pianomania

THE SINGAPOREAN COMPOSERS SERIES

Teng Ensemble

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Friday (24 May 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 May 2024 with the title "Audio-visual spectacle for Teng Ensemble's 20th anniversary".

For its 20th anniversary celebrations, the Teng Ensemble – renowned for its slick and funky pop concerts performed on Chinese instruments – devoted an entire concert of works by Singaporean composers. There were altogether ten pieces, each backed by the sophisticated use of audio electronics and projected moving images. All this made for an exuberant aural and visual spectacle.

Teng Ensemble is a no-limits generator of ideas, always pushing the envelope and breaching boundaries. Whoever thought serious composers could countenance writing popular music? Or that jazz, pop and music production people would venture confidently into the classical realm? Teng Ensemble did and the results defied all expectations.

The concert opened with Kelly Tang’s Kallang Uproar, composed for the 2010 Youth Olympics. One will not find a more upbeat work, channeling Brazilian samba and reliving Singapore’s long-gone glory days of soccer. Just five players, on pipa, sheng, cello, electric guitar and cajon (percussion), was all that was needed for just a bit of nostalgia.

Erhu and guzheng joined in for 14-year-old composing prodigy Nathanael Koh’s Soaring, imagining an eagle’s celestial flight with the traditional sonata form coloured by a Malay kompang’s incessant beat. Just intoxicating.

Soul Dot SG is a music production collective of three artists, whose Empowered was supposedly infused with K-pop, but sounded far more than that. Was this a fusion with Middle Eastern and Indo-Malay influences as well?

Erhu and cello dominated the melodic lines in George Leong’s entertaining Oriental Psyche, with hip hop rhythms that radiated inner city vibes. Evan Low’s Concrete Jungle was a local variation of the traditional railway genre piece, with the rolling rhythm of MRT trains accompanied by stunning time-lapse photography.

The concert’s third chapter entered terra incognita with the evening’s most modern sounding music. Phoon Yu’s A Transi For The Common Man opened with solo pipa, then erupting into fugue-like counterpoint (with more in common with Aaron Copland than J.S.Bach) before closing with the pipa’s return.

Koh Cheng Jin’s A.I.Funk went even further by being an atonal passacaglia. With quasi-improvisational flourishes built on a rhythmic ground bass, it sounded surprisingly approachable. With borders between old and new, East and West, classical and pop, being irreversibly blurred, Chok Kerong’s breezy musical odyssey titled Seafarer, sandwiched between Phoon and Koh, claimed a happy middle ground.

The final group of pieces employed the largest number of players, twelve in the case of Bang Wenfu’s The Nine Suns, a cinematic score inspired by Louis Cha’s wuxia (martial arts) novels. Heroic and pugilistic in most part, this is music of flexed muscles and stretched sinews.

Teng’s co-founders Samuel Wong (pipa) and Yang Ji Wei (sheng) made the ensemble 14-strong, uniting three generations of musicians in Chow Junyi, Joel Nah and Wong’s Harmony. This final work shoe-horned old local and classic tunes like Jinkli Nona, Suriram, Xiao Bai Chuan (Little White Boat) and Han Tian Lei (Thunder In Drought) into a glorious symphonic summation.

For the record, the Teng Ensemble raised over 640 thousand dollars on the first evening of fund-raising. Bravissimo, and may you continue to create more Music For Good!

POETRY OF THE HARP

XAVIER DE MAISTRE Harp Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Wednesday (22 May 2024)

VIRTUOSE DE LA HARP:

XAVIER DE MAISTRE

FROM ROME TO ARGENTINA

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (25 May 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 May 2024 with the title "Xavier de Maistre plucks all the right strings".

It is common practice for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra to occasionally have guest soloists offer a solo or chamber recital in addition to performing a concerto. Pianists and violinists figure regularly but this concert pairing was the first to feature a harpist. On Wednesday evening, renowned French harpist Xavier de Maistre gave a sparkling 90-minute recital that had his audience in rapture.

His recital showcased the breadth and depth of a harpist’s repertoire, built around two major works. Ironically, the only work originally written for the instrument was French woman composer Henriette Renie’s tone poem Legende d’apres les elfes de Leconte de Lisle (Legend after the Elves), a darkly programmatic work about a knight’s night ride fatally beset by forest elves.

Tension generated by rapid repeated passages simulating rapid hoofbeats, punctuated by moments of uneasy calm, was the driving force. More familiar was Bohemian composer Bedrich Smetana’s The Moldau from Ma Vlast (My Fatherland) in Hans Trnecek’s transcription, where the popular melody accompanied by the river’s rippling waves was so well-realised that one is led to forget its orchestral origins.

Just as enjoyable was Giovanni Pescetti’s three-movement Sonata in C minor, where featherlight touches of a harpsichord were lent wider dynamics and fuller sonorities by the harp. Scintillating cadenzas defined Renie’s transcription of the Alyabyev-Liszt Le Rossignol (The Nightingale), a typically Slavic song with strong folk influences.

Spanish music dominated with Manuel de Falla’s brilliant Spanish Dance from the opera La Vida Breve, contrasted with rapt stillness of the tremolo study that is Francisco Tarrega’s guitar classic Memories of the Alhambra.

The harp ably substituted the piano in Enrique Granados Valses Poeticos, a series of elegant waltzes and Claude Debussy’s indestructible Clair de lune, where a momentary lapse did little to sully the fine evening which closed on a high with Felix Godefroid’s Carnival of Venice.

On Saturday, Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera’s Harp Concerto received its Singapore premiere with de Maistre partnered with the SSO led by French conductor Pierre Bleuse. People familiar with Ginastera’s Argentinian Dances and First Piano Sonata will recognise its driving rhythms, grinding dissonances, insistent ostinatos and percussive violence.

However, it is so well orchestrated that de Maistre’s harp became part of the rough-hewn textures, the resonantly percussive timbre of the instrument’s repeated plinks being very audible above the throng. For lyrical and expressive passages, the orchestration thinned accordingly for his sensuous playing to be heard.

The slow movement and cadenza, titled Liberamente capriccioso, gave voice to the harp’s full gamut of colours, from spectral brushes over the strings to sweeping glissandi. The finale’s frenetic malambo dance, pentatonic and sounding almost oriental, provided a breathlessly exciting conclusion. Loud applause saw a reprise of Wednesday evening’s Godefroid and Tarrega as soothing encores.

De Maistre’s harp was just half of the picture as the orchestra performed two of three symphonic poems which make up Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Trilogy. Fountains Of Rome, opening the evening, was an arch-like crescendo depicting dawn to dusk in the Eternal City, climaxing with the majesty of the Trevi Fountain at midday.

