TRANSCENDING THE ORDINARY / Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series / Review

TRANSCENDING THE ORDINARY

Tang Tee Khoon, Violin et al

Esplanade Recital Studio

Thursday (28 May 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 May 2015 with the title "Welcome a new string quartet of maidens".

When the National Arts Council's prized 1750 J.B.Guadagnini violin was loaned to young Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon some six years ago, one of the conditions was that she performed it regularly here in concert. She has more than fulfilled that role of violin ambassador and now has her own line of recitals called the Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series, featuring guest musicians from around the world.

The first pair of concerts in this series was Transcending The Ordinary, focusing on the late chamber works of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828). The Viennese composer had lived in the looming shadow of Beethoven and was better known for his songs or lieder. Much of his later and more ambitious works where discovered and published after his premature death.

The works performed on the first evening date from 1824 to 1827, beginning with Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, composed originally for the obsolete guitar-like instrument with frets called the arpeggione. Today's cellists claim it as their own, including the Briton Colin Carr who brought out all the singing qualities on his Goffriller cello. His tone was warm and sumptuous, seamlessly gliding between passages of absolute cantabile and blissful elation in its three movements.

Never producing a harsh tone too was pianist Sam Haywood whose support was close to perfection, and the stakes were upped in the Fantasy in C major for violin and piano. This is undoubtedly Schubert's most virtuosic work for these two instruments, from its hushed dreamy opening with pianissimo tremolos to soaring highs filled with octaves and running scales. Tang and her Guadagnini made their entrance, not so much as boldly but sensitively, fully aware of the music's innate poetry.

Playing for almost half an hour, the work traversed peaks and valleys, best exemplified in the central variations on the Schubert's lied Sei mir gegrusst (I Greet You) which had all the nuances one could hope for, before a reprise of the opening's reverie. The work closed on an exuberant high with the big strides of one of Schubert's most happy melodies.

For the second half, Tang was joined by violinist Yuki Kasai, violist Mariko Hara and cellist Olivia Jeremias, musicians all based in Germany, for Schubert's String Quartet in D minor, also known as “Death And The Maiden”. All the ladies are experienced chamber musicians, and one could tell by their immediacy in the way they launched into its dramatic first movement.       

A common sense of purpose united the foursome through the music's heightened tension, and this electricity never flagged in the work's 40 minutes. Even in the slow movement's variations on the chordal piano theme from the lied Der Tod Und Das Mädchen, the accompaniment provided for Kasai's pleading solos was sprightly and alert.

The brief and prickly Scherzo served as a prelude to the finale's furious tarantella rhythm. Here the unision playing in high tempos, far more tricky than it sounds, was delivered with stunning accuracy. There was to be no tiring as the quartet raced to a breathless finish, that was greeted by a near-capacity audience with loud acclaim. It was after the fact that this reviewer learnt that the four virtuosas were playing together in concert for the very first time.

A question remains: what should this very talented new string quartet be called? The name Tang Quartet has already been taken, so what about Schubert's Death And The Maidens? 

REFRACTING RITUALS / Quinnuance / Review

REFRACTING RITUALS

Quinnuance

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (27 May 2015) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 May 2015 with the title "Synchronised laughter, random acts".

In Refracting Rituals, the intrepid group of local composers and performers called Quinnuance attempted to redefine the way people perceive of musical performances. Viewing through its distorting mirror and prism, a concert was no longer just an aural experience but one involving elements of performance art, theatre, acts of randomness and audience interaction.

Music of four composers was showcased, beginning with serial atonalist Bernard Lee Kah Hong's The Unfathomable Being Of Vengeance Spiral In The Existential Light Of Nucleus. This was an unusual setting of Sylvia Plath's poem A Lesson In Vengeance, read by a kebaya-clad Natalie Ng with Clarence Tan scraping a double-bass centrestage. They were joined by violinist Nanako Takata, violist Jeremy Chiew and trumpeter Christopher Yong Lin who played from the wings and then proceeded to parade onstage as a gesture of discord, symbolic of mankind's propensity for vengeful violence. Lee's dodecaphonic music continues to provoke and challenge listeners, including trying to remember the titles of his works.   

