director Philippe Entremont, Huangci will solo in the Concerto No. 2 (in G minor, Op. 22) of the French composer Camille Saint-Saens. Easily the most popular of Saint-Saens’ five concertos, it was a favorite piece of older generations of pianists such as Artur Rubinstein.
“It’s so sparkling; it’s like a fine champagne. It’s full of life, full of character,” she said. “I think it also shows a lot of my personality. It’s one of the perfect vehicles, because I’m very energetic and bubbly, and playing it is just a lot of fun.”
Huangi divides her time these days between Philadelphia and Hanover, Germany, where she studies with the eminent Israeli pianist Arie Vardi. At the end of the year she plans to record, in Germany, a disc that will include music by Mendelssohn and Scriabin, including the Russian master’s Fifth Sonata.
For now, the mission is the keyboard, above and beyond the considerable pressures on young artists today to be pushing themselves through such things as social media.
“I just kind of like to stay true, stay focused on the music. I don’t really want to think so much about what I have to do in order to make a statement,” she said. “Right now, I’m just trying to be as sincere as possible, and keep it simple. Sometimes, the most important thing is to keep it simple.”
Tickets for Huangci’s recital at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Boca Steinway Gallery are $25 at the door, $20 in advance. Call 561-929-6633 or visit www.pianolovers.org. Sunday’s performance with the Boca Symphonia is set for 3 p.m. at the Roberts Theater on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton. Also on the program are Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, the overture to Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni, and the Czech Suite (Op. 39) of Dvorak.