Breaching the decibel limit was Feste Romane (Roman Festivals), arguably Respighi’s most vulgar score. Huge orchestral forces included three offstage trumpets announcing gory games at the Circus Maximus, mandolin for the October celebration, pipe organ and no less than ten percussionists to wreak mayhem on Twelfth Night. When performed with such zest and fervour, no apologies for good taste, or the lack of, were needed.

Ten percussionists. Count them all!

The Bachtrack.com review of the SSO concert may be found here: Xavier de Maistre and Respighi hold Singapore audience in raptures | Bachtrack

HIGHLY STRUNG

Yang Shuxiang (Violin) & re:Sound

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday (30 May 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 June 2024 with the title "Violinist Yang Shuxiang's high impact playing boosts re:Sound's Baltic programme".

Trust re:Sound Collective to have the most adventurous of programming among local professional orchestras. At risk of box-office death was its latest concert, which attracted a relatively small audience, all because it had the temerity to undertake Singapore premieres of works by two important Baltic composers.

The first was Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Pelimannit or The Fiddlers (Op.1), a suite comprising five short movements based on tunes played by Finnish folk fiddlers during the 19th century. Originally for piano, it was orchestrated for strings in 1972, sounding like a Baltic version of Bela Bartok’s Romanian Dances.

The ensemble generated a rich canvas of sonority, even mimicking punch-drunk antics of village musicians with off-key intonation and intoxicated slurs. Leader Yang Shuxiang’s violin had the tricky solos, accompanied by his merry band in a tipsy romp all in good fun.

Photo: @joelcaptures

More serious was the Violin Concerto (1996-97) by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks (born 1946) titled Distant Light, with Yang as soloist in hyper-virtuoso mode. In eleven connected parts, and playing for almost 35 minutes, it rivals Tchaikovsky’s famous Violin Concerto in terms of scope and length.

Yang’s opening solo, combining trills, glissandi and ascending into ear-splitting tinnitus may have screamed avant-garde but the music soon settled into reassuring A minor with its comforting cushioned string accompaniment. While this was not easy listening by a long stretch, it was accessible in the way that “spiritual minimalist” composers of the late 20th century tend to be.

Estonian composer Arvo Part’s stock-in-trade tintinnabulous scores come to mind, but Vasks seemed to plumb deeper besides having a more human feel about it. Almost tailor-made for Yang’s highly passionate emo-personality, the music positively bristled in his visceral approach and high impact style.

Photo: @joelcaptures

This culminated in a series of feverish cadenzas balanced on a tight-rope, each more fiendish than the last. Almost apologetic was the orchestra’s response, such as providing some kind of soothing salve or going on some demented waltz. Closing with a netherworldly whisper, impressive Yang might has just given the most important local premiere in recent times.

After a short intermission, Yang returned to lead the orchestra, now boosted by winds, brass and timpani, in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No.36 in C major, also known as the Linz Symphony. Despite its familiarity, re:Sound made it sound freshly minted. There was nothing tentative in the opening movement’s slow introduction, and the ensuing Allegro was lit up with its knowing quote of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.

The slow movement flowed like oil, which Mozart desired in his music. The lively Minuet took on a rollicking quality, contrasted by the utter grace of its Trio. As an expression of joie de vivre, there was little to top the irrepressible Presto finale, its operatic buffo quality not undone by some idiot’s handphone going off midway. As fine ensembles go, re:Sound is Singapore’s solution to London’s Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

CHILDHOOD MELODIES

OF YESTERYEARS

Ding Yi Music Company

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Saturday (1 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 June 2024 with the title "Seriously playful concert of children's songs by Ding Yi".

One of the most important musical projects of Ding Yi Music Company is its Disappearing... Series, which documents Singaporean cultural heritage at risk of becoming extinct. Previous concerts have celebrated dragon kilns, giant joss sticks and Teochew embroidery. Its latest offering, conducted by Quek Ling Kiong, was a salute to Asian children’s songs over the ages.

Its scenario was a 1970s Chinese school classroom, with members of Ding Yi dressed up like primary school students being lectured by their “form teacher” Quek. On the subject of old traditional songs, past ethno-musical research carried out by “headmistress” Tan Beng Luan had unearthed over 300 such examples. Not limited to the Chinese language, these also included Malay and Indian Tamil songs, a selection of which was performed in this 85-minute-long concert.

Simple archival recordings were aired, but contemporary arrangements and new settings by composers Zechariah Goh Toh Chai and Liong Kit Yeng lent these ditties a relevence for younger people in the audience. Some of them may have forgotten or neglected their family’s spoken dialects and other traditions.

The Hokkien song Ban Chun Hong (Wang Chun Feng or Pining for the Spring Breeze) was heard in an elegant transcription by Goh. A variation of its melody by Quek called Longing For Home played by Ng Hsien Han (dizi) and Yvonne Tay (guzheng) also evoked the same nostalgia. These tunes were based on an actual composition by Taiwanese composer Teng Yu-hsien.

Most of the songs, however, were passed on by oral tradition. Mothers singing their children to sleep are the stuff of fondest memories. Hush-O-Hush (sung in Teochew), Sleep Well (Cantonese) and Pat-The-Bottom (Hokkien), sung by Chan Cheow Wee, Pang Hyin June and Isabel Kang respectively, had lovely arrangements by Liong.

One was hard-pressed to suppress the mirth upon hearing that last song, also called Pai Pi Gu. In Hokkien, the words “pak-kah-chng”, if taken in the wrong context, could sound terribly vulgar, equivalent to “slap that arse”! As this was a family-oriented concert, it sounded endearing and charming instead.

A nod to South Asian tradition came in three Tamil songs, Nila Nila Odiva (O Round Moon, Come To Me), Thosai Amma Thosai (Mother’s Thosai) and Vattamana Thattu (Round, Round, Plate), which saw Raghavendran Rajasekaran perform the bansuri (Indian flute), vocals and lead the audience in a spot of konnakol (rhythmic vocal percussion).

The delightful pairing of Siti Shahira binti Abdul Halim and Nurul Amirah binti Amiruddin, singing in Malay, also lit up the stage in Bintang Kechil Di Langit Yang Biru (Little Star in the Blue Sky) and the playful Air Pasang Pagi (The Tide Rose In The Morning).

As a final apotheosis, a kind of rap combining Chinese dialects, Malay, Tamil and English words, was memorised by the audience and sung with the help of Chordinate Singers (Acid Pang, chorusmaster) and orchestral ensemble at full tilt. The exhortation of this programme was to learn these “lost” songs, and then pass it on. Was it a guilty pleasure for one to have enjoyed a serious concert so much?

SYC & FRIENDS:

60 YEARS YOUNG

SYC Ensemble Singers

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (1 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 June 2024 with the title "SYC celebrates 60th anniversary with modern music".

In a Straits Times article from 1992, the Singapore Youth Choir (SYC) was named as Singapore’s top choir. SYC, founded in 1964, appointed young choral conductor Jennifer Tham as its artistic director in 1986. As its leader ever since, SYC was renamed the SYC Ensemble Singers in 2004 to reflect its coming of age.

