PIANO MASTERWORKS on Decca / Review

PIANO MASTERWORKS 

Decca 478 0474 (50 CDs)

Piano Masterworks is the modest title for this 50-CD box-set from Decca, possibly the largest single collection of piano music on CD since Philips’ Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century collection from the turn of the century. It draws from the rich back catalogues of Decca, Philips and Deutsche Grammophon (the Polygram-Universal labels) and showcases performances from the late greats like Wilhelm Backhaus and Clara Haskil to relative youngsters like Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Evgeny Kissin. 

Is this the ultimate piano box-set ever assembled? Almost, but not quite. This collection is aimed at the casual listener and beginner rather than connoisseur, the choice of recordings going for the popular, tried and tested rather than the historically informed. The works are also presented alphabetically by composer, not historically or chronologically. Thus, CD 1 is an all-Bach recital (from Andras Schiff) while CD 50 includes Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. (coupled with Dohnanyi’s Variations on a Nursery Tune, also with Schiff). All the other composers fall conveniently in between.

Because of its general nature and easy-listening slant, 20th century piano music is given short shrift. There is nothing more modern than Prokofiev and Gershwin here. No Scriabin (left), Bartok, Janacek or Szymanowski, just to name some early important 20th century composers who wrote for the piano. There is a concise but elegant essay about the history of the piano by Jeremy Siepmann in the booklet, but no biographical information on the composers or the pianists. 

Sets like these will invariably draw lists of grouses, about who and what should have been included. There is also a niggling feeling that less thought has been put into compiling this list than should have been expected. For example, the entire first disc of Roberto Szidon’s collection of Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies was reproduced wholesale. The listener gets to hear to only the first 10 rhapsodies, when a more selective compilation (which should have included Nos. 11, 12, 13, 15 and 19) would have been preferable. 

André Previn’s all-Gershwin disc includes An American in Paris, which certainly does not qualify as a “piano masterwork”. Personally, I could have done without Jean-Marc Luisada’s 2 discs worth of Chopin Mazurkas, and gone for the Études instead, with one CD to spare. Probably the single worst disc is Olli Mustonen’s perverse readings of the Chopin (No.1) and Grieg concertos. Almost anybody else in either concerto would have been preferable. 

These caveats should not hide the fact that most if not all of the performances included are very good ones, and can stand tall in any respectable collection. 

Here are my personal favourites:

Martha Argerich (left) in Chopin Préludes (Op.28) – blistering stuff, especially her devil-may-care reading of the B flat minor Prélude – and a selection of short pieces. This is Argerich’s only contribution to the set, a pity. Radu Lupu in two Schubert Sonatas (D.845 and 894). Magisterial and wonderfully idiomatic. Has anybody played these better? Jean-Yves Thibaudet in two CDs of concertos with Charles Dutoit conducting – both Ravel and Liszt concertos with Totentanz, Hungarian Fantasy, and Concertinos by Arthur Honegger and Jean Francaix. These are terrific recordings of familiar repertoire, and also introduces the listener to less often-heard works.

Zoltan Kocsis (left) in all four Rachmaninov concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody. These were vilified when they first appeared in the 1980s, but have stood the test of time because of their enormous energy and vitality. Kocsis’ own transcription of Vocalise (Op.34 No.14) is a delicious encore. Alexander Toradze in Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos No.1,3 and 4 (for left hand) was an unusual choice, but these are impassioned and solid performances backed by no less than Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra. Pascal Rogé in generous recitals of Debussy, Ravel (including one of the better Gaspards) and Satie.

Andras Schiff (left) in practically everything he does. Here we have his Bach (including piano concertos), Mozart sonatas (K.331-333), Mendelssohn concertos, Tchaikovsky and Dohnanyi. His Goldberg Variations should have been included instead of a much less refined one by Andrei Gavrilov.

What should have been included, and this is a personal wish-list:

Chopin Études (Ashkenazy, Pollini or Vasary), Grieg Lyric Pieces (Gilels), Brahms Variations and late pieces (Katchen), Scriabin Sonatas (Ashkenazy), Bartok piano works (Kocsis), Prokofiev Sonatas (Richter/Pollini for No.7) and Stravinsky's Three Movements from Petruskha (Pollini).

