pianomania

LISZT Works for Two Pianos

Piano Duo Genova & Dimitrov

CPO 777 896-2 / ****1/2

The complete solo piano works of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) have been recorded by Leslie Howard, however what is left are his works for piano 4 hands and two pianos. These are rightly considered obscure because of the paucity of concert performances.

The excellent Bulgarian duo of Aglika Genova and Liuben Dimitrov serves up five tasty pieces, beginning with the Grand Concert Piece on Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, an oversized elaboration stringing together three miniatures. This is a musical case of making a mountain out of a molehill, but fun nonetheless.

Liszt's operatic conflations, the Reminiscences De Norma (after Bellini) and Reminiscences De Don Juan (after Mozart) are well-known in their piano solo versions. Heard on two pianos, the element of derring-do and risk is diminished on the performers’ parts but are nonetheless exciting.

The best work is Concerto Pathetique, based on the Grosses Konzertsolo and employing the art of thematic transformation to be found in Liszt's symphonic poems and Sonata in B minor. Completing the album is the Hexameron, a fantastical set of variations on a Bellini theme with contributions from six different composers. This edition is shorter than the solo version, but still worth a listen for its share of high jinks.

CHOPIN Ballades

YUNDI, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 481 2443 / ****

Frederic Chopin's Four Balladesfor piano are four of the Polish-born composer's most exquisite single movement essays, filled with passion, longing and fantasy. However these are more associated with literary rather than musical sources, with the musings of Adam Mickiwiecz, regarded as Poland's national poet, cited as major inspirations.

The Ballades get what one expects from Li Yundi, who takes a more tempered approach than his rival Lang Lang, without the agogic distortions and deliberately ear-catching exaggerations experienced in concert.

His playing is polished, tasteful, and not without moments of aural beauty. Of the four, the Second BalladeOp.38, with its alternating calm and violence, gets the most satisfying performance. By mostly sticking to the middle of the road, he does not add much more to what regular listeners know about Chopin.

It is the fillers which hold greater interest. The Berceuse Op.57 is a model of elegant poise, and Yundi fares best in the Four Mazurkas Op.17, where he is one with Chopin's rhythmic subtlety and aching nostalgia.

ROMEO AND JULIET

CHOPIN PIANO CONCERTO NO.1

Singapore

Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (15 July 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 July 2016 with the title "A night of Chopin and Shakespeare".

It is a given that any recent winner of the Chopin International Piano Concerto in Warsaw be invited to perform one of Frederic Chopin's two piano concertos. So it was with Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, 1^st prize winner of the 2010 edition, to do the honours in the First Piano Concerto in E minor (Op.11).

Hers was not a typically barnstorming performance, but one more attuned to the poetic and cantabile aspects of the music. She waited patiently as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Shui Lan concluded the long orchestral tutti before entering in a flourish of chords and octaves. This was the full extent of the bluster as she nimbly treaded through the 1^stmovement's fine minutiae. While the development was exciting, the foremost musical impulses were never lost.

The nocturne-like Romanze, accompanied by lovely hushed strings, came through like a dream and crystalline passages towards the end provided the most sublime moments of the concert. In the rollicking finale's Polish dance, there was no racing headlong into the fray. Even a small stumble towards the end did little to diminish the grace of this sensitive and finely-honed reading. Avdeeeva's encore of the posthumous Nocturne in C sharp minor provided more of the same beauty, and was warmly applauded.

The concert's hour-long first half began with Bedrich Smetana's The Moldau from Ma Vlast (My Country), a programmatic tone poem on Bohemia's most fabled river. Opening with fluent flutes accompanied by string pizzicatos, the course of the waterway from brooklets and streams to the pride of Prague was a picturesque journey as the music unfolded.

Hushed strings in the “dream sequence” with play of water nymphs made for a delightful diversion. The final statement of the work's big tune based on Slavic folk music (from which the Israeli national anthem Hatikvah was also derived), with brass and percussion in full throttle completed the rousing curtain-raiser.

A much shorter second half comprised seven scenes from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo And Juliet, part of the orchestra's commemoration of William Shakespeare's 400^th death anniversary. The piquancy of the Russian's music, extreme dissonance contrasted with flowing lyricism, was no better heard in Montagues and Capulets. A loud percussive crash dissolved into the unison song of strings, before the feuding families of Verona went about their violent business.

The evocative scoring gave unusual instruments like the saxophone (played by Tang Xiao Ping) and celesta (Shane Thio) moments to shine, and there were juicy solos for cellist Ng Pei Sian (The Young Juliet), violist Zhang Manchin and clarinettist Ma Yue (Romeo & Juliet Before Parting) and concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich (Dance of the Antilles Maidens).

Strings expressed anguish like no other in Romeo At Juliet's Tomb and bounded with utmost vehemence for Mercutio's music in Tybalt's Death, the final number. The pieces were not performed in the actual sequence of the story but otherwise made musical sense as the tension and stridency built up to a cathartic close.

EXUBERANCE OF YOUTH

Singapore

Youth Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (16 July 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 July 2016 with the title "Impressive youth performance".

If one needed to gauge the level in which Singaporean youths applied themselves to the arts, there are worse ways than to attend a Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra (SYCO) concert. Led by its Music Director Quek Ling Kiong, the standard displayed by players ranging from 11 to 26 years of age impressed, and the show of commitment was staggering.

This sense of frisson was immediately felt in Kuan Nai-chung's The Sun, the rousing 1^st movement from Millennium Of The Dragon Year. Beginning with a fanfare for suonas, solo percussionists Lim Rei and Nicholas Teo commanded the stage, hammering out rhythms on timpanis and a variety of drums. There were also quieter and lyrical moments when marimba and slung gongs were employed, culminating in a fugue for strings before a dramatic and rowdy finish.

The massed sound of suonas, woodwinds and strings created a festive atmosphere in young Taiwanese composer Wang I-Yu's Impressions On Bei Guan, a fantasy on a theme associated with the lunar new year. The Bei Guan, or northern reed, refers to suona music in all its guises, whether heard as a plaintive solo, an off-stage presence or a stentorian chorus ringing out loud and true at its climax.

Princess Wencheng, written by a committee of three composers, was a virtuoso sheng concerto showcasing the clear and incisive tones of soloist Zhou Zhixuan. The work celebrated the union of Tang dynasty princess to Tibetan monarch Songtsen Gampo, but its music featured only one phrase simulating the Tibetan long horn. The eventful work which touted “friendly and cooperative relationship” between Han Chinese and Tibetans came across more like propaganda, a cover-up for brutal occupation of a sovereign state.

