Leon Fleisher Masterclass @ Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

LEON FLEISHER MASTERCLASS
Tuesday evening, 10 March 2009

The octogenarian American pianist Leon Fleisher gave two masterclasses at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. The first class on Tuesday was greeted by a sizeable audience and its two and a half hours passed ever so swiftly. All photos by Jonathan Wong.

First up was Abigail Sin (Singapore) who gave a very clear-headed and accomplished performance of Bach’s Toccata in C minor (BWV.911), one which showed much awareness of its contrapuntal possibilities.

Fleisher gave the first poser, “Do you have any questions, doubts or frustrations?” which came unexpectedly. About the work’s introduction, a recitative on the right hand, he looked for simplicity in response to its declamatory and rhetorical character. He felt it could have been more direct and played less fast, and there was no need to find variety so soon in the piece. Also, he gave more emphasis to the off-note, while playing down the need to find extra voices when these were not written. He played the entire passage with his left hand and did so quite perfectly too!

In Baroque music, he felt that the temptation to introduce Romantic devices should be resisted, remarking that people often “got tired of simplicity and injected their own neuroses” to the music. On the fugal subject, he observed syncopations to be special events, and deserved to be supported, that is to linger that slight bit longer on the held note. He also helped Abigail shape the voice of the theme, so that it sounded less literal and less metronomic.

In the reprise of the fugue theme with the right hand decoration, he reiterated the importance of these extra notes as a means of variation. For a very short while, he also rested his hands on Abigail’s shoulders and the top of her head, indicating “don’t move excessively!” There is enough in the music for the pianist not to respond physically. So keep it simple, was his message.

The burly Akkra Yeunyonghattaporn (Thailand) played the first movement of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto in C minor (Op.37), accompanied by his teacher Thomas Hecht on second piano. It was big and blustery, as expected, but one filled with unusual sensitivity as well.

At the first instance, Fleisher reminded the young virtuoso to always acknowledge his orchestra ie. the accompanist. He described performing to be a complex activity. A musician is three persons at once: the first plans the performance in advance, the second does the playing, and the third listens and judges, and tells the second how to attain the goals of the first. This was according to him, an “ideal state of schizophrenia”, combining a microcosm (the purpose of each note) and a macrocosm (the grand vision of the work, from the first note to the last).

About the performance, he wanted the pianist’s entry to be more than just scales, a mini-eruption if possible. He gave the analogy of fast-acting yeasts, and how they achieve a rising quality immediately. On the scintillating descending arpeggio passage, he thought it could be achieved with one hand. “You’re too good a pianist to do it with two hands!” he joked, quite seriously. Again, he exhorted the young person to experience the music inside him, and not to be “physically active”.

Fleisher brought up the association between music and mathematics. He felt music to be closer aligned with physics – direction, forces and momentum – especially with its irresistible and inexorable drive. Thus, even a simple scale should not sound like a flat typewriter but rather a force that swells, and “takes the listener by the lapels”. He also noted that pianists are at an enormous disadvantage compared with their string and wind counterparts. They need to constantly create and recreate the illusion of continuity with their instrument. Finally, he discussed pedalling and the effect of senza sordino (without dampers), which he concludes to be with the sustaining pedal after all. He however warned that this effect “offends certain people, mostly Republicans.”

The third pianist to perform was Nattapol Tantikarn (Thailand), whose choice of Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole seemed like a self-indulgent one. One wondered what Fleisher might have to say. What is there to be gained by bringing Balakirev’s Islamey to Arthur Schnabel, for example?

Fleisher, impressed by the flashy pianism, quipped, “That was a lot of piano playing,” and went on to help the young man work on his colour. “Silence, or air space, is often underestimated” he added and got him to take his foot off the right pedal. The effect was startling, as the amorphous mass of sonority had become so much better defined. Finding the right accents and effects amid the dotted rhythms also helped to make Folies d’Espagnole sound more orchestral. As to achieve pianissimo, Fleisher questioned him about not using the middle (sotto voce) pedal. “Why?” he asked. About Spanish music, Fleisher advised him not to be too sentimental as the “Spanish danced with straight backs”, adding that “bullfights were a ritual of blood and sand.”

Fleisher finally described music to be “a horizontal activity with vertical events”, and all musical activity to be “an adventure in anti-gravity”. He emphasised the need for a lift or a spring forward after the keys have been played, and not “hammering coffin nails”. He also asked the pianist to “go for a direct ending”, that is to be off the stool and off the stage before the sound dies out. With that, he leapt off his seat - to the appreciative applause from all who attended.

Leon Fleisher's Two Latest Recordings / Review

Two Hands (ATM CD 1551, recorded in 2004) is a total revelation. The programme is an unusually eloquent one, with a deliberate and conspicuous lack of barnstorming. The Bach transcriptions Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Myra Hess) and Sheep May Safely Graze (Egon Petri) are beautifully rendered, coming to a full fruition of cantabile in the two night pieces, Chopin’s Nocturne (Op.27 No.2) and Debussy’s Clair de lune, both in the magical key of D flat major. In between these: a Scarlatti Sonata (E major, K.380) and Chopin Mazurka (C sharp minor, Op.50 no.3) are both gorgeously shaded.

All these merely whet the appetite for the main course, a glorious reading of Schubert’s final Sonata in B flat major (D.960). Time stands still in the opening Molto moderato, and even with the exposition repeat, there is much to savour in its seamless longeurs. The same goes for the meditative Andante sostenuto slow movement, with its stormy central interlude providing bold contrasts. The faster third and fourth movements breeze through almost effortlessly, and closing with one almighty sweep. One wonders how the musical world had coped with Fleisher’s nearly 40-year hiatus from this repertoire. This is a wonderful album to treasure and listen over and over.

The Journey (ATM CD 1796, recorded in 2005) is marginally less successful. The programme includes works Fleisher had planned to perform and record in the 1960s but curtailed by his right hand affliction. Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother (BWV. 992), his only programmatic keyboard piece, and the “Traumatic” Fantasy & Fugue (BWV. 903, as Fleisher cheekily nicknamed) reveal a near-complete rehabilitation in overcoming fast and tricky passages. His mastery of counterpoint in the fugues comes close to perfection.

