For her 2005 release on Fleur de Son,
Caroline Hong presents three contemporary showpieces that test her skills to the utmost, and impress the listener with her extraordinary seriousness. The music on this CD is not accessibly tonal nor especially approachable for any neo-Romantic concessions; instead, these works are severe in tone, uncompromising in dissonance, and ruggedly unmelodious; while this may put off some who expect a pianist to include a few familiar chestnuts on her debut album, others may respect
Hong for sticking with the repertoire she knows and plays best, without catering to the presumed tastes of the fickle mass market.
John Corigliano's ferociously difficult Etude-Fantasy for solo piano (1976) is focused exclusively on keyboard techniques, and each etude is devoted to a challenging aspect of performance (e.g., playing with the left hand alone, legato phrasing, etc.).
Lukas Foss' spiky Solo for piano (1981) is practically a study in staccato and cycles on in perpetual motion through a constricted range of pitches. Carl Vine's Sonata for piano solo (1990) is perhaps the most bracing, boldly dissonant, and angular work of the program, and yet it is also the most appealing vehicle for
Hong's talents, particularly in its sweeping runs, colossal chords, and lightning-fast arpeggios, which are breathtaking to hear and enjoyable, despite their apparent atonality. The sound quality is fine, though the piano's tone is hard and metallic.