There was no room for some of the greatest pianists of the Universal stable such as Ashkenazy, Bolet, Brendel, Cherkassky, Horowitz, Pollini, Uchida and Zimerman. However one gets Arrau, Barenboim, Berman, Curzon, Gulda, Kempff, Kissin, Richter and Serkin – not too shabby at all. At SGD$159.95 or just over SGD$3 a disc, this is still a reasonable bargain, and will make a very pleasant Christmas or New Year surprise.

LOST GENIUS by Kevin Bazzana / Review

LOST GENIUS
by Kevin Bazzana
Carroll & Graf Publishers
Hardcover / 383 pages

Do you have a musical child prodigy with the world seemingly at his or her feet? Beware, as this is a cautionary tale about what can go wrong when parents’ unfulfilled ambitions and avarice take precedence over the special needs of growing talent.

Ervin Nyiregyhazi (1903-87) was all but a forgotten pianist when he died in abject poverty, known only to a small coterie of pianophiles. Yet in his teenage years, he was a musical superstar. He played three concertos in a single concert at 13, was feted by royalty and hailed as the next Franz Liszt. So what caused this reversal of fortunes?

Nyiregyhazi (pronounced Near-edge-har-zee) was born in Budapest, Hungary to a Jewish family of middling musicians. A weak and adulterous father coupled with a domineering and control-freak of a mother was sure recipe for disaster.

Never allowed to grow up like a normal child, he was molly-coddled, served hand and foot for every caprice and fancy. Unable to handle relationships, fame and fortune, and the stresses of a burgeoning career, the excesses that plague today’s pop icons soon took their toll.

With concerts down to a trickle, he was reduced to playing in B-grade movies and being a hand model for actors and other pianists. A nadir was reached when he was re-introduced into concert life as the mysterious Mr X, performing a recital in Los Angeles wearing a hood over his head.

Despite the humiliation, Nyiregyhazi maintained an old world aristocratic demeanor, and continued to live beyond his means. “I’m addicted to Liszt, sex and alcohol – not necessarily in that order.” was a boast of this man-child. He married ten times, mostly fraught and unstable unions on a whim, and lived like a destitute, sometimes in subways and brothels.

He devoted much time to composing, but these were highly personal and largely unplayable works, with titles ranging from the remarkably mundane to near-pornographic bizarreness. One such latter piece was titled Orgy of the Despearadoes: Mutiny in Singapore.

In his old age, he was afforded a renaissance when piano-fanciers contrived his return into the recording studio in the 1970s. These records even proved a best-seller, however his playing divided critics; some praised his orchestral-like sonorities while others vilified him as a sham. What was certain: Nyiregyhazi was a relic of a bygone era.

He gave his final concerts in Japan in 1982, arranged by a group of cult-like devotees. Like an uncanny earlier version of David Helfgott (of Shine notoriety), his name was once again - albeit briefly - in the limelight, before dissipating into obscurity.

Kevin Bazzana, whose penchant seems to be for wayward pianists (Glenn Gould, for example), writes with sympathy and much vividness, even if the narrative of Nyiregyhazi’s marriages and numerous affairs descend into the realm of pulp fiction.

Some YouTube performances to enjoy:

Nyiregyhazi plays 

Liszt's Mazeppa (Piano roll)

Possibly the most epic recording of

Liszt's Vallee d'Obermann.

Genius or perversity?

A Bittersweet Life: Loke Hoe Kit Cello Recital / Review

A BITTERSWEET LIFE
LOKE HOE KIT, Cello
with LIM YAN, Piano
Esplanade Recital Studio
Saturday (27 December 2008)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 December 2008.

Those sceptics who wondered where the Singapore Symphony Orchestra would find young Singaporean soloists to star in its annual President’s Young Talents Concert series should rest easy given the quality of new names coming through. The New York-trained cellist Loke Hoe Kit is one of these, and his demanding solo recital gave much reason for hope.

