TWO SPLENDID PIANO RECITALS AT YONG SIEW TOH CONSERVATORY

 

TWO SPLENDID PIANO RECITALS

AT YONG SIEW TOH CONSERVATORY

   Wednesday afternoon (29 April 2026)

Imagine you are a fourth-year student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, and your final test before graduation is an hour-long recital, a culmination of years of study and practice. That recital (or practical examination) determines your Bachelor’s degree, and you leave the halls of Kent Ridge as a professional musician. I had the fortune to attend two such piano recitals from two very talented final year students. That these could have been recitals at a piano competition or part of a piano festival is a testament to what the students have achieved.

The first pianist was Chakrit Khanovej from Thailand. I had previously judged his performances at the 2020 Thailand Steinway Youth Piano Competition, where he was awarded the 1st prize in the Senior Category. Only a cruel technicality prevented him from being the pianist to represent Thailand at the Regional Finals. True artists learn from experience and become the better for it, and his senior recital was a serious programme with two major sonatas and a dessert to top it off.

Beginning with Beethoven’s Sonata in A major (Op.101), the gentle giant showed a poetic and lyrical bent in the first movement, then let it rip in the striding syncopated march of the second movement which was the undoubted influence of the corresponding movement of Schumann’s Fantasy (Op.17). The short third movement was merely an introduction to the finale, and it was a magical moment when the first movement’s theme returned, a true reminiscence which was not to him. The heroic finale was where nerves frayed, getting lost in the fugue but he did not stop, instead completing the sonata on an optimistic high.

This was followed by Schumann’s frankly over-long Sonata No.1 in F sharp minor (Op.11) in four movements. The introduction in dotted rhythm and exposition were very well-handled and he made a good case overall. The ensuing Aria and Scherzo were well contrasted, but the problematic and circuitous Finale was where for many coming to grief almost seemed a formality. He shrugged off the lapse to close the work strongly. With the heavy lifting over, Chakrit seemed a far more relaxed personality as he polished off Nikolai Kapustin’s jazzy Variations Op.41 (on a Ukrainian theme which the bassoon solo from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is based on) with cool but stunning aplomb.

Chai Zi Qing from Malaysia used to go by the name Venus Chai, but I am glad she has dropped that Roman name, for nobody can take a moniker like that seriously (much like Aphrodite, Lolita, Kitty or Fanny) except on OnlyFans. She is a serious artist and her performances of two great repertoire works proved just that. It is often difficult to coherently string together the 18 short pieces that make up Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze (Op.6) but she did it.

The quixotic shifts of mood between the passionate (Florestan) and reflective (Eusebius) movements is bewildering, but she made each piece sound special before moving on the next one. Her technical command was also beyond reproach, making light of some really treacherous passages. The poetry and lyricism in the Innig second piece would soon return and that felt like a welcome homecoming as the work wound to a quietly lilting and reflective close. To make music come alive is true virtuosity, even when there are not so many notes to overcome.

Her pet showpiece was finally unleashed, in another stunning reading of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. I was not the only person in the hall who witnessed her performance at last year’s Ravel Marathon at the recording studio and returned for more. In the big auditorium, the true sonorities of her vision were realised. 

Ondine was shimmering and sensuous, building up to a thrilling and cataclysmic climax before its placid denouement. The repeated B flats in Le gibet were hypnotic in their intensity, while Scarbo scrambled with manic malevolence that was all-consuming. An absorbing Gaspard is a rare thing to behold, and this brought back to mind the best Gaspard of my memory, some 21 years ago from another lady from Malaysia, Foo Mei Yi.

I have little doubt that Chakrit and Zi Qing, two very musical souls, will have promising careers to come. This is only the beginning of greater things, and I can only wish them well for the future.