Almost as jingoistic was Liu Wen Jin's Brave Spirits Of The Slow Mountainfeaturing erhu soloist Low Likie who was equal to its technical and rhapsodic demands Here its three continuous movements commemorated the 70^th anniversary of the Red Army's Long March, with musical references to the struggle, suffering and sacrifice of comrades through a procession of martial and heroic strains.

Far more succinct was talented young Singaporean composer Benjamin Fung Chuntung's Variations On A Hainanese Folk Song, which conjured a pastoral air over which Zhe Gu Ti, a birdsong inspired theme, was heard on solo suonaand later dizi. With further development, this could become a substantial work like Kodaly's Peacock Variations.

Closing the concert was Law Wai Lun's classic of Nanyang music, Prince Sang Nila Utama and Singa, based on the legends of Temasek. Indo-Malayan scales and themes were created for this lush tropical sea piece which at times hinted of Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloe. The orchestra cooked up a storm, placated by the Prince's relinquishing of his head-piece, and the sighting of the mythical lion closed the work on a raucous high.

For the encore, Guest-of-Honour Baey Yam Keng (Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth) was invited as guest percussionist for Ary Barroso's Aquarela do Brasil, which prompted a free-for-all on stage as the orchestra headily greeted the Rio Olympic Games to come.

STORYTELLERS ON ANN SIANG ROAD

Ding Yi Music Company / Tay Teow Kiat

Long Yin / ****1/2

Ding Yi Music Company is Singapore's most active professional Chinese chamber ensemble, and its concert programming over the years has been both eclectic and innovative, as its latest album testifies. In a way, the course of contemporary Chinese instrumental music has been redefined by the encompassing of Nanyang music, which includes indigenous idioms of Southeast Asian music and its composers. Two excellent examples receive world premiere recordings here.

Bho Shambo is a dance of the Hindu god Shiva, and in Phang Kok Jun's arrangement, flautists Ghanavenothan Rethnam (bansuri) and Tan Qing Lun (dizi) share the honours in a headily rhythmic work that includes chanting in Tamil. A similar tandem operates in Phang's own Storytellers On Ann Siang Road where Chin Yen Choong and Lim Kwuan Boon's erhus act out a duet-cum-duet between Chinese and Malay itinerant storytellers of old.

The balance of the disc are five Chinese works by Liu Chang, Chow Jun Yi, Joshua Chan, Cao Wen Gong and Wang Jian Min. Conducted by its founder, Cultural Medallion recipient Tay Teow Kiat, the playing is both refined and virtuosic, and more importantly passionately charged as only young professional musicians know how.

SIBELIUS & GLAZUNOV Violin Concertos

ESTHER YOO, Violin

Philharmonia Orchestra

Vladimir Ashkenazy (Conductor)

Deutsche Grammophon 481 215 7 / ****1/2

In 2010, the 16-year-old Korean American violinist Esther Yoo was awarded First Prize at the 10^th Sibelius International Violin Competition, the youngest-ever to be bestowed that accolade. Her debut recording of violin concertos by the Finn Jean Sibelius and Russian Alexander Glazunov commemorates the 150^th anniversary of both composers' births in 1865. Despite her youth, the technical and interpretive demands of both concertos hold no terrors for Yoo.

She brings out a warm and gorgeous tone for the lyrical Glazunov concerto, only letting rip in its festive end. For the more austere and glacial disposition of the Sibelius concerto, she offers more grit and sinew to the proceedings, holding little back in the so-called “Polonaise for polar bears” of a finale.

The fillers are pretty enough: Sibelius' youthful Suite For Violin And Strings and Glazunov's Grand Adagiofrom his ballet Raymonda. The support she gets from veteran conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and from the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra is excellent, in what can be said to be a dream debut.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

RACHMANINOV PIANO CONCERTO NO.2

Singapore

Symphony Orchestra

Saturday (23 July 2016)

The last time veteran Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev played the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra several years ago, I thought he sounded tired, and tired or even bored of the oft-performed warhorse. This time around, I am happy to report that some sort of rejuvenation had taken place.

Not only did he sound more energised, there seemed to be more of an effort to make the piano sound out above the orchestral throng. The solo opening chords were taken at a true Moderato, as indicated by the composer and as the orchestra launched into the 1^stmovement's big melody, Alexeev made sure that every note of his – even if it was accompaniment to one of Rachmaninov's most melancholic tunes – was clearly heard. We know he can barnstorm like the best of young pianists, but it is his discretion and restraint in less frenzied parts - a true test of nobility - that stood out. The horn solo after the chordal climax from Jamie Hersch was perfectly controlled, and that added to the classiness of the performance.

In the slow movement, Evgueni Brokmiller's flute and Li Xin's clarinet were excellent, setting the mood for the piano's wallow that built up to an ecstatic high culminating with Alexeev's cadenza that stretched the full length of the keyboard. The resultant big string tune at the end, accompanied by the piano's right hand chords and left hand arpeggios capped the movement's love music. If this entire episode is not about the act of love-making set to music, then I do not know anything about music.

The finale had a bit of the rough and ready, but that did not diminish the excitement of more big tunes and more big climaxes which both pianist and orchestra did well to sustain to its spectacular end. Alexeev's little encore was a welcome break from the virtuosic fare, a Chopinesque mazurka in F minor.

The rest of the concert comprised music by Berlioz on this year's Shakespeare theme. Conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier, the SSO opened with the Overture to Beatrice et Benedict, showcasing a very refined string sound that revelled in the high registers, the sort one does not get to hear too often. This delicacy of playing continued into the second half's orchestral excerpts from the symphonie lyrique Romeo et Juliette. The supposedly impossible-to-play (in Berlioz's time) QueenMabScherzo was made to sound easy by the orchestra, with excellent winds gliding over the most luscious string textures thought possible.

The Love Scene, with shades of dissonances that look forward to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, was also beautifully judged, building to yearning climaxes (but not of Rachmaninov's orgasmic variety) with little exertion or effort. Tortelier conducted the entire second half from memory, and the Festival Music of the Capulets, now with the brass joining in full voice, closed the concert on a high. This evening's fare showed that the orchestra was totally capable of playing with restraint, tonal variety and colour, and that is something to be proud of.