Mozart’s Sonata in E flat major (K.282) is two thirds successful; the opening Adagio and Minuets are sheer poetry, but the Allegro finale tends to rush fences somewhat unnecessarily. Could this be an over-compensatory measure on the part of the right hand? Chopin’s Berceuse (another gem in D flat major) follows on the successes of the earlier disc. Stravinsky’s Serenade en la was an unusual but symmetrically apt neo-Baroque choice; lots of Bachian counterpoint and figurations, but coming through with great clarity. After all this, Beethoven’s children’s favourite Fur Elise may seem almost a non sequitur, but one believes there may be far more to this selection. The first ever 2-handed work by a major composer he played as a child?

An interview with Bob Edwards comes as a bonus. Fleisher speaks ever so candidly (and modestly), and is full of humour. Revealing that he has not been cured of focal dystonia, but merely recovering, there was no bitterness to be had in his long but brave struggle. That only opened doors to new opportunities and experiences in life.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2009)

RACHMANINOV Symphony No.2 / Vocalise
Singapore Symphony Orchestra / LAN SHUI
BIS SACD-1712 / Rating ****1/2

Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony has been a staple of the SSO since the Choo Hoey era. Its Slavic melancholy, melodic wealth and surging climaxes have always suited the orchestra to a tee, and with Lan Shui’s direction, the music takes on added lustre and visceral excitement. SSO’s recent success in its tour to China and Taiwan were founded on this hour-long blockbuster, performed without cuts. One however needs to get past the many portamenti, slurs of intonation or what singers call “scoops”, which often connote cloying sentimentality, particularly apparent in this reading. Do these enhance or detract from the music? Can these withstand repeated listening? You be the judge, but do not ditch your favourite Previn, Ashkenazy or Pletnev recordings just yet.

In commemoration of SSO’s 30th anniversary, the cover art captures a decorative pillar from Victoria Concert Hall by Singaporean photographer Collin Tan – a very appropriate symbolic touch.

MARIA
CECILIA BARTOLI, Soprano
Orchestra La Scintilla / Adam Fischer
Decca 475 9077 / Rating *****

Maria Felicia Garcia (1808-1836), better known by her married name Maria Malibran, was the world’s first diva, a singing superstar who attracted adulation and scandal in equal measure. This magnificent (and copiously illustrated) tribute by mezzo Cecilia Bartoli reflects an extraordinary versatility from a time when there were no distinctions between lyrical or dramatic roles, sopranos or mezzos. Bel canto reigns supreme here, with arias from Vincenzo Bellini’s La Sonnambula, I Puritani and Norma. From the latter opera, Bartoli’s intimate and sensuous take on Casta Diva seems a world away from the searing intensity of Maria Callas. Elsewhere, Bartoli delights in the flamenco rhythms of a song by her father Manuel Garcia, yodels effortlessly in Hummel’s Tyrolian Air and Variations, and simulates a one-woman band in her own onomatopoeic Rataplan. Malibran was certainly a character, and Bartoli gloriously relives a bygone era.

PROKOFIEV
20th Century Classics
EMI Classics 2068602 / Rating ****

The name of Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), once considered Russia’s enfant terrible of music, should no longer send shivers down the necks of concert-goers. His penchant for shock effects like grinding discordances and percussiveness is only matched by a rare gift of melody. This 2-CD budget-priced compilation of full-length works performed by a host of classical music’s luminaries attests to this fact.

The loud and violent Scythian Suite (conducted by Sir Simon Rattle) is soothed by the Haydnesque propriety and wit of the Classical Symphony (Efrem Kurtz) This propensity for lightness continues in the rarely heard Sinfonietta (Riccardo Muti) and the quirky sextet which is the Overture on Hebrew Themes (Michel Beroff et al). For a combination of instrumental virtuosity, lyricism and dissonance in equal measure, little comes close to the scintillating Violin Concerto No.1 (Franz Peter Zimmerman) and coruscating Piano Concerto No.1 (Martha Argerich), both early works. Another rarity: the Cello Concerto in E minor (Janos Starker), albeit in a much-excised version. Although Peter and the Wolf does not figure here, this introduction to one of the 20th century’s most approachable composers goes down as easily as ABC.

Young Singaporean Pianist wins International Young Soloist Award

(Please click on image to see

the full article from the 19 March 2009

edition of The Straits Times)

WELL DONE, AZARIAH, SINGAPORE IS PROUD OF YOU!

Azariah Tan's Debut Solo Recital in 2007: A Night of 400 Years / Review

A NIGHT OF 400 YEARS
PIANO RECITAL by AZARIAH TAN
28 February 2007, NUS Theatrette

This review first appeared in The Flying Inkpot in 2007.

At the last National Piano and Violin Competition in December 2005, one pianist had caught my attention, not so much for his virtuosity but his courage. I had written:

Heart-warmer of this morning: Azariah Tan may be hearing-impaired but in Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata (1st movement) and a Chopin nocturne, he outplayed many of his peers. Although he may not make the cut, he’s a thousand times better than those tone-deaf people who auditioned for Singapore Idol. No, make that a million!

No, he did not make it past the quarterfinals, but he did make me sit up and listen. Yes, he did perform with hearing aids on and that - and the playing - was what impressed me. Little that I know that fourteen months later, Azariah was to give his first full-length piano recital.A small but appreciative audience braved the drizzles to hear the sensitive 15-year-old perform. His recital was ambitiously titled A Night of 400 Years, and he played – more or less – in chronological order, from J.S.Bach to Kevin Kern. Prefacing each work with a short chat about the music, it was an engaging way to break the ice.

What characterised Azariah’s playing is a sense of freedom and latitude, not bound by the metronome. This immediately came across in Bach’s Prelude and Fugue No.13 (from Book One of the Well Tempered Clavier), which sounded improvisatory – and almost Romantic - in feel. The crossing lines in the fugue were however very clearly enunciated, satisfyingly closing the piece. Purists – and some teachers - might quibble about his apparent indiscipline at the altar of old Johann Sebastian, but that would have been pedantic.

