pianomania

MASTERPIECES BY PENG XIU WEN

Ding Yi Music Company

Singapore Conference Hall

Sunday (21 April 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 April 2019 with the title "A memorable tribute to Father of Chinese orchestra".

Peng Xiu Wen (1931-1996) is hailed as the “Father of the Chinese Orchestra” for his pioneering work during the 1950-60s composing original works and arranging classics for large ensembles of Chinese instruments which we know as the Chinese orchestra. This concert by Ding Yi Music Company, augmented to four times its usual size and conducted by Quek Ling Kiong, was a celebration of Peng’s legacy.

Quek was also the soloist in the opening work Harvest Drums, which he led from behind a phalynx of Chinese drums. A commanding display of the full force of orchestral might was made more impressive by a stunning cadenza of incessant drumming accompanied by just cymbals.

Guest yangqin soloist Zhang Guo Xiang led the next two works, replacing baton with wooden mallets. The first was the familiar Dance Of The Yao Tribe, sounding more raucous and vivid in instrumental colour than its Western orchestral version. Performed with gusto, the skipping and jumping moves continued in Ah Xi Dancing Under The Moon and its vigorous syncopated beat.

Peng’s concerto Unyielding Su Wu saw Singapore Chinese Orchestra member Xu Wen Jing emoting on the zhonghu. Deeper in pitch and mellower than the erhu, the music resounded with a decided melancholy reflecting years of exile which Han dynasty envoy Su Wu spent in the Siberian wilderness. The 24-minute work was rhapsodic, alternating between the poetic and the dramatic, before erupting in unbridled joy upon his return.

After the intermission, huqin exponent Jiang Ke Mei was soloist in two short pieces. The highest-pitched jinghu took centrestage in The Surging Of Clouds, delighting in its nimbleness, delicate and refined timbre. In contrast, the banhu produced a lower-voiced and more robust tone in the rustic Beautiful Traditional Chinese Girl.

The Rising Moon, with pipa flourishes from Chua Yew Kok and guzheng glissandi from Yvonne Tay, played like a cortege on a slow final journey. This elegy-like number was appropriately dedicated to the memory of 89-year-old first generation Chinese pianist and Ding Yi benefactor Elaine Wu Yi Li (inset), who passed away the night before.

Terracotta Warriors, perhaps Peng’s best-known work closed the concert on a high. There was a cinematic quality to this 22-minute piece of programme music, sounding like a Chinese version of film score music to a cowboy Western. Its festive and ritual drumming, pomp and ceremony, allied to a rambling narrative, made this an aural spectacular that was milked for its overwrought instrumental effects.

The young orchestra responded splendidly to conductor Quek’s direction, and there was more in the tank for four encores. Peng’s versatility was displayed in arrangements of Indonesian song Bangawan Solo and Algerian song Damu Damu, while Zhu Jian’er’s Days Of Emancipation (Fanshen De Rizi, parading all three soloists) and the popular Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Full Moon Beautiful Flowers) rounded up a memorable tribute to a master of Chinese music.

HOMECOMING III

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (27 April 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 April 2019 with the title "Rousing finale for SCO's Homecoming concert".

Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s Homecoming series of concerts is a showcase of local musical talents who have established international careers, mostly while plying their artistry overseas. Past editions have included pianist Melvyn Tan, violinist Kam Ning, wind soloists Kwok Chin-chye and Choo Boon Chong, and the T’ang Quartet. This latest concert conducted by Yeh Tsung featured three SCO percussionists and America-based violinist Siow Lee-Chin as soloists.

There were two major concertante works by Singaporean composer Ho Chee Kong, Head of Composition at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. Both works integrated solo parts so well into the orchestral fabric that these could be considered symphonic poems rather than actual concertos. The Way Of Play (2005) saw percussionists Xu Fan, Tan Loke Chuah and Benjamin Boo placed behind the orchestra but they generated enough volume and pulse to drive this work of extreme energy.

There was also a pan-Asian air to its palette of symphonic colours, leaving one to wonder whether the inspirations were Japanese, Javanese or from Jiangnan. Notions of temple and courtly rituals were conjured, but it was when conductor Yeh stepped off the podium to admire the threesome’s cadenza that one realised this was actually a virtuoso’s paradise.

More Chinese in feel was There And Back, a double concerto receiving its World Premiere by Siow and cellist Qin Li-Wei. Here, Ho crafted an atmospheric and cinematic score that evoked the rigours of a journey through China’s vast loess plateau. Siow’s ethereal violin opened the slow introduction, answered by Qin’s mellower and deeper plaint.

Before long, soloists and orchestra were swept into a rugged but exhilarating dance of the steppes. The most poignant moments transpired when the lights were further dimmed, revealing only Siow and Qin in an intimate duet, one of rapt stillness and seeming finality for the ages. This new work deserves to be heard in SCO’s future overseas tours.

Tagged on after the intermission were two solo works with Siow. Despite the obvious show of bravura, Henryk Wieniawski’s famous Polonaise in D major sounded unwieldy in its guise with Chinese orchestral accompaniment. Much better was Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita, with Siow’s flowing lyricism backed by shimmering huqins in Phang Kok Jun’s excellent arrangement.

The balance of the concert was a extroverted display of the Chinese orchestra’s wealth of instrumental colours and textures. Liu Qing’s Puppetry, which began the evening, was finely balanced between modernity and tradition. Concertmaster Li Bao Shun’s jinghu solo, like some suspended character from puppet theatre, served as a focal point.

Zhao Ji Ping’s Homeland Nostalgia from Silk Road Melody was Debussyan in mood, with Zhao Jianhua’s erhu as protagonist while including the popular melody Chai Yun Zhui Yue (Colourful Clouds Chasing The Moon) as one of its motifs. Wang Danhong’s eclectic Macau Capriccio, more Western (with ideas from Tchaikovsky and Dave Brubeck) than oriental in feel, closed the evening on a rowdy note.