ENCORES

DENIS MATSUEV, Piano

Sony Music 88875189262 / *****

Everybody loves encores, those tasty little morsels of music performed at the end of a formal programme in concert, or recital in the case of soloists. Often spontaneous and unannounced, these come as delightful surprises, which sweeten the deal and sends everyone home happy. Russian virtuoso Denis Matsuev has more than several up his sleeve, and his anthology has a decidedly Slavic slant.

Those who attended his concert with the London Symphony Orchestra at Esplanade in 2014 will remember Anatol Liadov's delicate Musical Snuffbox, contrasted with the Grigory Ginzburg's manically charged transcription of Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain Kingfrom Peer Gynt.

Those were the “easier” ones, compared with Vladimir Horowitz's Carmen Variations or Rossini's Largo al factotum from The Barber of Seville (Ginzburg again). Of a less frenzied variety are a selection from Tchaikovsky's The Seasons (the popular Barcarolle and Autumn Song among these) Rachmaninov's Préludesand Études-Tableaux. A true rarity is Rachmaninov's extroverted Fuguein D minor, written as a teenager.

In Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, Matsuev elects to play his own cadenza, a jazz improvisation in the truest sense, after which one will leap from the seat and shout “Bravo!”

TANGO IN BLUE

Barcelona and Catalonia Symphony / Jose Serebrier

BIS 1175 / *****

Whoever would have thought that the sultry tango, once the dance of bordellos, would some day be elevated to that of a concert hall classic? It took several decades and the efforts of one Argentine Astor Piazzolla to bring that kind of respectability.

He gets pride of place with the popular Oblivion and Tangazo, this anthology's longest piece, which builds from Bachian slow boil to toe-tapping rhythmic climax. Uruguay-born conductor Jose Serebrier, also a composer of repute, adds his own Tango in Blue and Casi un Tango with cor anglaissolo, both receiving World Premiere recordings.

Serebrier's wife soprano Carole Farley joins in with Kurt Weill's Matrosen-Tango (Sailor's Song) from Happy End and the tango-habanera Youkali, which ooze sensual appeal on every turn. There are also contributions to the form by Igor Stravinsky, Samuel Barber, Erik Satie and Morton Gould, all of which are very different in many ways.

Danish composer Jacob Gade's Tango Jalousie is an acknowledged classic and the album closes with Gerardo Matos Rodriguez's La Cumparsita. The Symphony Orchestra of Barcelona and Catalonia have this elusive idiom in their blood, and the flavour is infectious.

A NIGHT ON BROADWAY

Singapore

Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (29 July 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 August 2016 with the title "Brilliant night on Broadway".

Several years ago, an idea was mooted that a professional pops orchestra be formed in Singapore to cater to popular tastes in music-making and concert-going. That vision has not come to fruition, but many local groups – professional and amateur – have taken to producing pops concerts of late. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has also joined the band wagon, but with a big difference: it has the best instrumental soloists playing in its ranks.

Thus SSO Associate Conductor Joshua Tan took pains to name the key musicians during the course of this pops concert that centred around Broadway musicals. The guest soloist was local jazz singer Rani Singam in her SSO debut, and she took some time to warm up to the backing of a 90-piece band.

Her opening number was reliving Eliza Doolittle (with Audrey Hepburn and the late Marni Nixon) in I Could Have Danced All Night from Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady. Sound amplification helped highlight her diction and enunciation, which were excellent, besides allowing some of her simple elaborations to be better heard. On The Street Where You Live was a man's song, and a tenor's voice would have been preferable here.

From Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound Of Music, My Favourite Things took on a personal and local touch as Singam managed to sneak in “roti prata” amongst whiskers on kittens and warm woollen mittens. By the time she reached Fantine's tear-jerker, I Dreamed A Dream from Schonberg and Boublil's Les Miserables, one of the evening's more poignant songs, she had more than warmed up.

In between vocal numbers, the orchestra played short overtures and medleys, the longest of which was Gershwin In Hollywood, arranged by Robert Russell Bennett, which included songs A Foggy Day, Love Walked In, Nice Work If You Can Get It and Love Is Here To Stay. In Bernstein's rumbling West Side Story Overture, the shout of “Mambo!” from the orchestra was tepid at best, and perhaps the audience be enlisted to make it sound like everyone meant it the next time around.

In the second half, Singam came into her own in Gershwin's 'S Wonderful from Funny Face, including some ad-libbing in between and the soaring Someone To Watch Over Me from Oh, Kay! For these, she received even greater applause. Arguably even better were her versions of Somewhere and Tonight from West Side Story, which she hailed as her all-time favourite musical.

The high register needed for Maria's song Somewhere was easily overcome for the spine-tingling moments in a genuinely moving performance. In Tony's ecstatic Tonight, gender became immaterial as only attitude mattered, and Singam had heaps of it. The ghosts of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras in Bernstein's own recording were more than truly exorcised.

The encore, Over The Rainbow from Harold Arlen's The Wizard Of Oz, a perfect mix of emoting and control was the icing of the cake. Even after two hours, one was sorry that it all had to end sometime.

BEST OF CHINESE VIRTUOSOS

Singapore

Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (30 July 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 August 2016 with the title "Virtuosity celebrated".

The title of Singapore Chinese Orchestra's latest programme seems to imply the prowess of its guest soloists, who are justly celebrated in China. It also applies to composers of the works performed, two of whom were present at the concert conducted by Yeh Tsung which was digitally streamed live to a worldwide audience.

The first was Luo Mai Shuo, whose Prince Yin Zhen's Paintings Of The Fair Ladywas a suite in four movements inspired by twelve paintings of Qing dynasty empress Na La Shi, a classical beauty. Each movement comprised three portraits, each illustrating courtly activities undertaken by the royal.

Luo's sumptuous orchestration relied on instrumental colour and the use of cellos and basses, essentially Western instruments. The result resembled film music, the kind which Occidental composers employ to evoke the exotic Orient. This was however no pastiche, but cleverly crafted mood music to accompany the imagery of domesticated Manchus.

Dizi soloist Dai Ya then displayed a veritable arsenal of techniques and devices in Hao Wi Ya's Flowers Blooming On The Paths In The Fields. His was not the dainty timbre of pretty gentility, but a full throated variety which encompassed nuances and colours scarcely thought possible.

A slow and meditative introduction soon gave way to an animated dance that barring solo cadenzas for rhetoric's sake got progressively faster to a breathless conclusion. His no-holds-barred virtuosity also lent the nostalgic feel of antiquity. One imagines a Chinese version of the late great Jean-Pierre Rampal in his heyday.