Sporting sunshades and a coiffure streaked with crimson tints and sparkles, one could be forgiven for expecting the worst, but Loke proved that his musicianship was more than just packaging. The opening with a Desplanes Intrada and Haydn Divertimento was a quite arresting one, at once highlighting a solid grounding in sound production, one comfortably alternating between lyricism and athleticism.

Off came the shades, revealing mascara and more sparkles on the eyelashes! This seeming Boy George of the cello than polished off Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo, a single-movement concerto inspired by the biblical King Solomon’s book of Ecclesiastes. Here was a time to be serious, and his oration moved with much eloquence and persuasion, distinguished with bold strokes and gestures, like an impassioned voice from the wilderness.

Clearly he realised the music’s deep dark undertones, and that without pain there would be no glory. Sharing the angst was the excellent pianist Lim Yan (left), whose lush orchestral approach to the piano part (also in the composer’s hand) was every bit as trenchant. Lim also shone in the very tricky piano part in Chopin’s Introduction & Polonaise (Op.3).

Local violinist See Ian Ike than joined Loke in two works for violin and cello - Bohuslav Martinu’s Duo No.1 and the popular Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia. Both musicians operated like hand and glove, adroitly negotiating the music’s twists and turns with much relish.

The Gregor Piatigorsky rewriting of Schubert’s Introduction, Theme and Variations (Op.82 No.2) was based on a quite brilliant work for piano duet, last performed in 2005 by the duo of Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung. Here, Loke’s relative reticence came in the way of concluding the “big” pieces on a truly swashbuckling high. Two of the three encore-like pieces that followed - song transcriptions Fauré’s Apres un reve and Debussy’s Beau soir – showed that he was most at home with the meditative and the sensitive.

The Sunday Times: Classical CD of the Year 2008

Published in The Sunday Times 

of 28 December 2008.

Please click on image to read the review.

I reviewed 48 CD recordings in the pages of The Straits Times in 2008. When asked to pick my favourite recording for the year, I was quite spoilt for choice. Ultimately I opted for something rather special and unique, a very good "live" recording of Singaporean music - the three string quartets by Tan Chan Boon (born 1965) performed by musicians from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. This is music that deserves to be heard by anybody remotely interested in the local scene and chamber music in general. Can we dream of hearing his four symphonies sometime?

Beyond Boundaries: Concert by re:mix / Review

BEYOND BOUNDARIES
re:mix
FOO SAY MING, Violin & Leader
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (21 December 2008)

This review was published in The StraitsTimes

on 23 December 2008.

What are the factors that make certain pop songs memorable, sometimes immortal? Great melodies, ear-catching harmonies, infectious rhythms and soppy lyrics. The first three are the hallmarks of songs that regularly appear in the concerts of classically-trained string ensemble re:mix.

The songs of Abba, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Cantopop group Beyond and local xinyao (1980s Singapore Chinese pop songs) are distinctive because of their context within time and place. However, when subject to arrangements for a medium alien to the original inspiration, the music loses a vital part of its original flavour.

re:mix always plays on its feet,
excepting the cellists and bassists.

With due respect to local composers Kelly Tang, Benjamin Lim and Cultural Medallion winner Iskandar Ismail, who contributed 12 song arrangements in the latest re:mix concert, there was a certain uniformity in their highly sympathetic and well-crafted efforts when heard in succession. There was a tendency to overplay on contrapuntal possibilities. A simulated Baroque concerto grosso sound – reminiscent of many a Beatles arrangement – seemed to dominate in songs like Dancing Queen, Honey Honey, and Really Love You, for example.

Nevertheless, it did not prevent re:mix from entertaining and charming its near-capacity audience. Leader Foo Say Ming, with uncharacteristically moussed-up hair, was his usual irrepressible self, drolly introducing each piece and moving niftily with the music.

Some memorable moments include heartland song Shi Shui Chang Liu (Flowing River), a string meditation that featured solos from cellist Elizabeth Tan (not Elizabeth Tan Su Yin. Yes, there are two cellists with the same name in Singapore!) and Foo himself. There were guest performers, none more exuberant than Roger Wang on amplified acoustic guitar and Tama Goh on the drums.