If you love operatic arias, high melodrama and Korean sopranos, you will enjoy this recital. Presented by French-Korean soprano Sérine de Labaume, the recital will include popular French opera favourites like Gounod's Jewel Song (Faust), Offenbach's Doll Aria (The Tales of Hoffmann), Delibes'Bell Aria (Lakmé), Massenet's Gavotte and many more. As before, she is partnered by Korean pianist Elena Kim.

This concert is presented by Brownhill Consultancy, which has been active promoting events combining art and music within art galleries in Singapore over the years.

Here are the details for booking tickets:

FRENCH OPERAS, ECSTATIC MOMENTS

Esplanade Recital Studio

8 pm, Saturday, 11 May 2019
Tickets at $20 & $30

https://www.esplanade.com/events/2019/french-operas-ecstatic-moments

SCHUMANN-GRÜTZMACHER

Cello Transcriptions

Francesco Dillon, Cello

Emanuele Torquati, Piano

Brilliant Classics 94060 (2 CDs) / ****1/2

The German Romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) wrote such a small body of music for cello – a great cello concerto and handful of short chamber works – that it seems a real pity. This album of transcriptions by German virtuoso cellist Friedrich Grützmacher (1832-1903) of Schumann’s Lieder, selected piano pieces and an entire sonata is a godsend for cellists seeking new repertoire.

Schumann’s most popular lied, Widmung(Dedication), opens the selection of 17 song transcriptions. Also included are Der Nussbaum (The Walnut Tree), Frühlingsnacht (Spring Night), Mondnacht (Moonlit Night), The Two Grenadiers(which concludes with La Marseillaise, the French national anthem) and two numbers from song cycles Frauenliebe und Leben (A Woman’s Love And Life) and Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love), all familiar tunes.

The autumnal Second Violin Sonatain D major (Op.121), in four movements, is also his most ambitious. Here it becomes a glorious cello sonata, full of brooding passion and foreboding. The transcriptions of piano pieces are mostly of miniatures, such as Schlummerlied (Slumber Song), The Happy Farmer and Soldier’s March. However all 13 pieces of Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood), including the unforgettable Träumerei (Dreaming), take pride of place. The Italian duo of Dillon and Torquati are excellent, making the best case possible of Schumann’s lyrical gifts.

MISSA SOLEMNIS / MASAAKI SUZUKI

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (10 May 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 May 2019

The Japanese conductor Masaaki Suzuki has become a familiar figure on Singapore stages, whether leading students at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in J.S.Bach cantatas and chamber music, or conducting the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in choral blockbusters. His latest venture, a gala concert with Beethoven’s monumental Missa Solemnis might just be his greatest achievement here.

Composed at the same time as his Ninth Symphony, Beethoven’s great setting of the Roman Catholic liturgical mass represented yet another facet of his musical genius. While the wildly popular Choral Symphony (Op.125) espoused secular universal ideals of the “Brotherhood of Man”, the solemn and heavier-going Mass in D major (Op.123) was his proudest statement of faith in God.

Running just over 72 minutes, a similar duration as the symphony, it is an exhausting listen but Suzuki kept a tight rein on the proceedings. While not dealing with a period instrument band, the SSO he directed was nonetheless a pared down ensemble, one which projected lightness while not lacking in punch. This made for an invigorating outing, which opened the Kyrie with a D major chord of gripping grandeur. From there, the pace built up steadily, never slacking off as the music rose from one climax to the next.

The 73-member Singapore Symphony Chorus, trained by choral director Eudenice Palaruan who also sang in its ranks, delivered an outsized sonority that was scarcely believable given its relatively small number. Previous choirs, often double the strength, could learn something from its togetherness and discipline in the work’s many tricky fugal maneuvers.

The quartet of soloists, soprano Rachel Nicholls, mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland, tenor James Gilchrist and baritone Christian Immler, were hand-picked by Suzuki himself. Having worked with him in the complete Bach cantatas and other projects, they were excellent in short solos besides being very well-matched in ensembles.

Ecstatic outbursts characterised the joyous Gloria. Trumpets proferred visions of heaven, trombones declared awe-inspiring might, while Isaac Lee’s pipe organ swelled the volume to lofty reaches. The chorus literally owned the Credo, the affirmation of the Apostle’s Creed, with the tenors unflinchingly giving the shout of Et resurrexit their best shot. These two loud movements, with momentous proclamations of Amen, could have triggered the audience into premature applause but attendees this evening were particularly well-behaved.

Who would have expected in the calming Sanctus, that astonishing extended violin solo – almost a concerto movement in itself – by concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich in perfect counterpoint with the singers? These provided moments of exceptional beauty away from the blustery pronouncements of undying faith.

Similarly the final Agnus Dei, which delighted in intricate woodwind interplay, was also fairly quiet. The more sedate declamations of Dona nobis pacemleft no one in doubt that the call for peace was not a noisy affair, but a more contemplative one. A better or more nuanced symphonic choral evening would be hard to find.

Beethoven brainiacs unite!

FOUR WORLDS

MOYE CHEN, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 481 7037 / *****

It is often opined, particularly by Western music critics, that Asian musicians have loads of technique but lack feeling, gravitas, authenticity and even originality in their playing. Here is a new recording of music from the “Golden Age of the piano” that challenges that notion by Beijing native Moye Chen, making his debut disc after winning 3^rdprize at the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition.

Its title refers to the continents inhabited by the three great 20^th century pianist-composers Sergei Rachmaninov, Vladimir Horowitz (Europe) and Percy Grainger (Australia), and Chen himself (Asia) who made their homes and careers in the United States of America. The works, both original works and transcriptions, represent a wide range of styles.

There is an “Old World” Romanticism to Rachmaninov’s early pieces (Serenadeand Melodie from Op.3, and Humoresque from Op.10). Here he performs the alternative versions which are almost improvisatory and far more difficult. A bygone patriotic spirit occupies Grainger’s Colonial Songand Londonderry Air, before striding expansively into the jazzy “New World” swagger of Grainger’s In Dahomey (cheekily subtitled a “cakewalk smasher”) and Horowitz’s Danse Excentrique (a first cousin to Debussy’s Golliwogg’s Cakewalk).