This trendsetting choir has been committed to new music, its 60th anniversary concert being a showcase of 20th and 21st century works. The show opened with works by three Singaporean composers. SYC alumna Diana Soh’s Vak (2013) comprised three short pieces, some with no actual words.

Singers strolled onstage for its Salutanya Prelude, just mouthing single syllable tones. This was followed by seemingly random tongue-twisting consonants, whistling and oral clicking in Vak (Sanskrit for the goddess of speech and utterance), before a more traditional folksong-like close in Salutanya Postlude.

Joyce Koh’s Le or Yue (1998), after the Chinese word for happiness and music, was a wordless melisma of long-held tones. Merging and coalescing into a mirage of sound effects, its progression as a dreamy meditation of joy was punctuated by well-placed strikes of five Tibetan brass bowls. Simply mesmerising.

Described as a contemporary madrigal, Leong Yoon Pin’s Si Nian (Nostalgia, 1988) was SYC’s first ever commission. Sung in Mandarin, this work led to SYC winning first prize at the International Music Eisteddfod in Llangollen (Wales). Full of reassuring harmonies, these were premised on the words wo de gu xiang, reflecting love for one’s homeland and a mother’s embrace.

Joined by its youth wing, a vastly-expanded SYC offered well-known American choral composer Eric Whitacre’s The Stolen Child (2008) with words by William Butler Yeats. With verses sung by a smaller subchoir backed by a larger body of singers, its refrain Come Away, O Human Child! was a lament on lost childhood youth and innocence.

Venezuelan composer Cristian Grases’s Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light) from Canticles Of Light (2024), in Latin as with all Roman Catholic liturgy, received its world premiere. Its cascading and echoing harmonies provided a warm homogeneous blanket of sound, serenely closing a very eclectic first half.

The main work on show was Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s Te Deum (1984), performed by three choirs including alumni, Singapore Management University Chamber Choir and guests, backed by Wayfarer Sinfonietta’s string players and B-L Duo (Bertram Wee and Lynette Yeo) on prepared piano and windharp.

Photo: Law Kian Yan

This Ambrosian praise hymn of 29 lines in Latin was a solid half-hour built upon the D triads (both major and minor) with drones in his trade-marked tintinnabuli style. Reliving the ethereal sound of bells, the music had a bit of everything, voices in unison and triadic harmonies, string meditations and calmly ecstatic outbursts.

Photo: Law Kian Yan

The overall effect was a hauntingly beautiful one, so calming that it risked being soporific in parts. The music kept flowing under conductor Tham’s firm guiding hands till its conclusion of ultimate solace. For SYC’s intrepid programming and committed performances, may there be another 60 years of great music-making.

SEEDS OF HOPE:

YOUNG INTERNATIONAL PIANISTS

IN CONCERT

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Lee Foundation Theatre

Sunday (2 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 June 2024 with the title "Young international piano talents dazzle".

Ever wondered what it was like to witness Lang Lang and Yuja Wang performing as children way before they became global icons of classical music? The School of Young Talents at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts gave a glimpse of that in two concerts celebrating its 25th anniversary. The first featured local students including violinist Chloe Chua, while the second highlighted five visiting piano talents, all winners of international competitions.

The youngest was 7-year-old Joseph Yourong Cai from Hong Kong who opened accounts with the first movement from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonata in C major (K.330). Displaying hallmarks of good teaching, he gave a crisp and limpid reading which had rhythmic drive and poetry. The swift pace was upped for Franz Schubert’s vertiginous Impromptu in E flat major, whipped off effortlessly and balanced by a central section of true impetuosity.

Photo: Antonius Lawrence

A selection of Sergei Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives, varied character pieces, revealed a wide range of moods and colours. He certainly understood the meaning of the tenth piece, described as ridiculosamente (ridiculously).

Two years older was Cheng Sio Ioi from Macau, so diminutive he needed pedal extensions as both feet could not reach the floor. That he mastered the first eight of Frederic Chopin’s Preludes (Op.28) was without question. More telling was his ability to infuse the minor key pieces (Nos.2,4 and 6) with a depth of feeling and gravitas that even eludes adults. His approach to Nikolai Kapustin’s Toccatina was bold and brash, but showy in the best possible way.

Photo: Antonius Lawrence

Gao Jingzhi (10, China) was perhaps the first pianist to be self-aware of his virtuosity. Sporting a cut similar to Lang Lang’s, he also exhibited some of his mannerisms without direct imitation. His view of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Meditation was somewhat prosaic but unleashed prodigious fingers on two Chopin Etudes, No.7 and 8 from the Op.10 set. These possessed pizzazz and humour to equal degree, as did the rapid-fire repeated notes of Moritz Moszkowski’s scintillating Caprice Espagnol.

When it came to the turn of Cai Rongzhe (14, China), one instinctively felt being in the presence of mature performers. There was little to suggest in Chopin’s Third Impromptu that he was not yet of age to imbibe alcohol.

Photo: Antonius Lawrence

More impressive was his bracing accounts of Franz Liszt transcriptions of three Franz Schubert songs. In The Miller and the Brook, To Sing On The Water and The Trout, melodic lines were gloriously upheld over busy accompanying filigree. Maurice Ravel’s Scarbo from Gaspard de la Nuit then raised the roof and temperature of the hall.

At seventeen, Phoebe Papandrea (United Kingdom) is all ready for a professional performing career. Her varied repertoire choices and excellence of execution all point to that. Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Le Rappel des Oiseaux (The Call of the Birds) took buoyant flight, while violent contrasts in Chopin’s Second Ballade were capped by a furious coda. With Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Sixth Moment Musicaux (Op.16 No.6), she completed a fine evening of music with the clacking of castanets and rolling thunder.

Photo: Antonius Lawrence

35 YEARS AGO.
4 June 1989
Forgive if you can
But never forget.

How CNN reported on China's 1989 pro-democracy crackdown at Tiananmen Square (RFA) (youtube.com)

Tiananmen Square Massacre 35 years on: a Chinese propaganda artist's secrets | ABC News (youtube.com)

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre - Wikipedia

AN EYE FOR BEAUTY:

SINGAPORE THROUGH

THE LENSES OF CAO YAPING

BOOK LAUNCH

Chui Huay Lim Club

Sunday (2 June 2024)

Chinese nationals in Singapore have recently gotten bad press for innumerable reasons like money laundering, loutish behaviour in public and the list goes on, but there have been stunning exceptions. I would like to cite my neighbour Cao Yaping, a Shanghai native living in Singapore since 2000, as a shining example of a Chinese immigrant who has done her home country and adopted nation proud.