In the three movements of Haydn’s Sonata No.23 in F major and Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata, his strengths became more palpable. For a young person to discern the stürm und drang of the great masters would have been admirable, but for one with progressive hearing loss to so convincingly carry it out borders close to the miraculous. Azariah’s assured grasp of the sonata form was also a testament to his intelligence in these things. The contrast of the Grave and Allegro molto e con brio sections of the Pathetique’s opening movement were particularly well brought out. While the famous Adagio cantabile plodded on for a bit, the free-flowing Rondo with cheeky touches of rubato made the reading memorable.

Repertoire choice is important and this is where some guidance in programme building would have helped. Azariah chose to play Chopin’s Nocturne in E major Op.62 No.2, which began a little too loudly and he did not have enough dynamic range and variation of tonal colour to follow through. He also seemed overawed in Rachmaninov’s Prélude in C minor Op.23 No.7. Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude, in the same key, might have been a better choice.

Moving into the 20th century, Azariah shone in Debussy’s La cathedrale engloutie, which allied power and subtlety in equal degree. Even more impressive: his mercurial handling of Copland’s Scherzo Humoristique: The Cat and the Mouse, which bristled and scampered like no other. This was without the best performance of the evening His ease at repeated notes and keyboard leaps, and wide palette of shades all suggest that he will enjoy discovering much more 20th century music – more Debussy, even Messiaen and Ligeti.

Has there been a greater purveyor of

music cheese than Richard Clayderman?

So ended the “serious” part of the recital. Azariah’s last three offerings were from popular music. His take of Paul Desmond’s Take Five sounded strangely fettered. His free-ranging right hand runs were not matched by a stiff unyielding left hand. Paul de Senneville’s Ballade pour Adeline is without doubt the cheesiest piece of waffle ever conceived for the piano (putting into the shade Badarzewka-Baranowska’s The Maiden’s Prayer forever). No one should ever include it in any recital, ever. Not even its most culpable perpetrator – the colossally mediocre Richard Clayderman (above). At any rate, Azariah played it well, mastering its oh-so-fearsome rising arpeggios, but so what?

Leaving the best for the last, Azariah’s playing of Kevin Kern’s simple Paper Clouds (inspired by Bach’s very first Prelude and Fugue in C major) was simply magical. His feathery light and sensitive touch, coupled with a fine of rhythm would have made the composer proud. There were two encores. Azariah’s handling of the wistfully melancholic Chopin Nocturne in B flat minor Op.9 No.1 more than made up for his earlier Chopin offering, while another Kevin Kern classic – The Enchanted Garden – lived up to its title and closed the recital on a very lyrical note.

Azariah has a very special talent. Even if he does not make music a career (I can think of only one hearing-impaired musician who has made it really big, the phenomenal percussionist Evelyn Glennie), he has what many far more efficient technicians of the keyboard lack – a very high EQ (Emotional Quotient). He will touch the lives of many people with his music wherever he goes.

Update: Azariah Tan is now a student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

ALEXANDER IVASHKIN Cello Recital / Review

(Photo by Low Shao Suan)

ALEXANDER IVASHKIN Cello Recital
with LOW SHAO YING, Piano
Conservatory Orchestra Hall
Monday (23 March 2009)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 25 March 2009.

The reputation of Russian cellist Alexander Ivashkin lies largely with his committed advocacy of 20th century Russian music, and the small audience of about a hundred that attended his little-publicised recital at one of the Conservatory’s smaller spaces was not disappointed.

Presumably they came to hear his pronouncements on modern Russian icons Shostakovich and Prokofiev, which indubitably had the mark of authenticity. The former’s Sonata in D minor (Op.40), although one of his more approachable efforts, dripped with irony and delighted in abrupt shifts in moods and dynamics. The scherzo’s moto perpetuo spun like a madhouse carousel while the finale’s seemingly jocular dance reeked with faked smiles and forced laughter.

It was however within the deep recesses of the third movement’s Largo that yielded the music’s inner soul, an unspeakable sorrow that only a true-blooded Russian (and one born in the Soviet era) could ever contemplate. Ivashkin’s sonorous lament on his 1710 Guarnerius – abetted by a wide vibrato the length of Red Square - heaved a long and embittered sigh.

The five short movements from Prokofiev’s Suite from Chout (The Tale of The Buffoon) were entertaining with their grotesque caricatures of absurdist characters from the 1921 Diaghilev-commissioned ballet. Through these, Singaporean pianist Low Shao Ying played Ivashkin’s highly sympathetic and sensitive partner.

The recital began with J.S.Bach’s G Major Sonata (BWV.1027), which was hindered by less than ideal balance. The piano’s sound all but drowned out the cello’s intimate textures. A harpsichord would have been infinitely preferable here, and from the purist’s point of view, the cello should have made way for the viola da gamba, the original instrument to which these sonatas were conceived.

Speaking of early instruments, the cello has completely replaced the Arpeggione (or bowed guitar) of Schubert’s eponymous Sonata in A major (D.821). Here Ivashkin displayed a lovely singing tone throughout (Schubert was after all the ultimate song composer) while adroitly dallying on its dainty details.

The obligatory encore was a kitschy but delectable tango (Tango Natasha) by Sir Charles Chaplin, that little tramp with the moustache. Whoever said Russians did not have a sense of humour?

PROKOFIEV Works for Cello & Orchestra / Alexander Ivashkin / Review

PROKOFIEV Cello Concertos & Sonatas
ALEXANDER IVASHKIN, Cello
Russian State Symphony / Valeri Polyansky
Chandos 241-41 (2CDs)

Rating ****1/2

It is a little known fact that Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) wrote three cello concertos. The popular Symphony-Concerto of 1952 (recorded by Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma and others) was an “improvement” and more marketable version of the Concerto in E minor of 1938. Both works use the same thematic material but the earlier work, heard here complete for the first time, includes an expansive finale that is longer than the first two movements combined! To further confuse things, there also exists an uncompleted Concertino (orchestrated by Vladimir Blok) which has a Jewish sounding melody in the finale that also appears in the Symphony-Concerto.

This generous issue houses all three, adding the well-established Sonata for Cello & Piano (Op.119) and an unfinished single-movement Solo Cello Sonata. The cello’s mellow baritone voice is well suited to the Prokofiev’s potent mix of melody and dark wit, while Russian cellist and scholar Alexander Ivashkin’s 1710 Guarneri cello and artistry are the perfect muse for these underrated masterpieces.

