CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2015)

FANTASY TRIOS

Dimension Piano Trio

Champs Hill 060 / *****

In 1907, a philanthropist and amateur musician named Walter Cobbett held a competition for new compositions in the piano trio genre based on the subject of a one-movement “phantasie”. The 1^st prize of 50 pounds was awarded to Frank Bridge (1879-1941), who had composed his Phantasie in C minor. The work encompassed high passion and languidity, with a central section of scherzo-like playfulness. His style was influenced by the likes of Brahms, Fauré and Richard Strauss. Coming in second was John Ireland (1879-1962) whose Phantasie in A minor, more sanguine work with a most serene conclusion, was rewarded just 10 pounds.

Performing these in this highly rewarding album are the trio of violinist Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne, cellist Thomas Carroll and pianist Anthony Hewitt. Their vivid advocacy is second to none. The longest work is however Eduard Steuermann's highly idiomatic piano trio arrangement of Schoenberg's famous String Sextet, entitled Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), portraying the anguished emotions of an estranged couple on a midnight walk. The work however ends peaceably and with a reaffirmation of love. The filler is brief but no less fine: Josef Suk's Elegie deserves more than an occasional airing. The recorded sound is excellent, hence essential listening for chamber music aficionados.      

THE CHOPIN PROJECT

OLAFUR ARNALDS & ALICE SARA OTT

Mercury Classics  0028948114863 / *

Purists, look away now as yet another crossover project attempts to breathe new life into the well-worn classics. Polish composer Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) is the victim here, as young Icelandic composer and multimedia artist Olafur Arnalds deconstructs his music with the help of a somewhat misguided German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott and an Icelandic string quartet. Five of nine tracks in this short 46-minute long album are Arnalds' meditations on short motifs and harmonic sequences to be found in Chopin's pieces. All these are slow and dreamy, including Verses and Written In Stone, based on a recurrent accompanying pattern in the 3^rd movement of Chopin's Third Sonata.

Ott plays the original version of the Largo, the Raindrop Prelude, the posthumous C sharp minor Nocturne (with violinist Mari Samuelsen in Nathan Milstein's transcription), and exasperatingly truncated versions of the G minor and C minor Nocturnes. But what is gained for some of these to be accompanied by deliberately added background sounds? Arnald's Eyes Shut / Nocturne In C Minor and Letters Of A Traveller (based on the Nocturne Op.27 No.2) hint at Chopin's genius but fail to deliver on his end. All of this is atmospheric aural wallpaper which might please New Agers, but do nothing for our understanding or enjoyment of the real Chopin. A waste of time, money and shelf-space, really.   

THE ALPHABET SERIES: R IS FOR ROSES / Sing Song Club / Review

R IS FOR ROSES

Sing Song Club

Living Room at The Arts House

Sunday (27 September 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 September 2015 with the title "Coming up roses".

One of the best kept secrets in Singapore's musical scene has to be concerts by the Sing Song Club, the nation's premier exponent of the art song. Its annual Lieder Festival and Alphabet Series of song recitals deserve to be better attended, given the labour of love devoted to the curatorship of art songs and the actual performances.

Hundreds of origami and knitted roses greeted an audience of about 30 persons attending its latest recital in the Alphabet Series, an hour-long programme on the subject of roses. Limited to only songs in English, there was still an encyclopaedic dimension to the twenty on offer, sung by tenor Adrian Poon and soprano Rebecca Li, accompanied on piano by the ubiquitous Shane Thio.  

The art of writing songs is an elusive one, as setting the right words to the right kind of music determines whether a song is memorable or not. A lyrical quality is essential for a vocal artist to realise a song's full potential, for it to make the “popular” list. All the songs, whether by English or American composer, had been a hit sometime or another.

Benjamin Britten's unusual harmonisations add something tangible to Sweeter Than Roses by baroque composer Henry Purcell and the Irish song The Last Rose Of Summer. These make the listener more keenly receptive to the actual melodies and words. Edward MacDowell's To A Wild Rose is better known in its original piano setting, but the added words flesh out the raw emotions within otherwise not revealed.