Honing her hobby in photography to perfection, and over 3000 photographs later, she produced a lovely coffee table book as a tribute to her eventful stay in Singapore. The book launch of An Eye For Beauty: Singapore Through The Lenses of Cao Yaping was held on Sunday (2 June 2024) at the Chui Huay Lim Club, a Teochew clan society on Keng Lee Road.

This was an elaborate cultural event graced by past and present members of parliament, community leaders and arts lovers, which included an ensemble of Chinese instrumentalists, lion dance troupe and Teochew opera singing. Yaping also made a grand appearance in a shawl dance involving vertigo-inducing swirling dervishes, the intensity of which would have made her viewers dizzy. Giant cheques were made to various Singapore charities, and there were speeches by luminaries which sang praises of her achievement and philanthropy.

The accompanying photographic exhibition showcased dozens of her best photographs, which reveled in her overarching sense of composition and acute eye for detail.

A book-signing and sumptuous buffet lunch completed the morning’s proceedings. We were honoured to be involved in the production of the book, having penned a short preface and assisted in the annotations.

The book contains stunning photography of the sights of Singapore, including many most would have encountered or ignored in our busy lives. An Eye For Beauty: Singapore Through The Lenses of Cao Yaping may be purchased at $98, with 100% of sales proceeds going to charity.

Here is a link to the sales page:

An Eye for Beauty: Singapore《从这里打开精彩的新加坡》Order Form (google.com)

JIN JU Piano Recital

YEOL EUM SON Piano Recital

30th Singapore

International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday & Friday (6 & 7 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 June 2024 with the title "Yeol Eum Son and Jin Ju shine at Singapore International Piano Festival".

With so many solo piano recitals featuring marquee artists by independent presenters taking place of late, one wonders whether the Singapore International Piano Festival (SIPF) is still relevant. Long regarded as Singapore’s premier piano event since its 1994 inauguration, has it lost its shine?

Murmurings among some pianophiles have it that this year’s edition – its 30th - was lackluster, with supposedly a paucity of renowned soloists. Did Piotr Anderszewski and Dang Thai Song, well-known names, perform just recently at Victoria Concert Hall? Yes, but they were presented by Altenburg Arts, curated by former SIPF director Lionel Choi.

Current director Lim Yan’s festival opened with Chinese pianist Jin Ju, a Tchaikovsky Competition laureate presently based in Italy. She may not be a “big name”, but is possessed with a big technique. Only the most confident of souls would begin a recital with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, a solid 50 minutes of continuous barnstorming.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

She immediately nailed her colours to the mast by playing around with publisher Anton Diabelli’s banal waltz theme, applying liberal rubato and exaggerating the left hand accompaniment. It was a way of saying, “this is going to be different”. The fast variations raced to see which was the swiftest while the slower variations were given a latitude that seemed almost improvisatory. A furious fugue and ironic minuet to close was proof of Beethoven’s maverick genius.

Even better was to come with Frederic Chopin’s Third Sonata in B minor (Op.58). This was a full-blooded reading where the slow movement brooded on raw passion and the Rondo finale built upon boundless reserves of adrenaline. Seldom have Johannes Brahms’ Seven Fantasies (Op.116), late short pieces, resounded with more big-boned passion and heft. The evening concluded with five generous encores played to a smallish house.

Jin Ju beckons her audience
to go home, after the fifth encore.

Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son, winner at multiple international competitions, was arguably the “biggest” name of four artists, hence a well-filled hall. A common theme of variations and Beethoven from the previous evening carried over with Georges Bizet’s Variations Chromatiques.

The art of writing variations is abetted by an imaginative pianist who can bring out myriad nuances with a spirit of discovery and humour. With French eccentric Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Variations on a Theme by Steibelt and Carl Czerny’s Variations on a Theme by Rode“La Ricordanza” getting increasingly more florid by the minute, Son became the perfect guide. Her limpid articulation and immaculate pearly runs made these note-spinning potboilers worth listening to.

Franz Liszt’s Ricordanza, the ninth of 12 Transcendental Etudes, was not so much a variation but a metamorphosis. Its transformation into a sublime tone poem was made complete with Son’s sense of poetry and silky-smooth arpeggios.

Literally the
Hair-merklavier Sonata

The evening’s highlight was Beethoven’s monumental Sonata No.29 in B flat major (Op.106), better known as the Hammerklavier, also his longest sonata. Its four movements, running over 45 minutes, could sound like an inchoate mess, but Son’s account was admirable for her sense of architecture and adventure.

Hers was a young artist’s reading of an ageing man’s rants and raves, capturing impetuosity and impatience to equal degree in its first two movements. When it came to gravitas, she delivered with dividends in the Adagio sostenuto, with brooding and restless rumination at its heart, before giving way to the fugue to end all fugues. A mightily impressive show all round.

Encores:

JIN JU (6 June 2024)

CHOPINNocturne in E flat major, Op.55 No.2

LISZTTranscendental Etude No.10 in F minor

TCHAIKOVSKYOctober (Autumn Song)

from The Seasons

D.SCARLATTISonata in C major, K.159 “Chase”

LI YING HAI庆翻身 Qing Fan Shen

(Celebrating Freedom)

YEOL EUM SON (7 June 2024)

MOSZKOWSKIEtincelles, Op.36 No.6

(with Vladimir Horowitz ending)

ASHLEY WASS Piano Recital

MEI YI FOO Piano Recital

30th Singapore

International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday & Sunday (8 & 9 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 June 2024 with the title "Singapore International Piano Festival closes with first-rate recitals".

One of the more absorbing aspects at the Singapore International Piano Festival is that listeners will find common thematic threads linking each of the recitals. The third evening with British pianist Ashley Wass had late Beethoven, variations and fugues, all encountered in previous evenings, conferring cohesion to the series as a whole.

Beethoven’s Sonata No.30 in E major (Op.109) is perhaps the most Romantic of his final trilogy. Its music lends wider scope of interpretation while leaving behind classical era constraints. Wass made it sound like a work from the mid-19th century although it was actually composed in 1820.

Contrasts between its opening mellowness and the second movement’s violence could not be more stark, but it was the finale’s chorale theme and variations which truly sung and shone in Wass’ masterly reading. It had nuance, colour and humour, not to mention a kaleidoscopic view of Beethoven’s emotional upheavals.

Photo: Clive Choo

The choice of two Preludes and Fugues (Op.87) by Dmitri Shostakovich was a curious one but worked very well. No.4 (E minor) and No.24 (D minor) were two of his more monumental numbers, shorn of his usual anarchic levity, but Wass handled the mounting polyphony with great aplomb.

One will not find a more dead-serious reading of Robert Schumann’s popular Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood), treated by Wass as a world-weary gaze into a distant past. No child’s play here, for the familiar Traumerei (Dreaming) rang with melancholy, Child Falling Asleep foresaw looming mortality, while The Poet Speaks became the reading of a last will and testament.