Terrence Wong was represented by two works for brass. Pentasy, compacting the words “pentatonal” and “fantasy”, for bass trombone and piano, was a conventional concert piece that stretched trombonist Jasper Tan's technique to the fullest. Accompanied by pianist Gabriel Hoe, the unremittingly tonal music hinted of the Orient, coursing through pensive moments and emotional highs before a sedate close.

The more theatrical Choices for solo trumpet saw a return of Yong, this time donning the feathered headdress of a Native American Indian and moving between stations on stage. One technique he employed was polyphonics, that was producing two different sets of notes, from the trumpet as well as gutteral vocalising. This dichotomy represented metaphorically the paths of good and evil. Putting it more simply like in those cowboy Westerns of old, were the Injuns good guys or baddies?

In between was Alicia De Silva's In Our Last for flute, soprano and piano, a contemplation of death through the Roman Catholic requiem mass. The first part, In This Darkened Valley, soprano Evelyn Ang's  sprechgesang (hovering between speech and singing) was in tormented conflict with Paul Huang's flute, which represented a soothing, even seductive prospect of death. The final acceptance of death came in the second part, Eternal Song, where both flute and voice played in unison and chanted the words, “May eternal rest and perpetual light shine upon them.”    

Completely visual was American Mark Applebaum's Tlön for three conductors which comprised six and half minutes of virtual silence. Conductors Tan, Wong and De Silva, with the aid of click tracks and ear pieces connected to a laptop, crafted an elaborate act of choreography, that of directing three imaginary orchestras before taking their bows in front of an imaginary audience.

Those in the bemused but well-behaved audience had a chance to join the the finale, which was Lu Heng's Laughter Propaganda. Here nine performers including conductor Tan were engaged in synchronised laughing, which was eventually extended to the audience. This exercise begged the question about laughter: is laughing a truly spontaneous act? Or are we programmed in our minds to laugh only at certain jokes, words or acts, and only when it is deemed appropriate? 

Between plotting retribution and unapologetic bellyaching, Quinnuance has turned the traditional concept of the concert upon its head. That is what the experience of new music is all about. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, May 2015)

VADYM KHOLODENKO

PLAYS RACHMANINOFF & MEDTNER

Delos 3567 / *****

The young Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko was awarded the coveted 1^st Prize at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. This all-Russian recital disc reveals him at his persuasive best, not so much as a barnstorming virtuoso but a thoughtful and sensitive interpreter. Nikolai Medtner's Winter Wind Sonata in E minor (Op.25 No.2) is a dense and contrapuntally complex single movement lasting some 30 minutes, but listen to how he elucidates its simple main theme, adds building blocks and develops a monumental edifice upon its foundations. While not the easiest work to sit through, he makes a strong case as he leads the listener through its seemingly knotty vistas to ultimately a palpable sense of musical enlightenment.

The balance of the recital comes like a sweet dessert with nine of Rachmaninov's stylish transcriptions of popular melodies. There is utter clarity in the articulation of J.S.Bach's Partita No.3 in three movements and Schubert's lilting Wohin? from Die Schöne Müllerin. Kholodenko skilfully negotiates the hairpin turns of Mendelssohn's Scherzo (from A Midsummer Night's Dream), one of the most hair-raising transcriptions ever devised. The Slavic brooding of Tchaikovsky's Lullaby (Op.16 No.1) is contrasted with the gaiety of Rachmaninov's Polka de V.R. (based on a Lehar tune his father once doodled on) and Kreisler's Liebesleid and Liebesfreud. This is playing of an exulted kind, where true musicality triumphs over mere technical know how. 

BOOK IT:

VADYM KHOLODENKO 
DESTINATION SINGAPORE

Piano Recital

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday, 7 June 2015 at 7.30 pm

Tickets available at SISTIC

THE RASCAL AND THE SPARROW

POULENC MEETS PIAF

ANTONIO POMPA-BALDI, Piano

Steinway & Sons 30015 / *****

In 1959, the French composer Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) composed the last of his 15 Improvisations for piano. He titled it Hommage a Edith Piaf, a languorous waltz-song that indelibly captured the insouciant Parisian spirit of the famous diminutive chanteuse who was known as “The Sparrow”. It is not known whether Poulenc ever knew Edith Piaf (1915-1963) personally or even met her, but his admiration was obvious.