The other soloist guest was huqin exponent Jiang Ke Mei who played on three instruments in rising order of pitch. On erhu, she delivered Zhao Ji Ping's Love, the 3^rd movement from Qiao's Grand Courtyard, a slow romance that built up to a festive high before receding to calmness. For Liu Yuan's arrangement of Hebei opera tune Hua Bang Zi, the shriller banhu held court with an authority that was totally commanding.

The highest pitched huqin was the diminutive jinghu, with a theatrical voice that mimicked the Beijing opera denizens in Wu Hua's arrangement of Night Thoughts, a scene from the popular Farewell My Concubine. Its big tune was carried in spectacular fashion, and all that was missing were the outlandish costumes and make-up.

Also making his appearance on the evening was Liu Chang Yuan, whose 2011 composition Hope Of The Future closed the concert. Here was an unabashed programmatic work in 6 connected sections that celebrated the centenary of the Chinese republic. The work portrayed revolution, war, sacrifice and heroism in typically percussive and poignant fashion. What Shostakovich could muster in his symphonies, Liu would outdo the Soviet on the occasion.

The sad melody first heard on low dizi in the 3^rd section Tears, accompanied by a chorus of weeping flutes, was transformed into a celebratory paean in a galloping finale. Whether that was glorifying nationalism, socialism, pluralism or capitalism, it was difficult to say.

Maestro Yeh Tsung acknowledging
the composers who had come from afar.

SCARLATTI 18 Sonatas

YEVGENY SUDBIN, Piano

BIS 2138 / *****

The Russia-born London-based pianist Yevgeny Sudbin made his big first splash in 2005 with a debut recording of keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1885-1757) that garnered rave reviews.

He comes full circle with a latest recording of 18 more sonatas by the Italian composer who was domiciled in Madrid as the personal keyboard teacher of the Queen of Spain. Most of his 555 or so sonatas were originally conceived for harpsichord but Sudbin regards these as transcriptions when heard on the modern piano.

He takes great liberties in creating new sonorities and textures, by adding octaves, harmonies and sometimes altering the registers of certain voices. All this makes for a refreshingly different listen, even if purists may baulk at the excesses.

There are five sonatas in the key of D minor alone, and all of these sparkle like multi-faceted gems. The famous “Pastoral” (D.9) is taken at a brisk clip, while the “Aria” (K.32) benefits from harmonic augmentation at its repeat. The little known K.417 is a fugal study that J.S.Bach would have been proud of, while the virtuosic “Guitar” (K.141) revels in repetitive strumming and orchestral effects. Here is a most invigorating release.

VISIONS

CHRISTINA &

MICHELLE NAUGHTON, Two Pianos

Warner Classics 0825646011360 / ****1/2

One might not expect such a glamorous cover design for a disc of music by 20^th century French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), but this recording is more about the Naughton twins, Christina and Michelle, who are the modern American counterpart of the celebrated Labeque sisters.

The main work is Messiaen's Visions De L'Amen (1943), a massive seven-movement work which plays for almost 45 minutes, pondering on the spiritual, terrestrial and celestial aspects of being from his devout Roman Catholic perspective.

Far from being too abstract, each movement which is an “Amen” reflects on a different act of joy, from massive chords representing the creation, the kinetic energy of stars and revolving planets, the excitable fluttering of angels and birdsong, all through to the ecstatic carillons of final consummation.

This love-in continues by way of a simple Bach chorale (from the cantata Actus Tragicus) to the three movements of American minimalist John Adams'Hallelujah Junction (1996), also infectiously driven pieces. One can scarcely find a better ambassador for these highly charged works than the Naughtons, who perform with sympathy, conviction and no little virtuosity.

A LITTLE BIT OF MAGIC

Brendan-Keefe Au, Tenor

Ayano Schramm-Kimura, Soprano

Sim Yikai, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (2 August 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 August 2016

One of the pleasures of a reviewer's lot is tracking the progress of talented musicians from their student years to their professional debuts and beyond. One such talent is tenor Brendan-Keefe Au, who has made significant progress since he was last reviewed in 2012. However one thing that has not changed is his rare skill and zeal in programming themed recitals.

A Little Bit Of Magicreferred to the sense of wonder and enchantment encountered in the two-hour-long recital which encompassed five groups of songs united by common themes. He begun the Forest Theme with Lee Hoiby's Be Not Afeard (from The Tempest) and Henry Purcell's Come All Ye Songsters Of The Sky (The Fairy Queen). His clarity of enunciation and projection, as clear as a bell, were well noted.

Schubert's Das Müller und Der Bach (The Miller And The Brooklet) from Die Schöne Müllerin received a most poignant reading, where the heart-broken protagonist contemplates death by drowning. Shifting between minor and major keys, his pleading plucked on heart-strings and refused to let go. In contrast, his partner in song Japanese soprano Ayano Schramm-Kimura struck a dramatic presence in Schubert's Die Erlkönig (The Elf King), a relentless race against time with death by disease being the eventual outcome.

Ayano helmed much of the second set, the Water Theme songs, including Hugo Wolf's funereal Spirits on the Mummelsee Lake and Faure's wordless Vocalise-Etude. Her restraint and purity in the classically proportioned A Chlorisby Reynaldo Hahn was a thing of beauty, while emoting beautifully in Czech for Dvorak's familiar Song To The Moonfrom Rusalka.

Three songs from the Sky Theme revealed near-perfect control from Au, from the transparent lines of Vaughan Williams The Infinite Shining Heavens to the ever-broadening melody of Liza Lehmann's Ah! Moon Of My Delight. In between, Mendelssohn's Auf Flügeln des Gesänges (On Wings Of Song) was gilded with a seamless cantabile. Whoever imagined the paradise mused was not in Germany, but rather exotic India?

Speaking of Faraway Lands as a theme, Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs were brought out with mysterious allure and sensuousness by Ayano. While not atonal, the music was nonetheless chromatically conceived and compactly structured. Unfortunately the audience's tendency to applaud after every short song became a distraction.

Pianist Sim Yikai provided more than adequate accompaniment, although his over-pedalling at parts muddied some of the more densely-textured songs. However he got Scriabin's languid Poeme (Op.32 No.1), a solo while the singers took a breather, spot on.

The final Mundane Theme was anything but mundane. Instead both singers took turns celebrating the worldly pleasures of Poulenc's Les chemins de l'amour (a waltz-song), Weill's Youkali (a tango-song), Richard's Strauss' blissful Morgen!(a wedding night creation) and William Bolcom's cabaret classic Amor. Their duet, Noel Coward's I'll See You Again and encore, Lehmann's There Are Fairies At The Bottom Of My Garden, completed the evening's delights.