Wass’ recital closed with a luminous account of Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue, almost a summation of earlier themes, dressed up in rich organ-like sonorities. J.S.Bach would have been proud. Two gorgeously harmonised transcriptions by Percy Grainger as encores gave the evening a more cheery end.

Photo: Clive Choo

The festival’s final recital was helmed by Malaysian pianist Mei Yi Foo in an uncompromisingly modern programme. Its eclectic mix of tonal and atonal 20th and 21st century works may appear forbidding and turn away concertgoers but in the right hands can be made to sound irresistible, which Foo emphatically proved.

A childhood link with the previous evening’s recital came in Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite in Jacques Charlot’s transcription. Its innocence and simplicity came through with utter clarity, not least in the gamelan-like sonorities of Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas and the tenderly gauche waltz in Conversations of Beauty and the Beast.

Korean composer Unsuk Chin’s Six Etudes found Foo was in super-virtuoso mode, nailing its unforgiving thickets of hypercharged notes with the most natural of ease. These treacherous finger-twisters were mirrored by Italian avant-gardeist Luciano Berio’s Six Encores, which had fewer notes but still fiendishly difficult, especially the flighty Luftklavier and scintillating Feuerklavier.

How Mei Yi's scores
stacked up for her recital's second half

All these made Bela Bartok’s Out Of Doors, a five-movement suite with folksy rhythms, steely percussiveness and spectral night effects sound positively poetic and inviting. Foo closed her recital with the most physically demanding movement from Olivier Messiaen’s Twenty Looks of the Infant Jesus, The Look of the Spirit of Joy. Its nine minutes may modestly be described as an ultimate joyous orgy of sound.

After four exhausting evenings of exquisite pianism, the Singapore International Piano Festival remains more vital and relevant than ever. Its inimitable varieties and synergies of artists and programming, educational and inspirational value, make it an invaluable institution that will hopefully endure for a long time to come.

Encores

ASHLEY WASS (8 June 2024)

FAURE-GRAINGERApres un reve

TRAD-GRAINGER

Irish Tune from County Derry (Danny Boy)

MEI YI FOO (9 June 2024)

J.S.BACHSarabande, Minuet I & II

from Partita No.1

HERE IS A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS!

ALIM BEISIMBAYEV is the most recent first prizewinner of the Leeds International Piano Competition, having won that much-coveted accolade in 2021 with a sterling performance of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini at the grand finals. His Singapore solo debut takes place on Friday 21 June 2024 at Victoria Concert Hall.

Programme:

SCHUBERT Four Impromptus, D.935

DEBUSSY Images, Book 2

CHOPIN 12 Etudes, Op.25

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday, 21 June 2024 at 8 pm

Tickets available here:

Musical Magic by Alim Beisembayev (bookmyshow.com)

ALIM BEISIMBAYEV

is presented by MW School of Music.

AFRICAN SANCTUS

Vocal Associates

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (15 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 June 2024 with the title "Vocal Associates marks 10th anniversary with poignant African Sanctus".

Long before world music and fusion became buzzwords in our increasingly globalised societies, British composer David Fanshawe (1942-2010) travelled up the Nile River, collecting hundreds of hours of recordings from indigenous peoples of Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya. In 1972, African Revelations– later renamed African Sanctus - came into being, a landmark work that married original and inimitable voices of Africa with the Latin liturgical mass.

The iconic African Sanctus recording
issued on Philips Records.

The message of peace in African Sanctus, that there should be no divisions between peoples of diverse races and religions, was the central theme of choral group Vocal Associates’ 10th anniversary celebration. Founded by Malaysia-born soprano Khor Ai Ming who conducted its Esplanade premiere, the choir is well known for inclusivity and community outreach.

The catchy Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) movement was the recurrent fixture, being heard thrice in the 13-movement hour-long work. Sung with infectious zest by Vocal Associates Chorus and Ensemble of Young Voices, it resounded with free-spirited vibes that showed they really meant it. Mixed with the recording of the Bwala dance from the Acholi people of North Uganda, the effect was one of true seamlessness.

Perhaps even more memorable was Kyrie, where the Cairo muezzin’s call to prayer came in the stentorian voice of jazz singer Rudy Djoe with Allahu Akbar (God Is Great). The counterpoint offered by a semi-chorus intoning Kyrie Eleison (Lord, Have Mercy) – with Islam and Christianity being intimately intertwined - was so poignant that all arms should be laid down for good.

Recorded segments included an Egyptian wedding (Gloria), Sudanese dances (Credo), a torrential rainstorm (Crucifixus) and various Kenyan and Ugandan chants, all supported by voices and the eight-member Tamagoh World Music Band with drums, percussion, electric guitars and piano. The rock-like sensibility in the music was a rebel child of its time, with parallels also found in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar (both from 1971).

The most recognisable movement was The Lord’s Prayer, sung in English by the children. Its pop music simplicity ensured this was one part most likely to be heard on its own. The same might be said of Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace), added in 1994 and tagged on after the end of the main work, rendered beautifully by soprano Esther Maureen Kelly with the young ones.

Critics of African Sanctus have cited cultural misappropriation and exploitation but they have missed the point. The documentation of disappearing cultures has never been more urgent, and this universally performed work was a reminder of how connected humans are on this planet.

The concert’s first half comprised wholly popular songs (Nella Fantasia, You Raise Me Up, Ban Chun Hong, Burung Kakak Tua, Amigos Para Siempre among them), performed by assorted Vocal Associates ensembles, invited guests from Pei Tong Primary School, Taiwan and Johor Bahru, and elders from the Lions Home.

You can spot Jane Fanshawe, David's widow
standing with the children at extreme right.

The joyous but occasionally sobering three-hour long concert concluded in a pledge for harmony, with the audience joining in the 1955 hymn by Jill Jackson and Sy Miller, Let There Be Peace On Earth.

All photos by Alfred Ng

If you love wind band music, here is a concert not to miss. The Philharmonic Wind Orchestra, Singapore's most acclaimed community wind ensemble embarks on its tour to South Korea, performing at the prestigious WASBE (World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles) conference in Gwangju-Gyeonggi. This is its pre-tour concert conducted by its music director Leonard Tan and legendary wind band conductor Timothy Reynish.

Programme includes:

JOHN MACKEYAsphalt Cocktail

LEONG YOON PINDaybreak & Sunrise

WANG CHENWEI The Sisters' Island

World premiere of wind orchestra version

LEE JIAYI World Premiere

Sunday, 23 June 2024

Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30 pm

Tickets available here:

Flying High - Beyond Our Islands’ Shores (bookmyshow.com)

BRAHMS THE TWO PIANO CONCERTOS

Tedd Joselson (Piano)

Asian Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (16 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 June 2024 with the title "Pianist Tedd Joselson plays Brahms with virtuosity".

