A Piano Recital Not To Miss: ANDREY GUGNIN performs RACHMANINOV 24 Preludes

Here is a piano recital not to be missed!

Russia-born ANDREY GUGNIN is one of the most exciting pianists in the concert circuit today, distinguished by his adventurous programming, virtuosic performances and probing insight into whatever repertoire he chooses to perform. First prizewinner of the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition, he has made several well-received recordings on various labels. Notable are his performances of Shostakovich piano music and a programme inspired by Leopold Godowsky on the Hyperion label.

His Singapore debut showcases a rare complete performance of the 24 Preludes of Sergei Rachmaninov.

ANDREY GUGNIN Piano Recital

RACHMANINOV 

Prelude in C sharp minor, Op.3 No.2

Ten Preludes, Op.23

Thirteen Preludes, Op.32

Victoria Concert Hall

7 March 2024, 8.15 pm

To book tickets:

Andrey Gugnin | Altenburg Arts | Singapore (altenburg-arts.com)

Watch this performance of Rachmaninov's Preludes:

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Andrey Gugnin is presented 

by Altenburg Arts.

BIBER'S MYSTERY SONATAS / Red Dot Baroque / Review

BIBER’S MYSTERY SONATAS

Red Dot Baroque
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (23 February 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 April 2024 with the title "Red Dot Baroque illuminates with Biber's Mystery Sonatas".

Trust Red Dot Baroque (RDB), Singapore’s only dedicated period instrument ensemble, to continue illuminating listeners about Baroque music. Beyond the familiar J.S.Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, RDB has now unveiled the Mystery Sonatas of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644-1704). 

Born in Bohemia, Biber was a virtuoso violinist who became the court composer of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, a position famously occupied decades later by the Mozarts, Wolfgang Amadeus and his father Leopold. 

Biber’s most famous work was Battalia, a riotous reflection of the Thirty Years War, but his Mystery Sonatas (or Rosary Sonatas) of 1676 come close. These comprise sixteen works inspired by events in the lives of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary. The Mysteries of the Rosary include five Joyful Mysteries, five Sorrowful Mysteries, five Glorious Mysteries, before closing with a Passacaglia. 

This evening, ten sonatas were performed by six members of RDB and ten Conservatory students. None of the sonatas conformed to the “sonata form”, which came much later, instead deriving from the Italian word “sonare” which means to “sound out”. The short works were more like fantasies and dances which reveled on the art of improvisation. 

The opening piece, The Annunciation, performed by Alan Choo (baroque violin), Leslie Tan (baroque cello) and Gerald Lim (harpsichord), served as a prime example. 

Flashy flourishes from Choo immediately alerted one to the level of virtuosity involved, an attention-grabbing introduction leading to a set of variations, considered inventive for their time. While the sonatas were meant for deep reflection and affirmation of one’s faith, the creative spirit in Biber could not but help turn these into true showpieces. 

Preceding each piece was a short narration by Choo, reading from the Gospels. The ensuing sonatas became an exercise for six talented violin students in adjusting to the different tunings (called scordatura), thus rendering varying shades of colour and emotion to each piece. 

The Finding of Jesus in the Temple (in A major), played by Syu Cheng-yi, was a gleeful series of dances, contrasted by The Agony in the Garden (C minor), performed by Xu Zhuorui, a lament of heartrending pathos. The Crucifixion (G minor) was suitably dramatic and violent with RDB’s Placida Ho providing requisite fireworks in its variations. 

A departure from the violin-cello-harpsichord combo was The Assumption of Mary (D major), which saw Brenda Koh’s violin accompanied by Tan’s cello, Mervyn Lee on baroque guitar and Vanessa Irwanto on harp. The transformation was a stark one, the earlier formalities turning into a joyous folkdance with seemingly happy-go-lucky vibes. 

It was left to Choo, alone on violin, to emphatically complete the set with the Passacaglia in G minor (The Guardian Angel). Built upon just four descending notes (G-F-E flat-D), a mighty edifice was erected with its series of short variations, looking forward to J.S.Bach’s famous Chaconne composed almost forty years later. 

One may surmise that without Biber, there might have been no Bach.

All the performers:
RDB and Conservatory students

JAAP VAN ZWEDEN CONDUCTS HONG KONG PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA WITH ALEXANDRE KANTOROW / Review

JAAP VAN ZWEDEN CONDUCTS 

HONG KONG PHILHARMONIC 

ORCHESTRA WITH 

ALEXANDRE KANTOROW 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Tuesday (20 February 2024) 

This review was first published on Bachtrack on 22 February 2024 with the title "A triumphant return to Singapore by the Hong Kong Philharmonic". 

