Buoyant Works

'... often engaging and perfectly serviceable.'

During the last generation or so, single-minded, impossibly gifted young instrumentalists have streamed out of conservatories and music schools in China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, many of them perfecting their art at Juilliard, Curtis, Manchester, London or the hallowed institutes of Europe.

Battalions of pianists, violinists, cellists (et al) find media scribes to praise them to the skies; many more are pounced on by CD scouts.

Others end up in academia or on orchestras' front desks with time out for the odd 'Emperor', Max Bruch, Op 26, or Elgar cello concerto.

Taiwanese Yiu-Hsuan Liao appears to have built up a commendable second tier curriculum vitae...