Roger Wang with Foo Say Ming (extreme left)

The bossa nova suite – Girl from Ipanema, Corcovado and One Note Samba - by Brazilian icon Jobim, arranged by Iskandar, clearly rocked the house. Both Wang and Goh extemporised freely in their ad libitum bits, with the ensemble breaking ranks to witness the virtuosity. The audience was encouraged to leave their seats to join in the revelry, but only one child obliged.

Whether or not it was its intention, the group as carved a niche in the local music scene as its hippest crossover group.

CAMBODIA, 11-15 December 2008

In case you've been wondering, PIANOMANIA did not go AWOL. It just spent 5 days in Cambodia, the ultimate land of charm and cruelty (to borrow the words of Stan Stesser). By the way, I did not spot a single piano in Siem Reap nor Phnom Penh. Here are some photos taken from my cheapo Fujifilm Finepix A820 camera.

Sunset over Phnom Bakheng.

The morning sun filters through the leaves over the ruins of Ta Prohm.

Devatas at Ta Prohm.

Faces of Jayavarman VII at the Bayon, Angkor Thom.
Talk about being narcissitic.

Reflections of Angkor Wat.

Smiling boy at Angkor Wat.

Ornate doorway at Banteay Srei.

Blue skies over the Royal Palace, Phnom Penh.

Birds fly over the Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh.

Mr Chum Mey, one of 7 survivors at the

infamous Tuol Sleng S-21 centre.

"Tell the world about what happened here," he said.

Lest we forget... Never again.

Memorial at Choeung Ek killing fields.

Phnom Penh at twilight.

The Philharmonic Winds in Concert: Review

THE PHILHARMONIC WINDS IN CONCERT
LEONARD TAN, Conductor
Esplanade Concert Hall
Sunday (7 December 2008)
This review was published in The Straits Times 

on 9 December 2008.

The Philharmonic Winds’ final concert with its Music Director, the rising young Singaporean conductor Leonard Tan (who leaves for the States for further studies next month), showcased the length and breadth of the wind orchestra repertoire as well as the orchestra’s versatility.

Leonard Tan is one of Singapore's

rising young conductors.

Beginning with Gordon Jacob’s William Byrd Suite, the well-disciplined ensemble made the Elizabethan pieces sound more than merely a collection of studies. It took some time for the young musicians to warm up and by the fourth piece The Mayden’s Song, a full well rounded sound was achieved. This and the final passacaglia, The Bells, built up to a massive climax.

American saxophonist Vincent Gnojek was the irresistible guest in Italian-American Paul Creston’s Saxophone Concerto, a highly accessible work modeled on the jazzy insouciant charms of Milhaud and Gershwin. His free-wheeling virtuosity, brilliantly capturing its flights of fancy and flashy cadenzas was inspiring, with the orchestra hurdling its multiple rhythmic pitfalls with much panache.

The evening’s tour de force belonged to its most dissonant work, Czech-American Karel Husa’s Music For Prague 1968, precipitated by the events of Prague Spring. Its anguish and anger came through with great trenchancy, if not poignancy. This was also helped by the conductor’s timely pre-performance illustrations. As a sonic encounter in the resplendent acoustics of Esplanade, this listener ventures the opinion that this performance even tops the 1980s account by the SSO at Victoria Concert Hall conducted by the composer himself (left).

Much lighter in mood was Herbert Owen Reed’s La Fiesta Mexicana, a 3-movement symphony on Mexican themes. One cannot pretend that this 23-minute work did not outlast its welcome given its repetitious development of limited material. However the band acquitted itself well with its committed account, especially in the raucous outer movements. Its riot of sound in the final Carnival, reminiscent of Stravinsky’s Petrushka, augmented by more rah-rah circus music in the encore closed the concert on a rowdy high.

Anne Sofie von Otter and Her Merry Swedish Gentlemen: Review

ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER
& HER MERRY SWEDISH GENTLEMEN
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (6 December 2008)
A greatly edited version of the review

was published in The Straits Times on 8 December 2008

Here was a Christmas concert with a difference. Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, well loved for her interpretations of baroque oratorios and German lieder, showed a side of herself that one may not have suspected.

