Wu Han, a native of Taiwan, is one of the most sought-after concert pianists in classical music. Since her marriage to renowned cellist David Finckel, their performances as a duo have set a new standard in the chamber music genre.

The two play in a variety of chamber music concerts at the Savannah Music Festival's "Sensation" series, mostly held in the Telfair Academy. We spoke to Wu Han, a viruoso in her own right, last week.

This isn't your first time at the Festival. What's special about it that keeps you coming back?

Wu Han: The first time was a very quick visit. Last year I came down and I just loved it so much. This year they said come down and I said "sure!" And I will end up staying a bit longer so I can do other performances. Very rarely will I stay in a place more than two nights. For me to come to Savannah for an extended period is just such a joy.

Why?

Wu Han: You guys have the most glorious city. The setting itself is so fantastic. Great restaurants, the hospitality, how warm everybody is, the sense of energy. There's a human energy there that is impossible to duplicate or replace. Only performers know when you walk onstage a sense of communication comes back. It's not a performance where you feel it's just a routine. I love playing for your audience. That's very, very important for performers. They're very encouraging and enthusastic. The city itself is a combination of great weather, food, hospitality and a general vibrancy.

You also have a festival that is so diverse and has so many interesting and intriguing programs. I'm a total classical music geek. I do classical music, especially chamber music, all year long. So it's fascinating for me to come down and see the same people one night be in jazz concert and next night in a chamber music concert. There's a great amount of enthusiasm and appreciation.

One of the coolest things about the Festival is its willingness to push chamber music.

Wu Han: It's unique in terms of intimacy. Most of the time in my regular some presenters do need to make budget needs, sell certain number of seats to make the money. In your festival situation to have the festival bold enough to take a position and choose the intimate venue to preserve the essence of chamber music. It's greatly appreciated.

So many more people would be turned on to classical music if they were exposed to chamber music.

Wu Han: Absolutely. It's not a lost art, but it's a situation once you get it, it's addictive. Once you are so close to musicians and feel the energy practically feel rosin dust fall on your cheeks. Music really gets to you because chamber music genre often written for loved ones in intimate situations for special occasions, parties, dedications. The genre itself is very emotional most of the time, and very entertaining, jus because of where it came from. Once you get it it's not so much like a symphony where you have to make a grand statement, these are much more personal situations.

 Do you have to use less finger pressure on the keyboard when you're playing chamber as opposed to symphonic?

Wu Han: Very good question. Depends on the pieces you're playing. If I'm playing in a 400 seat hall I play very differently than in playing for 3000. If I play with an orchestra with 80 people behind me, I play very differently from when I have four colleagues in front of me.

 When you play chamber music, because pieces are written so intimately, you have conversations instead of proclamations. In a chamber music situation you always have to listen to your colleagues very carefully in order to respond. In orchestral situations you look to the conductor for interpretation. With chamber music you have so much more room to fool around. If your colleague whispers a sentence out you have to respond immediately.

Tell us the truth: Conductors are overrated, aren't they?

Wu Han:  (laughs) That's great. (laughs) I love it.

 Seriously, do you really need a conductor? If you're all professional musicians and you listen to each other....

Wu Han: You know, it really depends. The best conductors will still give you that sense of communication. A great conductor in a great orchestra will give you that. But that's very, very rare. (laughs).

 When that happens the concert is at the highest level. It should be fluid, it should be flexible and have a sense of communication. You always strive to achieve that with a great conductor. Or a bad conductor. Or no conductor (laughs).

Chamber music is the best training ground and the best place to start both in terms of the audience's understanding, and also for the musician to really be sensitive and creative enough to handle the chamber music situation.

It's hard to find great chamber musicians. It's much easier to find a good soloist.

Why is that?

Wu Han: If you want to be a good soloist, you don't need a good orchestra. If you have a bad orchestra, they're not going to respond anyway. So your job is just to assert, declare your purpose, and the rest of the people follow you.