Tenor Poon has a fresh and youthful vitality, a natural ring to his voice that does not need to over-exert in order to communicate. The swing to be found in Joe Burke's Rambling Rose, the haunting melancholy of Marc Blitzstein's The Rose Song and Christopher Irvin's rapturous A Wedding Among Roses were well-suited to his crooner's temperament.

Soprano Li is more of a stage diva, judging by her regular operatic roles, who can carry songs to shattering climaxes. She comfortably hit the lofty reaches of Haydn Wood's well-known showpiece Roses Of Picardy, oozed sentimentality in Roger Quilter's A Last Year's Rose and hammed like a Broadway showgirl for James Hanley's Second Hand Rose.

There were unfortunately no duets for the two singers, but a thematic approach that linked the songs lent much coherence to the breezy hour that passed quickly. Roses in gardens, roses in the wild, roses of love, transient and sickly roses, girls named Rose and mankind's love of roses were sub-themes within this absorbing whole. Pianist Thio was reliable as always, supporting the vocalists to the hilt.

Three more recitals beckon from 16 to 18 October at The Arts House, in a Lieder Festival dedicated wholly to songs by Singaporean composers, in celebration of the nation's 50 years. The rarity factor ensures that this is a must-attend event. You read it here first!

All photographs by the kind permission of The Sing Song Club.

SETTS #1 / Southeastern Ensemble of Today's & Tomorrow's Sounds / Review

SETTS #1

Southeastern Ensemble

for Today's and Tomorrow's Sounds

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (27 September 2015)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 29 September 2015 with the title "Sleepless in sonic garden".

SETTS is the acronym for Southeastern Ensemble for Today's and Tomorrow's Sounds, the latest new music ensemble in Singapore. Founded by violinist / educator Ruth Rodrigues and Singapore Symphony Orchestra bassoonist Christoph Wichert, its mission is to showcase the music of Southeast Asian composers, with performances by some of the nation's top professional musicians.

The small audience that gathered did not know what to expect when Hoh Chung Shih's Parts / Yuan began with eleven musicians dispersed throughout the hall playing seemingly random notes and sequences. The composer described this as a “sonic garden”, a sound installation with a combination of “fixed” or planted musicians playing from scores and “mobile” string players hovering around them and walking through the audience.

That piece of “surround sound” served as a bookend for the concert which also had more conventional ensemble pieces. The subject of sleep (or the lack of) occupied two young composers' works. Daniel Bonaventure Lim's Hold It Still was a scherzo-like piece scored for wind quintet and  percussionist Iskandar Rashid, with Roberto Alvarez's flute and piccolo being the protagonist.

Here slumber gets interrupted by vivid and sometimes disturbing dreams, which was the case with Malaysian composer Chow Jun Yan's Ning III for piano, violin and flute. With Shane Thio stroking the insides of the piano, it was left for violinist Christina Zhou and Alvarez to conjure up harmonics and the most tinnitus-inducing sounds from their instruments, all guaranteed to result in insomnia.

In between were Quartre Pieces pour Hautbois et Piano by veteran Vietnamese composer Ton-That Thiet (born 1933), short and varied essays in the style of the French modernist school. Composers like Messiaen, Dutilleux and Jolivet came to mind. Dutch oboist Joost Flach negotiated its bed of brambles with aplomb, accompanied by Thio who also performed Chua Jon Lin's Seven Miniatures, interesting character pieces that displayed influences by Satie, Bartok and Ligeti among others.

Teenaged Bruneian composer Shilah Husaimee Ahmad's 6 Cities In March for wind quintet was the most traditional work on show, but one displaying much maturity. Its theme was an Arabic lullaby prayer song heard as a child, subjected to six variations, each representing a city of spiritual significance including Brunei, Jeddah, Mecca, Medinah, Dubai and Singapore. Its performers were Alvarez, Flach, Wichert, Colin Tan (clarinet) and Alan Kartik (French horn).    

The Indonesian Septian Dwi Cahyo's String Quartet No.1 comprised very short movements, much in the astringent manner of Viennese serialist Anton Webern. Its thorny pages brought out the virtuosity of violinists Zhou, Nanako Tanaka, violist Marietta Ku and cellist Lin Juan. This concert of three world premieres and three Singapore premieres was brought full circle with a reprise of Hoh's Parts / Yuan, this time with the added element of audience interaction.

