AN
AFTERNOON AT THE
6TH
ASEAN INTERNATIONAL
CHOPIN PIANO COMPETITION
It isn't always a habit of mine to go stalking
piano competitions, but this one held just outside Kuala Lumpur seemed to be a
convenient getaway from Malaysia's busiest city after my obligatory spot of sightseeing. I
had crossed the Causeway to attend the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's debut
concert at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas on Tuesday 8 December 2015 and had one extra
indolent day to spend, so why not be in the company of piano music?
Getting to the Experimental Theatre of
Universiti Malaya (notice the use of the nation's old name, rather than
Malaysia) was the tough part. A light rail ride from Masjid Jamek in the
historical heart of KL to Universiti station, a taxi ride into the laid back
campus (which does remind one of the old Bukit Timah Campus in Singapore), with
some help from a friendly cab driver and a young student, I finally made it to
the concert venue. And not a minute too late to attend the semi-final round of the
Open Category, which was the most advanced of the five categories.
 |
| Pianists practising on a "silent" keyboard. Notice the crests of the King Edward VII Medical College and Raffles College, the fore-runners of Universiti Malaya. |
This competition, organised by the
Persatuan Chopin Malaysia (Malaysia Chopin Society), is in its sixth edition
and appears to be the most prestigious of piano competitions in Malaysia. I had
learnt about it during one of the breakfast meetings of the Chopin Society of
Hong Kong, thanks to its regular attendee, Mrs Snezana Panovska, the
Macedonian piano pedagogue who has trained some of Malaysian's top young
pianists. She also happens to be the society's Music Director and founder of
the competition.
The 8-member jury is a rather august one,
comprising past winners of the Warsaw Chopin Competition (Li Mingqiang, China),
Tchaikovsky Competition (Natalia Troull, Russia), Marguerite Long Competition (Jania Aubakirova, Kazakhstan) top teachers from Vietnam
(Tran Thu Ha, Dang Thai Son's elder half-sister), Malaysia (Ng Chong Lim and
Panovska), Italy (Flavio Turissini), and
Montenegro/Singapore (Boris Kraljevic, who else?). However it seemed such a
waste of pianistic and pedagogical talent to be judging only four pianists in
the most advanced category. Of these four, only two seemed worthy of the
competitive process.
Fifteen-year-old Hannah Shin
(Australia) was a revelation. Oozing total confidence and control, she put the
polish on Beethoven's Sonata in F sharp major Op.78, and its tricky
repeated figurations in the second movement proved not much of a challenge to her fingers. In
Chopin's music, she found the right blend of passion and restraint with totally
musical accounts of the Second Ballade and Fourth Scherzo.
Nothing was vulgar or over-the-top; idiomatic and well-judged, her playing was
clearly a paradigm of superior teaching. She was also the only pianist to
perform the specially commissioned work, Lee Chie Tsang's atonal Sympathetic
[Re]sonance, from memory.
Veronika Issajeva (Estonia) almost did
not make it to the venue after making that long flight from the Baltics.
Marooned in a Petaling Jaya hotel and without transport, she was fortunate to
have the Chopin Society President save the day by chauffeuring her in time for
the semi-finals. And I was fortunate to have heard her accounts of Chopin's Barcarolle,
the rarely-programmed Bolero and a nocturne. She is tasteful and
musical, although not possessing quite the utter confidence of Shin. Her
programme was completed by Schumann's Second Sonata in G minor Op.22,
which was more than secure despite some rough edges.
The less said about the performances by
the two Malaysian pianists (both men), the better. Both were totally unprepared
for the competition, with multiple wrong notes, memory lapses and just plodding
through each work desperately to the end. The only relief for them was that the
number of people in the audience just about equalled the number in the jury. My
summary of the afternoon's fare was: Girls Good, Boys Bad. Panovska corrected
me by adding: Boys Very Bad.
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| The jury included (from L): Flavio Turissini, Boris Kraljevic, Li Mingqiang and Ng Chong Lim. I went native for the day. Photo: Snezana Panovska |
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| The lady jury members and Boris and Flavio with members of the Chopin Society Malaysia. |
Nightfall soon arrived, and I was invited
to a lovely buffet dinner with the jury members at a neighbourhood community
centre. What hospitality and neighbourliness! Panovska always assured me that in her book, Singaporean music lovers will always be made to feel welcome! New acquaintances were made, and old friendships rekindled in the happy
hour, everything halal, of course. For me, it was back to Singapore the next
morning, while the jury continued their quest to find the next top pianist from
Malaysia and the region.
For the record, both Shin and Issajeva
made it to the Grand Finals, where they performed the Chopin piano concertos
with a international string quartet. No first prize was awarded. Shin won 2nd
prize with Piano Concerto No.2, while Issajeva 3rd prize with
the First Concerto. Both deserve every bit of success in their young but
surely budding musical careers.
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| How some jury members and music reviewers try to relax after piano competitions! Photo: Milan Stevanovic |
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