Chen is fully attuned to these contrasting idioms, and emotes unsparingly in the perfumed paraphrases of Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier and Gershwin’s Broadway hit Love Walked In. Finally, outright virtuosity reigns in Horowitz’s outrageous transcription of Sousa’s The Stars And Stripes Forever (with two hands simulating three hands), and Rachmaninov’s over-the-top Second Sonata, also taking in Horowitz’s unbuttoned additions. There is no shame to gawk and enjoy here.

The facade of Suntory Hall in Tokyo's ARK Hills,
fronted by a wide plaza named after a
rather famous Austrian conductor.

Having been to some of the world's great concert halls, like the Berlin Philharmonie, New York City's Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre and London's Barbican Hall, it was a pleasure to add Tokyo's Suntory Hall to that list of hallowed stages of classical music.

A rare opportunity to attend a Suntory Hall backstage tour on 16 May 2019 was afforded me when I visited Tokyo recently, and it proved a revelation.

Opened in 1986, Suntory Hall still is Japan's most revered concert venue for classical music. Its central location, accommodating facilities and close-to-perfect acoustics have made it a must-visit place for all self-respecting ensembles (including all of Tokyo's professional orchestras and the world's leading orchestras) and discerning concert-goers.

The organisation's very impressive outreach programmes have included overseas productions in Singapore, including the premiere of Himiko (celebrating Suntory Hall's 30th anniversary in 2016) and the Suntory Hall Chamber Academy involving Yong Siew Toh Conservatory students. That was how I was introduced to Suntory Hall in the first place, with those events taking place in Singapore.

However, this post is about the "mother ship" in Tokyo itself, and how impressed I was with its set-up, something I will not forget for a long time.

The imposing and sweeping foyer of
Suntory Hall, with entrances
to all the stall and circle seats.

The genetically engineered "Blue Rose",
elegantly suspended over the entrance to the
432-seater Blue Rose Hall,
where chamber concerts are held.

The Blue Rose Hall was where the tour started,
with a documentary film on the history of Suntory Hall.
Students of YST Conservatory have performed here
as part of the Suntory Hall Chamber Music Garden Festival.

The main foyer's scintillating chandelier,
crafted with Swarowski crystals.

Hall receptionists hold up an individual Swarowski crystal,
and the kanji word for sonos (sound), which forms the
basis of the Suntory Hall logo.

As Suntory is an organisation based on the creation and
promotion of liquor and spirits, many motifs relating to the
raw materials of alcohol dominate the hall.
Here is a balustrade with a wheat / malt motif.

The climate-controlled piano storage room,
located under the stage holds at least two grand pianos,
a harpsichord and a fortepiano.

Here are the luxurious conductor and soloist
changing and resting rooms, located just 10 steps
away from the stage entrance.

Autographs of some of the luminaries
who have performed in Suntory Hall.
On the left is Leonard Bernstein, who conducted
a concert here during his final six months.

Two marble plaques, including an inscription by
Herbert von Karajan (left), who helped in the design
of the hall, and the notation of
Beethoven's Ode To Joy (right), which was performed
at Suntory Hall's opening concert.

Now we enter into the inner sanctum.
Suntory Hall has a vineyard design configuration,
inspired by the Berlin Philharmonie.
Yet another alcohol-related feature.

The wonderful Austrian organ (yet more wheat/barley motifs)
and overhanging lights which resemble bunches of grapes.

A look of the spacious 2006-seat main hall,
which is surprisingly intimate when one steps into it.

The tour included a free organ recital
by Japanese organist Mika Noda
with music by Muffat, Dowland, Brahms
and Karl-Elert, attended by a large audience.
The wonderful acoustics are immediately evident.

Everyone of the tour now gets to step in the stage.
Here they test out the acoustics and reverberation
by singing Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music
in Japanese led by a young receptionist Shintaro Hirata
(with dreams of conducting here someday!)

Everybody wants to sing in Suntory Hall!

TBM Tokyo Edition!

With receptionist Shintaro Hirata

& Suntory Hall PR Manager Shinsuke Inoue,

who was my friendly host and translator for the tour.

No real surprise, that the plaza fronting Suntory Hall
was named after Herbert von Karajan,
who was a consultant for the hall and conducted
here in 1988, one year before his death.

Suntory Hall in ARK Hills
is certainly a place for everybody.

Review: Concert

LOVE AND DESPAIR

T’ang Quartet and Friends

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Saturday (25 May 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times with the title "No gimmicks, just solid and serious music".

It is hard to conceive that the T’ang Quartet is now in its 28^th year. Formed in 1992, the foursome of violinists Ng Yu Ying and Ang Chek Meng, violist Lionel Tan and cellist Leslie Tan strided as “angry young men” on a mission, with attitudes and attires to match.

These days, they are regarded as elder statesmen of chamber music, often playing mentors to younger musicians and students. They can still be relied on do a jolly good show. This latest concert had neither gimmicks nor witty catchphrases, but just solid and serious music.

The curtain-raiser saw three young musicians, violist Ho Qian Hui, pianist Shayna Yap and mezzo-soprano Maggie Lu Pei Yun, all of whom are or were students in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory where the quartet is resident.

Brahms’ Two Songs Op.91 for that unusual combination was an ideal starter. In no way was the viola subservient to the other two parts, as it was written for the great Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim to perform with his singer wife and Brahms as pianist. Ho’s warm and dusky string tone was a balm, later joined by Lu’s lighter and more buoyant voice in German.

The sheer mellowness of the first song Gestillte Sehnsucht (Assuaged Longing) was contrasted with the gentle rocking rhythm of the second song Geistliches Wiegenlied (Sacred Cradle Song), which even had a more dramatic central section for effect.

Longing and passion continued into the next work, Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s Il Tramonto (The Sunset), with an Italian setting of a poem by Percy Shelley. Lu was slightly less comfortable in sung Italian, but she provided many pretty moments in the languorous 15-minute concert aria-like work.