Photo credit: Prof Bernard Tan

Hoh requested the audience to mingle with the musicians and among themselves, to react, to imitate and to oppose whatever actions and sounds as they see fit. This was essentially a licence to a free-for-all, so cue the mayhem of the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring and whatever occurs when concert etiquette flies out of the window. It is hoped that SETTS#2 proves to be another riot. 

All photographs by the kind permission of SETTS.

SSO CONCERT: BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO WITH LEONIDAS KAVAKOS / Review

BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO

WITH LEONIDAS KAVAKOS

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (26 September 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 September 2015 with the title "Double duty, double joy".

Soloists who perform as well as conduct in the same evening are no longer a rarity at Singapore Symphony Orchestra concerts. The latest is Greek violin virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos, who opened with Beethoven's Violin Concerto from the floor and later stepped on the podium to conduct Dvorak's Seventh Symphony.

The Beethoven was a revelation, coming across as an ultimate piece of chamber music. The long orchestral tutti set the tone, directed by Kavakos on centrestage. The tempo he chose was comfortable, perfectly judged for his solo entry which brought out the sweetest sound one could possibly hope for.

His intonation was spot on throughout, and there was never that tension that usually exists between soloist and orchestra. He and the SSO were in one mind, and one heart together, his Stradivarius rising above the massed strings yet blending as one voice. Here was an arch-virtuoso, renowned for his pyrotechnics in Romantic and modern repertoire, tempering a soloistic instinct in service of this anti-virtuosic music.

With both hands occupied, a mere nod of the head or gesture in the face was enough for his partners to do his bidding, and the result was pure harmony. Things heated up in the first movement cadenza by Fritz Kreisler, taken with a nonchalant ease, and the result was warmth itself. Premature applause from the excitable audience was greeted with a friendly smile by Kavakos, and the feeling of bliss carried through to the Larghetto slow movement, where among the sublime moments included one where his violin was accompanied by pizzicato strings.

The rondo finale was a joyous romp, one so agreeable that a final cadenza thrown in to stir things up seemed only a concession for display for display's sake. Even this was in the true classical spirit, which was roundly applauded. The hair-raising stuff came in Kavakos' encore, a scarcely believable solo transcription of Tarrega's guitar classic Memories of the Alhambra.  

Kavakos is less experienced as a conductor on the podium, but brought out an exciting reading of Dvorak's Seventh Symphony in D minor. The contrast could not have been greater, with the gentility of Beethoven giving way to the raw dramatics of the Bohemian. Even with a reduced sized band, Romantic repertoire invariably tests Victoria Concert Hall's acoustics to the limit. Dvorak, whose orchestration resembles that of Brahms, sounded plethoric especially in the loud climaxes. 

Taking a broader than usual tempo, the first movement dragged a little and some of the nervous tension was lost. However potential for upping the ante existed, and that gradually proved the case. The slow movement provided a mellow spell, all but blown away by the vigourous Slavonic rhythm of the third movement. The symphony never looked back after that, with a return of the energy and drama in the finale.

This time, Kavakos with his shoulder-length locks was practically leaping from the podium, as if possessed. The final climax was an overwhelming one. Dvorak was to complete two further and more popular symphonies, but both would not come close to the sheer angst of the Seventh. SSO and Kavakos nailed this one firmly between the eyes.     

CELEBRATING SG50 / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

CELEBRATING SG50

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (25 September 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 September 2015 with the title "New shining lights".

Within the coming week, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra will undertake its first overseas tour, performing concerts in Macau and Hong Kong. Its touring programme is a hugely demanding one, and knowing what the young musicians led by Principal Conductor Jason Lai have accomplished in the past, its pre-tour concert in front of a Singaporean audience generated much interest and expectation.

The orchestra opened with the World Premiere of Ho Chee Kong's Empyrean Lights. Its title refers to the aurorae or spectral phenomena that take place in the polar regions, commonly known as the Northern or Southern Lights. It is a 17-minute long étude for orchestra which taxes the strings enormously, with woodwinds and brass also given exacting solo parts.

Beginning quietly with a D minor drone not unlike the outset of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, solo instruments emerge from and return into a mysterious haze, gradually morphing into a dynamic force that is both serene yet majestic. There are running string passages which bring to mind Sibelius, but the defining voices were the three trumpets that capped the work's final chapter. Only one stayed the course, its notes configuring enigmatically the name or initials of Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, before gently expiring into the ether.

