Beethoven composed his Fourth Piano Concerto between late 1805 and early 1806. There was a private performance of the work the following year with Beethoven as soloist and, after some further revisions, it was published in August 1808. Besides beginning with the piano instead of the customary orchestral tutti, there are several features in this concerto that reveal an unusual relationship between piano and orchestra—not least the high drama of the second movement. Fou Ts'ong's approach is grand and dramatic, and certainly emphasizes the music's epic qualities, but there is a loss of sparkle and animation as a result. Slow tempos lead to stodginess in the outer movements, and less than ideal balance causes some of the piano's softer entries in the slow movement to get lost in the orchestra's bold interjections. Nevertheless, Fou Ts'ong does produce some attractively poetic touches.
Haydn's Keyboard Concerto in D major was composed for either harpsichord or fortepiano. Fou Ts'ong's interpretative policy is wholeheartedly pianistic. The outer movements are brisk and spontaneous, and dynamics are strongly contrasted in an energetic performance. By contrast, Chang's version (also on a modern piano) is cheerfully aired and finer-grained, as strong dynamic contrast is eschewed in favour of octave doublings and registral couplings that simulate changes in harpsichord registration.'