The Complete Beethoven Cello Sonata Cycle / Review

THE COMPLETE BEETHOVEN
CELLO SONATA CYCLE
QIN LI-WEI, Cello
JEREMY YOUNG, Piano
Conservatory Concert Hall
Friday (20 March 2009)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 23 March 2009.

There has not been a better time for Beethoven’s music in Singapore. His 32 piano sonatas were surveyed in a 10-recital cycle last year, while the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Lan Shui are midway through the 9 symphonies. Nothing however beats the endurance and concentration required for the five cello sonatas performed in a single concert.

This marathon event at the Conservatory lasted well over two hours, with the sonatas spread over three segments separated by two short intervals. At ten in the evening, after the last notes of the encore – a reprise of the final movement of the Sonata in A major (Op.69) – had rung out, spirits were still soaring and neither performer looked the least bit enervated.

First mention must go to British pianist Jeremy Young (left), who had the far more notes to conquer and was every part the perfect collaborator. Often the protagonist and agent provocateur, he set the pulse of these masterpieces, which paced from arch solemnity to unbridled joie de vivre.

These sonatas come from the three stylistic periods of Beethoven’s life. The early Op.5 pair (1796) were pioneering efforts in the genre, yet imbued with the characteristic brio that typified the young impetuous composer, while later Op.102 twosome (1815) represent a more pensive, elusive and ultimately sublime side to his art. The urgent and life-affirming readings presented had much to admire in both depth of conception and digital dexterity.

The performance of the final sonata in D major (Op.102 No.2) was particularly gripping. Its abrupt and stark opening was startling in the contrasts provided, and the ensuing slow movement pondered much in its longeurs. The intricate counterpoint overcome by the duo in the finale’s tricky fugue was a tour de force, one that mirrored the mastery to be found in the contemporaneous late piano sonatas.

Final word goes to the inimitable Qin Li-Wei (left), cello professor at the Conservatory, whose voluminous and sensuous tone yielded on his 1721 Filius Andreas Guarnerius made every minute a treat. His short but vital solo entry at the outset of the middle-period Op.69 sonata was breathtaking, a fleeting but telling moment that eloquently summed up the riches to be experienced.

Music by John Sharpley / Review

MUSIC BY JOHN SHARPLEY
SIA Auditorium
LaSalle College of the Arts
Tuesday (17 March 2009, 1pm)

If a history of Western classical music in Singapore were written in fifty years’ time or so, Houston-born composer and pedagogue John Sharpley, now a Singapore permanent resident, might well occupy a position not too distant from Antonin Dvorak’s in American music. In a case of musical reverse-colonisation, his works have often taken on Asian inspirations and flavours.

This chamber concert of Sharpley’s music, however, revealed more of his homespun Americana. Three movements from The Lone Star (2007), a piano tribute to his home state of Texas that began the concert, were as American as the Alamo and apple pie. Square Dance Fantasy and Blues, alternating barn-dance rhythms with folksong-like charm, could have been close cousins with Samuel Barber’s Excursions. These works employed popular idioms unique to place and time.

The Native-American melody in Song Of The Spirit-Dance, might well have also served as inspiration to those in Busoni’s Indian Diary. The two LaSalle students who performed the duet version of these sounded under-rehearsed, but the essence of the music was not lost.

Sharpley took to the keyboard himself in Prayer For Edith (2009), a touching lullaby written for a well loved music teacher on her sickbed. Its soothing G major chords gently made its way to a reposeful E flat major.

Singaporean violinist Seah Huan Yuh (left) joined Sharpley in Ocean Song (1997), a meditation of extreme calm which had dream-like sequences filled with ethereal harmonics and arpeggios. The lyricism and song-like thread suggested that he has inherited the neo-Romantic mantle of great American composers such as Barber, Menotti and Rorem.

The contrasting two movements of Sharpley’s Second String Quartet (1995, revised in 2006) showed that he could be as spiky and ascerbic as Bartok, and yet possess the exuberance and humour of Bernstein. The quartet, led by Seah and including T’ang Quartet’s Leslie Tan, valiantly played through an ensemble of hammering and drilling, confirming that this promising new venue is all but concert-ready. A definitive performance will thus have to wait.

LaSalle's spanking new campus on McNally Street,

but its concert venue is hardly ready!

Other signs that the auditorium is presently WOEFULLY INADEQUATE:

1. Lack of proper seating for concert performers.

2. Clueless stage hands who did not know how to place seats and music stands.

3. Grand piano with castors that squeaked louder than a thousand mice in heat.

4. Complete lack of sound proofing

To add insult to injury, car-park charges were 5 cents a minute ($3 an hour). For goodness sake, THIS IS A SCHOOL, NOT THE ST.REGIS!

WATER by Monique Copper / Review

WATER
MONIQUE COPPER Piano Recital
University Cultural Centre Theatre
Sunday (15 March 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 March 2009.

The idea of combining musical performance, poetry recitation and visuals in concert is an interesting and workable one, well worth exploring especially when the subject matter is one that inspires discussion and debate, musing and meditation. Water is vital to livelihood and survival in The Netherlands (as it is with Singapore), hence its central role in the recital by Dutch pianist Monique Copper.

The anthology of works by Debussy, Ravel, Chopin, Bartok and several contemporary composers, interspersed with poetry by Emily Dickinson, Ogden Nash, Aloysius Bertrand and others, would have worked if the pianist were up to the tasks demanded by the music.

Copper came a cropper on more than several occasions. Much of Debussy’s Reflets dans l'eau (Images Book 1) sounded like a struggle against drowning beneath its torrents of notes. While Chopin’s Raindrop Prélude came through relatively unscathed, the rhetoric of Prélude No.18 was submerged by messy fingerwork. Bartok’s Barcarolla (from Out Of Doors) felt disjointed and by the time Chopin’s headily lyrical Barcarolle (Op.60) arrived, she was all at sea.