QUEEN ELISABETH COMPETITION

OF BELGIUM: PIANO 2016

QEC 2016 / ****1/2

Hot off the press, this 4 CD box-set of highlights from the 2016 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition was issued within a week of its conclusion in Brussels. The performances demonstrate the extremely high levels of artistry achieved at the world's top concours today. Predictably it was with warhorse concertos that the top prizes were sealed.

Lukas Vondracek (Czech Republic, 1^st prize) gave a sizzling reading of Rachmaninov's Third Concerto, with Henry Kramer (USA, 2^nd prize) not far behind in barnstorming Prokofiev's Second Concerto. Both pianists and Alberto Ferro (Italy) who garnered 6^thprize with Rachmaninov's First Concerto were partnered by the National Orchestra of Belgium conducted by Marin Alsop.

Vondracek, who performed at last year's Singapore International Piano Festival, also capped a fine performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 with his own cadenzas. The competition's set piece concertos, Fabian Fiorini's Tears Of Lights and Claude Ledoux's A Butterfly's Dream, received world premiere recordings from Alexander Beyer (USA, 3^rd prize) and Han Chi Ho (South Korea, 4^thprize) respectively.

A departure from the norm was a fourth disc with solo performances selected by a peer jury of young pianists, with the music of Ravel and Prokofiev featuring prominently. All in all, this is a feast of youthful and exuberant pianism.

Landmark: The above was my 2000th review / article for The Straits Times, a music journey which began with my review of Evelyn Glennie's percussion recital, which was published on 20 June 1997.

20TH CENTURY MASTERPIECES

Warner Classics 2175002 (16 CDs) / ****

Now that we are well into the 21^stcentury, here is a fond look back in time on the epoch-making classical works of the preceding hundred years, represented by works of 52 composers drawn from the vast back catalogues of the EMI labels of old.

The journey starts in 1901 with Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto (with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes), a vestige of late Romanticism and ends with Thomas Ades' kinetically exciting Asyla of 1997 (conducted by Simon Rattle). In between are the great -isms that defined the breadth and depth of 20^th century music, including impressionism, atonalism, neoclassicism, minimalism and post-modernism.

A slice of sheer diversity may be sampled in Disc 12 (spanning 1956 to 1961) which includes Walton's bittersweet Cello Concerto, Boulez's atonal songs of Le Soleil Des Eaux, Penderecki's shrieking shocker Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima and Bernstein's irrepressible Symphonic Dances from the musical West Side Story.

Most of the works have with time become concert hall staples, but surely some space could have been reserved for the likes of Scriabin, Szymanowski, Ligeti, Stockhausen and Philip Glass. The only Asian work included was Toru Takemitsu's Water-Ways (1982). Despite the caveats, here is almost 20 hours of absorbing listening.

SOIREE OF THREE

The Zephyr Ensemble

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (12 August 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 August 2016 with the title "Gutsy, skilful debut by trio".

The Zephyr Ensemble is a piano trio formed by Singaporean violinist Wilford Goh and Indonesian-American siblings cellist Bryant Gozali and pianist Aileen Gozali, who have been long-time residents here. Pursuing their musical studies in London, Los Angeles and New York, they presented a debut concert which was a short history of the piano trio.

The piano trio's supposed inventor was Joseph Haydn, whose Trio No.39 in G major opened the evening. This medium in its infancy has the piano as de facto leader, with strings doubling the piano's line or providing harmonic support. Despite this, an excellent balance was struck between all three musicians, with clarity of textures and crispness of articulation being the order of the day.

Goh's violin carried the melody beautifully in the slow 2nd movement, while Aileen's piano provided the fireworks in the famous Gypsy Rondo, which raced away with gay abandon. The direction Presto was taken literally, with no pause of breath in this slick and well-oiled reading.

More complex and technically demanding was Mendelssohn's Trio No.1 in D minor, possibly the most popular and most often-programmed of all trios here. While challenging for performers, this is aural candy for listeners which explains its welcome reception. The trio brought out passion and drama in its 1^stmovement, which soon dissipated in a flowing cantabile like a “song without words” for the slow movement.

Before anyone could be lulled into a blissful reverie, the Scherzo's ebullience soon sparked into life as the trio skilfully maneuvered through its free-wheeling pages. The finale was just as lively, with Bryant's cello bringing out the big tune, for which all attention was eventually lavished in its emphatic and brilliant conclusion.

Virtually unknown is the Trio No.1 in F major by Camille Saint-Saens, but it received the same detailed and meticulous treatment as the Mendelssohn. More importantly, the work's overall charm was well highlighted in its four movements. Particularly curious was the slow 2nd movement, which began in hushed and mysterious tones, but like many of the Frenchman's works, melodic interest soon took over and illuminated the scene.

Perhaps a few more practices would have helped polish the fast 3^rd and 4^th movements to perfection, but there was little denying the gutsiness and dedication in the enterprise. Because of that, this not overly serious work is worth hearing again.

Moving into the 20^th century, American composer Paul Schoenfield's heady Café Music provided the sweet icing on a well-baked cake. Its three movements were a summation of many popular American idioms, from ragtime, country, bluegrass, jazz to Klezmer.

Described by the composer as “a kind of high class dinner music”, the threesome immediately threw off all hint of restraint and collectively let down their hair. Whether the Rubato slow movement was a slow rag or sultry tango was immaterial, all that mattered was they were having a good time, and the appreciative audience was sharing every bit of it.

RITES OF CHIMES

Ding Yi Music Company

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (13 August 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 August 2016 with the title "Old-meets-new mash-up".

Conducted by Lim Yau, the Ding Yi Music Company gave the Singapore premiere of Zhou Long's Rites Of Chimes, a work first performed by Yo-Yo Ma and the National Traditional Orchestra of China in New York in 2000. Reprising the Ma role this evening was Lim's cellist son Lin Juan but this was not a cello concerto in the traditional sense.

Scored lightly for cello, six Chinese instruments and a battery of percussion, the Western instrument was no interloper but one tightly weaved into a web of sound that was both traditional and modern. It was as if the cello were a traveller in time, gazing into the past like an outsider looking into a faraway and exotic culture and telling his story as one with the ensemble.