A Herculean feat never previously attempted in Singapore is a concert bringing together both of German composer Johannes Brahms’ piano concertos. It had to be done sometime. That was left to Belgian-American pianist Tedd Joselson, resident here since 1999, and the Asian Symphony Orchestra under Belgian-Singaporean conductor Robert Casteels to do the honours. The concert was in aid of Heartware Network, a non-profit organisation that empowers youth.

Brahms, young and old.

If one wondered if that was too much of a good thing, the reality was that one cannot get enough of it. Both concertos, running over 45 minutes each, were contrasted works coming from different periods of Brahms’ creative output. Both required different approaches, and all the performers came up with required musical responses to make the unwieldly tandem sound right.

Photo: Benjamin Chiau

The First Piano Concerto in D minor (Op.15) was a creation of callow youth and exuberance from a 25-year-old. The opening orchestral tutti established the tone of almighty struggle, with Joselson’s mellow entry seemingly in direct opposition. The ensuing clash of titans, literally a tug-of-war between piano and orchestra, was at its most absorbing when Joselson piled on octave runs and chordal salvoes to stunning effect.

Photo: Pianomaniac

Nothing fazed the 72-year-old veteran, whose sensitive touch shone in lyrical moments, such as the first movement’s second subject and the slow movement’s hymn-like theme bearing the inscription Benedictus, Qui Venit In Nomine Domini (Blessed, He Who Comes In The Name Of The Lord).

For raw passion unleashed, the Rondo finale saw Joselson sprint out like a man possessed, and his ability to sustain that level of tension throughout was enviable for even someone half his age. That the orchestra’s winds were excellent following the fugato was testament to attention paid to fine details, and the work barrelled victoriously to a colossal close.

Photo: Heartware Network

The Second Piano Concerto in B flat major (Op.83) was composed some 26 years later, a work of mature sobriety. Conceived more like a four-movement symphony than virtuoso vehicle, the demanding piano part becomes almost an integral part of the orchestra. The opening conversation between Alan Kartik’s French horn and Joselson set the tone before another battle royale began.

Photo: Heartware Network

While not as note-perfect as the earlier concerto, Joselson still commanded the stage with an imperiousness which Casteels and his forces matched blow for blow. The mighty Scherzo continued without letting off, but the best was reserved for the slow movement.

Photo: Pianomaniac

With cellist Hang-Oh Cho’s sublime solo leading the way and Joselson’s smoothest possible response, detente was at hand. Seldom has this Andante radiated so much sunshine and beauty, leaving behind earlier storms as distant memories. The light-hearted finale with its send-up to the Viennese waltz became the perfect send off, and the applause rained even before the last emphatic chord had ended.

Photo: Pianomaniac

Photo: Heartware Network

There cannot be more than very few souls in attendance who have witnessed the great Ukrainian-American pianist Vladimir Horowitz in person, but Joselson’s volatile and mercurial brand of virtuosity is probably the closest thing to that.

Photo: Benjamin Chiau

Here is another piano recital not to be missed!

Russian-American pianist KIRILL GERSTEIN returns to Singapore for another riveting piano recital on 27 June 2024 at Victoria Concert Hall, presented by Altenburg Arts. His unique artistry and unusually creative recital programmes have been universally praised, as was his excellent piano recital at the 2019 Singapore International Piano Festival, reviewed in these pages.

pianomania: KIRILL GERSTEIN PIANO RECITAL / 26th Singapore International Piano Festival / Review (pianofortephilia.blogspot.com)

His programme:

CHOPIN Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op.61

MEHLDAU Apres Faure No.3

FAURE Nocturne No.13

POULENC Three Intermezzi

LISZT Polonaise No.2 in E major

CHOPIN Fantasy in F minor, Op.49

SCHUMANN Faschingsschwank aus Wien

KREISLER-RACHMANINOV Liebesleid

CHOPIN Waltz in A flat major, Op.42

Watch this video of KIRILL GERSTEIN at the 2019 Singapore International Piano Festival:

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday 27 June 2024 @ 8.15 pm

Victoria Concert Hall

Book your tickets here:

Piano Recital by Kirill Gerstein (sistic.com.sg)

COMPOSITIONS EXCHANGE 2024

Association of Composers (Singapore)

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (19 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 June 2024 with the title "Singapore composers showcase works".

For a composer in Singapore, the most important thing is to have your work performed. First impressions matter, so having best possible performers for the premiere is a priority. The annual concert of the Association of Composers (Singapore), which showcased 12 works by 12 composers, was fortunate in having some of most accomplished locally-based professional musicians involved.

Subtitled “Capriccio In The Style Of Folk Melodies”, most of the works were based on earlier music and crafted in the form of variations, fantasies and rhapsodies. The Chinese artsongs and instrumental works were sensitively accompanied by pianists Clarence Lee and Andren Koh respectively.

Soprano He Miya sang two songs, opening the concert with Lee Yuk Chuan’s Yinghua Village Scenery Is Wonderful, extolling the land’s pristine beauty. Her expressive quality and ability to reach high notes effortlessly also touched in Quek Yong Siu’s Mother’s Smile, a song possessed with tenderness and nostalgia.

Tenor Zhuang Jie had three songs, exhibiting examplary vocal control in Liu Bin’s Homesickness, another mother-centred work more than tinged with melancholy. Quite different was Xiao Chunyuan’s An Auspicious Place, its rhythmic accompaniment supporting a more emphatic stance, further contrasted with a feel-good, pop-inspired sentimentality of Gan Yun Zhuo’s Everlasting Love.

Of the instrumental works, Red Peach Blossom & White Apricot Blossom as arranged by Cao Ying was dressed with French impressionist colours. Sin Jin How’s flute ably provided virtuosic turns and nuances, transforming this Shanxi folksong into an almost improvisatory fantasy.

Violinist Siew Yi Li was the busiest instrumentalist after pianist Koh, having performed no less than five showpieces. Chiew Keng Hoon’s arrangement of Xinjiang folksong Swallow Capriccio had a typically Central Asian flavour, and closed in soulful repose. Daniel Kom’s Variations On The More We Get Together, after the Austrian children’s song O Du Lieber Augustin, included a waltz, rhumba, romance in minor key and a variation a la Johann Pachelbel for good measure.

Lee Ngoh Wah’s Galloping Horses was a variation of the popular erhu melody Sai Ma (Horse-racing). Its familiarity was topped by Lian Sek Lin’s Kaka Dan Mama, which merged the Indonesian folksongs Burung Kakak Tua and Aiyo Mama into a melange which the audience simply loved.

Just as recognisable was the melody of Di Tanjung Katong Rhapsody, as crafted by Frederick Ng Eng Thong. The music played with polytonality and obliged the violinist to jump through several Paganinian hoops of string calisthenics before its grandstanding close.