This collection of “songs without words” by Italian pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi brings together his transcriptions of 18 Poulenc's chansons with 10 “elaborations” by Sardinian pianist-composer Roberto Piana of songs immortalised by Piaf. Undoubtedly the best known is La vie en rose, with the famous left hand melody dressed up with playfully contrapuntal and ornate filigree from the right hand. Un grand amour is no less fine, and even cheekily quotes the Rose at its end.

Piana's art borders on the improvisatory, bringing a wealth of feeling and charm to numbers like Hymne l'Amour, Non, je ne regrette rien and Mon Dieu!, which sound truly delicious. Pompa-Baldi's treatment of songs like Le Chemins de l'Amour, Montparnasse, C and Le dernier Mazour are more straight-forward, combining sumptuous melodic lines with Poulenc's own piano accompaniment. Here is just over an hour of nostalgia and gaiety, beautifully realised.

LAND WITH NO SUN: PROMEMOR1A / Tze Toh et al / Review

LAND WITH NO SUN: PROMEMOR1A

Tze Toh, Piano et al

Esplanade Recital Studio

Monday (25 May 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times (online edition) on 26 May 2015

Land With No Sun is a continuing series of concerts by local composer-pianist Tze Toh and his Looking Glass Orchestra, inspired by his environmental concerns about the world we live in and its bleak future. He envisages a post-apocalyptic dystopia where the earth becomes unliveable and floating cities are built in the sky, which eventually block out the sun's rays. Mankind fights against time to chart memories which are sent back in time as warnings to past generations.

Promemoria was the sequel to Tze's first concert and took the form of a solo piano recital aided by pre-recorded tracks (referred to as sound design) and two violinists, Christina Zhou and Gabriel Lee. For those unfamiliar with his work, Tze is a largely self-taught and extraordinary musician whose idiom straddles comfortable between genres of classical, jazz, world and film music. His eclecticism is not applied in a haphazard or cut-and-paste manner, but through well thought-out and seamless musical scenarios.

Photo by Jeff Wong

Yet the 13 movements or sequences which make up Prememoria were largely improvised, based on themes and motifs which have been pre-determined. The opening Flight of the Homo Sapiens owed its schema to Chopin's Étude in C major (Op.10 No.1), with rippling right hand arpeggios accompanied by left hand octaves as pedal bass. He modulated through different keys and into the minor mode before settling in a C major home.

The Pulse was a slow meditation which began simply on the notes A, G sharp, E and C sharp, a portrait of the void, to which Zhou's violin emerged from the right rear of the hall in counterpoint. The two instruments were beautifully harmonised, with the blues being a recurring feature. Voice-overs by Nadia Wheaton provided the narrative in some of the movements in the absence of visuals, and these were unobstrusive and often atmospheric.

Photo by Teh Ting Ting

In Dance Of The Earth / A Distant Memory, the raucous sound world of O Fortuna from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana was referenced. The beat was vigourous, earthy and ominous, with bass ostinatos raining over embellish riffs from the piano's treble. Fragments / The Message was far more soothing, as Lee's violin from the left rear sounded J.S.Bach-like figurations to which the piano joined in an euphony which the old master would have thought provocative, and possibly approved.

The sequence of left hand notes that distinguished the Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations appeared in Sunset / Memories but was so well-disguised by Tze's clever use of tritones that one marvels at how music is able to refresh itself so spontaneously through the centuries. The Clock of Heaven and Earth provided moments of tintinnabuli, or bell-like sounds, but instead of channeling the spirituality of Arvo Pärt or Olivier Messiaen, one thought of the scores of Ryuichi Sakamoto.     

Photo by Teh Ting Ting

Both violinists joined Tze on centrestage in Hyper Loop, a fast number which relived the soloistic prowess of Vivaldi and the baroque concerti grosso. The final movement, The Whale In The Sky, returned to the piano solo, now a minimalist pattern played in a repetitious cycle. That seemed to indicate that as time passed, we should continue to hope and dream, even against seemingly futile odds. By this time, Tze had played continuously for over an hour. Land With No Sun continues to eke out a future in 27 February next year. Make that a date to remember. 

Tze Toh with Christina Zhou and Gabriel Lee
at the post-performance talk.

NORTHERN LIGHTS / Take 5 / Review

Review: Concert

NORTHERN LIGHTS

Take 5 Piano Quintet

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (24 May 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 May 2015 with the title "Northern lights shine".