Singapore was the first stop of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra’s 50^th anniversary concert tour of eight cities in Asia and Europe. Led by its eighth music director, Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden, the orchestra more than followed up on indelible impressions left at its last visit to the island-state in May 2017. 

One hallmark of the orchestra’s programming was its promotion of works by Hong Kong composers. Daniel Lo Ting-Cheung’s Asterismal Dance, specially commissioned for the anniversary season, was a compelling opener. Lasting just under seven minutes, the “scherzo fantastique” made every second count. Its slow and mysterious opening highlighted excellent woodwind passages, later erupting with a restless pulsing energy. Its idiom was tonal, chromatic and without revealing Chinese influences. Resembling Vaughan Williams at his darkest and prickliest, it was also possessed with a Bernsteinian beat, dynamics of which hinted at jazz. 

Then it was the turn of Alexandre Kantorow, 1^st prizewinner of the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, to guest in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Bespectacled for this performance, he looked more like a mathematics professor about to deliver a lecture but appearances deceived. Going full pelt and trading blow for blow with the orchestra, he latched on the lapels and never let go. 

This was through and through a virtuoso outing, the pace only relenting during the first statement of the Dies Irae chant, Variation No.XII’s graceful Tempo di minuetto and the glorious transition from B flat minor to D flat major for the famous 18^th Variation. The laconic yet witty ending was also perfectly voiced. Kantorow’s encore was typically anti-virtuosic: Federico Mompou’s Cancion No.6, and the audience waited with bated breath for the ensuing Danca, which never came. 

Impressive as the first half was, that was mere sideshow to Mahler’s First Symphony. By reprising its reading from seven years ago, the orchestra and van Zweden may be accused of trotting out a tired and well-worn warhorse. However, they were determined to make this account resound anew. The first movement’s evocation of dawn was rapt with stillness, the three offstage trumpets subtle yet alert to the day’s awakening. The symphony’s thematic link with the Wayfarer song Ging heut’ morgen übers Feld was well elucidated and its development convincing as to elicit premature applause at the movement’s close. There were new ears to this music indeed. 

The Scherzo was very buoyant and rambunctious, tampered by the Trio section’s more gemütlich feel. Clearly this was a performance of fine contrasts and nuanced balances. Similarly, the slow movement’s droll funeral march, a variation of Frère Jacques in the minor key, was contrasted by its unbuttoned klezmer elements, revealing the Bohemia-born composer at his earthiest. 

Yet all these had to take a backseat to the very long finale, opening with the tumultuous “cry of a wounded heart”, mustered with an immediacy that was instinctual rather than coerced. The movement’s upheavals are well-known, and there were returns of earlier themes, but stiller moments never flagged. These were deliberately built up, restraint awaiting a final payback with dividends aplenty. This was realised with the ten French horns rising to their feet for the final call to arms, a dramatic and “lump in the throat” moment if any. 

Its conclusion was greeted with a spontaneous standing ovation, which van Zweden and his charges rewarded with Dvorak’s passionate Slavonic Dance in G minor (Op.46 No.8), a furiant as a furious encore. For the orchestra’s excellence and the evening’s varied musical pleasures, one can only proclaim, “Glory to Hong Kong!”                   

Star Rating: *****

The review as seen on Bachtrack:

A triumphant return to Singapore by the Hong Kong Philharmonic | Bachtrack

Mervin Beng's review in The Straits Times:

Concert review: Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra celebrates 50th anniversary with sterling show | The Straits Times

MATHEMUSICAL ENCOUNTERS: OPENING CONCERT / Margaret Leng Tan Piano Recital / Review

MATHEMUSICAL ENCOUNTERS: 

OPENING CONCERT

Margaret Leng Tan, Piano
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Monday (19 February 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 February 2024 with the title "Margaret Leng Tan bridges visual arts and music in dynamic concert".

The idea that visual images may be translated into musical sounds is not a new one. Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s piano suite Pictures At An Exhibition (1874) was a landmark for the piano repertoire. Metamorphoses by the late American composer George Crumb (1929-2022) continued in the same spirit, drawing inspiration from celebrated modern paintings.