First her merry band of minstrels trooped in playing traditional Swedish folk music, setting the stage for Otter in a couple of songs sung in Swedish, including one by Benny Anderson, better known as a member of ABBA. Then came the obligatory Christmas medley, starting with The Christmas Song, the one that begins “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” Through all of this, Otter sang with a microphone in hand, barely extending her fabled vocals.

Her merry men also had opportunities of their own, accordionist Espen Leite (the only Norwegian of the gang) shined in Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango, and Torbjorn Nasbom improvised on a nyckelharpa (left), a traditional stringed instrument with keys carried like a machine gun and bowed like a fiddle. Quirky but charming.

Otter’s mezzo is a warm and soothing presence, always reassuringly hypnotic. Applied to favourites like Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Silent Night, the effect was to soothe the savage beast and melt the hardest of hearts.

Those who longed for her non-amplified voice got it early in the second half. In a one-woman Santa Lucia procession, Otter paraded through the hall singing the popular Neapolitan melody – so simple yet mesmerising. An equally lovely group of songs, including the lilting Mary’s Cradlesong by Max Reger, were sensitively accompanied by longtime collaborator Bengt Forsberg, who also performed the Bach-Hess Jesu Joy Of Man’s Desiring and Grainger’s Sussex Mummers’ Christmas Carol.

More hair was let down, literally by Svante Henryson (his wild locks a throwback to the Beatles) whose cello solo was accompanied by the infectious foot-stamping by all on stage. The balance of the evening was filled with unashamed pops – Charles Trenet’s Boom!, Pablo Ruiz’s Sway, Zequinha de Abreu’s Tico-Tico No Fuba, and more ABBA, finishing appropriately with Thank You For The Music.

The versatile Otter was positively rocking. What had begun like a classical concert concluded like a rock gig. Wasn’t it Seneca and Felix Mendelssohn who said, “True pleasure is a serious business”?

ARISTO SHAM PIANO RECITAL / Asia On The Edge Festival / Review

ARISTO SHAM Piano Recital
Asia On The Edge Festival
Chamber, The Arts House
Friday (5 December 2008)

This review was published in 

The Straits Times on 8 December 2008.

When you are just 12 years of age and named one of the most prodigious pianistic talents in the world, you could be excused for indulging in some showboating. And there were more than ample opportunities in the hour-long recital by Hong Kong youngster Aristo Sham, winner of the prestigious Ettlingen (2006) and Gina Bachauer (2008) International Piano Competitions for Young Pianists.

Previous winners have included Lang Lang and Li Yundi, and if Sham’s trajectory is expertly guided, who is to say he will not go all the way to emulate their achievements? More importantly, the cherubic-looking young man showed that his stupendous technique is allied with a keen mind and superior musicality.

His way with Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue displayed more than just assured fingering and amazing facility. There was a sense that he had something valid to say, as every phrase and sonority showed the purpose and poise of one double his age. In the early Sonata in A flat major (D.557) by Schubert, he delighted in its big gestures and contrasts, yet unfailingly delivered a singing line while reliving its simple innocent joys. His young years were merely a statistic.

To be sure, there were showpieces galore too - those competition warhorses calculated to score with juries and audiences. Copland’s The Cat And Mouse had humour and subtlety over and above its outbursts of prestidigitation. Ginastera’s Three Argentinian Dances mixed lyricisim and percussiveness, rising to each ecstatic climax with requisite aplomb.

There were some wrong notes in Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso, probably precipitated by a flash-happy encroaching photographer, but this was soon forgotten with the feathery lightness of its fairy dance and immaculate octaves that closed the work. More pyrotechnics ignited in Moszkowski’s Spanish Caprice, where its rapidly repeated notes belied a genuine unalloyed exuberance that oozed from every pore. Two encores – one jazzy and one whimsical – closed the evening on a high.

Hong Kong – with its established infrastructure, cultural and pedagogical institutions in place – has produced worldwide winners among its young musicians. Could Singapore – with its emerging potential on the edge - be next?

Aristo Sham was presented by The Arts House as part of the Asia On The Edge Festival.

Aristo with his teacher Eleanor Wong.

