TIME OUT WITH FRIENDS
Jacob Cheng (Violin),
Aidan Yeong (Cello)
& Casey Li (Piano)
Esplanade Recital Studio
Wednesday (28 January 2026)
Ever wondered at any concert how classical musicians get to be the masters of their art? Clue: they start playing at a very young age, and get to be very good early in the game. Through inspired guidance and counsel from their teachers, they become technically adroit, improve in leaps and bounds, and generally hang around other similarly talented young people. Then they form groups to play together. Some years ago, I saw ARTrio (violinist Jacob Cheng, cellist Timothy Chua and pianist Asher Seow) perform and was suitably impressed. With his friends overseas, Jacob now has a new and as yet unnamed trio, working with cellist Aidan Yeong and pianist Casey Li.
Their concert together was very well subscribed, and it is safe to say that nobody was disappointed with their performance of highly demanding works, which even most adults shy away. The evening opened with Aiden and Casey in the first two movements of Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata in D minor (Op.40). This one of the Soviet dissident composer’s more lyrical and approachable works, yet requires maturity and no little technical nous to pull off.
Aiden impressed with a big tone, one unafraid flex bowing muscles, yet allied with nimbleness of articulation. You can hear the cello sing, a baritone that displays both tenderness and gruffness in short order. Casey’s pianism was alert and very accurate, a close to perfect partner in the proceedings. The freewheeling Scherzo was handled with boldness and with no little irony, with pizzicatos and glissandi flying off the bat, and bringing back fond memories of Mstislav Rostropovich’s unforgettable performance in Singapore in 1992.
It was now Jacob’s turn with a full-length work, Poulenc’s Violin Sonata (1942-43) with pianist Cherie Khor Shang Jin as partner. He has the full measure of its bittersweet humour, his wiry and slightly acidic tone well suited for its Stravinskyan shifts in dynamics and dance rhythms. Lyricism was never in short supply, coming to full fruition in the languorous slow central movement.
Even when the madcap antics of the opening returned for the finale, it came with an off-switch, the closing pages now tempered with bitterness and grief, a memorial to the death of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. For someone as young as Jacob, how he was able to grasp the inspiration and idiom behind the music was simply stunning.
Casey was all on her own in Prokofiev’s Four Etudes Op.2, which is competition fodder in many worldwide concours. The young Russian was an enfant terrible from the “Age of Steel”, represented by the relentless diesel-powered mechanistic poundings of the keyboard. All four pieces worked on various areas of technical prowess.
She got all the notes with consummate (and enviable) ease, but also much of the hidden nuances beyond the black and white. No.3 in C minor was the most Russian of these, combining foreboding and tragedy with the fatalist treadmill of running thirds and grinding chords. Evgeny Kissin famously encored this in his 1990 Carnegie Hall debut, and I dare say Casey was every bit as prodigious.
The concert’s second half was devoted to just one work, Brahms’ Piano Trio No.1 in B major (Op.8), in its revised and more commonly performed version. This was the acid test of what soloists face when working in tandem with others, and all three musicians surpassed themselves. The opening’s gorgeous melody was lovingly voiced, and from there the movement’s development blossomed into one big love-in. The Scherzo’s skittishness and lightness of rhythms was well handled, and before another big melody joined the fray.
The slow movement was spare in texture and motion, but necessitated all the faculties of close concentration between all three musicians. This was where listening to each other became paramount, and nobody missed a beat in this exploration of the stillness of the soul. The finale returned to the earlier hustle-bustle, and with renewed vigour, the work closed on a stirring and spirited high. Heartist congratulations go to all three players, and their teachers whom I will name: Loh Junhong (Jacob), Leslie Tan (Aidan) and Benjamin Loh (Casey). They have all reason to be proud of the musical achievements of mere 16 and 17-year-olds.
Now, let’s hope this trio signs up to perform, polish their craft, and gain more insight about chamber music at this year’s Singapore Chamber Music Festival. At this rate, they will soon be going places.