Northern Lights is the twelfth concert of piano quintets by the crack local chamber group Take 5. Given that as few as four piano quintets – by Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak and Franck – are regularly performed in concert, this is an astonishing feat of curatorship. The focus this evening was on  Nordic music, with what were most likely Singaporean premieres of quintets by Christian Sinding (1856-1941) and Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). 

The Norwegian Sinding was one of those unfortunate “one-work wonders”, known only for his piano miniature Rustle Of Spring, beloved of amateur pianists because it sounds more difficult than it actually is. His Piano Quintet in E minor (1884) is a massive work, with four movements playing over 40 minutes. No amateur could possibly survey this, given its pretentions as a virtuoso piano concerto with multitudes of notes. 

Lim Yan is no ordinary pianist, and as de facto leader of Take 5, took charge from start to end. His sombre opening solo was replied by his string partners violinists Foo Say Ming and Lim Shue Churn, violist Chan Yoong Han and cellist Chan Wei Shing in rapt attention. Their keen sense of chemistry, borne of years of playing together, soon told as the work gained in tempo and volume.

One reason why this work is hardly ever heard is its sheer density of Romantic excesses. Too many notes was what Lim had to contend with in all its four movements, which included florid chords, scintillating runs and cascading octaves, all well supported by the strings. There were some folksy moments in the scherzo-like Intermezzo, and even an Oriental-sounding second subject in the Finale, but the overall idiom was strongly Germanic, including throwing in a fugue for good measure.

Lim in his programme notes revealed that the great Italian pianist Ferruccio Busoni was involved in the premieres of both piano quintets. That would certainly explain the preponderance of the piano, but that was less obvious in Sibelius' Piano Quintet in G minor (1890). An early work, it predated his landmark symphonies and tone poems but contained glimpses of future greatness, especially in his development of motifs and themes.

Sobriety dominated the first of five movements, while two lighter salon-like movements sandwiched an Andante which was the true heart of the sprawling 40-minute work. Here there was a lovely viola melody, accompanied by pizzicatos from violin and cello and harp-like runs from the piano. Later in Scherzo, the flow came to a shuddering halt when a tuning peg on Chan Yoong Han's viola came loose. Being true professionals, the movement was re-started and completed beautifully without further incident or fuss.

The vivacious finale brought out folk-like elements that were previously sublimated, and like the Sinding had all five musicians stretching themselves for a triumphant and breathless close. So what further piano quintets can the public expect from Take 5? From this humble (and humbled) listener, the quintets by Medtner, Zarebski, Bacewicz and Schnittke all sound like fascinating future prospects. Are you all game?

 

SINGAPURA THE MUSICAL / Review

SINGAPURA: THE MUSICAL

by ED GATCHALIAN (Composer)

JOEL TRINIDAD (Libretto & Book)

GREG GANAKAS (Director)

The 4^th Wall Theatre Company

Capitol Theatre

Saturday (23 May 2015)

A musical about Singapore premiering in its 50^th year of independence has all the cards stacked against it, given the complex history of Singapore's rocky road to self-government, merger within the Federation of Malaysia and its subsequent ejection in 1965. It can only be more difficult when the story is told by non-Singaporeans. I am hoping not to sound chauvinistic or worse, xenophobic, but even the likes of Dick Lee and Michael Chiang would have had their hands full with such a task at hand.

So plaudits are due to Filipinos Ed Gatchalian and Joel Trinidad for doing their research on Singapore's history and their attempts to shoehorn that part of our legacy within two and a half hours of singing and acting. Their story revolves around the Tan family, comprising Hock Lee Company bus driver father Kok Yang (sung by Juliene Mendoza), kopitiam-running mother Bee Ling (Maybelle Ti) and student activist daughter Lee May (Marian Santiago), whose lives and aspirations are caught within the inexorably rolling gears of destiny.

Pragmatic Kok Yang wants to flee the communal strife erupting all around the island, while idealistic Lee May hopes to make a future in her land of birth by attending law school. Bee Ling dutifully tends to her loved ones until she decides to do some banking at MacDonald House on 10 January 1965. So the action encompasses some 10 years from 12 May 1955 to the day of Lee Kuan Yew's veil of tears on 9 August 1965. In between there are inter-racial romances, classroom sessions at Bukit Timah campus, agitators from across the Causeway and Indonesia, and appearances by a stentorial and well-spoken gentleman referred to as the Man In White (Raymund Concepcion).  