Pride of place, however, went to Lisa Zhao Lingyan’s Variations Of Yi Folk Dance, which transformed Wang Huiran’s simple Yunnan theme into something truly special. Its reimagination as a riveting rhapsody from Roarin’ Twenties Paris saw cellist Olivia Chuang and pianist Koh playing like people possessed. Its fanciful flight of ostinatos chanelled the spirits of Darius Milhaud, Bohuslav Martinu, Igor Stravinsky and hot jazz without imitating them. Hearing this work was alone worth the price of entry.

Here are the composers and performers:
He Miya, Lisa Zhao Lingyan, Clarence Lee,
Zhuang Jie, Quek Yong Siu, Xiao Chunyuan,
Lee Yuk Chuan, Chiew Keng Hoon, Lian Sek Lin,
Cao Ying, Frederick Ng Eng Thong, Daniel Kom,
Liu Bin, Andren Koh & MC (from L)

MUSICAL MAGIC

ALIM BEISEMBAYEV Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (21 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 June 2024 with the title "Pianist Alim Beisembayev plays with sparkle and musicality".

International piano competitions churn out first prize-winners by the bucket-load every year, and it takes a rather special young musician to stand out from the crowd. The most recent first prize-winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition, 26-year-old Alim Beisembayev from Kazakhstan who won in 2021 has exactly what that X-factor.

The Impromptus of Franz Schubert are often played to death by bored students in exams, but in Beisembayev’s hands, they sparkled like gems. He chose the more demanding set of four from Op.142, and one was immediately struck by an innate sense of poetry and luscious layered sound.

Exercises they are not, he reminded the listener time and again. The hymn-like Impromptu No.2 with its contrasted flowing central section, and the theme with tricky variations of Impromptu No.3 were all sensitively shaped. In the more technical Hungarian-flavoured Impromptu No.4, its vital element of rhythmic dance came to the fore.

For Claude Debussy’s Second Book of Images, which is less often heard, Beisembayev’s deft use of pedalling ensured that the bell sonorities of Cloches a travers les feuilles (Bells Through The Leaves) rang with utmost clarity amid accompanying background rustles.

In Et la lune descend sur temple le qui fut (And the Moon Sets Over the Temple That Was), the spectral mysteries of the Orient were vividly evoked. Poissons d’or (Gold Fish) may have been inspired by Japanese prints, but the shimmering hues were not seen through indoor fishbowls but the vastness of an ocean with high surging waves.

The height of disrespect.
Some boomer uncle checking his social media.
The very definition of pearls before swine.

And who was not waiting for Frederic Chopin’s 12 Etudes from Op.25? Any disappointment caused by these delicious finger-twisters being expunged from Korean pianist Yunchan Lim’s recital on 28 June was more than made up by Beisembayev’s memorable account.

For him, these studies were no longer technical exercises calculated to excite and thrill, but rather exquisite miniature tone poems. There is not a single unmusical bone in his body. When faced with his interpretations, one does not exclaim “how difficult this is” but rather “how beautiful it all sounds”.

The wind-caressed arpeggios in A flat major (Etude No.1), rapid syncopations in A minor (No.3), treacherous thirds in G sharp minor (No.6) and stampeding octaves in B minor (No.10) all become mere means to a musical end. Through these, mellifluous voices emerge, no least in the lyrical central section of the “Wrong Note” Etude No.5 in E minor.

The tempestuous “Winter Wind” (No.11) and storm-tossed “Ocean” (No.12) were impressive in generating volume, but most heartrending of all was the simple cello-like melody of the C sharp Etude (No.7) being transformed into a tragedy of epic proportions.

Beisembayev’s superb encores of Serge Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G major (Op.32 No.5) and Franz Liszt’s Transcendental Etude No.10 in F minor were in the same spirit: an ultimate triumph of musicality over facility.

ALIM BEISEMBAYEV
was presented by MW Events.

We're giving away the answer,
but what the heck.

Do you know what is the most performed Singaporean orchestral work of the 21st century? This is not a trick question.

The answer: The Sisters' Islands by Wang Chenwei

It just received its 80th performance by the Philharmonic Wind Orchestra led by Leonard Tan in its wind orchestra transcription, which was also a world premiere. This version will also be performed in South Korea for the World Association of Symphonic Bands & Ensembles (WASBE) conference in July.

Wang Chenwei is presently the
Composer-in-Residence of the
Singapore Chinese Orchestra,
the youngest person to hold this accolade.

Wang Chenwei, who was conferred the Young Artist Award in 2023, was just 17 years old and student of Raffles Junior College when he composed The Sisters' Island. The original score was for Chinese traditional instruments, which won the Singapore Composers Award at the inaugural Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Competition in 2006.

There have since been arrangements for two zhongruans with piano, Western symphony orchestra, and now wind orchestra.

Let's have a listen to the different versions of this symphonic poem, based on a Malay legend, and enjoy. A detailed description of the work and its movements may be found in the description of each video.

Original Chinese orchestra version,

performed by Singapore Chinese Orchestra:

Version for two zhongruans and piano:

Version for Western symphony orchestra,

performed by Singapore Symphony Orchestra:

Want to hear more?

Here's a performance by the

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra:

Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra (Taiwan):

Now let us await

the wind orchestra version!

FLYING HIGH –

BEYOND OUR ISLANDS’ SHORES

Philharmonic Wind Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (23 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 June 2024 with the title "Philharmonic Wind Orchestra plays wide repertoire with aplomb".

The Philharmonic Wind Orchestra (PWO), formerly known as The Philharmonic Winds, will travel next month to South Korea for the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) conference. Its pre-tour concert led by music director Leonard Tan was a showcase what an excellent local ensemble can achieve in a variety of repertoire.

The concert opened with American composer John Mackey’s Asphalt Cocktail, an exhilarating showpiece that was literally a short ride in a fast machine. Its big brassy sonorities, accompanied by a relentless percussion beat and effects, suggested this was not a subway train but a runaway taxicab carrying the warning, “fasten your seatbelts!”

More serious was American Kent Kennan’s Sonata for trumpet and wind ensemble in three movements with PWO alumnus Chong Loo Kit in the demanding solo role. Described as neoclassical, the music recalled ceremonial brass of olden times, but viewed through a tonal modern idiom of German modernist Paul Hindemith. Its acerbic quality however yielded unusual lyricism in the central movement’s aria-like melody, lovingly voiced, before closing with dance movements and busy counterpoint for its lively finale.

The legendary 86-year-old British wind orchestra maestro Timothy Reynish, PWO’s principal guest conductor, made a cameo appearance directing Spanish composer Luis Serrano Alarcon’s attractive Spanish Dances. This local premiere delighted in complex rhythms which the orchestra mastered with aplomb, including a Moorish-flavoured central movement with offstage piccolo and drum-beat, and a finale lit up by solo trumpet and the ring of castanets and tambourine.