The modernist works by Eldering, Kurtag and Bielawa, untarnished by the curse of familiarity, seemed to pass muster. Copper’s recitations in lightly accented English were clear and audible, even lucid. The theatre’s backdrop was dominated by video-artist Frans ter Horst’s projections of endless expanses of the fluid realm – from ponds, streams to the mighty sea, their mysterious and majestic surfaces caressed by raindrops, currents and waves, all seamlessly woven together.

In Guus Janssen’s Way To The Sea, an element of taped piano (presumably recorded by Copper) was introduced, allowing for her to further play and recite over it. It was a sensory overload of sorts, but at least she did not appear over-taxed. Earlier technical issues again dogged the two Ondines by Debussy (Préludes Book 2) and Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit), the far more difficult latter number suffering particularly needlessly. Any first year Conservatory piano major would have fared better.

Some resonance was afforded with the reading of Edwin Thumboo’s The River as an encore, idiomatically accompanied by music by a Dutch composer. On this count, this recital on a wet drizzly evening should not be slated as a total washout.

SSO Chamber Concert: An Evening Serenade with Cho-Liang Lin / Review

AN EVENING SERENADE
WITH CHO-LIANG LIN
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Victoria Concert Hall
Sunday (15 March 2009, 5pm)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 March 2009.

A sizeable audience greeted Taiwan-born violinist Cho-Liang Lin, one of the world’s great string players, in his debut chamber concert with the SSO. To be more precise, this is not Lin’s first time conducting here, having shared a concert with Lan Shui at the Esplanade several years ago where he conducted from the violin Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

This dual role of soloist and conductor was gloriously relived in Mozart’s Fourth Violin Concerto, where his big and sweet tone was only matched by the vigour in which the chamber-sized orchestra responded. No apologies were made for ignoring period performance practice, as outsized vibratos and broad lyrical sweeps distinguished this reading. Even the romantically-inclined cadenzas by Raymond Leppard played in all three movements enchanted rather than distracted.

It was the slow second movement that brought out the most discreet and lushest accompaniment from the band, which was repeated in the second half’s Serenata Notturno, also by Mozart. Here a concertante quartet of Lin and Concertmaster Sasha Souptel on violins, violist Zhang Manchin and bassist Guennadi Mouzyka were most charming protagonists in a lively interplay between the two instrumental groups.

The last time SSO performed Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll was as a “lightweight” prelude to Act One of Die Walkure, in 2007. On this evening, it was the most concentrated slice of music on show, but the sheer warmth of strings and excellent solos from winds and brass offered total pleasure for its 20 minutes or so.

Lin’s almost leisurely leadership however intensified for Tchaikovsky’s popular Serenade For Strings. The outer movements benefited from a tautness of ensemble that also allowed for spaciousness of tempi. Never a slave to the metronome, the familiar Waltz lilted with ever-nostalgic sentimentality, while the Elegy – with luscious legatos from the violins – relived old and lost romances. The folksong and dance inspired finale rebounded with renewed energy, closing the concert in high spirits.

SSO’s policy of inspiring its musicians by playing chamber music alongside top-ranked visiting artists worked like a dream here. Long may that continue.

Naxos Recordings by Cho-Liang Lin: Review

Here are a couple of reviews of recordings by violinist Cho-Liang Lin on the Naxos label. The first appeared in The Straits Times (30 May 2008) and the second on The Flying Inkpot.

GEORG TINTNER Chamber Music
CHO-LIANG LIN, Violin
HELEN HUANG, Piano
Naxos 8.570258 / Rating ****

The Vienna-born conductor Georg Tintner (1917-1999) is better remembered for his recorded cycle of Bruckner symphonies on the Naxos label. His little known original chamber compositions are now revealed for the first time on record. Youthful works completed before he turned 30, these dabbled with atonality but remain largely accessible. His possible influences: the Second Viennese School (Alban Berg in particular), prodigious film-music composer Erich Korngold and even virtuoso violinist Fritz Kreisler.

The most substantial work is a 25-minute Violin Sonata in four movements, which sounds modern on first acquaintance but retains substantial vestiges of Romantic sentimentalism. Finely crafted, it repays further listening. His Chopin Variations for piano (after the very brief Prelude in A major, Op.28 No.7) is witty and inventive while two funereal pieces – On the Death of a Friend and Trauermusik – uncannily foretell his tragic end by his own hand after being stricken by cancer. The high profile performers, both of Chinese descent, perform the music most sympathetically.

GORDON CHIN SHI-WEN
Double Concerto for Violin and Cello

Formosa Seasons for Violin and Strings
CHO-LIANG LIN, Violin

& FELIX FAN, Cello
Kansas City Symphony / MICHAEL STERN

Naxos 8.570221 / Rating ****

One could be forgiven for suspecting that Brahms and Vivaldi or Piazzolla had been ripped off, based on the titles of these concertos alone. But fear not, Taiwanese-born Eastman-trained Gordon Chin is a fine craftsman whose music can hold its own in the already crowded world of new compositions.

Chin’s idiom in both string concertos is tonal and accessible by 20th century standards, ranging from Waltonian wit and Bernsteinesque sense of pacing to the hair-pulling dissonances favoured by composers like Schnittke. Some parts could also pass off as well-written film music, in the manner of Bernard Hermann (think the score of Psycho, for example). All this may suggest formulaic eclecticism but Chin manages to make his music sound convincing, and definitely worth revisiting.

There isn’t much that is Chinese in the music. Only in the Double Concerto’s slow second movement, A Flowering Sacrifice, are there hints of Chin’s Chinese heritage – a powerful brooding lament with deftly placed portamenti and subtle use of percussion. Equally engaging is the third movement In Expectation, a nostalgic waltz reminiscent of sickly-sweet and demented “haunted house” music.

The Formosa Seasons were composed for Cho-Liang Lin as a companion to Vivaldi’s classic. In reality, they are as different as chalk and cheese. There are four poems (translated into English) to accompany each of the seasons, which begin with summer and close with the onset of spring. The music is more angular and spiky here than in the Double Concerto, but at 21 minutes, this engaging work may prove to be more programmable in the long run.

The Kansas City Symphony under Michael Stern (who definitely knows something about China, having followed his father Isaac in From Mao to Mozart) play well, and this enterprise benefits from having two excellent soloists on board.