Ho’s value as ensemble violist was demonstrated, ably standing in for Lionel Tan in the quartet supporting Lu’s seamless song. This late-Romantic music resembled less of the operatic excesses of Verdi or Puccini, but more of Wagner’s darker and reposeful shadings. Cellist Leslie Tan also had choice solo bits to display urgency and passion.

In the second half, the viola seat was occupied by Zhang Manchin, Principal Violist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, in Beethoven’s late String Quartet No.13 in B flat major (Op.130). Unusual that it has six movements instead of four, the 40-minute work was a playground for the ensemble’s versatility.

For the 1^st movement’s slow introduction, the unison phrasing was so gripping as to immediately draw the listener in. Alternation of calmness and violent interjections, typical of the German composer, were also well handled. Between the two extended outer movements, four contrasting shorter movements were played with a combination of humour and charm.

The sole exception was the slow 5^th movement Cavatina, which unfolded majestically not unlike the slow movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Its resolution was a rollicking rondo finale, a communal letting down of hair that seemed almost vulgar by comparison. Little matter, it also brought out the loudest applause.

SA CHEN Piano Recital

26^th

Singapore

International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday 30 May 2019

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 June 2019

This year marked a new chapter in the history of the Singapore International Piano Festival (SIPF) with local concert pianist Lim Yan making his debut as the festival’s artistic director. He also happens to be the first of four directors who is a professional musician.

Chinese pianist Sa Chen, prizewinner in multiple prestigious international piano competitions, was Lim’s first opening night pick. Thankfully she did not perform like a serial competitor, the sort often associated with faceless, bland and spotlessly accurate playing of virtuoso fodder.

The recital’s first half was instead filled with spirituality and depth, opening with Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Chorale & Fugue. Despite its austere title and thematic material, her account displayed exquisite tonal colour, limpid fingerwork and excellent pedalling.

While Franck is better known for his organ music, there was no overt attempt to project an organ-like sonority, but the widely-spaced broken chords of the Chorale radiated memorable warmth. The wearying final Fugue also showed a mastery of handling voices which came to a glorious fruition.

Two Nocturnes by Chopin followed, the famous D flat major (Op.27 No.2) with its seamless cantabile line, and the more animated G major (Op.37 No.2) filled with tricky triplets passages. It was the latter’s more beseeching central melody that lingered in the ear.

Little prepared one for the onslaught of rapid notes and chords that came with Olivier Messiaen’s Regard de l’esprit de joie (Gaze Of The Spirit Of Joy) from the monumental piano cycle Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jesus (Twenty Gazes Of The Infant Jesus). Here was a different kind of spirituality manifested, one of fearsome and terrifying awe and majesty. Despite her slight frame, Chen summoned the strength and reserve to overcome its ferocious physical demands. Some will attribute this tremendous requisite as “qi”.

The Francophilic recital’s second half comprised eight of Debussy’s 12 Études, three from Book One and five from Book Two. These were very well selected, reflecting a diverse compendium of devices that made up contemporary keyboard wizardry in the 1910s. Far from being merely technical studies, there were tonal paintings that went beyond impressionism.

The first study was a spoof on Czerny’s pedagogy, beginning with a simple five-finger exercise before going off on a tangent. Next was a play of fourths as intervals while another was a whirlwind on eight fingers with sweeping glissandi to boot. Imagination ran high, as was Chen’s ability to shape and make sense of these seemingly disparate and incongruous pieces.

An elusive in-joke on Chabrier (then more famous than Debussy) was shared in the study of repeated notes. There was a silky legato in the penultimate piece before the finale’s exhausting trial of wide leaping chords. There seemed a real risk of weariness enveloping both pianist and listener, but how the evening ended was well-judged, down to Chen’s sole encore of Debussy’s sublime prelude Bruyeres. Lim Yan’s tenure at the SIPF has gotten off to a solid start.

Sa Chen with Lim Yan,
the SIPF's new Artistic Director.

KIRILL GERSTEIN Piano Recital

26^th

Singapore

International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (1 June 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 June 2019 with the title "Diverse piano showcase of heroism and mortality".

It is often interesting to attempt and discern thought processes that go into a pianist’s art of crafting a recital programme. For Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein’s debut at the Singapore International Piano Festival, he chose works of six composers from lands as diverse as Germany, France and Hungary (the usual suspects) to England, Bohemia and Armenia (unexepected sources).

In one of the most intelligently-conceived programmes to be had in a long while, Gerstein’s unifying theme was heroism and mortality, and the death of heroes. Opening with Liszt’s Transcendental Etude No.7, known as Eroica, he displayed a fire-breathing but highly-nuanced brand of virtuosity that was to occupy the entire evening.

Cast in E flat major, its ending went straight into the opening chords of Beethoven’s Eroica Variations, so named as it was based on a dance (from The Creatures Of Prometheus) that ended up in the finale of his Eroica Symphony. Much humour and resourcefulness were applied to this longer-than-usual set which also included a tricky fugue to bat.

Even more impressive were the sonorities generated in Bohemian composer Leos Janacek’s Sonata, with a title that carries the 1.X.1905 “From The Street”. That was the date when a worker was stabbed to death during a student demonstration in Brno. Its two movements were harrowingly built-up to an angst-ridden climax of tolling bells. A final funeral march was discarded, leaving the work incomplete, enigmatically so.

However the funeral march that took its place was Liszt’s Funerailles, opening the recital’s second half. Bass notes were sounded with a left hand’s closed fist and karate chops, and the procession of stampeding left hand octaves was supposedly a tribute to the recently deceased Chopin. Liszt being Liszt, he had to make this more difficult than the corresponding episode in Chopin’sHeroic Polonaise.

Its companion piece was Thomas Ades’ Berceuse from The Exterminating Angel, written for and premiered by Gerstein as recently as last January. Soft bell sounds in treble registers belied the menace of yet another impending demise, registered by a violent close.