For much of the first half, Singapore of 1955 seems very much like a foreign land, something so remote it could have been Ruritania. This was not much helped by the cast trying very hard not to sound Filipino, and sprinklings of kiasu, kaya toast and the suffix -lah do not quite equate to being truly Singaporean. (The only convincing Singlish ironically came from the VIP who gave the opening speech, even if he had not intended to.) This kind of detachment already poses problems when viewed by a critical Singaporean audience demanding authenticity above everything else.

The music had its moments, the kopitiam chorus in the first act which was catchy enough, and the best duets came in the second act. The singing and ensemble work was more than satisfactory overall. Otherwise the score was caught in a repeating groove that is the 1980s West End and Broadway musical genre. Think Miss Saigon but set in Alexandra Road and Empress Place. Maybe that is what audiences expect, and that is exactly what Singapura The Musical delivered – more of the same, albeit with some variations.

Of the lead cast, only Ti's mother role evoked true sympathy, her dying scene from hospital bed to symbolically ascending the staircase to a better place was eloquently done. Santiago's Lee May could have done with better enunciation given her central role. Her love interest Lt Flynn (David Bianco, an American), who was clad in GI green rather than khaki, did not sound convincingly British enough. In the supporting cast, Noel Rayos' comic Indian accent as the always-squabbling kopitiam denizen Chandra and Law Professor Patel was a standout, providing some much needed lighter moments.

The sets were simple but effective, the kopitiam and classroom being the focus of much of the action, with three storey raised platforms accessible by stairs making up for the limited stage space. These were well utilised for the story telling but obscured certain scenes depending on where one sat. The hospital bed scene was placed on the left side of stage instead of centrally, which was a pity. This would not have happened in the final scene of La Traviata, which has more or less the same outcome. 

All too often, Singapura The Musical came across like a history lesson, with the use of real dates,  names of people who perished in the riots, UMNO and PAP logos, authentic photo-images and video footage including those of Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lee Kuan Yew. Guess who are made to look like bigoted villains? One supposes this musical will never see the light of day in Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta. There is certainly a place for history, but sometimes this came in the way of the narrative. In John Sharpley and Robert Yeo's Fences, the 2012 opera set during the same period, the role of history was better integrated into the libretto and in fewer words.

So was Singapura The Musical a success or a bomb? I tried very much to like it, but reservations remain, mostly because I could not always identify with its quintessential message – the birthing pangs of a new nation under the most trying circumstances, and the people whose lives were transformed as a result. My fault for being born nine days after the first great Sing-Mal divorce. Perhaps my parents could better relate to it. As for my son born in 2002, this might as well be paleontology.

It should however be experienced once, and that may be sufficient in itself. This is coming from a true-blooded Singaporean. About bringing it to London's West End or New York City's Broadway, as our Singlish-spouting friend had hoped, that might just be a Marina Bay Sands-sized dose of wishful-thinking.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS @ SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL 2015

The line-up for the Singapore International Piano Festival 2015 (25-28 June 2015 at Victoria Concert Hall) has finally been publicised, and it looks very interesting, with recitals by world-renowned artists like Imogen Cooper, Olli Mustonen, Lars Vogt and the phenomenal young Czech pianist Lukas Vondracek.

In a rather self-conscious act of political correctness and self-censorship, the publicity material which trumpets Romantics & Nationalists has committed a grave sin against art. Look at the pamphlet above and the banner below. It was creative to use one of Eugene Delacroix's most famous and emotive paintings, Liberty Leading The People, but what have the censors done to it?

  

The proverbial fig-leaf now takes the form of a gigantic rose that seems to erupt from the chest of Liberty, like some floral version of Ridley Scott's Alien. And the flag she carries is no longer the Tricolore but in bright Socialist red. So is this Liberty leading the Bolsheviks? (Perhaps it makes some sense that the Tricolore was not used, as there is no French music in the entire 4-evening series, while there is a whole evening of Prokofiev.)

Here is the original painting:

What I have now done is to restore the publicity material to what it should have been.