Singapore Lyric Opera's Les Contes D'Hoffmann: Review

JACQUES OFFENBACH’S
LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN
Singapore Lyric Opera
Esplanade Theatre
Friday (13 March 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 March 2009.

It was refreshing to see the Singapore Lyric Opera steer clear from the Carmen-Boheme-Traviata axis of deadly popular operas to venture into something quite different. Jacques Offenbach’s Le Contes D’Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann) is not exactly esoteric, but in the Singapore context, it represented a step into the unknown.

Without taking risks and flexing creative muscles as it did in past productions, the company transported a ready-made French production from Opera de Nice, complete with lead tenor, conductor, costumes and sets. It was a compromise that mostly paid off, although it saw rising Singaporean conductor Darrell Ang getting unceremoniously ditched despite earlier publicity, in a quite avoidable faux pas involving two of Singapore’s premier arts groups.

French tenor Luca Lombardo sang an excellent Hoffmann, the German polymath dogged with women problems, essentially the root of his “tales”. His ardour, frustration and inebriation were convincingly portrayed by one who actually looked the part. This would have been inconsequential if not the well-balanced all-Asian cast that supported him.

Korean bass Song Kee Chang, Hoffmann’s nemesis in all his evil personas, was a commanding presence throughout. His snarl, ranging from comical (Lindorf looked to like Count Dracula without fangs) to truly menacing (Dr Miracle’s deathly machinations), provided the near-perfect antithesis to mezzo Choo Hi-Myung’s reassuring Nicklausse, Hoffmann’s muse and confidante.

The automaton Olympia (Zhao Yunhong)

with her creator Coppelius (Lemuel de la Cruz).

Three very different sopranos played the lost loves of Hoffmann in the three central acts. Zhao Yunhong stole the show with the robotic Olympia’s coloratura aria Les oiseaux dans la charmille, reinforced with lurching moves and an aborted attempt at a lap dance.

Nancy Yuen, who has made a career with dying divas, evinced most sympathy with Antonia’s fatal arias, notably Elle a fui, la tourterelle. Although there were occasional pitch issues, her big notes rang out radiantly. Finally Anna Koor’s courtesan Giulietta was suitably slutty, her Amsterdam shop window moves almost overshadowing her part in the famous Barcarolle, Belle nuit. Not bad for a pastor’s wife.

French Director Pierre Emile Fourny lent a healthy dose of the absurd. Where Hoffmann was supposed to be wearing magic lenses that blinded him to Olympia’s artifice, he had the entire chorus donning sunglasses and spotting white canes. The sets were kept simple, with curtains, turntable and symbolic centrepieces, a hollow doll’s head, a Venetian gondola and a gramophone player. A small matter of fact: the latter was a 20th century invention, certainly not one from Hoffmann or Offenbach’s time.

The SLO orchestra conducted by Benjamin Pionnier provided alert and responsive accompaniment from the pit, with its numerous wind solos deliciously delivered. There were opening night hiccoughs for certain, like surtitles going AWOL and backstage crew making unscheduled appearances on stage, but none that diminished the overall vision of a quirkily conceived but largely enjoyable production.

SYC Ensemble Singers Concert: Birth and Death / Review

BIRTH AND DEATH
SYC Ensemble Singers
JENNIFER THAM, Conductor
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (8 March 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 March 2009.

Way back in 1992, a Straits Times article named the Singapore Youth Choir (SYC) as the land’s top chorus. The choir’s commitment to new music and ability to galvanise young singers into a dynamic a cappella force were major reasons. Known as the SYC Ensemble Singers today, its conductor Jennifer Tham cited over 40 new works commissioned since the 1980s. Ten of these were given world premieres in 2004 alone, on the choir’s 40th anniversary.

One was Singaporean composer Hoh Chung Shih’s Birth and Death, a 5-movement meditation on texts by Vietnamese peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, providing the title and framework to this concert. The movements were divided into three blocs, in a way reminiscent of Mahler’s view of his Fifth Symphony, incidentally a journey from death to rebirth.

The choir had two Chinese words to sing – sheng (Birth or Life) and si (Death) - but the ingenious treatment stood out. In the 1st movement, three lines of singers whispered the consonants “sh” and “s” while snaking around three islands of voices that sang the words. The brief 2nd movement issued beautiful harmonies in an antiphonal manner with half the choir placed behind the audience.

Italian composer Corrado Margutti’s D’Amore e d’Ombre (About Love and Shadows), with texts by renaissance artist Michaelangelo, contrasted soothing textures in O Notte (O Night) with madrigal-like runs in Fugite Amanti (Flee From This Love). The dissonances of the former provided a strangely surreal respite, while a semi-chorus of 4 in the latter held their own through much intricate counterpoint.

Hoh’s 3rd movement saw the choir in two concentric circles with their backs facing the audience. Then came arguably the two most accessible works, Lithuanian Vytautas Miskinis’ Time Is Endless, with its highly reassuring F major chords, and Australian Stephen Leek’s Burrinjuck, a paean to the glorious outback.

Back to Hoh, the aleatoric 4th movement featured the 28 singers striking pebbles in a random manner, while singing the two words on command from Tham’s hands (left). Shades of Gyorgy Ligeti’s metronomic masterpiece as the sound of stone gradually dissipated into silence. The final movement channeled the spirit of John Cage; absolute silence as the conductor’s strokes drew out the Chinese characters on the studio’s backdrop with the aid of Gavin Lim’s multimedia projections.

While appreciative applause greeted the performers, all that remained was the word sheng, boldly emblazoned. The cycle of life, death and birth continues in perpetuity.

Who's In and Who's Out at the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

Who’s In and Who’s Out
at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition 2009

Strange as it may seem, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition has announced the names of the 30 finalists (who play it out at Fort Worth, Texas in the summer) almost on the same day that American Idol revealed its final 13 singers. The parallels between the two talent contests have not gone unnoticed; both are multi-million buck extravangazas with worldwide coverage, showcasing art (piano playing and singing) as a reality show of sorts. If only the young people in America paid more attention to classical music…

For some reason, there are only 30 names compared with the 35 that competed in 2005. That’s an improvement in a way that qualifying for the semi-finals becomes less of a lottery, and there will be fewer “duds”. At the 1st and 2nd rounds of the Sydney Competition of 2007, I was left wondering how some of the pianists actually made the final cut.

