Discography

Albums & Recordings

Latest Release

CDMay 22, 2026

Anton Rubinstein: Piano Sonatas Nos. 3 and 4

Anton Rubinstein stood at the heart of Russian musical life for nearly half a century and had a profound influence on generations of Russian musicians, including Tchaikovsky. His piano sonatas reveal a composer intent on uniting intellect and passion within a symphonic conception of the keyboard. With its heroic, noble themes, the Third Piano Sonata was Rubinstein's own favourite of the set. The final Piano Sonata No. 4 represents the composer at the height of his creative command, pouring a lifetime of emotions into a single piece and distilling the paradoxical tensions between intellect and impulse, Germanic structure and Russian ardour.

Featured Review

"... pianist Han Chen digs deep below the music's agitated and hyper-romantic surface and manages to extract its finer poetic details, buried under the flurry of notes in the thick of which he sails through without a hint of technical challenge."— Classical Music Sentinel
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Anton Rubinstein: Piano Sonatas Nos. 3 and 4

Solo Discography

Han Chen's solo recordings as principal artist

PRICE, F.B.: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Piano Concerto / Dances in the Canebrakes
GRAMMY®
Nominated
CDJune 27, 2025

PRICE, F.B.: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 / Piano Concerto / Dances in the Canebrakes

Han Chen's recording of Florence Price's Piano Concerto, nominated for the GRAMMY® Awards in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category, has earned international acclaim and recognition from the Recording Academy. Performed with conductor John Jeter and the Malmö Opera Orchestra, this landmark recording brings Price's groundbreaking Piano Concerto in One Movement to global audiences, celebrating the legacy of the first African American woman composer to have her symphony performed by a major American orchestra.

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György Ligeti: Piano Études Capriccios
CDMay 26, 2023

György Ligeti: Piano Études Capriccios

György Ligeti's Études redefined the piano's tonal possibilities and are considered one of his major creative achievements. Han Chen draws on an equal affinity with Romantic and contemporary repertoire to bring us a survey of Ligeti's Études which stands among the best.

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Thomas Adès: Piano Solo Works
CDApril 10, 2020

Thomas Adès: Piano Solo Works

Composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Adès has been described by The New York Times as 'among the most accomplished all-round musicians of his generation'. His Concert Paraphrase on Powder Her Face reflects the glamour of the opera's subject in the grand manner of Liszt or Busoni.

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Anton Rubinstein: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2
CDJanuary 24, 2020

Anton Rubinstein: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2

Anton Rubinstein was the equal of Liszt as a pianist and a technically gifted composer. Although occasionally derivative, the first two sonatas are impressively bravura and passionate works which pianist Han Chen approaches as if reading a 19th-century Russian novel, digging down to the very essence of the human soul.

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Franz Liszt: Transcriptions from Operas
CDJanuary 1, 2016

Franz Liszt: Transcriptions from Operas

Released on Naxos Records, this album features Liszt's virtuosic opera transcriptions, demonstrating Chen's technical mastery and interpretive insight.

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Other Discography

Featured pianist on releases led by other artists and composers

Sarah Kirkland Snider: Forward Into LightCollaboration
CDFebruary 27, 2026

With Sarah Kirkland Snider

Sarah Kirkland Snider: Forward Into Light

Composer Sarah Kirkland Snider's fifth full-length LP, an all-orchestral album co-released by Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam Records. Recorded by the GRAMMY-nominated Metropolis Ensemble under artistic director Andrew Cyr and produced by multi-GRAMMY-winning producer Silas Brown, the album features 'Forward Into Light' — commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and inspired by the American women's suffrage movement — alongside 'Drink the Wild Ayre,' 'Eye of Mnemosyne,' and 'Something for the Dark.' Han Chen performs as part of the Metropolis Ensemble.

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Daniel Hass: Love & LevityCollaboration
CDOctober 24, 2025

With Daniel Hass

Daniel Hass: Love & Levity

Han Chen performs piano on composer Daniel Hass's Piano Quartet (2021), paired with the four-movement String Quartet No. 1 'Love and Levity' on this Sono Luminus release. Written during the summer of 2021, the works synthesize jazz, bluegrass, and the blues with what Hass describes as an 'anachronistic romanticism' rooted in the classical tradition.

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PolyglotCollaboration
CDOctober 4, 2024

Polyglot

Polyglot is a quietly ambitious album that reimagines the classical canon through a lens of cultural plurality. Anchored by pianist Han Chen's sensitive, clear-eyed playing, the collection moves fluidly between contemporary works—many by Puerto Rican composers—and Brahms, allowing each piece to speak in its own distinct language while remaining in conversation with the whole.

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Louis Karchin: Keyboards / WindsCollaboration
CDSeptember 15, 2023

With Louis Karchin

Louis Karchin: Keyboards / Winds

Bridge Records' latest Louis Karchin disc surveys recent solo and chamber works. Han Chen performs Karchin's 'A Jersey Reverie on New York Notes' alongside pianists Stephen Drury (Sonata-Fantasia) and Michael Stephen Brown, organist Carson Cooman, clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt, and the wind ensemble Windscape on the virtuoso Quintet for Winds.

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Louis Karchin: Five Compositions (2009-2019)Collaboration
CDNovember 6, 2020

With Louis Karchin

Louis Karchin: Five Compositions (2009-2019)

Bridge Records' second Louis Karchin disc presents five recent works composed during the decade 2009-2019, anchored by the composer's Chamber Symphony (2009). Han Chen joins as pianist on 'Postlude' (2019), Karchin's chamber work for trumpet and piano performed with trumpeter Sam Jones. The program also includes Rochester Celebration (2017) for solo piano, Quest (2014) for flute and harp, and Barcarole Variations (2015) for harp and violin.

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