Ilya Rashkovskiy at Tedd's, Singapore

ILYA RASHKOVSKIY @ TEDD’S

Singapore, 2 December 2008

Ilya Rashkovskiy, winner of the 2005 Kong Kong International Piano Competition, performed a full-length recital at the Scotts Road apartment of esteemed American pianist Tedd Joselson, now a Singapore permanent resident. The likes of Manny Ax, Fima Bronfman and Murray have been recent guests of Tedd’s, playing on his Yamaha grand piano and generally entertaining themselves. Oh to be a fly on the wall…

Ilya, dressed in full concert attire, was his usual shy and modest self, almost apologetic in his demeanour. Once on the keyboard, he is transformed. His opening Bach Prelude and Fugue (F sharp minor) was clear-headed and unmannered, with the ensuing fugue delighting in its counterpoint. Next came Chopin’s “Octave” Étude in B minor (Op.25 No.11) which raised a storm on a none-too-subtle piano which tended to sound harsh and clattery. The lyrical central section in the major key however sang with mellow tenderness.

An audience of almost 40 caught Ilya in recital.

Having warmed up, Ilya began on his “big pieces”, beginning with Schumann’s Etudes symphoniques (Op.13). He played only the “usual” variations, including repeats where he saw fit. It was an enthralling performance because he displayed an acute understanding of the broad view of the work, which developed arch-like through its short movements. Few details were missed and his fingerwork was close to perfection. The penultimate G sharp minor variation, with its intertwining inner voices, was particularly beautifully shaped, leading to its barnstorming finale.

With scarcely a pause for breath, he launched himself into Brahms’ Paganini Variations (Op.35). A more technical piece than the Schumann, there was a fear of sound and fury signifying little. However Rashkovskiy alternated comfortably between outright virtuosity, which he delivered in spadesful, and letting the quieter variations simmer and sing. The “music box” variation was very pretty but he let the sinuous elaborations of the following number get the better of him; this resulted in a momentary lapse, but he recovered as if nothing happened. 

Variation 14 was not completed as he went directly into Variation 1 of Book Two, as some have done in the past. I would have much preferred to have heard that glorious fugal variation intact; a case of musicus interruptus which could have been avoided. Needless to say, the more treacherous Book Two went swimmingly, with many jaw-dropping passages hurdled with seemingly amazing ease.

Two Rachmaninov players meet:

Ilya with Tedd Joselson

The evening’s host Tedd Joselson was pleased to introduce Ilya’s third big piece, Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata (Op.36), revealing his lineage to the composer. “Horowitz was Rachmaninov’s favourite student, while I was Horowitz’s favourite student,” he announced to the captive audience of about 40 people. 

Rashkovskiy was not overawed as he went headlong into the work’s massive crashing chords and pealing bells. He played the shorter 1931 version, and did he raise the roof with its Romantic rhetoric. More importantly, the contrasts between loud and soft were well established, which made this competition favourite sound less of a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am affair in Ilya’s hands. The big tune of the slow movement and the ensuing coruscating cadenza were particularly impressive.

Needing to catch a midnight flight to Paris (where he plays three recitals at the Salle Cortot), Rashkovskiy offered one encore, more barnstorming in Rachmaninov’s Prélude in C minor (Op.23 No.7).

By the way, Ilya has just gotten married to his fiancée Kayo. Congratulations!

What's New With Piano's Pied Piper? Some Words with Marc-André Hamelin

WHAT’S NEW WITH PIANO’S PIED PIPER:
SOME WORDS WITH 

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN

The Pied Piper himself, Marc-André Hamelin, was in Singapore last weekend where he performed Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Günther Herbig. He is currently on a 3-week long Australasian tour, also performing in Kuala Lumpur (Brahms No.2 with the Malaysian Philharmonic), Hong Kong (Recitals with Haydn, Chopin, Debussy, Godowsky and his own compositions) and Melbourne (Strauss Burleske with the Melbourne Symphony).

