"A New Look at the Winners: As in the competition, the audience remains favoring the Taiwanese pianist, Ching-Yun Hu. After the 4 hands of Schubert Fantasie and Stravinsky’s Petroushka, Hu played with mesmerizing, magic touch in the Chopin Barcarolle, and even more so shown in the Ravel Gaspard de la nuit. And the transcription of the Strauss Blue Danube, like a marvelous ‘dessert,’ was played with great virtuosity."

“We have waited for years for such a giant talent and here she is. Ching-Yun Hu, the amazing Taiwanese, is not just a great pianist, she is first of all a human being playing music; so human in every sound she produces. She plays, talks, prays and what not. A phenomenon of Nature. She plays Beethoven's Concerto No. 1 - and it was a very stylized and real, sincere one. Full of drama and poetry at the same time. This young woman brings with her the secret, the mystery ,and the style. She has the suspense of Brendal, Perahia's lyricism and Barenboin's depth. Are we witnessing the birth of a new Martha Argerich?”

“In performance, Hu showed herself to be a first-class talent. Her concentrated treatment of Scriabin’s Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2 evoked an entrancing coloristic world. In Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, she conjured some incredibly sinister effects in the final movements, in a performance that graphically projected the poems on which each movement is based. A more complete summation of her talent can be heard on her CD Ching-Yun Hu Plays Chopin (Archimusic). It more fully reveals her poetic use of color and confidently expressive phrasing in performances of works such as Barcarolle and Scherzo No. 4 that hold up with the best.”

"Judging from the semi-finals, the Rubinstein Piano Master Competition already has a winner. It is Taiwanese Hu Ching-Yun, the only semifinalist with a real ‘spark.’ that elusive superstar quality that everybody looks for. Musical, energetic and full of flair, she gushed through Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1 and drove some of the audience to give her a standing ovation."

"A New Look at the Winners: As in the competition, the audience remains favoring the Taiwanese pianist, Ching-Yun Hu. After the 4 hands of Schubert Fantasie and Stravinsky’s Petroushka, Hu played with mesmerizing, magic touch in the Chopin Barcarolle, and even more so shown in the Ravel Gaspard de la nuit. And the transcription of the Strauss Blue Danube, like a marvelous ‘dessert,’ was played with great virtuosity."

"Ching-Yun Hu was a superb pianist, and the transcription [Chopin Piano Concerto #1] allowed her urgent, finely detailed phrasing to be appreciated to a degree not always possible with full orchestra. Her legato is lovely, and the way she adjusted her playing - articulation, tone - to what the ensemble was doing at the moment was a lesson in what it means to be a listening and sensitive musician."

"The Chopin Rondo in E-flat, Op. 16 was played with elegance and flabbergasting fingerwork. Speaking in terms of sheer technical brilliance, I don’t recall being as amazed even by Horowitz’s performance of the same work."

“It is almost mysterious to see how the pianist - Ching-Yun Hu - can dominate the podium entirely with her flexible and spirited reading of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, and the next day transforms into a casually dressed young woman – radiating with simplicity and discretion from the deepest of her being. In her birth country, she is being acclaimed already 'Taiwans glory". With a cheered recital in Alice Tully Hall, which she broke through two years ago at the hypercritical public of connoisseurs in New York, the doors to Carnegie Hall opened themselves."

"Hu’s staggering fingerwork in Liszt’s Spanish Rhapsody was tamped by her hallmark of visceral virtuosity allied to breathtaking clarity. A foretaste of Hu’s outstanding pianism came in the opening work in which Schubert’s amazingly fecund imagination inspired the Sonata in C minor, D. 958. With stamina sapping demands, Hu’s all-embracing playing never faltered. A towering talent, and in one so petit!"

"Taiwanese pianist Ching-Yun Hu made a formidable Mendocino Music Festival debut recital in Preston Hall. A full house warmly greeted the diminutive artist, and she responded with a pensive and then dramatic performance of Scriabin’s Sonata Fantasy, Op. 19. Four Chopin works comprised the second half with the afternoon’s best playing coming in the shortest work, the E Flat Nocturne of Op. 55, No. 2. Rhythmic subtlety approaching Ignaz Friedman’s iconic 1936 recording was a delight (praise can go no higher), as was Ms. Hu’s command of pianissimo. The repeated right-hand A and B Flat notes had a character of bells, and she artfully pedaled the ethereal transition to the final two chords that held me spellbound."

