Playing Hub

‘A dream come
true’: TwoSet
Violin’s ‘4 Mil
Subs’ Concert
By Cecilia Tan | 17 NOVEMBER 2022

Cecilia Tan reports back from the duo’s record-breaking

performance with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra on
16 November 2022, witnessing the pair’s debut with two
1708 Stradivari violins

Brett Yang and Eddy Chen

Photo: youtube.com/twosetviolin

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Flanked by stately gilt white columns and buoyed on the hush

of a breathless audience, the conductor lifted his baton and
soloist Brett Yang lifted his violin. Then, as the timpani
rumbled, both the audience and violinist thought… what? The
soloist recognised the opening of the Bruch Violin Concerto
no. 1 and gamely dove into the opening phrase, drawing
laughs and cheers from viewers all over the world. Yes, laughs
and cheers, because it’s not every classical concert that
includes an epic prank on the soloist. But this is a TwoSet
Violin concert, and not like any other. 

Classical YouTube duo TwoSet violin began posting Hans

Zimmer covers and - according to the Singapore Symphony
programme - ’sometimes painfully accurate videos’ of life as
orchestra musicians back in 2014. Violinists Eddy Chen and
Brett Yang were then fresh out of conservatory, toiling in
separate orchestras (Chen in Queensland, Yang in Sydney),
and realising that although they had found employment as
professional classical musicians, neither was likely to realise
his childhood dream of being a globe-trotting violin soloist. 

At least, not through traditional means. 

Fast forward a few years, and an offhand joke in one of their

videos - that Brett would play the whole Tchaikovsky Violin
Concerto if they reached two million subscribers - soon
turned into a moral imperative. The ’2 Mil Tchaik’ livestream
was viewed by over 40,000 viewers in real time with Brett as
the soloist and Eddy playing the entire orchestra part on his
own, while they merely stood in front of a curtain in their
apartment. When time for ’3 Mil’ came in the midst of the
pandemic, Eddy played the soloist role for the Sibelius Violin
Concerto while Brett played the orchestra. And again an
offhand comment planted a seed: what if for four million
subscribers they could do it with a real orchestra? 

Perhaps positive thoughts have a way of manifesting

themselves around TwoSet. They have inspired millions to
love classical music, to love practising, and to love playing
their instruments again, and they also inspired the Singapore
Symphony Orchestra to put on this one-night-only concert,
and musical instrument specialists Tarisio to lend them a pair
of 1708 Stradivari violins for the occasion. 

Read: TwoSet Violin loaned two Golden Age Stradivari

violins

Watch: Which violin is more expensive? TwoSet Violin

blind test fine instruments

Read: ‘It was like the earth moved beneath me’ -

violinist Leonidas Kavakos on playing the ’Willemotte’
Stradivari

Brett began practising for this concert over a year in advance,

watching the subscriber count tick upwards at a steady rate.
(In a slightly ironic twist, the count is stuck at 3.9 million
because to prepare for the concert itself, Brett and Eddy took
a few weeks off from making and posting new videos, which
slowed the accrual of new viewers.) Two recurring themes in
their videos are stage fright and struggles with intonation,
meaning many in the audience of TwoSet devotees were in a
state of high anxiety as Brett took the stage for the open
rehearsal the morning of the concert. 

No one needed to worry. All that practice - which included a

video in which soloist Ray Chen joins in to force Brett to play
random passages from the concerto while he’s half asleep -
truly paid off. If playing for an audience so devoted that all
tickets had been snapped up in under two minutes and which
included folks flying in from Boston, Los Angeles, Dubai,
Spain, Germany, Australia, Taiwan - as well as Singapore’s
own Chloe Chua - was putting any extra pressure on Brett, he
didn’t show it. The rehearsal was a delight to hear,
workmanlike and clean, and the lightness of the ’Empress
Catarina’ violin’s tone suited both Brett’s playing style and
the sweetness in the Mendelssohn perfectly. 

The concert itself opened with a rousing rendition of

Mozart’s overture to The Marriage of Figaro, letting
associate conductor Rodolfo Barraez show off his most
vivacious self and setting an energetic tone for the evening.
Has the elegant and staid surrounding of Victoria Concert
Hall ever held an audience so young that wasn’t a special
’youth’ concert? 

After speaking to the crowd for a few minutes, as well as

addressing the combined online audience of over 50,000,
Eddy went backstage while Brett took his place in the
spotlight. Then came the prank, of course, because it wouldn’t
be TwoSet without a few laughs. Brett checked Rodolfo’s
score this time before they began again, this time with the
long-awaited Mendelssohn. 

Where the rehearsal was merely crisp, in the concert Brett’s

playing soared, in particular during the joyful sections of the
third movement. He seemed as captured in the moment as
the audience around the world, and embodied true delight.
As one member of the audience remarked to me after the
applause finally died down, ’I feel like we’ve watched him
grow up right before our eyes.’ The entire experience seems
to have matured Brett’s playing beyond our wildest
imaginings. 

The programme did not end with Mendelssohn, though. To

show off the Strads to best effect, and to give Eddy a larger
role in the evening, they also performed the Bach Double.
With Eddy on the darker and more muscular-toned ’Regent,
Superb’ as a contrast, the counterpoint and interplay
between the two violin parts was gorgeously illuminated, as
was the chemistry between these two players, the product of
their long and fruitful relationship.

The encore was a surprise: Brett giving way to Eddy for a

fiery run at Paganini’s La Campanella. After the concert, Eddy
confessed that the idea for him to do it only surfaced two
weeks ago - after a video in which he plays the character of
Paganini - but his playing, too, has matured and evolved. All
jokes aside, these two thrived in this strait-laced classical
context, with not a hula hoop in sight. 

So it went for one glorious, peak-experience night. There was

one last surprise: the announcement that in 2023–2024
TwoSet will be doing another World Tour. We look forward to
seeing what they dream up next.

Read: Digital Double Act: TwoSet Violin

Read: The world’s most expensive violin: the 1741

‘Vieuxtemps’ Guarneri ‘del Gesù’

Read: 1734 Stradivari violin ‘Willemotte’: Late… but

worth the wait

Explore more Featured Stories  like this in The Strad

Playing Hub

Artists Brett-Yang Eddy-Chen

TwoSetViolin TwoSet-Violin

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