This has to be the most subtle and eloquent tribute to the nation's guiding light yet, and the orchestra responded to its rugged challenges with admirable aplomb. With time, some of its rough edges will be smoothened out, just as one begins to realise the impact of this moving music.     

Completing the first half was Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto, given an articulate and elegant reading by Li Churen, a Conservatory alumnus now pursuing her Master's Degree at Yale. This is a more nuanced reading than the one she gave with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra at the President's Young Performers Concert three years ago. Having grown and matured in the interim, her version of the slow movement oozed lyricism while the finale crackled with unbridled joy.

Nationalist Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' Second Symphony was the concert's longest work. This received a taut performance which dallied little yet gave a pervading sense of breadth and warmth in its 40-plus-minutes duration. The strings played a large part in conveying this impression, and if the beginning sounded a tad diffuse, it soon grew in stature. The stark opening to the 2^nd movement, chilling in its intensity similarly blossomed to a fiery fruition under conductor Lai's baton.

The Prestissimo 3^rd movement, with rapid string runs referenced earlier in Ho's work, gave the programme an overall feel of cohesion and symmetry. Arctic illuminations and Nordic utterances went hand in hand here. The finale's heroic sweep with blazing brass was the rallying point for Finnish independance from Russian domination, not unlike a certain Hakka lawyer's lifelong and steadfast stand for the “little red dot”.

A less well-sustained climax would have fallen flat, but Lai's charges never flagged for a second till its valedictory final chords. In the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra and all associated with it, Singaporeans have good reason to feel proud.    

Composer & Conductor:
Ho Chee Kong with Jason Lai.

THE WORLD'S MOST UNIQUE PIANO FESTIVAL: RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM

THE WORLD'S MOST UNIQUE PIANO FESTIVAL

There are many piano festivals that exist in the world's busy calendar of music events, but they are not equal. Some boast of a month-long duration, others of the sheer number of pianists invited, the “brand name” of artists et cetera, but only one prides itself on the wealth of repertoire on show. Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum is a connoisseur's festival, one that highlights neglected and fringe works of the repertoire, forgotten and unknown composers, centering on the cult of obscurity and rarity.

The market square at Husum
with the St Mary's Church (Marienkirche)

Held within an August summer's week in the relatively remote North German seaside town of Husum in Schleswig-Holstein, it is a curate's egg. Its isolation makes a trip there seem like a pilgrimage. For years, I had feasted on the annual highlights CD recording on the Danish Danacord label, enjoying whatever offerings pianists like Marc-André Hamelin, Daniel Berman, Frederic Meinders and Piers Lane might tickle its audiences with. The choices of music would always be surprising, fascinating beyond imagination, but I never imagined actually venturing into the unknown to North Friesland.

That was until an e-mail arrived in May, sent by fellow pianophile the Japanese musicologist and Professor of Aesthetics Satoru Takaku, who has been a Husum regular since in early noughties. “Come, I'll arrange tickets for you, book your hotel, and even meet you at Hamburg airport!” was his enticement, and I was caught hook, line and sinker. A round trip that could include the BBC Proms in London, the 18^th Leeds International Piano Competition and Husum in late August was a possibility, and soon I was dreaming.   

Schloss vor Husum is a 16^th century castle built by the Counts of Gottorf on the outskirts just north of the marketplace of Husum. Its oxide red bricks and single watch-tower built in the Danish (or is it Dutch?) style dominate the landscape and it even has a own moat of its own. Although its concerts begin at half-past-seven in the evening, daylight still filters into the Ritter Saal (Hall of Knights) which seats close to 200 in a small and intimate space. Ancient portraits and an elaborately decorated fireplace (this castle has some extraordinary fireplaces and mantelpieces!) vie for attention, as do the nesting birds and sqawking ducks which provide a not unwelcome counterpoint to the piano music. Soon the ear settles for the feast of piano sound, and that captivates like no other.

Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum is the brainchild of Berlin-born pianist and pedagogue Peter Froundjian, a soft-spoken mustachioed gentleman in his 60s of Armenian extraction. In 1985 he received an appointment to head the music school that is resident in the castle, and he saw the possibilities of such a festival at such a venue. He was interested in non-mainstream piano repertoire, and could not understand how a narrow repertoire could have pre-occupied musical and concert life for ages. He wanted to do something for the unjustly forgotten composers, such that they could be appreciated by the public like the great masters. There is much good music to heard, except that these are rarely programmed in recitals.

He felt that this approach would not work within the confines of one or two recitals, which would garner little attention if any. Instead a festival package spanning a week with eight recitals by different pianists of different tastes might do the trick. Husum is not near a big city (the closest, Hamburg, is 2 hours away by train), so visitors plan to stay the entire week. Return visitors and word-of-mouth ensure that all tickets to concerts are sold-out when the day arrives. Late-comers are to satisfy themselves by sitting in an adjacent room with a video feed (and another magnificent fireplace) for a small fee.

The intimate Ritter Saal of Schloss vor Husum
sits around 200 for each recital.

The first festival took place in 1987 with attention from the press, periodicals and media, and it was well received. Pianists including Michael Ponti (a Vox Records legend, a champion of unknown Romantic repertoire), Daniel Berman, Rainer Klaas, Eckhart Sellheim, a piano duo and Froundjian himself performed. The year 1989 was a pivotal one, which saw the participation of Marc-Andre Hamelin and Ronald Smith (in Alkan's Concerto and Symphony for solo piano respectively), Hamish Milne (Reubke's Sonata in B minor), Jean-Marc Luisada, Idil Biret and Ponti again. That edition sealed Husum's unique position in the pianistic world, with the focus on repertoire as the guiding light.

What have been some of the more arcane curiosities that Husum has mid-wifed? Froundjian lists off the palm of his hand: Cecile Licad performing Florent Schmitt, Marie-Catherine Girod playing a sonata by Pierre de Breville in the past, and young Russian Yuri Favorin unearthing Alkan, Myaskovsky, Prokofiev and Szymanowski in this year's line-up. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Virtuosity is a given, but obscurity a definitive.

Is there a formula by which Froundjian picks his artists and programmes? There is no fixed formula. Any pianist can apply to perform just as he can approach a given pianist. There are proposals for repertoire choices and counter-proposals, based on what has been performed in past years, and what has not. It is all a very interesting experiment.

The latest Danacord CD recording
of Rarities from the 2014 festival.

Thanks to the annual highlights CD, a labour of love co-produced by Danacord label's owner Jesper Buhl, the “legend of Husum” has spread far and wide, albeit within the relatively small cosmos of universal pianophiles. Asian visitors are still a relative rarity, but my friend Satoru has done much to proselytise Husum's gospel. Through his introduction, London-based Japanese pianist Hiroaki Takenouchi has performed twice in Husum in recent years, introducing works by Boris Pasternak (the author of Doctor Zhivago), Hubert Parry and others to receptive ears.     

The year 2016 marks the 30^th edition of Rarities and who is to perform at this special anniversary? Froundjian does not reveal the names of pianists yet, but he assures it will be a combination of long-time friends favourites of the Festival and a late of new names making their debuts. Given the vast pool of concert pianists who are widening the performing repertoire every day, the possibilities are endless. As long as there are terra incognita for intrepid pianists to discover, and an ever-curious audience to savour these offerings, the cult and spirit of Husum is sure to endure.

MARTIN JONES Piano Recital / Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC

AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM

MARTIN JONES Piano Recital

Wednesday (26 August 2015)

It would appear that the British pianist Martin Jones and the festival of Piano Rarities at Schloss vor Husum were made for each other, but it comes as a surprise that this is his debut. His programming was classic Jones (if one is familiar with his many CD recordings on the Nimbus label) meets classic Husum (if one is familiar with the selections that appear annually on the Danacord label).

Jones spoke before each piece, with typically British humour, and warmed up the audience immediately. First off was Carl Czerny's Grand Caprice, he with his multitudes of notes but a surprisingly congenial work that was a transitional link between the styles of Beethoven (gruff and pathetique) and Mendelssohn (songs without words) but cast in the form of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy (4 linked movements with a fugue near the end). 