 You can't do that in chamber music. You'll kill your colleagues. They will hate you (laughs). They will hate your guts. Because then you lose most of the fun part.

It's actually easier to train a great soloist because you just say, play this, play it loud, and the orchestra will be with you. You can find a lot of young players that will play a great concerto. But if you put them in a chamber music situation they will totally get lost. If you just want to be a great soloist you can get by with just playing your parts so fantastically that everyone else follows you.

Tell us about the pieces you'll be playing here.

Wu Han: OK... What am I playing there? (laughs).

 Dvorak's piano quintet...

Wu Han: Oh, yes. One of my favorite pieces. Who can not like Dvorak? He's the height of chamber music. The piece itself is just filled with rhythms, fantastic tunes, and contagious melodies you can really walk away singing. This particular quintet also really shows off all five players.

 You have to play that with the most abandon of energy and imagination. There are places where the music sounds like you're playing a different instrument. In the scherzo movement some of the passages aren't really for piano, they're for bells. The last movement has places for little mandolins. You have to play it so light that it sparkles to get that different color out of your instrument. It's a tremendous amount of fun.

I know in Savannah also you'll have some of the most virtuosic players. So you'll see a lot of fooling around. I hope!

Also you're playing the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata.

Wu Han: That is height of romanticism. The love duet of our repertoire, especially the slow third movement. Very few people know the piece was written after he went through a huge depression. A psychologist hyptonotised him and told him he'd write great music. The piece everyone knows that he wrote during that time was the 2nd Piano Concerto. But few people know that the piece he wrote right after that was the Cello Sonata. It's so gorgeous. It's masterful, it's the Russian soul. It's one of our signature pieces, David and I really love it.

 I know about the huge popularity of classical music in Asia, especially China. But are there also composers there writing new works?

Wu Han: It happens a lot. Composers traditionally always takes administrative posts. The biggest university in Taiwan was formed by a wonderful composer. He has huge compositions. They're not prominently displayed in the Western world, but when I travel in the far east I see it. I'm about to start a huge project with the Taiwanese government to bring chamber music back to Taiwan. I was there in December and they have a whole brand new opera commissioned by a Chinese composer.

A lot have quite a bit of Western training and influence, but the core and the spirit are still Chinese. It depends on which composer has the most activity in the U.S. to be noticed. That's where the communication gets a little weak. If you go to the far east you can sense quite a bit of a commissioning movement going on.

As long as there are humans there will be composition. People can't help themselves, they respond to art.

As the Western audience for classical music continues to age, it seems China's classical music audience is much, much younger.

Wu Han: That's very accurate. I came from that part of the world. I know high culture is actually being celebrated in China. In Chinese culture it's part of being a great human being to understand high quality culture, not purely for entertainment purposes.

That is part of our DNA in the far East. Look at the time of Confucius: If you wanted a government post you had to write poetry. If you're a teacher, that's the most respectable position.

You never call your teacher by their first name. I can't do that to this day. If I study with anybody I have to put a Mr. or Sir in front of them. It's part of the way our society is built. So when Western classical music comes, it was immediately an art form that fascinated our society.

 It all comes from parents, they really believe if you have classical music training you will have the discipline that's needed in order to perform. You have to have analytical ability to understand or solve the problem in a highly skilled profession.

It fits the oriental culture perfectly. That's also a culture that celebrates high performance and high achievement. So classical music goes right in there and fits beautifully.

The government is very very helpful because they understand this, and a lot of performances are subsidized. You go to China to a performance and the hall is packed with people and they all paid five dollars, or at most ten dollars.

It's where you date. You impress your girlfriend if you bring her to a classical music concert. It's a really chic thing to do.

Wu Han & David Finckel

When: Sensations I, March 20, 6:30 p.m.; Sensations II, March 22, 5 p.m.

Where: Telfair Academy

Cost: $40, $55

Info: savannahmusicfestival.org