LSO MasterWorks: Ray Chen Plays Bruch

What’s that? You missed the boat when superstar violinist Ray Chen played Max Bruch’s grand Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic at the 2012 Nobel Prize ceremonies? It’s a good thing you live in Lansing. The home team has you covered. Under outgoing maestro Timothy Muffitt, the Lansing Symphony Orchestra has punched above its weight so many times that it’s easy to get jaded, but Friday’s MasterWorks concert is one for the books. Chen has played with the foremost orchestras in the world, from Berlin to Paris to New York, and has won too many awards and competitions to name here, but all that pales in the light of his incandescent stage presence.

“He’s a very special kind of musician, not only in his exquisite playing but his connection with audiences,” Muffitt said. “It’s like Lang Lang. Only a handful of people have that — a power they bring to live performance that transcends just normal great playing.”

Chen plays an 18^th-century Stradivarius violin (formerly played by Jascha Heifetz), but he swims with ease in the media blur of the 21^st century as an engaging blogger, educator, gaming fanatic and musical consultant for video game developer Riot Games.

The Bruch concerto is dear to both men’s hearts.

“Every moment of it reaches you in such a direct and beautiful way,” Muffitt said. “I’m thrilled to have Ray here because it will really line up with his gifts.”

Friday’s concert also includes one of the greatest hits of Muffitt’s 20-year tenure, Bartók’s absorbing Concerto for Orchestra, and a banging, soaring, east-meets-west showpiece by Michigan State University composer Zhou Tian, “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.”