Musical class burnished in the heat of the moment

Shi, 39, who received his vocal training in Shanghai, graduated with top score at the Toho College of Music in Tokyo in 2006, and the college offered him a fellowship to study music in Austria in 2007. He had his first role in an opera production of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte in 2007, and in 2008 he performed in the Rossini Opera Festival in Italy, its first Chinese singer. He returned to China in 2011.

He and Chen spent four days together recording the album at Xi'an Concert Hall, Xi'an, at the end of August.

"It's our first collaboration and she has added a great deal of color to the recording," Shi says.

"Art songs are about singing and piano performance. Unlike performing in operas, which are full of drama, art songs seem to be very simple. However, it's challenging for both the singer and the pianist. Both of us need to restrain our performances to produce sounds mildly."

Chen says: "It was the first time to learn and perform Chinese art songs, which are like traditional Chinese paintings and leave me with lots of space to imagine."

Chen is a native of Chongqing who learned to play piano at the age of 9 and achieved fame after winning fourth place as the youngest contestant at the Leeds International Piano Competition in England in 1996.

In 1997 she enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with a full scholarship and three year later was fourth in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

"Every note has a meaning, though each song is very short, about three minutes," Chen says. "When I put my fingers on the piano the sounds were like drops of ink, applying colors to the songs along with the vocalist."

The veteran composer Ye Xiaogang says: "Both of Shi and Chen are great young musicians in China. They have made great achievements in their own fields. This album is a great combination of these two young artists who bring a breath of fresh air to Chinese art songs."

In 2010, before Shi returned to China, he performed in the world premiere of Ye's original opera, Ode to Farewell, at the Beijing Music Festival, which was his debut performance in the country.