pianomania

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2012)

2012-01-27T10:10:00.003+08:00

D’ERLANGER & CLIFFE Violin Concertos
Philippe Graffin, Violin
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / David Lloyd Jones
Hyperion 67838 / *****

Baron Frederic d’Erlanger (1868-1943) and Frederic Cliffe (1857-1931) were English composers, contemporaries of Delius and Elgar, whose fortunes all but fell by the wayside. There were strong reasons: d’Erlanger (who had French and German ancestry) was a banker by profession albeit a highly-skilled musical amateur, while Cliffe’s composing career only lasted some 17 years. Nevertheless both wrote a violin concerto each, lasting half an hour. In terms of sheer melodic interest, these could rival the best of Bruch, Goldmark and Glazunov, just to name composers whose violin concertos remain in the active repertory.

The d’Erlanger concerto in D minor (1902) combines drama, lyricism and a playful streak most discernible in the mercurial finale. His Poeme (1918) is an achingly beautiful romance, coloured with impressionist hues, that deserves many listens. Cliffe’s concerto (1896), also in D minor, opens in the throes of passion before luxuriating in seamless melody – the slow movement is a peach - and a particularly flashy cadenza. Following the examples of Bruch, Brahms and Joachim, the easy-going humour and rhythms of a Hungarian-flavoured finale complete the showpiece. French violinist Philippe Graffin plays with a beautiful tone and requisite agility to ingratiate the listener to these neglected masterpieces. Ardently recommended.

BEAUTY OF THE BAROQUE
DANIELLE DE NIESE, Soprano
The English Concert / Harry Bicket
Decca 478 2260 / ****1/2

This is a useful primer of baroque vocal music, just under an hour of solo arias and “bleeding chunks” representing six composers, which will win friends for a refined genre that is sometimes considered specialised or niche. The protagonist is the Australian-born soprano Danielle De Niese, of Sri Lankan extraction, whose purity and sensuousness of voice in the 13 tracks are a sure winner. Her enunciation of the words in John Dowland’s Come Again is clear as crystal, lending the song an extra dimension of poignancy. Her thrilling runs and clarion calls for Handel’s Let The Bright Seraphim is brilliantly echoed by Mark Bennett’s trumpet.

For sheer introspective beauty, it is hard to beat Dido’s Lament: When I Am Laid In Earth from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, or the closing duet Pur ti miro from Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, where she is joined by counter-tenor Andreas Scholl. This collaboration is mirrored in the opening duet of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, another sublime moment The album closes in a lap of reassuring serenity with Sheep May Safely Sleep, sung in the original German, from J.S.Bach’s Cantata No.208. Despite the relative short measure, this very enjoyable album is self-recommending.

Sydney International Piano Competition 2012 / Singapore Auditions

2012-01-25T16:27:00.019+08:00

The long journey to Sydney has begun, with the first auditions of the Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia (SIPCA for short) 2012 taking place in Singapore. Of the seven pianists originally listed, five have turned up to perform a 30-minute recital each, comprising works they will perform in Stages I and II of the Competition proper. A small audience of under 10 people turned up at the Recital Hall of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts to witness two hours of piano playing.

The first pianist, NIMA JARCHI (Iran) is a no-show, so the first music of the competition heard comes from LOUIS PAGE (USA, above). He began with Bach's Prelude & Fugue in B flat major (WTC Book 1), which sounded choppy and over-pedalled in the Prelude, but gets better with the Fugue which is crisp and well articulated. Next was Ravel's Sonatine, the first movement's theme does not come across well, again from over-pedalling, but his lightness of touch is a relief. The slow movement's Minuet, sensitively shaded, fared the best, while the perpetual movement of the finale sounded brittle. SIPCA allows for a generous choice of free repertoire, so it is a pleasure to encounter Oscar Espla's Suite de Pequenas Piezas, which consists of several short and atmospheric dances, for the first time. Coloured by Mediterranean sunshine, Page gave a nice account of its variegated pages. He closed with Liszt's Un Sospiro, which has both smoothness and brilliance, if one may overlook a few missed notes. A good start for the competition.

Next is JEREMY YEO (Malaysia), an A-level student from Seremban. His is a rather ambitious programme of virtuoso warhorses which seems rather unbalanced. The opening Scarlatti Sonata in G major is one of the fast etude-like ones, which he confidently dispatches with ease. It is a folly to programme Liszt's Feux follets, clearly the most difficult of his Transcendental Études, unless you have a Richterian authority to carry it through. He gets the notes, but misses out on its spirit of lightness and fantasy. The same applies to Schumann's Toccata (Op.7), which begins to sound like sewing machine music when churned out with industry rather than inspiration. His Scarbo from Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit comes close to a success. The Steinway grand's action stood up well to the repeated notes and there are genuinely exciting moments from his young hands. A talent to watch out for in future competitions.