We last had a nice long chat in 1997, when he made his first Singapore splash at the Singapore International Piano Festival. So what’s changed from 11 years ago? Hamelin’s discography on Hyperion has progressed geometrically. Alkan, Godowsky, Medtner, Ornstein, Rzewski, Szymanowski, Villa-Lobos, Scriabin and Shchedrin have all made their mark on the pianophile world. His more recent releases have been Haydn Sonatas, Brahms Piano Quartets and Piano Concerto No.2, and wait for this… Chopin’s Second and Third Sonatas. Has Hardcore Hamelin gone mainstream?

Thank goodness not. Over lunch and tea, he assures that his concert repertoire and recording smorgasbord are two separate entities. Mainstream repertoire is what he performs most of the time, and the rarities are reserved for the recording studio and pianophile events like the Rarities of Piano Music Festival at Schloss vor Husum in Germany. The “change” in stance arose as Hyperion has begun to entrust him with more core repertoire. The breakthrough came with his Schumann Carnaval disc (CDA 67120), which “required a lot of persuading”. That and at least six other of his Hyperion recordings have been shortlisted in 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Octopus Books).

Hamelin's latest release.

He obliged by signing "on the buns".

Hyperion’s faith has been repaid as both pianist and A&R are very happy with the lastest offering, Chopin’s Sonatas with the Berceuse, Barcarolle, and two Nocturnes (Op.27) as substantial fillers (CDA 67706). “It also has a picture of a naked girl on the cover!” Hamelin helpfully adds.

Future recordings in the pipeline: more Haydn Sonatas with the F minor Variations and C major Fantasy, Schumann’s Piano Quintet (with the Takacs Quartet), possibly further piano quartets (Leopold Trio) by Fauré and Mendelssohn. Interestingly, Hamelin has himself written a Passacaglia for piano quintet, a work with 19 variations (first performed in 2002 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) which he describes as “very dark”.

Speaking about compositions, Hamelin’s 12 Études will be published by C.F.Peters sometime in 2009. In a volume running over a hundred pages, Hamelin follows in an illustrious line of composers like Chopin, Liszt, Alkan, Debussy, Scriabin and William Bolcom, all of whom wrote studies in groups of a dozen. Six of these are elaborations on pre-existing music and six are completely original compositions. With his permission, here are the twelve:

No.1 Triple Étude (after Chopin)
No.2 Coma berenices (Berenice’s Hair) *
No.3 d’après Paganini-Liszt (La Campanella)
No.4 Étude (after Alkan)
No.5 Toccata grottesca *
No.6 Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti *
No.7 Étude after Tchaikovsky (Lullaby Op.16 No.1) for the left hand
No.8 Erlkönig (after Goethe) *
No.9 d’après Rossini (La Danza)
No.10 d’après Chopin (pour les idées noiré)
No.11 Tango * – a work currently in progress
No.12 Prélude & Fugue *
* original works

(The orginal No.1 after Rimsky-Korsakov’s Bumble Bee is no longer in the list.)

One étude-like piece that does not make that number is Hamelin’s reworking of Abreu’s Tico tico no fuba. “I was at Schotts in London when I saw a series of Virtuoso Transcriptions scores, which included something by Olli Mustonen. I submitted two transcriptions of my own, Tico and the Glazunov Petit Adagio (from The Seasons). And so they accepted Tico,” he recounted. The toughest half page in that score sees the left hand play the melody and rhythm of Tico, while the right hand plays Chopin’s Chromatic Étude in A minor (Op.10 No.2). This is just preceded by a sly quote from Beethoven’s Für Elise. Hamelin was on a train ride from Montreal to Philadelphia when he thought, “Oh noooo! I can’t do this!” We’re sure glad he did.

Another “encore” that has been published (by Theodore Presser), is the Ring Tone Waltz, formerly known as the Valse irritation après Nokia. Everyone knows what that ubiquitous ring tone sounds like. Just do not leave your cellphones on in a Hamelin recital, lest he’ll be forced to play it.