Four very short pieces followed. Debussy’s Elegie and his final piano work Les soirs illumines par l’ardeur du charbon (Evenings Illuminated By Glowing Coals), composed when he was dying of cancer, were brief but atmospheric. Ethnically flavoured were two dances by Armenian nationalist Komitas, representing a way of life extinguished by the Armenian genocide on 1915.

To conclude the evening was Ravel’s Le Tombeau De Couperin, a suite of six antique dances, each dedicated to a friend slain during the Great War. By now, Gerstein’s fluid technique and utter clarity were a given as he breezed through the Prelude and Fugue, followed by a Forlane, Rigaudon and Minuet, each with their own rhythmic interest.

Only in the final Toccata did Gerstein’s near infallibility almost came unstuck, but its thunderous ending and two fast and furious encores (the Bach-Busoni Chorale Prelude: Nun freut euch, lieben Christen and Chopin’s WaltzOp.42, nothing to do with death whatsoever) provided an emphatic and heroic close.

LOVE LETTERS FROM HOME

RAUL SUNICO Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Monday (3 June 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 June 2019

Hot on the heels of the Singapore International Piano Festival was yet another piano festival, called Pioneering Pianists of Southeast Asia. Organised by Steinway & Sons, this showcased two keyboard veterans, Raul Sunico (Philippines) and Nat Yontararak (Thailand), who have contributed significantly to piano-playing cultures of their respective nations.

On the first evening, Sunico, who also has degrees in mathematics and statistics, performed a selection of popular classics and transcriptions of well-known Filipino songs. The first segment showed he still has the wherewithal to master two of Rachmaninov’s Preludes. Opening with the infamous C sharp minor Prelude (Op.3 No.2), its chord-filled pages resounded like the carillons of Moscow, while the G sharp minor number (Op.32 No.12) was filled with requisite melancholy.

He was less successful in Chopin’s Nocturne in B major (Op.9 No.3), where the stormy central section was hurried and messy. He however redeemed himself in Albeniz’s El Puerto (from Iberia) where its tricky rhythms were en pointe, and throes of passion built up to a crashing climax in the Liszt transcription of Wagner’s Liebestod (from the opera Tristan und Isolde). No concessions were needed for the fact that Sunico is 71 this year.

Attired in the traditional Barong Tagalog, Sunico ruled the stage in seven Filipino song transcriptions, three originals and four by his own hand. Totally at ease in this idiom, this was easily the most memorable part of the evening.

Some pieces had clear references to popular classics, such as Mike Verlade’s Buhat(Since) which opened with the left hand accompaniment to Debussy’s Reverie, while Ernani Cuenco’s Bato Sa Buhangin (Stone On Sand) masqueraded as Chopin’s ubiquitous E flat major Nocturne in its first bar. Nicano Abelardo’s Nocturne in C sharp minor was a dead-ringer for Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu, also in the same key.

This was not plagiarism as the pieces immediately developed and gained a life of their own. Much of the glorious melodies could have come from the pens of Richard Rodgers, the Sherman brothers and a slew of Hollywood/Broadway composers, such were their popular appeal. The harmonies were deliciously sweet-toothed, and one imagined a Gershwin or Mayerl having a hand.

Felipe de Leon’s Kundiman was a bittersweet love song. Francisco Buencamino’s Kumintang, a minor key romance in the form of a waltz, while Celeste Legaspi-Gallardo’s Saranggola Ni Pepe was a fast jazzy dance with deeper patriotic leanings, although not obviously apparent. All these had tastefully varied ornamentations, and performed with much love and pride.

There was even a sales pitch for Steinway’s Spirio R, a modern playback mechanism like a player-piano fitted on a concert grand. Sunico thus accompanied himself, playing on two pianos Milhaud’s Brasileira (from Scaramouche) and a welcome reprise of Saranggola Ni Pepe.

The closing work of the 80 minute recital without intermission was Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, in a no-holds-barred reading that had all the bells, whistles and augmentations. Sunico accompanied in two encores with master-of-ceremony Cristina Villonco who sang, to much enjoyment for the Pinoys in the audience.

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.4

CHOPIN Sonata No.2 / Ballade No.4

ERIC LU, Piano

Hallé Orchestra / Edward Gardner

Warner Classics 0190295552152 / ****1/2

When 20-year-old Eric Lu was awarded 1^stprize at the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition, he became the first-ever ethnic Chinese pianist to do so, and the first American to win the Leeds since Murray Perahia in 1972. Lu’s debut CD recording, a useful calling card, comprises performances from the heat of competition. While without the absolute perfection of recording studio sessions, these are very good live readings of popular works that can fully withstand repeated listens.

Chopin’s Fourth Ballade builds up majestically to an impassioned climax, and unwinds with a fiery coda which simply sizzles. Equally trenchant is Lu’s view of Chopin’s Second Sonata, also known as the “Funeral March” Sonata. He never lets the tension sag, even in the eponymous slow movement, where true pathos comes out poignantly.

One cannot imagine Lu to have performed Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto in G major many times prior to this, but he already sounds like a seasoned veteran alongside the Hallé Orchestra. The piano’s opening solo chords are taken deliberately but with a clear sense of purpose, and the barnstorming outer movements are robustly held together. The conversation with orchestral strings in the “Orpheus taming the Furies” episode of the slow movement is rapt, little wonder he was voted to win the Orchestra Prize outright.

Eric Lu replaces an indisposed Martha Argerich at the Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert at Esplanade on Friday evening (7 June 2019), performing Chopin’s First Piano Concerto. Try not to miss this.

ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER

& BROOKLYN RIDER

Victoria Concert Hall

Wednesday (5 June 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 June 2019

This concert, part of the VCH Presents series, could easily have been called Brooklyn Rider with Anne Sofie von Otter, if not for obvious box office reasons. The New York-based string quartet, comprising violinists Colin Jacobsen and Johnny Gandelsman, violist Nicholas Cords and Michael Nicolas, were no mere accompanists to the renowned Swedish mezzo-soprano.