Lin was not an overtly showy soloist but a highly dependable one to blend in, yet he expressed a voice of his own all through the work's six separate parts that played for 70 minutes. Spirit Of Chimes was the first piece, one which imagined a scene from prehistory, with sounds from bone flutes (represented by Ng Hsien Han's ocarina) and assortment of percussive sounds.

It was into this primordial fray that the cello's tones, microtones, plucks and slides were thrown into, and the result was a old-meets-new mash-up. Much more traditional was Impressions Of Wintersweet, based on the old melody Meihua Sannong (Plum Blossom), with just Ng's dizi, cello pizzicatos and discreet percussion creating an intimate spell.

Tipsy Improvisationshowcased Chin Yen Choong's erhu with cello and ensemble in a fast and inebriated dance with frequent changes in meter as the title suggested. Inspired by Du Fu's Eight Unruly Tipsy Poets, a favourite subject of the composer's, it took all of conductor Lim's directorial nous to keep the forces in check and time.

Tang Court Musiccould be said to be the heart of the work. Its loud and portentous chords, filled with dissonances and sustained tensions, stood for the pomp and ceremony of Tang dynasty royalty. It is from this cacophonous banquet of sound that Japanese gagaku was derived, one which came to an end with a smart snap of two wooden strips.

It was back to earlier rusticity in Dunhuang Pipa, a melodious evocation of the ancient Silk Road, with Chua Yew Kok's pipa running in unison with huqin, cello, dizi, Soh Wee Kiat's sheng, Kenny Chan's zhongruan and Yvonne Tay's guzheng, each taking their turns if not all together. The final piece, Tales From The Cave, introduced the shrill high-pitched banhu (Chin) and three-stringed plucked sanxian (Chan) for a wild final dance.

One that celebrated the Buddhist iconography of the land, of graven images, sculptures and frescoes etched into history, an extended cello cadenza from Lin brought the work sharply into focus. As if emerging from a dream, the ensemble of ten virtuosos concluded Zhou's masterpiece of Chinese music with masterly aplomb.

SOLITAIRES

KATHRYN STOTT, Piano

BIS 2148 / ****1/2

This is a handy anthology of 20^thcentury French music, with the composers casting a fond retrospective glance at musical forms and compositional styles of the past. The term “neoclassical” comes to mind but that does not apply to all works, which are tonal with the tendency to twelve-tone technique strongly resisted.

Jehan Alain's brief Prelude & Fugue (1935) is a neo-Bachian tribute by a composer better known as an organist. Henri Dutilleux's only Piano Sonata (1946-48), in three movements, is both lyrical and jazzy in its resourceful use of harmonies, capped by an imposing yet free-wheeling Chorale and Variations as a finale.

The best known work is Maurice Ravel's La Tombeau De Couperin (1914-17), with six movements including a prelude, fugue, baroque dances and toccata to close. Each piece was written in memory of a friend killed in the Great War. British pianist Kathryn Stott is sensitive to all form of rhythms, idioms and nuances which make for very lively performances.

She concludes with Olivier Messiaen's Le Baiser De L'Enfant-Jesus (Kiss Of The Infant Jesus) from the massive 20-piece cycle Vingt Regards Sur L'Enfant Jesus (1944), a gentle lullaby built over a repeated ground bass. New is old, and old is new in this revelatory recital disc.

BENJAMIN BEILMAN, Violin

YEKWON SUNWOO, Piano

Warner Classics 0825646008971 / ****

Every young musician's dream is to cut a debut recording, and American violinist Benjamin Beilman, winner of the 2010 Montreal International Violin Competition, shows his mettle in an interesting programme of contrasted works. In Schubert's lyrical Grand Duo in A major (D.574) that opens, Beilman crafts a tone that is wiry, incisive and always on-edge.

This might come across to the listener as acidic and unyielding for Romantic repertoire, and is far better suited to the two 20^thcentury works that follow. The mystery and folk-inflected pages of Janacek's Violin Sonata however benefit from this direct, full-frontal approach.

For Stravinsky's Divertimento, an adaptation of music from the ballet The Fairy's Kiss (which in turn uses Tchaikovsky's music), the narrative qualities and sense of fantasy are well brought out. The recital comes full circle with the Vienna of Fritz Kreisler's Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta, a single-movement violin concerto in all but name.

Unsurprisingly, it is based on the waltz, opening in a tonally ambiguous haze before relaxing into the congenial dance that is so beloved. Beilman and the ever-sensitive Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo, himself a multi-award winner, ably provide the enjoyable conclusion that this disc deserves.

LISZT Mephisto Waltzes etc

CYPRIEN KATSARIS, Piano

Apex 2564 67410-2 / ****1/2

The piano music of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) has been celebrated for its Janus-like qualities. Juxtaposing the diabolical with the sacred in music paralleled his personal life of sinner-turned-penitent, a self-styled “pop star” virtuoso in his youth who spent his later years as an Abbe and sage.

This recording by French-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris eloquently illustrates these diametrically opposed views, opening with the sublime Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude (Blessing of God in Solitude), where the spiritually serene and rapturous come together as never before.

Then follows the four Mephisto Waltzes, of which the First is the most often performed. Here the “evil” interval of the tritone (once referred to as “diabolus in musicus” and banned by the Vatican) is flaunted with wild abandon in a series of unbridled and frenzied dances.

The rarely-heard Mephisto Polka and near-atonal Bagatelle Sans Tonalite are inserted as sinister miniatures, but the palate is cleansed with the Variations on Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, a grand treatise on the passacaglia form which concludes with the reassuring strains of a Bach chorale. Katsaris' pianistic journey from Hades to Paradise is absorbing and exhausting, and one to be savoured.

ROZYCKI Piano Concertos

JONATHAN PLOWRIGHT, Piano

BBC Scottish Symphony / Lukasz Borowicz

Hyperion 68066 / ****1/2

The Polish composer Ludomir Rozycki (1883-1953), a contemporary of his celebrated compatriot Karol Szymanowski, was an arch-traditionalist. While the latter was experimenting with new-found harmonic directions, Rozycki, better-known for his symphonic poems and operas, was stuck in the hallowed past.

However his model was not Chopin, but rather Liszt, Paderewski and the Russian Romantics, particularly Rachmaninov. Both the First Piano Concerto (1917-18) and Second Piano Concerto (1941-42) were composed during wartime years but there is little or no hint of strife or tragedy.