Voila! Now we have the breast of both worlds. So enjoy the titillating piano music in revealing performances, and boob your tickets soon to avoid disappointment.

www.pianofestival.com.sg 

HEART STRINGS / More Than Music / Review

HEART STRINGS

More Than Music

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (20 May 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 May 2015 with the title "Tugging at Heart Strings with nostalgia".

More Than Music is an ongoing chamber music series founded by Singapore violinist Loh Jun Hong and pianist Abigail Sin, one which presents serious classics in a manner that is audience friendly and yet does not talk down to its listeners. Instead of making people squint at programme notes in small print under dim lighting, they instead spoke directly from the heart, sharing personal anecdotes and morsels of information about the music in their own unique way.

In this concert, they shared the spotlight with Malaysian cellist Elizabeth Tan, with whom they had partnered in concert during their student days at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. Loh also let the cat out of the bag that Tan was going to be a mother in a few months' time. With this revelation, Tan, accompanied by Sin on the piano, opened the concert with Dvorak's well-known Silent Woods.

Whether maternity has anything to do with good music-making is yet to be proven, but Tan immediately impressed with a gorgeously warm tone which filled the hall with a singing resonance. This gentle work with its flowing lyrical lines made a nice prelude to Loh's reading of Songs My Mother Taught Me, also by Dvorak, which tugged on the heart strings with yearning nostalgia.

The contrast between the two string players soon became apparent by their other choice of works. Tan's largesse in coaxing broad sonorities was furthered in three of Schumann's Pieces In Folk Style Op.102, which showcased rhythmic nimbleness with a penchant for big melodies. Loh displayed a keenness for pyrotechnics, and let in rip in Sarasate's Caprice Basque, which had the audience bedazzled with its fiendishly tricky variations.

Sin's own solos were a well-chosen set from Brahms's Six Pieces Op.118, two Intermezzos of agitation and brooding bookending a Romance which had its own delightful set of mini-variations. Despite her slight physical stature, she brought out the music's sense of struggle and eventual resolution well.

All three musicians were united for Mendelssohn's First Piano Trio in D minor, surely the most performed piano trio here in recent years. Its heady combination of memorable tunes and digital dexterity has groups literally queuing to luxuriate in its bourgeois Victorian charms. The private joke of performers, revealed to the audience, was that this was a piano concerto in disguise, with the pianist carrying the string players who hogged all the tuneful bits.

In reality, this trio of players was well-matched and well-balanced, with a slight edge to the pianist because of the hall's slightly boomy acoustics. Nevertheless, it was Tan who gratefully lapped up the first big melody but soon shared it with her partners. The chemistry was palpable, through the passionate climaxes to the slow movement's lovely cantabile which passed like a dreamy reverie.

There were some missed notes in the flitting Scherzo, but its over-supply of notes and brimming ebullience were never short of charm. The finale reprised the first movement's drama, and who could bet against the mother-to-be getting yet another choice melody to wallow in. The end result was a happy and successful delivery, with the audience applauding and cooing with delight. More Than Music plays again with a different programme next on 12 June, this time at Victoria Concert Hall.  

   

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, May 2015)

SCRIABIN Piano Concerto

MEDTNER Piano Concerto No.3

YEVGENY SUDBIN, Piano

Bergen Philharmonic / Andrew Litton

BIS 2088 / *****

This is a most apt coupling of piano concertos by two Russian pianist-composers who were contemporaries of Rachmaninov yet trailed him considerably in terms of popularity. Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was Rachmaninov's classmate and rival at the Moscow Conservatory. His Piano Concerto of 1896 was an early but transitional work, revealing Chopinesque influences yet gradually finding a voice of his own. It is in the finale, the longest movement, where his flight of fantasy finally takes wing with an impassioned climax that would please any Rachmaninov fan.

Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) was a junior but close friend of Rachmaninov. His Third Piano Concerto (1940) is arguably the best of three he wrote. Cast in three movements played without a break, it exhibits a mastery of the sonata form but does not reveal its secrets on first acquaintance.   More Germanic than Russian, it nevertheless is imbued with the lush Romanticism and scintillating piano writing for which Rachmaninov was acclaimed.  