The foursome performed for the entire duration of the two-hour concert including significant works on their own. The pieces which opened both halves were long enough to make some wonder whether von Otter would even turn up. Violinist Jacobsen’s own A Mirror For A Prince was a rhythmic dance-like work influenced by Middle-Eastern idioms that began warm and congenial before abruptly turning edgy and abrasive more than midway through.

Brooklyn Rider (From L):
Cords, Jacobsen, Nicolas & Gandelsman

The Janus-like quality to the moods traversed showcased the ensemble’s flexibility and versatility in varying tonal and timbral colour, thus altering perceptions. Perhaps some neurochemical reactions were taking place, and that was exploited fully in the second half’s I Am My Own Achilles Heel commissioned from Chinese composer Du Yun.

Premised on distorted imagery encountered in Alice In Wonderland Syndrome, the medicine-inspired work thrived on extreme dissonance, ethereal and otherwordly sound effects. Only a trace of Oriental influence crept up towards its end. The quartet (modelled along the lines of the long-established Kronos Quartet) totally owned these and others by Philip Glass and Kyle Sanna, giving sensitive, top-notch performances. On their own merit alone, the concert could have been a sellout.

Von Otter emerged in a purple gown with floral designs. Although her programme was entirely of new works and popular music, those awed by her Bach, Mozart and Mahler need not shy away. Her deep and sultry voice, mesmerising from the outset, was enough to convince sceptics with the opening French song, Cant voi l’aube by Caroline Shaw. In Jacobsen’s For Sixty Cents, a light-hearted cabaret song, she turned percussionist by striking a coffee cup with a wooden spatula.

She became more serious in operatic numbers. For John Adams’ aria Am I In Your Light? (from Doctor Atomic), love segued from quiet to a passionate high before literally ticking the time away. In Rufus Wainwright’s Les feuxd’artifice t’appellent (Fireworks Calling Out To You), the pyrotechnics were mostly in the loaded words, beautifully delivered.

The second half was sung with amplification. Icelandic multi-faceted pop icon Björk’s Cover Me and Hunter were pleasant surprises, with the latter’s “I’m going hunting” spiel leading to a trance-like spell. Glass’ Freezing(from Liquid Days) had long lines over repeated arpeggios and chords, oft-replicated vintage stuff really.

As if to show that pop stars had their more sober sides, Elvis Costello’s Speak Darkly, My Angel was harmonically adventurous and smouldered with quiet intensity. Kate Bush’s Pi was more than a tongueful, playing with the numbers of that unending mathematical symbol. The two encores, including love song Practical Arrangement by Sting, were rapturously received.

DREAMING OUT LOUD

More Than Music

Esplanade Recital Studio

Thursday (13 June 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 June 2019 with the title "Sweet dreams and fantasies".

More Than Music is a dynamic duo formed by violinist Loh Jun Hong and pianist Abigail Sin. The name of their partnership comes from the mission that they deliver more than just music in their concerts. They usually invite another artist to vary and spice up the programme, and they always speak to the audience about the music from a personal perspective.

The theme of their latest concert was about fantasies and dreams. The Romantic era was the perfect period for such flights of fancies. Beginning with Schubert’s Sonata in A major (D.574), the duo generated totally congenial and sweet-toothed tones from both their instruments. From the seemingly carefree Biedermeier period of Austrian history, there were neither dissonances nor discords in their discourse, but it seemed a pity only the sonata’s 1st movement was performed.

Next came the thrills and bumps of Beethoven’s Fantasy (Op.77) for piano, arguably the great German composer’s strangest works. It sounded like a patchwork of unrelated themes and ideas punctuated by brusque and abrupt descending scales, and then a set of variations thrown into the mix. That was his idea of humour and pulling a fast one on unsuspecting listeners, which Sin delivered with much conviction and dexterity.

Their special guest this evening was cellist Qin Li-Wei, who opened with Schumann’s Three Fantasy Pieces (Op.73) partnered by Sin on piano. His luscious string tone was a balm to the ear, and he did much to vary the dynamics in these short works. Imagination ran high as the two artists engaged in conversational exchanges in the slow central movement, before a tumultuous burst of spirits closed the set.

After the intermission, all three performers gave a thoroughly absorbing performance of Brahms’ Piano Trio No.1 in B major (Op.8). This was an early work which the composer later heavily revised. Qin described it as filled with “youthful passion and mature nostalgia”. Although marked Allegro con brio(fast and with spirit), the 1^st movement’s opening was taken at too broad a tempo, something closer to Moderato (moderately paced).

It had to build up to speed sometime, and then the tension never slackened. For what could have sounded bloated and dispiriting instead became invigorating. That most lovely of opening themes – a genuine melody to die for - truly shone. The 2^nd movement’s Scherzo was perky and playful while the slow movement’s chorale was reverently answered by the strings.

The finale bristled with an undercurrent of excitement. With no let up in nervous tension, it made for a spectacular ending to the nearly 40-minute long work. The performers gave no hint of exhaustion and went for an emotionally intense encore: Astor Piazzolla’s tango Oblivion, which got the audience even more frenzied.

In their next concerts on 4 & 5 November at The Arts House, More Than Music will again be offering something extra, this time - booze.

Lovers of the piano will not want to miss this concert:

PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2019

Saturday 22 June 2019

Esplanade Concert Hall at 7.30 pm

An extension of the long-running Young Virtuoso Recital series, Piano Extravaganza 2019 showcases four of Singapore most exciting young piano talents in concert. They will be performing a variety of solo works, and works for 4 hands and 8 hands, including a World Premiere.

The pianists are:

AZARIAH TAN

CLARENCE LEE

GABRIEL HOE &

SONG ZILIANG

Repertoire includes:

BACH-BUSONIChaconne

BRAHMSHungarian Dances Nos.1&4

MILHAUDScaramouche

LISZTDante Sonata

BEETHOVENSonata No.30 in E major, Op.109

RACHMANINOVSuite No.2 for 2 Pianos

LU WENCHENG / CHEN PEIXUN
Autumn Moon on Calm Lake

REN GUANG / WANG JIANZHONG
Colourful Clouds Chasing The Moon

STRAUSS / GRÜNFELDSoirée de Vienne

TSAO CHIEH / BERTRAM WEE
The Republic from Singapore Suite
(World Premiere)

Special Encore: Another World Premiere

Tickets are available at:

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cpiano0619

Do not miss this!

