"The blistering speed Ms. Wu adopted in the Scherzo showed her credentials as a pianist to be admired."
“I found pianist Chi-Chen Wu to be extremely virtuosic…"
"This journey was gorgeously rendered by the three members of Helios."
“…the soul of the composer resonates with her, as heard in her superb control of rubato rhythm, and the bristling excitement of her melodic phrasing. Her pacing, as well, comes off as intuitively flowing. … the natural ease of her technique… is so unforced that it is actually much more astonishing than a casual listening might indicate.”
“This is poetic piano playing, and I very much look forward to hearing more from Chi-Chen Wu.”
“I would venture to say that this disk is an example of Schumann's Schumann. It very much zeroes in on the notes themselves, singingly and surgingly….” "...Wu gives us a very focused vision of Schumann by getting everything exactly right…"
“…[her renditions] are poised, balanced, emotive, but precise.”
“…it shows us [that] Chi-Chen Wu [is a] powerful yet centered pianist devoting great care to bringing alive the music. … It brings us out of Van Cliburnian-Liberace-esque showmanship, brings us closer to the source. Bravo!”
“I know no other music that depends so much on the interpreters for an effective realization. [...] Stick with Kremer and Argerich (Nov/Dec 1987) or Nicholas DiEugenio and Chi-Chen Wu (Sept/Oct 2015) for more enthusiastic performances."
“The first two sonatas are interpreted brilliantly, largely thanks to Wu. … If you love these sonatas, this disc is a must-have.”
“The Helios Trio played the Schumann with great verve and sweep, sailing through the constant shifting of mood and making ease of contrapuntal passages. [In the Ravel Trio,] their palette of color was dazzling…Their control of the third movement was riveting. The inexorable buildup of the finale swept the audience to heir feet for multiple curtain calls.”
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“the [FAE] duo … capture[s] the vigorous passion and endlessly inventive whimsy that characterize Schumann in these most characteristic manifestations of his extroverted Florestan persona. The seamless ensemble helps us to hear these works in a single united voice in which the violin provides the intimate, lyric core and the piano an almost symphonic, expansive texture of breathless virtuosity.”
“One of the most startling part of this DVD is the performance Chi-Chen Wu gives of the Schumann sonata for piano and violin in A minor, Op. 105 with violinist Nicholas DiEugenio on an 1824 Conrad Graf replica by Rodney Regier. The music comes to life in a new way, rich with small rhetorical gestures and moments of silence that you don’t hear in performances with modern piano…
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