"Taiwanese pianist Ching-Yun Hu made a formidable Mendocino Music Festival debut recital in Preston Hall. A full house warmly greeted the diminutive artist, and she responded with a pensive and then dramatic performance of Scriabin’s Sonata Fantasy, Op. 19. Four Chopin works comprised the second half with the afternoon’s best playing coming in the shortest work, the E Flat Nocturne of Op. 55, No. 2. Rhythmic subtlety approaching Ignaz Friedman’s iconic 1936 recording was a delight (praise can go no higher), as was Ms. Hu’s command of pianissimo. The repeated right-hand A and B Flat notes had a character of bells, and she artfully pedaled the ethereal transition to the final two chords that held me spellbound."

“Ching-Yun Hu is the key to success.”

"Ching-Yun Hu brought down the house with the tremendous ovation she received."

“The strangely fantastical sense of freedom of Ching-Yun Hu, identify[ies] her as a player willing to stand outside of the box with a distinctive resolve. Her accurate musical phrasing of Chopin’s A minor Study would put most performers to shame.”

“Ching-Yun Hu reveals a deeply original and imaginative personality, supported by extraordinary technique.”

“Listen to the dramatic thunder storm of the Rachmaninoff Sonata No. 2, and energitic keywork of the Leighton Fantasia, Hu's playing is especially shown when she played two well known Mozart works. Her playing expands from strength to the most deeply felt moments of almost inaudibility; to the soul and pianistic bliss. It is like the way of scultures. Her way of music is to find the essential at the core of the composition's fullness.”

“Ching-Yun Hu reveals a deeply original and imaginative personality, supported by extraordinary technique.”

“We have waited for years for such a giant talent and here she is. Ching-Yun Hu, the amazing Taiwanese, is not just a great pianist, she is first of all a human being playing music; so human in every sound she produces. She plays, talks, prays and what not. A phenomenon of Nature. She plays Beethoven's Concerto No. 1 - and it was a very stylized and real, sincere one. Full of drama and poetry at the same time. This young woman brings with her the secret, the mystery ,and the style. She has the suspense of Brendal, Perahia's lyricism and Barenboin's depth. Are we witnessing the birth of a new Martha Argerich?”

“Ching-Yun Hu is already a remarkable pianist. In Tchaikovsky’s fearsome Piano Concerto No. 1 she demonstrated brilliantly and with great feeling for musical line that this concerto also has delectable inner voices which are all too often overlooked. Shimmering pedal effects, delicate washes of notes and being expressively convincing is still more important to her than granitic power in, say, chord playing. The Finale, very fast and brilliant, gave way to the big tune which was broadened at the end in the most convincing way.”

"Ching-Yun Hu was a superb pianist, and the transcription [Chopin Piano Concerto #1] allowed her urgent, finely detailed phrasing to be appreciated to a degree not always possible with full orchestra. Her legato is lovely, and the way she adjusted her playing - articulation, tone - to what the ensemble was doing at the moment was a lesson in what it means to be a listening and sensitive musician."

"Ching-Yun Hu displayed the maturity to infuse El Amor y la Muerte, from the Goyescas by Granados, with a profound depth of emotion in a beautifully-shaped, expansive perfromance. She followed it with Chopin's relatively unfamiliar E-flat Rondo, Op. 16, negotiating its fast-flowing passages with cool control, elegance and ease. To conclude, she offered a highly accomplished account of Rachmaninov's Second Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 36, the dramatic opening of the Allegro agitato compelling attention, while the concluding Allegro molto was the ideal showcase for Hu's virtuosity as she propelled the movement to an emphatic climax."

“Ching-Yun Hu is the key to success.”

“superbly effective” [on Kenneth Leighton's Fantasia Contrapuntistica]

"Ching-Yun Hu gave an overwhelming impression as she changed drastically from Eusebius and Florestan in the Schumann Kreisleriana. The interpretation was beautifully done."