Here are the pianists:

Stephen BEUS, United States, 27

Evgeni BOZHANOV, Bulgaria, 25

Yue CHU, China, 25

Ran DANK, Israel, 27

Alessandro DELJAVAN, Italy, 22

Yoonjung HAN, Korea, 24

Kyu Yeon KIM, Korea, 23

Naomi KUDO, United States, 22

Natacha KUDRITSKAYA, Ukraine, 25

Eduard KUNZ, Russia, 28

Andrea LAM, Australia, 27

Soyeon LEE, Korea, 29

Ang LI, Canada, 24

Michail LIFITS, Germany, 26

Spencer MYER, United States, 30

Ilya RASHKOVSKIY, Russia, 24

Mayumi SAKAMOTO, Japan, 26

Yeol Eum SON, Korea, 23

Victor STANISLAVSKY, Israel, 26

Chetan TIERRA, United States, 25

Nobuyuki TSUJII, Japan, 20

Mariangela VACATELLO, Italy, 27

Vassilis VARVARESOS, Greece, 26

Lukas VONDRACEK, Czech Republic, 22

Di WU, China, 24

Amy J. YANG, China, 25

Feng ZHANG, China, 23

Haochen ZHANG, China, 19

Ning ZHOU, China, 21

Zhang ZUO, China, 20

Lots of familiar names, and some new ones too. Returning to the scene of battle are 5 pianists from 2005, including Ilya Rashkovskiy (left, Russia) – who has won 1st Prize at the Hong Kong IPC (2005) and 4th Prize at the Queen Elisabeth IPC (2006) in the interim - Di Wu (China), Soyeon Lee (Korea), Ang Li (Canada) and Stephen Beus (USA). All five did not make the semifinals the last time round, so experience would be a factor here. Unfortunately, there will be no happy returns for two 2001 finalists Vassily Primakov (Russia) and Yunjie Chen (China).

Again, Asian names comprise 16 finalists, 11 of whom are women. Watch out for the prodigious Zhang Zuo (left, China) of the Eastman School, who was a student of Dan Zhaoyi (Yundi Li’s teacher in Shenzhen) and duo partner of Singaporean violinist Jonathan Ong. I am also thrilled that two of my namesakes have made it: Feng Zhang (China) and Haozhen Zhang (China). I heard the former at the 2007 Sydney Competition; he had given splendid performances of Liszt’s Feux follets, Alkan’s Le festin d’Esope and two Schubert-Godowsky song transcriptions, but was desperately unlucky not to make the quarter finals. The former, a student of Gary Graffman, was the winner of the China International Piano Competition in Xiamen in 2007.

Two other pianists who shined in Sydney are in: Ran Dank (Israel) and semifinalist Mariangela Vacatello (Italy) which means we will probably get to hear more Schoenberg and Shostakovich in Fort Worth. Two notable Australians missed the cut – the stylish Hoang Pham and David Fung – but Ozzie Andrea Lam (left) is in. Whoever said that there were no Australian women pianists?

There are fewer Russians than expected at this year’s VC. Besides Ilya Rashkovskiy, there’s only Eduard Kunz. At the Piano-e-Competition in Minnesota, he’s known as Eduard Kunts. Will he make up his mind what his name actually is, or which passport he is going to use? Natacha Kudritskaya hails from the Ukraine, while Michail Lifits (Germany) came from Uzbekistan. Probably the Slavs to beat are Evgeni Bozhanov (Bulgaria), recent winner of the 2008 Casagrande Competition and the 2008 Sviatoslav Richter Competition (Moscow), which has no upper age limit, and the prodigious Lukas Vondracek (left, Czech Republic). Steinway-Meister Walter Haass heard Vondracek in a performance of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto with Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting in Western Australia and reckons he’s the real thing.

There are 4 Americans in the running: former Mormon missionary Stephen Beus (left, Winner of the 2006 Gina Bachauer IPC, whom some reckon to resemble Van Cliburn in stature, but whose photo looks a bit more like David Buechner), Spencer Myer (whom I heard and liked at Leeds 2006), Californian Chetan Tierra and DC-born Naomi Kudo. Kudoes all for flying the Stars and Stripes high. Can we hope for at least one American semi-finalist this year?

American Idol 8 has Scott McIntyre, its first ever blind singer. So Van Cliburn should not be denied as well, with the qualification of blind pianist Noboyuki Tsujii (left) of Japan. He is a certain shoo-in for the Jury Discretionary Award, Audience Favourite Award, Most DVDs Sold Award, and most Standing Ovations Award. No doubt about it.

What about the high-flying Korean Lim brothers: Dong Hyek and Dong Min? Apparently, both were no shows at the New York auditions. After clinching finals placings at the Queen Elisabeth, Tchaikovsky, and Chopin Competitions, and having an exclusive EMI Classics contract, anything less than finishing joint Crystal Award winners at Van Cliburn would be a total and utter come down. So, a smart move, lads!

Don't forget to check out the official Van Cliburn website for more updates: http://www.cliburn.org/

SSO Concert: Mad About Tchaikovsky / Review

MAD ABOUT TCHAIKOVSKY
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
DARRELL ANG, Conductor
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (7 March 2009)

This review was first published in The Straits Times on 9 March 2009.

The music of Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) can often be tainted with a familiarity that breeds contempt. No fear about SSO’s latest Tchaikovsky bash, which presented almost revisionist accounts of popular warhorses. The Russian pianist Nikolai Demidenko (below) is one of those artists who is not a stickler for well-worn tradition, instead one who chooses to surprise and confound pre-conceived ideas about music we know and love.

His view of Tchaikovsky’s indestructible First Piano Concerto was unusually expansive, emphasizing the maestoso (majestic) aspects of its broad introductory pages, instead of rushing headlong into thickets of virtuosic excess. This only served to heighten the gripping drama that ensued when those barnstorming moments finally arrived. His octave technique is stunning and amazingly accurate, well worthy of those comparisons with a certain Horowitz.