The First is more ambitious at 32 minutes in three movements, almost over-shadowing the more compact Second in two movements. With lush harmonies and luscious melodies, and British pianist and authority of all things Polish Joanathan Plowright in commanding form, the results are nothing short of spectacular. Both finales are touched with the glitter of show business and film music, especially the Second's.

The 10 minutes of the single-movement Balladein G major (1904) brings to mind British film composer Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto, but with a major difference. All of Rozycki's were actually written in Warsaw, which make for enjoyable invigorating listens for the jaded.

ELGAR Symphony No.1

Staatskapelle Berlin / DANIEL BARENBOIM

Decca 478 9353 / *****

The first of Edward Elgar's two symphonies, in A flat major and first performed in 1908, has been described as the musical equivalent of St Pancras Station, London's neo-Gothic edifice. That is a fair assessment, given its grandiose stature and length over four movements: almost 52 minutes.

To sustain that duration in concert or recording is no mean feat, and the Berlin led by veteran pianist-conductor Daniel Barenboim give a magnificent performance. There is no pompous, flag-waving histrionics, and the broad Andante nobilmente e semplice (Slow, noble and simple) of the opening movement gets exactly what it deserves.

There is a Brucknerian grandeur, that later escalates to extremes of vehemence at the pinnacle of climaxes, which the far from dispassionate Germans totally appreciate. The mercurial second movement, by contrast generates plenty of excitement before cooling off in the sublime longeurs of the Adagio.

The exciting finale builds up inexorably to a massive standoff, where the first movement's theme of nobility returns with the warmth of a familiar embrace. Elgar certainly knew how to stoke emotions to feverish highs. This new album matches the best of the Brits on record and has become a must-listen.

NAFA ORCHESTRA

WITH WILLIAM BENNETT

NAFA Orchestra

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (1 September 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 September 2016 with the title "Soloists shine in concert by NAFA orchestra".

The new academic semester has started for Singapore's tertiary musical education institutions, and it was the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Orchestra that got the ball rolling with its first concert, conducted by Lim Yau.

The first music to be heard was Mozart's Overture to The Marriage Of Figaro. What was unusual here was the placing of the woodwinds in the front of the orchestra, as a semi-circle facing the conductor. These players formed the chorus that piped the celebratory music in the short and witty work, and they did their job well, refusing to be overawed by the bigger number of strings.

Putting the winds in the fore prepared for more of the same, which came in Mozart's popular Concerto for Flute & Harp in C major (K.299) with celebrated veteran British flautist William Bennett and young Singaporean harpist Sarah Wong as soloists. The sheer ebullience and total agreeability of the music had an ideal advocate in Bennett, who is still amazingly nimble despite turning 80 this year.

His warm and sweet tone was a joy, as was his crystal-clear articulation in the florid and running solo passages. He found a good match in Wong's scintillating harp part, which served as additional accompaniment in addition to the orchestra's. The two also blended well in cadenzas by Carl Reinecke in the three movements, which gave both soloists further opportunities to shine while the orchestra remained tacit.

The slow movement was lush in its lingering lyricism while the finale romped home with the most joyous of kicks in the steps. Clearly the Mozart was the draw of the concert, as swathes of seats laid vacant for the second half's offering of Cesar Franck's Symphony in D minor.

Conductor Lim first thanked those in the audience who stayed on, and then good-naturedly lectured them on how to properly support the orchestral players with prolonged applause as they emerged. As if stung to attention by the mild castigation, the orchestra rose in tandem to justify its presence with playing of a passionate kind.

The 1^st movement's pivotal 3-note motif was voiced with clarity by lower strings and the Wagnerian movement grew organically, building to a feverish high with the strings sounding particular rich. This accomplished even greater plethoric climaxes when the full complement of brass joined in.

The slow movement came like a relief from the earlier congestion with Tan Li Shan's harp and Joost Flach's cor anglais plaint conjuring a balm for the ears, accompanied by pizzicato strings. Elsewhere, the excellent and well-honed strings also generated a sense of tension with its tricky sinuous contrapuntal figures.

The finale was a given a life-affirming lick with Lim's firm but not over-rigid direction. The ecstatic main theme was vitality itself, and as with Franck's cyclic form of symphonic writing, themes from the earlier movements returned like the reassuring hugs of long-lost friends. All this made for a busy denouement and the inevitable blazing conclusion.

KOREA

, NEW WAVES

Singapore

Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (2 September 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 September 2016 with the title "Exotic, spiritual, vigorous Korean music".

Korea has exported so many musical talents to the musical world, including violinist Kyung-Wha Chung, conductor Myung-Whun Chung, soprano Sumi Jo, composer Unsuk Chin and of course, K-Pop icon Psy of Gangnam Style infamy. So it is not a great surprise that the Singapore Chinese Orchestra had devoted an entire concert programme of Korean music.

The brainchild of Music Director Yeh Tsung and Korean composer Cecilia Heejeong Kim, the concert showcased Korean music as exotic, vigorous, spiritual and familiar, all at the same time. The song Arirang, arguably the Koreans' second national anthem, was the subject of Kim's Arirang Blossoms which received its World Premiere.

Its atmospheric soundscape, inhabited by teary strings, was lit up by the dizifamily led by Yin Zhi Yang and Lim Sin Yeo. A melody heard on the sheng accompanied by plucked strings led into a fast dance before culminating with a short-winded close. That was just the right prelude to the first major work, Madam Suro, a concerto for janggo (drum) ensemble and orchestra, also by Kim.

The soloist was the three-man team of wHOOL, formed by percussionists Choi Yoonsang, Yi Myongmo and Choi Sungwoo. They sat on a raised stage like tabla players, and struck their drums (both bare-skin and padded) with sticks. A synchronised beat that opened soon got more complex, more syncopated and more frenzied as the work progressed, but their split-microsecond timing was perfect.

The threesome was augmented by orchestral percussion (including an iron sheet beaten with a mallet) and weird disembodied vibrato-laden voices. The six-part concerto based on a dramatic folktale concluded with the serene sound of beans rolled around in a harvesting basket.

The most substantial and austere work was GUT: Chasing Five Ghosts (Series III) which dwelled on the supernatural, via shamans and religious rituals. Its three parts each featured a different singer, beginning with male pansori Hwang Min-wang whose rugged baritone voice filled the hall as he struck a ceremonial drum. Then came the ghostly apparition of Beijing opera singer Tian Ping, with a painted face waving her long floppy sleeves and flaunting a siren-like call.