Singapore’s high priestess of the avant-garde, Margaret Leng Tan, was a close friend of Crumb. She was the dedicatee of Book I of Metamorphoses, which premiered in 2017. As part of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s Mathemusical Encounters conference, Tan gave the first Asian performance of Book II (2018-2020) as a memorial tribute to the composer.
Its ten fantasy-pieces for amplified piano involved techniques beyond playing the 88 black and white keys. Directly strumming, scratching and striking its steel strings, added percussion and vocalisations were all part of the performance. Lest one thought this alienating or esoteric, 54 minutes passed rather swiftly with Tan as a most involving and engaging museum guide.
The music was no more arcane or forbidding as Debussy’s Preludes, and in certain ways, spoke more directly to the listener. It certainly helped that the paintings were projected on a large screen behind the piano. Without fanfare, Tan launched into the first two pieces, based on works by Swiss artist Paul Klee.

Ancient Sound, Abstract On Black centred on hefty chords of fixed intervals, almost corresponding to the painting’s coloured squares and rectangles, accompanied by metallic rasping of the strings. Landscape With Yellow Birds included twittering birdsong with intendent echoes, resonances and repeated notes.


Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World had an apparent serenity but coloured by dissonance and an inner tension. Tan’s arching over the keyboard also mirrored the crouching-crawling posture of the painting’s protagonist. Simon Dinnerstein’s Purple Haze had a pale female nude suspended over some anonymous metropolis. There was a bluesy feel to the right hand’s melody, but the left hand’s ostinato chords implied looming inner-city violence.

Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (Lady In Gold) saw a preponderance of treble notes, the subject’s opulence heightened by chimes and a mallet striking high strings. The polar opposite was Paul Gauguin’s Spirit of the Dead Watching, its dark sense of foreboding suggested by an aboriginal drone, aided by cymbal and a thunder tube’s rumble.

By far the most violent piece was Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, the infamous vision of a Basque town devastated by Nazi bombing during the Spanish Civil War. The pounding martial beats, explosive outbursts and plethoric tinnitus were unmistakable, with Tan’s repeated incantation of “Guernica!” being an indictment against violence. Today, the catchword might easily have been, “Gaza!”

There were two further pieces inspired by Georgia O’Keefe and Marc Chagall, but it was the tenth and final piece, after Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night, that had the most resonance. This was also Crumb’s last composition, one of hallucinatory stillness and ultimate mystery. With Tan’s wordless singing to close, one truly felt a spirit leaving the earth, rising to the vast expanse above.

REUNION: HARMONIES OF SPRING / HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT 2024 / Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra & Ding Yi Music Company / Review

 

REUNION – HARMONIES OF SPRING 

Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Saturday (17 February 2024)

HAPPY CHINESE 

NEW YEAR CONCERT 2024 

Ding Yi Music Company 

China Cultural Centre Theatre 

Sunday (18 February 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 February 2024 with the title "Liu Lingling, Boon Hui Lu shine in festive concerts".

Chinese New Year celebrations do not usually end until after the fifteenth day, so this pair of concerts conducted by a very busy Dedric Wong De Li was par for the course. Both festive events opened with works by Young Artist Award recipient Wang Chenwei. 

The Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra (ACSO) relived popular melodies in his Gong.He.Ying.Chun (Medley of Chinese New Year Songs). Although orchestral scoring and harmonies were decidedly Western, the tunes were unmistakable, with each word of its title representing a seasonal song. 

There was also a huge helping of nostalgia in the brassy Mediacorp Channel 8 Medley arranged by Yap Sin Yee. Familiar were themes from The Awakening and Kopi-O (The Coffee Shop), both popular 1980s television series during the Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) era, but how many of the young musicians on stage would have sung or hummed to these? 

One also suspects that the medleys of Wakin Chau and Frankie Kao songs held greater resonance with the middle-aged demographic which dominated the audience. The inclusion of Asian instruments like Chen Ning’s erhu, Ansari Abd Razak’s oud (Middle Eastern lute) and Raghavendran Rajasekaran’s bansuri (Indian flute) added to the colour of the music performed. 

Star quality came in the concert’s guest performers, Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s concertmaster Li Baoshun and “Goddess of Getai” Liu Lingling. In Love from Zhao Jiping’s Qiao’s Grand Courtyard Suite, the sole serious work on show, Li’s erhu waxed lyrical from elegiac to virtuosic. 