Photo: Pianomaniac

The concert’s second half comprised wholly works by Singaporean composers, beginning with Leong Yoon Pin’s only wind band piece, Day-break And Sunrise (1992). Typical of the late doyen of local composers, his melodic intent is not revealed immediately. Instead, motivic shards and fragments emerge like nascent beams through the morning mist. Full illumination was achieved, albeit briefly as the music soon swiftly dissipated into fine ether.

Conductor Leonard Tan holds aloft
Leong Yoon Pin's orchestral score.

Photo: Pianomaniac

Baltimore-based young composer Lee Jia Yi’s newly commissioned betwixt and between received its world premiere. Written in four short connected movements, the music shifted imperceptibly between Noise, seemingly random squeaks, slashes, swooshes and slides, and Harmony, represented by more stable long-held notes, which wavered into quarter-tones and overtones. Bewildering as this might sound, there was a strangely calming quality when the ears began to adapt to each of the different alternating sonic milieus.

Photo: Pianomaniac

French horn player Alan Kartik
demonstrates playing the conch.
Photo: Pianomaniac

The 21st century Singaporean work that has received the most performances has to be Young Artist Award recipient Wang Chenwei’s symphonic poem The Sisters’ Islands (2006). Eighty as of this evening, to be exact. Originally scored for Chinese orchestra, the world premiere of its wind orchestra version was no less vivid. Using the Indo-Malay pelog scale, Wang crafted motifs representing the eponymous sisters, the sea and its legends in this programmatic work.

The use of qudi and rebana lent
The Sisters' Islands an exotic Nanyang flavour.
Photo: Pianomaniac

Its lush scoring was well-realised on wind and brass, with the blare of the conch shell and ocarina’s diminutive voice being pivotal extras. Closing with a grand apotheosis of sisterly love, one can foresee the world band conference in Korea getting an unadulterated taste of true Singaporeana.

Photo: Pianomaniac

All photographs by Kwang
unless otherwise stated.

KIRILL GERSTEIN Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday (27 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 June 2024 with the title "Pianist Kirill Gerstein performs with imagination and musicality".

Russian-American pianist Kirill Gerstein is well-known for crafting his recitals on interesting themes using a creative mix of standard and unusual repertoire. His recital at the 2019 Singapore International Piano Festival had the overarching subject of “heroes and mortality”, but the theme of his largely Romantic programme this time around was not so clear cut.

Frederic Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat major (Op.61) opened the recital, one of the Pole’s more complex and discursive late works. Its elaborate introduction was well-delineated, the playing crisp and clear-headed, and soon the characteristic polonaise rhythm was first sensed. This was not always apparent amid the fussy filigree, but its heroic strains would eventually prevail, shining like a beacon at its end.

American jazz pianist Brad Mehldau’s short and moody Apres Faure No.13 (Nocturne) seemed a strange choice until heard as a prelude to Gabriel Faure’s Nocturne No.13 in B minor (Op.119), a late and seemingly forbidding work. The chromatic language uniting both pieces became key, the music turning restless and turbulent before closing darkly and quietly as how the Mehldau began.

In complete contrast were Francis Poulenc’s rarely-heard Three Intermezzi, melodies and dances coloured with the frivolity and insouciance of Gay Paree. The first half concluded with Franz Liszt’s Polonaise No.2 in E major where unlike the earlier Chopin, its martial rhythm was worn proudly like a battle standard. The unabashed outward virtuosity was a case of Liszt out-Chopining Chopin, with a neat symmetry of programming now becoming more apparent.

The second half almost replicated the first by beginning with Chopin, this time his Fantasy in F minor (Op.49), another extended work but dominated by a syncopated march rhythm. Gerstein’s technique was unimpeachable, delivering its grand climaxes with the force of personality the music deserved.

Now the focus shifted to the Austro-Hungarian capital with Robert Schumann’s Faschingsschwank Aus Wien (Carnival Jest From Vienna), comprising five movements of irresistible song and dance. The chord-heavy opening movement was given buoyancy and lift, and humour in the form of cheeky quotes from La Marseillaise (the French national anthem, an echo of Paris again) and Beethoven was nicely rendered.

This was by far the longest work, but Gerstein’s imagination and musicality made it a pleasure to behold. The Viennese waltz had to figure somewhere, and that was Sergei Rachmaninov’s delicious transcription of Fritz Kreisler’s violin classic Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow), with freewheeling improvisatory flourishes sounding anything but mournful.

Still in three-quarter time, Chopin’s ebullient Waltz in A flat major (Op.42) closed the recital proper on a spirited high. So what was the evening’s theme? Likely, an invitation to the dance. There was, however, nothing terpsichorean about Gerstein’s two equally impressive encores.

A more moving performance of Rachmaninov’s Melodie (Op.3 No.3), in its original and unadorned edition, would be hard to find. And the swiftly running notes of the Bach-Busoni chorale prelude Nun freut euch, Lieben Christen g’mein (Rejoice, Beloved Christians) joyously swept the board.

Photos by Ung Ruey Loon

Kirill Gerstein was

presented by Altenburg Arts.

THE SINGAPOREAN COMPOSERS SERIES / Teng Ensemble / Review

POETRY OF THE HARP / VIRTUOSE DE LA HARP / Xavier de Maistre & Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

HIGHLY STRUNG / Yang Shuxiang & re:Sound / Review

CHILDHOOD MELODIES OF YESTERYEARS / Ding Yi Music Company / Review

SYC & FRIENDS: 60 YEARS YOUNG / SYC Ensemble Singers / Review

SEEDS OF HOPE: YOUNG INTERNATIONAL PIANISTS IN CONCERT / Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts / Review

LEST WE FORGET

AN EYE FOR BEAUTY: SINGAPORE THROUGH THE LENSES OF CAO YAPING / BOOK LAUNCH

30TH SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL: JIN JU & YEOL EUM SON Piano Recitals / Review

30TH SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL: ASHLEY WASS & MEI YI FOO Piano Recitals / Review

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS: ALIM BEISIMBAYEV on 21 June 2024

AFRICAN SANCTUS / Vocal Associates / Review

A WIND CONCERT NOT TO MISS: PHILHARMONIC WIND ORCHESTRA'S FLYING HIGH

BRAHMS THE TWO PIANO CONCERTOS / Tedd Joselson & Asian Symphony Orchestra / Review

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS: KIRILL GERSTEIN on 27 June 2024

COMPOSITIONS EXCHANGE 2024 / Association of Composers (Singapore) / Review

MUSICAL MAGIC / ALIM BEISEMBAYEV Piano Recital / Review

THE MOST PERFORMED 21ST CENTURY SINGAPOREAN ORCHESTRAL WORK

FLYING HIGH - BEYOND OUR ISLANDS' SHORES / Philharmonic Wind Orchestra / Review

KIRILL GERSTEIN Piano Recital / Review