Its foil was a Sonatina by the Viennese Hans Gal, highly tonal but spiced with the mild dissonances of the early to mid-20^th century. In between were 13 piquant pieces from Federico Mompou's Ballet, filled with his typically luscious harmonies and equally delicious pauses.

Despite his prolific recorded output, Jones has never enjoyed the reputation of super-virtuosos with catholic tastes like Hamelin, Hough or Hamish Milne. He is not as exacting in getting in all the notes with microsecond precision, but somehow he gets there in a way that is totally engaging, and no way was he less than committed in this recital. 

He has an improvisatory air in pieces which need that kind of expression, and that came across winningly in the dances by Argentine Carlos Guastavino and Spaniard Joaquin Nin's Message a Debussy, the latter commanding an orchestral texture and the Spanish lilt that possess the Frenchman's music. To close was Percy Grainger's suite In A Nutshell, four varied movements that captured the Australian's folksy style yet extraordinary ear for harmonies. The Pastorale was filled with colour while the Gumsuckers March brought the recital to a rousing end.

The encores: Mischa Levitzki's The Enchanted Nymph was a perfect bis for the evening, a languorous legato that transformed into an infectious waltz before returning to its watery realm, now with a gilded edge. Jones wasn't done yet. Moszkowski's Etincelles (a Horowitz specialty) was followed by Earl Wild's transcription of Fascinatin's Rhythm, and to conclude, Arcadi Volodos's  manic way with Mozart's Turkish Rondo. A wild standing ovation, apparently a relative rarity at Husum too, was the just and totally deserved response.       

Martin Jones meets his audience for
post-concert supper at Hartmann's Landküche.

JONATHAN PLOWRIGHT Piano Recital / Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum 2015

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC

AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM

JONATHAN PLOWRIGHT Piano Recital

Thursday (27 August 2015)

British pianist Jonathan Plowright is a regular at Husum, where his breadth and depth of his enormous repertoire gets a sympathetic hearing. There were none of his Polish favourites on show this evening, which began with hyphenated Bach. Busoni and Siloti were not on the slate but instead, the likes of Granville Bantock, Herbert Howells, Constant Lambert, Eugene Goosens and Lord Berners. 

These were transcriptions of chorale preludes and short movements from the collection for Harriet Cohen (famed lady pianist who was the mistress of Arnold Bax), and in these were a wealth of surprising harmonies that ticked the ear, all performed with refinement and obvious love by Plowright.

What followed were hardly rarities, Brahms's Four Ballades Op.10, repertoire Plowright is working on in his ongoing Brahms cycle for BIS recordings. He produced a warm and burnished sound for the familiar favourites, comfortably overcoming the tricky bits of the  Second Ballade and conjuring a dreamy, hypnotic mood for the Fourth Ballade in B minor. In this quiet number, one could hear a counterpoint provided by the nesting migratory birds and ducks from the Schloss vor Husum moat, a famous and not unwelcome fixture of evening recitals here.

The only work in the second half will not be heard anywhere else outside of Husum, the piano transcription in 9 movements of Constant Lambert's ballet Horoscope. From the composer of The Rio Grande, this is a wonderfully crafted work comparable to Glazunov's ballet The Seasons and Gustav Holst's The Planets, just to name orchestral works with multiple movements. Lambert's is slightly more elusive, opening with a prelude (Palindrome) composed solely of a series of chords exploring different tonalities. 

The ensuing dances combined fast and slow numbers, with Leo being the obvious star among the stars. There is an element of the rough and ready in the writing, but the slow movements fared best in Plowright's hands, some music I will definitely want to hear again.

Encore time: Harold Craxton's neo-Baroque Sarabande and Rigaudon was tinged with interesting harmonies, and no one would have expected American band-leader Jack Fina's rumbling Bumble Boogie to follow. It was back to the sublime with Federico Mompou's Secreto (Secret) with more achingly beautiful harmonies.  

Give that man a beer!
Jonathan Plowright is toasted by
Peter Froundjian (left) and Ludwig Madlener (right).

CYPRIEN KATSARIS Piano Recital / Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC

AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM

CYPRIEN KATSARIS Piano Recital

Friday (28 August 2015) 

Big shock and wonderful surprise of the week: the Chinese pianist Wang Xiayin had cancelled on doctor's orders at the eleventh hour. To replace her was the French-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris! Some might even consider this an upgrade! No programme was planned, but one would always rely on Katsaris to provide some impromptu prizes, which he would announce on the spur of the moment.