It was the gaudily-attired Liu, however, who stole the show with her chatty and outsized personality, singing in Hokkien and Mandarin. Memorable was the glittery 881 Medley from the iconic 2007 getai feature-film directed by Royston Tan, which she starred in, and her encore Jit Lang Jit Bua (一人一半,Yi Ren Yi Pan) which had the audience singing along. 

Even before echoes of “Huat ah!” (Get rich!) had died down, it was Ding Yi Music Company’s turn to celebrate. Also led by conductor Wong, this was a more intimate and decorous affair with Wang Chenwei’s Minnan Medley, featuring three popular Taiwanese songs, opening the concert. 

Following that was Luk Wei Chung’s Tan-tiao Rock which highlighted the plucked string sonority of two ruans and one pipa, which might have sounded just as vivid on three guitars. 

This concert also saw a collaboration with two visiting virtuosos from Hong Kong’s Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble. In Medley of Guangdong Classics arranged by William Wu, Ding Yi’s Chen Ning and Windpipe’s Chan Kai Him were paired on two erhus for immortal Cantonese melodies like Han Tian Lei (旱天雷), Ping Hu Qiu Yue (平湖秋月) and Bu Bu Gao (步步高). 

The best work on show was Germaine Goh’s Odyssey – A Rock Fantasia for double ruans, receiving its world premiere, with Ding Yi’s Wong Wai Kit and Windpipe’s Chan Sze Tung as dual soloists. This sojourn on the Silk Road wafted with exotic scents and aromas of the Middle East and Central Asia, the strummed timbres of both instruments leaving an indelible impression. 

The concert’s obligatory vocalist was singer-songwriter Boon Hui Lu, who projected a wholesome girl-next-door image, in contrast to the worldly-wise getai auntie from the evening before. Her songs, including Hang Around (theme from television series Jalan Jalan), Reset and Till The End, may someday become instantly recognisable. 

The concert closed with Sim Boon Yew’s Chinese New Year Medley (Gong Xi, Gong Xi and more) and as an encore, Boon in a song heard in both concerts, the Tsai Chin classic Chun Feng Wen Shang Wo De Lian (春风吻上我的脸, Spring Wind Kisses My Face). Just delightful.

ESCENAS DE LA MEMORIA / MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano / Review

 

ESCENAS DE LA MEMORIA

MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano

Alm Records 7291 / TT: 58’07”

Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya relives her youthful years of French schooling at the Paris Conservatory with this delightful recital of popular French and Spanish repertoire.

She opens with Francis Poulenc, whose piano works ought to be more familiar. His chanson Le chemins d’amour (The Paths of Love), one of his most memorable tunes, does not actually exist as a piano solo. However the piano accompaniment to the song is sufficiently detailed to stand on its own. One imagines this melodie to be sung by the Edith Piaf, whose equally sultry homage appears as Improvisation No.15, a beguiling number in the same spirit. What follows is Poulenc’s most extended piano work, Le Soirees de Nazelles (The Evenings of Nazelles), comprising 10 short movements with Couperinesque titles.

Poulenc is a master of mood and nuance, which shifts as the wind blows. Gorgeous fleeting melodies sit cheek by jowl with vigorous gestures, and one is kept guessing as to what comes next. Miyuki’s reading is an all-encompassing one, its myriad intricacies falling well within her hands, while the cheeky anarchic spirit tinged with a certain innocence is well captured. It is certainly comparable with the famous recordings by Pascal Roge and Gabriel Tacchino.

Debussy is represented by the wistful Girl with the Flaxen Hair from Preludes Book 1. This is well compensated by the two best-known movements from Deodat de Severac’s from En Vacances (On Holiday), Valse Romantique and An Old Music Box. These miniatures are so deliciously rendered that one longs to hear the entire set.

The Iberian-Hispanic segment of the recital is shorter but no less enjoyable. Catalan great Federico Mompou’s Cancion y Danza No.6 is the most regularly-heard of his 13 song and dance tandems, contrasting lyrical melancholy with carefree gaiety. 

Enrique Granados’ Andaluza (Spanish Dance No.5) is very well-known, its guitar-like strumming rhythms are indelibly captured. In Escenas Romanticas (Romantic Scenes), Washimiya performs three of six movements including an atmospheric Mazurka, a very brief and rustic Allegretto, and Andantino spianato con exaltacion poetica, the last a Chopinesque nocturne distinguished by fine legato playing as its title absolutely suggests.