Even in the prestissimo interlude of the serene slow movement, the sheer ease of his delivery seemed scarcely believable for someone of his hulking physical stature. The Cossack-inspired finale opened with restraint, but closed with all cannons blazing. Demidenko’s encore was also uncharacteristic: a ruminative and rarely-heard Chopin Mazurka (in A minor, a Emile Gaillard).

Through all this, the orchestra exercised much flexibility and latitude under young Singaporean conductor Darrell Ang, which exuded of a genuine give-and-take partnership. Horowitz was not as lucky on his American debut.

Ang (left) was an eleventh hour substitute for the indisposed Chinese conductor Yu Long, and there was an audible gasp when the announcement was made. Any hint of reservation was immediately dispelled with the fine degree of control marshaled by Ang in the slow introduction of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. This soon unfolded into an epic vision that will not be easily forgotten.

The Russia- and American-trained maestro is blest with the abilities of pacing the music, knowing when to hold back and when to push forward, ratcheting the climaxes to seemingly unsupportable highs. And it was more of the same with the slow movement, showcasing Han Chang Zhou’s excellent French horn solo, and the valedictory finale.

To say that Ang grabbed both horns of the bull, like a young Leonard Bernstein in 1943 (he subbed for an ailing Bruno Walter), would be an understatement, and the chorus of bravos that greeted the magnificent performance was well earned. A star is born.

T'ang Quartet with Thomas Hecht / Review

T’ANG QUARTET WITH THOMAS HECHT
Conservatory Concert Hall
Friday (6 March 2009)

This review was first published on The Straits Times on 9 March 2009.

Chamber music in Singapore has never been the same ever since the T’ang Quartet gave its first concert in 1992, and when the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory came into being in 2003. Chamber concerts at the 600-seater Conservatory Concert Hall, where the quartet resides as faculty members, have been filled to capacity so regularly that one wonders whether a musical revolution of sorts is taking place under our noses.

A small but totally acceptable downside is that so many newcomers to these events invariably lead to people being unsure as how to “behave” in a concert setting. Inappropriate applause between movements and latecomers disrupted the natural flow to an otherwise taut reading of Haydn’s String Quartet in G major (Op.77 No.1). This prompted cellist Leslie Tan to make this simple plea: movements are like chapters of a book, one that ends definitively when the music finally stops.

This exhortation was well heeded, as a quartet of students joined the T’angs to perform Shostakovich’s Prelude & Scherzo (Op.11) for string octet. Absolute silence separated the dotted rhythms of the Prelude, and the Scherzo’s wild ride through schizophrenic vistas of the Soviet composer’s troubled mind. The eight musicians blended like one in an enthralling display of dripping sarcasms and razor-sharp reflexes.

Further words came from pianist Thomas Hecht (left), Head of Piano Studies, who helped sweeten the “bitter” pill that was the Russian Alfred Schnittke’s death-haunted Piano Quintet (1972-76), receiving its very first Singapore performance. Again it worked wonders; from Hecht’s soliloquy that stated the work’s idée fixe, a recurring main thematic idea, to its ironic and final soothing figurations, the audience was kept transfixed.

In between was music of a most dissonant kind; jarring intervals of semitones and shifting microtones – recalling the Doppler effect or a discomfiting nearby swarm of hornets - and sounds usually associated with a haunted house or horror movies were de rigeuer with vintage Schnittke (left). The quintet of performers – which had so eloquently delivered Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in 2005 – made an altogether persuasive case for this elusive piece.

Was the public’s reaction a rapt silence, or a merely stunned one? Judging by the genuinely warm and generous applause that followed, it was certainly a triumph of the former.

SSO Concert: Fantasies and Confessions / Review

FANTASIES AND CONFESSIONS
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
LIM YAU, Conductor
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (28 February 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 March 2009.

Drawing up concert programmes is a fine art. Just ask SSO Resident Conductor Lim Yau, who is a master at juxtaposing the familiar and the arcane, with often unexpected and euphonious success. His most concert paired up the British Isles with Russia, while moving from the sacred to the profane.

Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis showcased sumptuous strings, arranged in three blocs like soloists, semi-chorus and choirs in a cathedral. It generated an overwhelmingly lush and effulgent sound, one that enveloped the hall like some incense-laden mist – just the right setting for quiet devotion.

Any hope for reverie was sharply interrupted by Shostakovich’s madcap First Piano Concerto, lightly scored for strings and a major obbligato trumpet part. Here the Scottish tandem of pianist Steven Osborne (left) and SSO Principal Trumpeter Laurence Gargan played the part of twin comedians, who largely baited Beethoven and the classical form.

Osborne’s obvious virtuosity seemed like an understated one, swinging between mock placidity and derisive eruptions on the piano while maintaining a poker-faced façade throughout. This is a very valid look at the music, although one might crave a little for Argerich’s in-your-face kind of psychosis. Gargan (left) lapped up his moments gratefully, sounding as exuberant as usual.

It was a stroke of programming genius that followed Mussorgsky’s Night On Bald Mountain (the Rimsky-Korsakov version) with the Singapore premiere of Scottish composer James MacMillan’s The Confession Of Isabel Gowdie, both works inspired by visions of the witches’ Sabbath and things that go bump in the night. The latter was first introduced in the 1990 BBC Proms and made the composer’s name (left) for good.

Opening with restrained brass and wind choirs, the gradual introduction of strings in the expansive unfolding narrative mirrored the earlier Vaughan Williams. Its descent to dark and ominous regions, with loud pulsating kinetic energy and fantastical imagery, was an exhilarating journey that approached the crushing impact of a first hearing of Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring.

The sheer immediacy of the performance reaffirms the orchestra’s ability to learn and assimilate new music with ease. The final cathartic yell, a deafening crescendo followed by total silence was no less memorable.

After that stiff shot of whiskey, the sweetener of an encore – Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia On Greensleeves – seemed like an anti-climax. At least some people had to go home happy.

Footnote: Steven Osborne is married to SSO former Associate Principal clarinettist Jean Johnson (left). They had first met in 2003 when Osborne played Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the SSO, and guess who played Russ Gorman's famous opening clarinet solo? Jean was at the concert and recalled that it was 6 years to the day (28 February 2003) that their eyes first met!