TEDD JOSELSON

Complete RCA Album Collection

RCA Red Seal 19075903272 (6 CDs) / ****1/2

Sony Classical has been systematically releasing boxed sets of pianists who recorded on the RCA Victor and Columbia Masterworks labels, from legends Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz to their younger colleagues like Van Cliburn and John Browning. The collection has now mined the archives of Belgian-American pianist Tedd Joselson, who had a relative short but distinguished performing career from the 1970s until he retired to Singapore in the late 1990s.

His recording debut in 1974, at 21 and RCA’s then youngest exclusive pianist, was nothing short of miraculous. Performing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto, with no less than The Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy, is comparable to what the likes of Lang Lang and Yuju Wang did in their youths. The performances reveal neither hints of reticence nor nerves, as if coming from a well-seasoned veteran.

Joselson was marketed as a Romantic pianist, evidenced by the energetic but finely-honed readings of Liszt’s Sonatain B minor, Chopin’s “Funeral March” Sonata and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. However, pride of place goes to the selection of five sonatas by Russian 20^th century giant Sergei Prokofiev (Nos.2, 6, 7, 8 and 9), where he finds a rare poetic sensibility amid often abrasive and percussive pages.

The latest recording, of the Sixth Sonata (dating from 1979), has never been previously released. The music never succumbs to raw or pummelling brute force, but glows in a radiant new light. All the original cover designs and sleeve-notes have been retained in this unusual find with a Singaporean connection.

Here is another concert not to be missed, especially if you are a lover of baroque music.

Organised with the support of the embassies of the Netherlands and Belgium, Singapore's first professional period instrument group Red Dot Baroque presents a concert of all-English music to commemorate the bicentennial of Singapore's founding by Raffles in 1819.

The concert features Belgian soprano Lilith Verhelst, Dutch recorder player Thomas Triesschijn, Taiwanese cellist Tzu-Jou Yeh, Singaporean artist Tan Qin Ying (baroque dance) and the usual merry band of RDB players.

The programme:

Henry Purcell
Suite from the Gordian Knot Untied
Chacony in G minor
Fairest Isle
O, Let me Weep
Oh, The Sweet Delights of Love
One Charming Night
Sound the Trumpets
Strike the Viol

John DowlandCan She Excuse My Wrongs
Flow My Tears
M. Henry Noel Galliard

Giuseppe Sammartini
Recorder Concerto in F major

Charles Avison
Concerto Grosso in D minor

Traditional
Greensleeves (arr. Red Dot Baroque)

WHEN / WHERE:

Friday 28 June 2019, 7.30 pm

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Tickets available here:

https://onecharmingnight.peatix.com/

DIVERGENCE

ALBERT TIU, Piano with

BraddellHeights Symphony Orchestra

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (30 June 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 July 2019 with the title "When the divergent paths of Brahms and Liszt converge".

The title of this concert comes from the fact that two composers featured here represented divergent paths which the course of music took during the 19^thcentury.

In a brief musical history lesson given by conductor Adrian Tan, German composer Johannes Brahms represented the conservative “keepers of the faith” while Hungary-born Franz Liszt was a beacon for future and modernistic trends.

The second piano concertos of both composers reflected this divergence, however when heard back back in concert – a rare opportunity itself - an unusual convergence was also a result as well. Both were works of maturity, conceived as symphonic essays first and foremost, with the demanding piano solo parts integrated into the whole almost like an afterthought.

Far from being an obliggato role, Philippines-born and Singapore-based pianist Albert Tiu had a superhuman task cut out for him. Playing for almost over 70 minutes, he was a figure of utter concentration and composure. In the Liszt, he brought its narrative through a slow boil, from its slow chorale-like opening and intricate filigree, all the way to the barnstorming – big chords, storming octaves and sweeping glissandi - more associated with the pianist-composer.

In the Brahms, the mighty bluster of its opening cadenza was a foil for an inner vulnerability, which Tiu brought out with much cogency. Both Brahms and Liszt were fire-breathing virtuosos in their youth, but lived out their old age as god-like sages.

This reviewer remembers Tiu performing this same Brahms with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra as a teenager 30 years ago at a piano competition finals. He might have achieved note-perfection then in his impetuous youth, but has now truly come to grips with Brahms’ world weariness, warts and all. The Scherzosecond movement sounded under-rehearsed, but shaky as it was, Tiu became steadfast like a rock with the orchestra somehow managing to keep up.

In the Liszt, a measure of the sublime was afforded in the solo played by orchestral cellist Peh Xiang Hong, an episode where Tiu merely accompanied her. In the slow movement of the Brahms, her warm cello solo was an inspiration, but pity that the view of her was completed blocked by the Steinway grand.

As a final point of convergence, the fleet-fingered close of both concertos was achieved with mercurial lightness and a streak of scintillating brilliance. As an encore, Tiu cheekily offered an over-ornamented edition of Chopin’s otherwise familiar Nocturne in E flat major (Op.9 No.2), knowing full well Brahms would not have approved.

Before the two concertos, the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra performed Wagner’s portentous Overture to Tannhäuser. The brass was barely warmed up in the opening Pilgrim’s Chorus, but the ensemble soon gelled to give a truly spirited and cohesive reading. It was simply refreshing to see how this humble community orchestra has blossomed under conductor Adrian Tan’s leadership.

RUSSIAN CELLO CONCERTOS

LI-WEI QIN, Cello

Czech Chamber Philharmonic / Michael Halasz

Naxos 8.573860 / ****1/2

This album should have been called Russian Romantic Cello Concertos, as the composers featured were major figures of Russia’s age of Romantic music. Of these, only two works actually qualify to be called concertos: Piotr Tchaikovsky’s popular Variations On A Rococo Theme (1877) and Alexander Glazunov’s rarely-heard Concerto Ballata (1931).

