Tuesday 3 July 2012

Some Photos from the Singapore International Piano Festival 2012

Paul Lewis acknowledges the applause.

Its really nice to attend to Singapore's International Piano Festival as an outsider, rather than a member of its artistic / organising group. The pressure's off and you get to enjoy the music more, without worrying about the logistics, box office sales et cetera. You still get to meet old friends and make new acquaintances, all in the shared love of the pianoforté. Here are some pics I took at this year's festival, the first time its being held at the School of the Arts.

Paul Lewis performed as his second encore Schubert's Moment Musicaux No.2, a piece he had earlier played in his recital programme. By this time, his fingers had fully "warmed up", and it sounded even better.

Singaporean piano virtuoso Albert Lin and his mother meet Paul Lewis. Mrs Lin is a big fan of Lewis, and has a large cache of his Youtube videos in her PC. 

Australian piano technician Walter Haass is the reason why the Steinway grand pianos sound great whether in VCH, YST or SOTA. Here he is flanked by two of Britain's finest pianists of our time, Stephen Hough and Paul Lewis. 

I've always wanted to meet Bruce Lee. Here he is reincarnated as the young Hong Kong virtuoso Chiyan Wong!

Stephen Hough performed no less than four encores, including the fastest and most furious version of Chopin's First Ballade.

Stephen Hough autographs a copy of his piano sonata Broken Branches, plus makes a few changes to its dynamic markings.

Pianophiles of the world unite! Pianomaniac has a final evening drink with Stany Kol (France/Laos) and Satoru Takaku (Japan), who are regular overseas visitors to the Festival. Only Buzz Singer (USA/Thailand) is missing in action this year!

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