More recently, Hamelin has begun to list his father Gilles Hamelin as one of his teachers. Although he was a pharmacist and amateur pianist, his catholic pianophilic tastes rubbed on to the younger Hamelin. Who were his, and Marc-André’s favourite pianists and role models? “He ran the gamut of historical pianists, including Hofmann, Rosenthal, Friedman, Lhevinne and Godowsky. He preferred the free for all aspects of piano playing. His heart was in the past, feeling that contemporary pianists were too restrained. He had only one or two Alfred Brendel LPs in his collection – Liszt’s Christmas Tree and a selection of Hungarian Rhapsodies. He was also extremely critical of Glenn Gould’s recordings. Despite being Canadian, we hardly talked much about Gould.”

Lunchtime with pianophiles

usually runs well into teatime.

That question had to come. Will Hamelin ever attempt to perform or record Khaikhosru Sorabji’s Opus Clavicembalisticum, once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest piano work? The answer was an emphatic NO. “Do people think that I like to play or record pieces just because they are difficult? I recently attended the New York premiere of the OC, and guess how many people attended? About 60 to 75 at most. Do I want to spend a large chunk of my life learning a work that has extraordinarily little reward? No thanks. What is the point of it? Those who will me to do it are wishing me to an early grave!”

Pianists are known for their longevity, but Hamelin who is still in his 40s is not taking any chances. He eats well but carefully, avoiding the carbohydrates that would worsen diabetes, and consumes only a protein load two hours before a concert. Tamago, Unagi, a handful of beans, Diet Coke and green tea are what he has for lunch. (He had earlier dared me to include his lunch menu in this article!)

He brings out from his wallet a folded photo, and declared, “You can quote me on this!” As his divorce from singer Jody Karin Applebaum is being finalised, he is proud to reveal the new love of his life, Boston-area radio station WGBH 89.7 host Cathy Fuller, who is also a pianist. “There is an interview programme from 2003 with 40 minutes of music and 20 minutes of talk, where you can catch the very first hour of our relationship!” Well spoken like a giddy-headed someone who has just discovered the glories of the piano for the very first time.

Ode to Leningrad / Singapore Symphony Orchestra: Review

Fireman Shostakovich doing
national service during the siege of Leningrad

ODE TO LENINGRAD
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
GUNTHER HERBIG, Conductor
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (29 November 2008)

A slightly edited version of this review was published by The Straits Times on 2 December 2008. Believe it or not, this was my VERY FIRST review of a SSO concert.

Much ink has been spilt over the decades on the supposed merits and failings of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, also known as the Leningrad Symphony. Composed during the darkest hour in the Nazi siege of the city, which cost the lives of a million people, it provided Russians with a ray of hope and final victory. To the less sympathetic, its 75 minutes represent the crudest of Soviet socialist propaganda.

Former East German conductor Günther Herbig (left), on his third visit to Singapore, refused to be drawn into its programmatic polemics. Regarding it as absolute music, as in a Mahler or Bruckner symphony, he drew from the SSO the best it had to offer. In a performance that eschewed hysterics, it avoided the all too easy tendency of descending into bathos.

The opening was well paced, and when the notoriously repetitive Fascist march arrived, it did so surreptitiously before escalating inexorably into full-scale battle mode. The effect was simply awesome, but more importantly it demonstrated that the banalities foisted by Shostakovich were totally intentional, rather than the work of a mere party hack.

Strings were uniformly warm, and the various solos shone, notably Roberto Alvarez’s poignant piccolo and the juggernaut delivered on the snare drum by the Panzer-steady Jonathan Fox. Brass were worked overtime but delivered with great immediacy.

The two consecutive slow movements provided relative respite, but erupted with just the right degree of turbulence in their fast central episodes. The quiet calm before the finale’s onslaught was particularly chilling, and like the rest of the performance, the contrasts delivered made this longest of symphonies well worth the effort. Can we expect Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony from the same forces next?

Speaking of contrasts, there could not have been a more congenial work than Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto, which made the first half of the concert. Canadian super-virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin (left), better known for his Alkan, Godowsky and Medtner, delivered a dream performance. One who delighted in flying octaves and busy prestidigitation, Hamelin also showed that tenderness and crafting a beautiful sonority – evidence in the slow movement – was part of an all-encompassing pianist’s arsenal.

An encore, Hamelin’s own impressionistic Little Nocturne, shaded with crystalline harmonies and delicate pianissimos, was a well-deserved treat.