The young St Petersburg-born pianist Yevgeny Sudbin is a true successor of the great Russian pianists Dmitri Alexeev and Nikolai Demidenko, going one further having recorded all three Medtner concertos. His playing is incisive and brimming with vigour, matched by his own thoughtful programme notes. He quotes Horowitz who once asked, “Why nobody plays Medtner?” The answer is simple: Medtner’s music is often too difficult and cerebral to pull off convincingly. On those counts, Sudbin at least proves him wrong. 

SOLO

ALISA WEILERSTEIN, Cello

Decca 478 52962 / *****

Young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein's first solo album has an underlying theme based on folk music and dances from around the world. The Hungarian nationalist composer Zoltan Kodaly's Sonata Op.8 is the longest work at over a half hour, with three concentrated movements of impassioned laments and soul searching, typical of deep Slavic melancholy. She launches headlong into the music and does not flinch at its myriad complexities.

Hispanic fire lies at the heart of both contemporary Argentinian Osvaldo Golijov's Omaramor and Spaniard Gaspar Cassado's Suite. The former is a set of variations on Carlos Gardel's My Beloved Buenos Aires, with the melody revealed at the very end. The latter incorporates three dances, a Zaraband, the Sardana (a Catalan dance) and an infectious Jota to close.

Chinese-American Bright Sheng's Seven Tunes Heard In China was dedicated to and premiered by Yo-Yo Ma. Its short movements include the popular song Little Cabbage (Xiao Bai Cai) from Hebei, the onomatopoeic train song Diu Diu Dong from Taiwan and a Tibetan Dance. Weilerstein's outsized cello tones tempered by sensitivity and a variety of timbral colours is joy throughout this magnificent recital. Highly recommended.

KAZUNE SHIMIZU Piano Recital / Review

KAZUNE SHIMIZU Piano Recital

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (17 May 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 May 2015 with the title "An evening of pianistic passion".

To celebrate the 100^th anniversary of the Japanese Association of Singapore, it was only appropriate that a Japanese artist be invited to grace the occasion. Pianist Kazune Shimizu, 1^st prize-winner of the 1981 Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris, presented a programme of popular concert pieces, and proved to be more than equal to the task.

The first half was devoted to two well-known Beethoven piano sonatas. Mastery of pedalling was the secret to conjuring the shimmering sound in the first movement of the Sonata No.14 in C sharp minor (Op.27 No.2), better known as the Moonlight Sonata. This was, of course, not Beethoven's description but that of the publisher Rellstab, who was intent in boosting musical sheet sales.

The pastoral second movement was crisply shaped, leading into the finale's maelstrom which remains one of Beethoven's most violent movements. Shimizu's crystal-clear articulation in its sweeping ascending arpeggios was matched by his big sonorous gestures, which goes to the quintessential heart of Beethoven. Unsurprisingly, this same physical and visceral approach was applied to his Sonata No.23 in F minor (Op.57).

This is the mighty Appassionata Sonata (again, not nicknamed by the composer) where every chord was weighted like a pugilist's punch, with alternating moody brooding and angry outbursts in equal measure. Some respite was provided in the slow movement's variations, merely paved the way for the finale's furious study in perpetual motion. Shimizu's every ounce of reserve was poured into this passionate (hence the nickname) struggle, with the music and its fiery rhetoric coming out tops.

The second half was occupied by Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Concert-goers might be familiar with Ravel's technicolor orchestration, but the Russian composer's original conception is not daubed in mere monochrome. There is much shade and nuance to be found by a creative soul and resourceful pianist. A bell-like resonance was announced in the opening Promenade, and that was the tread to be adopted in Shimizu's flavourful reading.

Each movement was well-characterised, from the grotesque Gnomus with knocked-knees, a soothing troubadour's song by The Old Castle, an elegant rather than fidgety Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks to the hawkish hagglings at the Marketplace In Limoges. Even in the sepulchral Catacombs and Among The Dead In The Dead Language, an acute sense of sonority and awareness of its infinite variety dominated the proceedings.

A fearless headlong dash through Baba Yaga's Hut On Fowl's Legs and the grand carillons of The Great Gate of Kiev all served to confirm this as a masterly reading, rather than a routine or serviceable one. The encore was also by a Russian. Tchaikovsky's lyrical salon favourite Valse Sentimentale was a delightful panacea for the ears after an evening's fill of pianistic passion.