There was a spiritual quality to the chanting that was both hypnotic and timeless. Arguably the most spectacular was female pansoriPark In-hye whose alto voice was the epitome of pathos itself. Accompanied by projections of Buddhist images and leaping tongues of fire, the bridge between the living world and afterlife seemed blurred in this orgiastic mass of sound and light.

Coming back to earth was Tan Kah Yong's arrangement of a K-Pop Medley, which closed the show. The orchestra was joined by K-Pop singers Chai Khan and Kim Hyunsu, who looked the part of matinee idols themselves. Accompanied by footages from several dozen films and soaps, the populist elements got the audience clapping and stamping the floor as two ribbon hat dancers joined in the fray. One could say that this concert, which plumbed depths and scaled heights, got to the heart of Seoul of Korean music.

PARADISE INTERRUPTED

Singapore

International Festival of Arts

Drama Centre Theatre

Saturday (3 September 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 September with the title "Dream Garden".

Known for its innovation and adventurousness in programming, the Singapore International Festival of Arts struck gold this year with Paradise Interrupted. An “installation opera” by China-born and America-based partnership of composer Huang Ruo and Emmy Award-winning visual designer-director Jennifer Wen Ma, this co-commision by the festival and three international partners, premiered at the Spoleto Festival last year.

The 80-minute opera is a modernistic take at the famous dream sequence from the 16^th century Ming dynasty kunqu opera Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu. Intertwined within its narrative was the plight of the biblical Eve (on her own without Adam) who has been expelled from the Garden of Eden. Thus the protagonist was just named the Woman (instead of the fabled Du Li-Niang), sung and acted by Qian Yi who came to prominence in the epic 20-hour performances of Peony Pavilion in 1999.

Hers was a tour de force of dramatics and singing in a musical idiom that splendidly melded Chinese and Western opera into one almost indivisible whole. The libretto, a joint effort by Huang, Ma, Qian and writer Ji Chao, was entirely new. This was no cut-and-paste job or pastiche but rather an original creation, which while paying homage to the original was bold enough to strike out on its own.

Waking up from her reverie of idealised romantic bliss, the Woman is confronted by The Elements and Four Directions, sung by counter-tenor John Holiday, tenor Yi Li, Baritone Joo Won Kang and bass-baritone Ao Li. The foursome tormented and played with her emotions, sometimes serving as a Greek chorus, with the exceptionally agile Holiday hitting notes even higher than hers.

All this took place in an arid setting that soon grew lush with the erection of a sole wire tree that sprouted leaves and thousands of black paper cuttings which magically unfolded like a giant origami concertina into monstrous shrubbery. The use of black, white and grey as predominant colours was starkly effective, representing ink and paper, as well as void and light.

The composer conducted from the pit an ensemble formed by the T'ang Quartet and members of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. The music was mostly tonal but highly chromatic, often spare, transparent and minimalist in textures, but closely followed the dramatic action as it built to febrile climaxes.

The Woman's dream garden, as it turned out, was illusory as she returned to the austere setting in which the opera began with. How would she confront the future? In the original, Du Li-Niang withers and dies from an unfulfilled broken heart (to be later resurrected by the man of the dreams). Here, there is no such man, but Woman comes to a self-actualisation that leaves with a sturdy sense of inner peace.

Paradise Interrupted, beautifully conceived, received a performance that was as thought-provoking as it was invigorating.

BRAHMS Sonata for 2 pianos

SCHUMANN Piano Quintet

CYPRIEN KATSARIS
& HELENE MERCIER, 2 Pianos

Piano 21 044-N / *****

In the homes of 19^th century and fin de siécle bourgeoisie, before the advent of radio and gramophones, musical entertainment took the form of the pianoforte and arrangements for multiple hands on the keyboard.

Here are two classics of chamber music, heard in versions for four hands or two pianos. Johannes Brahms'Sonata in F minor Op.34b for two pianos is the better known, because it has exactly the same music as his popular Piano Quintet. One simply does not miss the strings here, as Brahms' conception was more symphonic rather than texture-based.

The duo of French-Cypriot Cyprien Katsaris and French-Canadian Helene Mercier are totally musical throughout, yet able to summon the forces of passion for the tempestuous Scherzo and the 4^th movement's final showdown.

A true rarity based on another popular work is Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat major Op.44 in a transcription for piano four hands by his wife Clara Schumann. She was the bona fide piano virtuoso of the couple, and the result is so idiomatic such that one wonders why this is not played more often. Here is a gem of a disc that deserves many listens.

SIBELIUS The Symphonies

Lahti Symphony / OKKO KAMU

BIS 2076 (3 CDS) / *****

Longing for a symphony cycle by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra? This is the closest thing to it. SSO's Finnish Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu has recorded all seven symphonies in his homeland with the Lahti Symphony, where he is Principal Conductor. It is a magnificent set that truly captures Sibelius' heroic and often rough-hewn music.

A way of listening is to follow his progression from first-time symphonist to that of a visionary. Symphony No.1 (1900) on Disc 1 follows from Tchaikovsky's model, then cut off to Disc 2 for the popular Symphony No.2 (1902) as he is established as Finland's patriot.

This is followed by Symphony No.5 (1919) which shares its bluster and rhetoric. Disc 3 brings together the lightly-textured Symphony No.3(1907), Symphony No.6 (1923) and the compact Symphony No.7 (1924), which is the shortest symphony comprising his longest single movement.

Then return to Disc 1 to conclude with the enigmatic Symphony No.4 (1911), the bleakest of utterances that ponders the future, as if staring into an abyss. Sibelius' conception revolutionised the 20^th century symphony form, in the manner that Beethoven did a century before.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, July 2016)

SSO CONCERT: ROMEO AND JULIET / CHOPIN PIANO CONCERTO NO.1 / Review

EXUBERANCE OF YOUTH / Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, July 2016)

SSO CONCERT: ROMEO AND JULIET. RACHMANINOV' CONCERTO NO.2 / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, July 2016)

SSO CONCERT: A NIGHT ON BROADWAY / Review

BEST OF CHINESE VIRTUOSOS / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2016)

A LITTLE BIT OF MAGIC / BRENDAN-KEEFE AU & AYANO SCHRAMM-KIMURA Vocal Recital / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2016)

SOIREE OF THREE / The Zephyr Ensemble / Review

RITES OF CHIMES / Ding Yi Music Company / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2016)

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2016)

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2016)

NAFA ORCHESTRA WITH WILLIAM BENNETT / Review

KOREA, NEW WAVES / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

PARADISE INTERRUPTED / SIngapore International Festival of Arts / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2016)