He opened with his own improvisations on popular 19^th and early 20^th century melodies, citing that improvisation had already become a lost art among classical pianists. In his 15-minute montage, he brilliantly linked themes from Saint-Saens's Samson et Dalila, Verdi's La Traviata, Wagner's Tannhauser, a waltz of his own device, Tarrega's Memories of the Alhambra (his repeated note technique imitating the guitar uncannily well), Tchaikovsky's Pathetique, Khachaturian's Spartacus, Rachmaninov's 3^rd and 2^nd Piano Concertos and Liszt's Les Preludes. This was better than any of those Three Tenor medleys!

Late Liszt followed, the little-known Trauervorspiel & Trauermarsch and Katsaris's own version of the obsessive Csardas Obstinee, festooned with his own cadenzas and more repeated-note mayhem.  Katsaris then did a Liszt by transcribing an aria from Liszt's early opera Don Sanche, in the manner of the great master himself. The piece de resistance was surely Katsaris's own arrangement combining both solo and orchestral parts of Liszt's Second Piano Concerto, a blinder of a showpiece which has all the tricks and treats of the ultimate virtuoso. Is Katsaris a reincarnation of the great Hungarian? His generous and oversized spirit suggests the affirmative.

A strange reversal of programming saw the second half open with Haydn's little Sonata in C major, a breezily conceived reading marred by a jarring metallic sound whenever he hit the low C note. Apparently, a small object had fallen into the piano while shifting score stand and lamp, rendering the Haydn an unscripted edition by Henry Cowell or John Cage! 

Schubert's second of Three Piano Pieces (D.946) showed Katsaris an absolute master of cantabile, while Henry Purcell's Suite in D major was a model of restraint and good taste. There was even time for a quiz, winners of which got a Katsaris CD recording as a prize. A prelude of Louis Vierne and a short song by  Friedrich Nietzsche were correctly identified by two young Germans. He closed the programme with Louis Brassin's transcription of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries (Walkürenritt), of course with the usual Katsaris modifications.

His sole encore was a nocturne that was so famous that it is hardly ever played in recital, Chopin's ubiquitous Nocturne in E flat major Op.9 No.2. A true rarity indeed, to be heard with Katsaris discrete ornamentation and unfailing beauty of tone.

EVENINGS AT HARTMANN'S / Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum

Bryce Morrison's famous quote on the Husum Festival
is everywhere, including the Festival bistro.

The concert has ended but the night is still young. Summer nights in Husum are mild and never chilly, but an evening of piano music really whets your appetite for something to fill your stomach. Hartmann's Landküche (Hartmann's Country Kitchen) is the watering hole and bistro where the audience and performers repair to after the music has stopped.

Located just five minutes' stroll from the Schloss, it is invariably filled when the pianist, accompanied by festival director Peter Froundjian and his wife Annette, arrives. There is a hearty round of applause and toasts are offered all round. The busy but efficient waitresses take orders for drinks, and then comes the Maestro of the kitchen himself, Klaus Thiem, who looks every bit an artist himself. He takes the orders himself for soups and entrees, and within mere minutes, these are served to astonished and hungry guests. 

Over drinks and food, alcoholic or teetotal, friendships are made and unions are formed. Rarely is piano music ever discussed, and there is no piano in sight. This is the warmth shared by pianophiles, and even strangers from the Far East are welcomed into the fold. The spirit of Husum does not just exist in the music and repertoire, but also the music-lovers who make their pilgrimage every year. 

Three generations of the Jones:
Martin with his son and grandson.

An Afri-Cola and beer, and that's what
a real hamburger looks like (just 2 hours from Hamburg!)

Chef Klaus Thiem makes his rounds while
the Froundjians and Jonathan Plowright place their orders.

Ludwig Madlener confirms the items on Cyprien Katsaris'
recital programme, which is then pasted onto the
festival notice board on the next day.
Cyprien Katsaris is a raconteur extraordinaire too.

Danacord's Jesper Buhl and Cyprien Katsaris
discuss about the recording to come.
The next generation of Froundjians: Sophie & Nicolai.

Reflections on Schloss vor Husum.