The recital closes with two of Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona’s most famous pieces, Andaluza and Malaguena, perhaps better known in their orchestral or band guises. Washimiya has the full measure of its Latino exuberance on the keyboard. This excellently-produced album is an hour very well spent.  

This recording may be purchased here:

Miyuki Washimiya【Escenas de la memòria】 (kojimarokuon.com)

SINGAPORE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL: FRIENDS, NEW & OLD, GALA CONCERT: CELEBRATION! / Review

SINGAPORE CHAMBER 

MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024 

FRIENDS, NEW & OLD 

GALA CONCERT: CELEBRATION! 

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall 

Wednesday & Saturday 

(31 January & 3 February 2024) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 February 2024 with the title "Chamber music festival closes with eclectic programme and touching tribute".

The third evening of the Singapore Chamber Music Festival showcased locally-based professional musicians fronted by the Concordia Quartet in partnership with overseas friends. An eclectic programme spanning the classical to contemporary eras was the result. 

Performed first was Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F major (K.370), with veteran Dutch oboist Joost Flach, a resident in Southeast Asia since the 1980s. Partnered with Concordia’s violinist Kim Kyu Ri, violist Martin Peh and cellist Lin Juan, this tuneful work highlighted the reed’s piquant timbre over backing by mellow strings. The ensemble blended beautifully, not least in the chirpy closing Rondo. 

Much sterner stuff was Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor which saw Japan’s splendid Aoi Trio teaming with violinist Yang Shuxiang and violist Peh. Although the first two movements were a neoclassical Prelude and Fugue, jarring dissonances informed the work’s grimmer agenda. Pianist Kosuke Akimoto projected authority, balanced by paradoxical moments which included the Scherzo’s madcap vitriol and the finale’s unsettling light-heartedness. The five players demonstrated in the music that one could still bring out a smile while under severe duress. 

The Concordia Quartet – Edward Tan (violin), Kim, Peh and Lin – were on their own for two movements from Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E minor (Op.44 No.2), contrasting smooth congeniality with swift elfin lightness. The 4-year-old quartet, formed just before the Covid-19 pandemic, is now an assured and seasoned outfit. 

Tchaikovsky’s very popular String Sextet in D minor, or Souvenir de Florence, for pairs of violins, violas and cellos, generated rich sonorities. Leading was Singaporean violinist Jonathan Ong (first violin of the USA-based Verona Quartet), with the juiciest solos. His repartee with cellist Leslie Tan in the slow movement’s gorgeous melodies was a joy to behold. The group completed by Kim, Jeremy Chiew and Edward Tan (violas) and Lin made the best case possible for the usually morose Russian’s sunniest score. 

The festival’s grand finale featured no less than 32 musicians in a celebration of chamber music’s myriad varieties. There were three string quartets, the youngest being Pythagorus Quartet (average age of 11) which cut their teeth in Haydn with much confidence. 

Pandan Quartet from Oberlin, Ohio comprised undergraduates with Asian ancestry, and their maturity displayed in Mendelssohn was just as astounding. Jurong Quartet, formed by young local professionals gave a crisp and clear-headed account of Beethoven. All performed first movements from string quartets. 

An outlier was the opening movement from Mozart’s Horn Quintet in E flat major (K.407) with Alan Kartik, the concert’s only wind player, partnered by violin, two violas and cello. Even more arcane was a rare performance of 20th century Russian Alfred Schnittke’s Piano Quartet by The Music Circle (violinist Tang Tee Tong, violist Christoven Tan, cellist Leslie Tan and pianist Cherie Khor), a work of grating dissonance and deep disquiet. Both received gripping performances. 

“Grand Dame” of Singaporean pianists, Toh Chee Hung, still sparkling in her seventies, partnered with Akimoto in two of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances. She was joined by violinist Ong, violist Peh and cellist Tan in the final two movements from Brahms’ Piano Quartet No.3 in C minor (Op.60), contrasting sheer lyricism with outright passion. These were a touching tribute to Penang-born pianist Dennis Lee, Toh’s husband and ardent supporter of the re:Sound Collective, who passed away last year. 

What could top the sight and sound of eight string players coming together for Mendelssohn’s Octet? Its rapturous finale, performed by all the strings from Concordia, Aoi and violinist Yang and violist Chiew, quoted Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, which more or less summed up what everybody on and off stage were feeling. 

So what is the big deal about chamber music? It is ultimately a meeting of minds, a celebration of talented and inspired people working and playing, and having a great time together.