TAKESHI OI PIANO RECITAL / Review

 

TAKESHI OI Piano Recital 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Sunday (9 March 2025) 

Japanese pianist Takeshi Oi’s debut recital in Singapore, presented by Bechstein Music World, marked his 10 years as a solo performer, having previously been part of an opera performance unit in Japan. In this time, he has garnered a cult following, evident by the substantial Japanese presence (dominated by middle-aged ladies in cutesy outfits) in the audience, many of whom travelled from the Land of the Rising Sun to attend this concert. 

Oi’s youthful popstar persona has certainly fueled his popularity, and he emerged on stage waving to the audience even before a single note was played. He opened with a very short original composition, Fragment of Lyrics, an improvisation which closed in a C major and could have served as a prelude to his J.S.Bach set. Instead he took a bow and left the stage, perhaps to let latecomers join in. 

He returned with Prelude No.1 in C major (Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1), played very swiftly, did another bit of preluding leading to G major for the Aria from Goldberg Variations. That was played straight, without any Gouldian posturing before closing with Myra Hess’s transcription of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, a very smooth reading. 

Next came a Chopin set, comprising three Nocturnes, beginning with Op.9 where No.1 in B flat minor was followed by the famous No.2 in E flat major. If this were a a sales pitch for the C.Bechstein grand piano, he did a fine job by bringing out a lovely burnished tone and without overdoing the rubato. The passion quotient was upped considerably for the C minor Nocturne (Op.48 No.1) which brought out no little Chopinesque angst. The first half of Oi’s recital closed with Liszt’s Consolation No.3 in D flat major, which was just as passionate. So far, so good. 

Oi had substantially altered his programme, removing Liszt’s Vallee d’Obermann, Debussy’s Prelude a l’apres midi dun faune (Alexandre Tharaud’s transcription), Ligeti’s Etude No.10 (Der Zauberlehrling) and Ravel’s La Valse, instead substituting with short and light pieces. This was for good reason and just as well too, as his second half showed that the technical challenges would have been nigh insurmountable. And he was unlikely to have made the right impact with this audience, whose penchant was for miniatures. 

For the set of popular French works, he gave a generally fair account which had missed notes and misplaced harmonies. These included Debussy’s Reverie, La fille aux cheveux de lin (The Girl with the Flaxen Hair) and Clair de lune, the last of which revealed some unusually choppy rhythms. Maybe a stormy evening was being portrayed. He added several improvisatory flourishes to Poulenc’s Improvisation No.15 (Homage to Edith Piaf), compensating for more missed notes. The best performance was in Ravel’s Pavane pour un infante defunte, where the score was fully respected, eschewing sentimentality for a solemnity that was wholly appropriate. 

Oi is far more adept and comfortable in music of a popular vein and pieces requiring improvisatory skills. Thus Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence received a truly memorable reading, filled with wistfulness and later passion and inner fire. Only in Japan could music for commercials be celebrated like the real thing, and Oi’s transcription of Voices, the advertisement music and ringtone for Sony’s Xperia handphone, made for very enjoyable listening. It is not easy to manage its many syncopations and cross-rhythms. Do check out YouTube for the multiple covers of this earworm of a tune, and one will find Oi’s version very convincing. 

What was listed as Jupiter from Holst’s The Planets was not a transcription of the full movement but an improvisation of the hymn-like melody which is sung to the words I Vow To Thee, My Country. That was rather nice and he concluded the programme proper with his original composition Piano Love, which was as happy as a piece can be, filled with optimistic C major chords, closing the concert with the same key as it began. 

Bringing out the cheers and a standing ovation from his Japanese fans, he obliged with three encores, which including a piece by a personal friend, the best by far. Then came the 18th Variation from Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini where he skillfully made up for lapses and Chopin’s Etude in A flat major (Op.25 No.1), the Aeolian Harp. Despite getting lost in its harmonisations, he improvised his way out of trouble to a peaceable end. He won’t win the Chopin competition in Warsaw anytime soon, but that won’t matter too much for his league of faithful followers who lapped it all up.

Everybody wants to meet
and greet Takeshi Oi.