Chinese-Australian cellist Qin Li-Wei, now based in Singapore, has previously recorded the Tchaikovsky. He gives a heartrending account, filled with depth of feeling and intensity, not to mention his warm and glorious tone. This is continued in Tchaikovsky’s brief single-movement Pezzo Capriccioso (1887) and the famous Andante Cantabile from his First String Quartet (1871).

Despite its date of composition, the Glazunov is a total anachronism, sounding like a work composed fifty years earlier. Despite Qin’s ardent advocacy, the work is nowhere as memorable as his popular Violin Concerto. The gifted melodist does however shine in shorter works like the Two Pieces (1887-88) and Chant du menestrel (Minstrel’s Song, 1900). Rimsky-Korsakov light-hearted Serenade (1893) completes the programme.

All’s the pity that Qin does not get accompanied by a better orchestra than the chamber orchestra from the Czech town of Pardubice. It creditably does its job but this delectable music deserves more. So hear Qin’s Tchaikovsky when he performs it with Singapore’s re:Sound at Victoria Concert Hall on Friday.

Don't Miss:

STANDING ON
THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

TCHAIKOVSKY Rococo Variations
VIVALDISinfonia to La Senna Festaggiante
HAYDNSymphony No.104 "London"
PROKOFIEVSymphony No.1 "Classical"

QIN LI-WEI, Cello with re:Sound
conducted by PAVLO BEZNOSIUK
Victoria Concert Hall
Friday, 5 July 2019 at 8.15 pm

Tickets available at:
https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/giants0719

PIANOISLAND FESTIVAL 2019

PHILIPPE CASSARD Piano Recital

POOM PROMMACHART Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday & Wednesday (2 & 3 July 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 July 2019 with the title "Soul-stirring kaleidoscope of colours and contrasts".

The Piano Island Festival, founded by local pianist-entrepreneur Wang Congyu and inaugurated in 2018, is now in its third edition. Alternating between Singapore and Reunion (French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean), the festival includes an international competition, lectures, masterclasses and public recitals by an international cast of pianists.

Esplanade Recital Hall was host to four recitals, with evening sessions helmed by Philippe Cassard (France) and Poom Prommachart (Thailand). Cassard will be remembered for performing the complete solo piano works of Claude Debussy in four recitals at this same venue in 2003, providing relief and solace during the SARS epidemic.

On this occasion, he distilled the French composer’s prolific output to just seven works in a single half, all inspired by the watery realm. Exhibiting an enormous range of tonal variety, the musical equivalent of impressionist brush-strokes was applied to pieces like Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections on the Water), Ondine, Poissons d’or (Goldfishes) and La cathedrale engloutie (The Engulfed Cathedral).

Cassard showed this was not a matter of just stepping on the sustaining pedal and splashing nebulous globs of sound, but a skilful manipulation of colourings and contrasts. The transition from Brouillards (Mists), with gently shifting wafts to the vigorous pitter-patter of Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain) was startling in effect. With no half measures given, the wine-fuelled revelry in L’isle joyeuse (The Happy Island) was one of full-blown intoxication.

Likewise, Cassard’s view of Schubert’s penultimate Sonata in A major (D.959) was not one of quaint Biedermeier charm or drawing room naivete. It was the blood and guts view of one living in his final year, with all the requisite angst and vulnerability, and certainly not for the faint of heart.

Still in his late 20s, Poom Prommachart is Thailand’s most accomplished and decorated young pianist. His recital was another study of stark contrasts, now applied to the piano sonata genre. There cannot be more vastly different works than Beethoven’s late Sonata No.30 in E major (Op.109) and contemporary Australian composer Carl Vine’s First Sonata, composed in 1990.

Both works benefited with his variegated touch and laser-like precision, the Beethoven coming into his own as a Romantic, full of fire and fervour. Vine’s violent flailings had the feel of modern ballet, exquisitely choreographed like a new version of The Rite Of Spring.

After three short pieces by Khachaturian and Scriabin came the piece de resistance, the rarely heard Sonata-Ballade by Russian composer Nikolai Medtner, a contemporary of Rachmaninov. Conceived as a single extended movement and playing over 20 sprawling minutes, Poom’s excellent elucidation of the themes and its discursive byways represented a glorious treatise of the sonata form itself. Hoping to proselytise on behalf of this almost forgotten Romantic, this imperious reading could not but find him many new friends.

Poom with the Thai ambassador to Singapore
and Princess Malinee, great-great-grand-daughter
of King Rama IV of Thailand.

Encores:

Philippe Cassard performed
DEBUSSY Clair de lune from Suite Bergamasque
SCHUBERT Impromptu in E flat major, Op.90 No.2

Poom Prommachart performed
CHOPIN Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op.Posth

MASTERPIECES BY PENG XIU WEN / Ding Yi Music Company / Review

HOMECOMING III / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

A Vocal Recital You Will Enjoy: FRENCH OPERAS, ECSTATIC MOMENTS

CD Review (The Straits Times, May 2019)

MISSA SOLEMNIS. MASAAKI SUZUKI / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

CD Review (The Straits Times, May 2019)

TOKYO'S SUNTORY HALL: AN EXCLUSIVE BACKSTAGE TOUR

LOVE AND DESPAIR / T'ang Quartet & Friends / Review

SA CHEN PIANO RECITAL / 26th Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

KIRILL GERSTEIN PIANO RECITAL / 26th Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

LOVE LETTERS FROM HOME / RAUL SUNICO Piano Recital / Review

CD Review (The Straits Times, June 2019)

ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER & BROOKLYN RIDER / Review

DREAMING OUT LOUD / More Than Music / Review

A Concert Not To Be Missed: PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2019

CD Review (The Straits Times, June 2019)

A Concert Not To Be Missed: ONE CHARMING NIGHT by RED DOT BAROQUE

DIVERGENCE / ALBERT TIU and Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra / Review

CD Review (The Straits Times, July 2019)

PIANO ISLAND FESTIVAL 2019