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Ray Chen

The Golden Age

Decca Classics

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Ray Chen 'The Golden Age' Trailer
Waltzing Matilda
'The Golden Age' Behind-the-scenes
The Golden Violin gameplay with Ray Chen
Ray Chen perf.chat w/WRTI: Philadelphia
Ray Chen plays Estrellita with Amsterdam Sinfonietta (encore)
Interview with WQED - Pittsburgh, Jim Cunningham
Ray Chen: Nobel Prize Concert 2012, behind the scenes
New Day Cleveland: Ray Chen
In the mind of Ray Chen: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto
1 Koncz & Satie: A New Satiesfaction
2 Kreisler: Syncopation
3 Ponce: Estrellita
4 Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 In G Minor, Op.26 - Vorspiel
5 Adagio
6 Finale
7 Debussy: C Clair De Lune
8 Kreisler: Schon Rosmarin
9 Gershwin: Summertime
10 Scott: Lotus Land
11 Waltzing Matilda
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Deemed one of today's most charismatic and compelling young violinists, Ray Chen reveals his new album The Golden Age – a thrilling collection of chamber and orchestral works – to be released on June 8. It is his first recording on Decca Classics since signing to the label last year.

The Violinist handpicked a selection of works for the upcoming album, all of which celebrate the "golden age" of the violin – not only in terms of repertoire, but also in terms of performance style and ingenuity. The centrepiece is Max Bruch's Violin Concerto, performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Robert Trevino and recorded in August last year.

The album opens with a piece for string quartet, which has already garnered over 50,000 hits on Chen's YouTube channel – it's called A New Satiesfaction and it features Gymnopédie No.1 by Erik Satie, with an allusion to Rossini's William Tell Overture. It is performed by Chen and his Made in Berlin quartet, all of whom are members of the Berlin Philharmonic.

The album also features compositions and arrangements from legendary violinists as Fritz Kreislerand Jascha Heifetz, which Ray performs with pianist Julien Quentin. Among the compositions are Kreisler's Syncopation, Schön Rosmarin and his version of Cyril Scott's Lotus Land, in addition to Heifetz's transcriptions of Estrellita by Manuel Ponce and George Gershwin's Summertime. Stephan Koncz has also arranged Debussy's Clair de lune and the traditional Australian favourite Waltzing Matilda (Chen hails from Australia and Taiwan).

Ray Chen has performed with many of the world's leading musicians in concert halls across the globe and has amassed a large online following, including more than 2 million fans on SoundCloud, through quirky, self-made videos and engaging social media posts.

Teasing his new album with a custom-built computer game, Chen promises to please with his inventive and exciting new album, The Golden Age. He says, "This album acknowledges the various styles of the past, but also retains one important philosophy: as long as we keep inspiring and producing, perhaps what we create now will one day be deemed worthy of being named a golden age."

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