Following his critically acclaimed debut Liszt Transfigured: Operatic Fantasies for Piano, which won the 40th Liszt Ferenc International Grand Prix du Disque in 2018, Chiyan Wong returns to record his second album for Linn.

Alongside the piano music of Liszt, the music of Ferruccio Busoni has been a guiding light for the young, eclectic pianist.

Here Chiyan combines Busoni’s kaleidoscopic arrangement of Bach’s famous Goldberg Variations, which celebrates the powerful sonority and range of the modern concert grand, with Bach’s timeless original.

Chiyan’s ‘dazzling technical finish’ (Gramophone) and luxuriant sound are on full display in Busoni’s arrangement of Bach’s famous Chaconne, a classic in the genre. Inversion, mirroring and variations are also idiomatic devices in Busoni’s Sonatina ‘in diem Nativitatis Christi MCMXVII and Chiyan’s own ‘composition etude’, Inversion of Variation 15 (Canone alla quinta), which complete this one-of-a-kind programme.

The hugely talented pianist makes his recording debut with the phenomenally difficult Liszt transcriptions of well-known opera melodies.

A broad and thoughtful musician, Chiyan Wong's special interest in the music of Franz Liszt, has led to him perfecting his own editions of these popular operatic fantasies. Following Liszt's own advice regarding transcriptions, Chiyan concentrates on communicating the spirit and intention of the music whilst applying his own personal touches.

A decade of performing Réminiscences de ‘Don Juan' de Mozart has created a most effective version, whilst Chiyan adds a new coda to Fantasie über Themen aus Mozarts Figaro und Don Giovanni in a fitting tribute to Liszt's pupil Carl Tausig.

Chiyan has performed Liszt around the world: in Hong Kong as part of the composer's bicentenary celebrations, in London at his Wigmore Hall debut, and in concert for the Liszt Society in Europe.