POOM PROMMACHART (Thailand) was the most recent winner of the Thailand International Piano Competition, organised by Mahidol University in Nakhorn Pathom. From the very first note, he stands head and shoulders above the competition. Although one might quibble about the Romanticised approach to Bach's Prelude & Fugue in F major (WTC Book 2), the svelte beauty he coaxes from the piano is irresistible. Liszt's Funerailles is even better, as he fully comprehends the poetic and dramatic nature of this music, and tests the piano's sonorities to the max. The tolling of bells has that resonant glow, and the tragedy is palpable, down to the galloping hoofbeats in the thunderous central section. One senses and feels the volume of sound generated, but none of it is forced or ugly. A great performance this certainly was.

After breezing through Chopin's Etude in A flat major (Op.10 No.10), he closed with Nikolai Myaskovsky's rarely-heard Seventh Sonata. After its dissonantly declamatory opening, the reason for its inclusion in this recital becomes clear; it is a violent single-movement meditation on the Dies Irae (the medieval chant that appears in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique and Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody), thus the perfect foil for the preceding Funerailles. This is truly inspired programming, and performed with such hair-raising panache, I can already see the Thai flag flying in Seymour Centre come July.

NIMA JARCHI (Iran) finally turns up, about two hours late, appears unshaven, clad in a white polo shirt, denim jeans and sneakers (above). However he is unable to perform any of the pieces (including Mendelssohn, Liszt et al) he had listed in his audition repertoire. This is beginning to look like one of those episodes on American Idol. Although disqualified from the competition, the jury gives him a chance to play whatever he fancies (after all he had flown all the way from Tehran). He played one of his own arrangements, a New Age-styled improvisation much in the repetitious manner of the Michael Nyman school of pianism. He's actually quite good at it and gathers some momentum, before being stopped after the 5-minute mark as the last pianist is ready to perform.

The mystery as to two Chinese pianists having similar names (Wang Jing Jing and Wan Jin Jin) has been solved. They are both the same person, WAN JING JING (China) who studies in Singapore (thus being Singapore's sole representative in the competition). Despite her petite frame, she can certainly play. She polished off Beethoven's 32 Variations in C minor with conviction, and then followed up with a clean account of Chopin's Etude in C major (Op.10 No.1) with the left hand's chorale melody very well projected over the right hand's flying arpeggios.

For contrast, Debussy's Bruyeres from the Second Book of Preludes comes off prettily and evocatively. For the final fireworks of the session, she closed with Liszt's Spanish Rhapsody. There is little to fault in this sure-fire barnstormer. The introduction is brilliantly dispatched with the La Folia theme well brought out, before the prestidigitation and cascading octaves of the Jota Aragonesa. A strong performance all around.

There are still eleven more cities to go in the auditions, and a couple hundred more pianists for the judges to screen, and that's when the competition becomes stiffer. Who will make it from Singapore? For my money, POOM PROMMACHART looks (and sounds) like the best bet, followed by WAN JING JING. Sydney beckons.

The judging panel for the Singapore leg of auditions included Professor Warren Thomson (Chairman of Jury), Toh Chee Hung and Rena Phua-Cheung.

ENCHANTING EXPEDITION / Albert Tiu Piano Recital / Review

2012-01-22T09:31:00.006+08:00

ENCHANTING EXPEDITION
ALBERT TIU, Piano
National Museum Exhibition Galleries
Thursday & Friday (19 & 20 January 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 January 2012 with the title "Tiu enchants with nature".

The third pair of recitals held at The National Museum alongside the Musee d’Orsay art exhibits was given by Filipino pianist Albert Tiu, lecturer at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. In two hour-long concerts over consecutive evenings, he performed 25 short works by 13 composers, organised in seven broad groups.

Each group was united by a common theme, and the pieces went beyond the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel. To limit oneself to these two Frenchmen would have been too constraining, so for the subject of Air, Tiu offered a radical departure – little-heard works inspired by the wind by the American Charles Griffes, and two other Frenchmen Charles Ibert and Olivier Messiaen.

Although Debussy was the obvious inspiration, these had the effect of cleansing one’s palate for a new raft of tastes. The theme of Water saw the introduction of Liszt, already an impressionist long before the term came into being. His Les jeux d’eau de la Villa d’Este, which begins with a trickle but broadens into awesome spouts, was the prelude to Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, with its exotic pentatonic melodies. Next to these, Luciano Berio’s little encore Wasserklavier made a gentle little splash.

Imaginative programming is Tiu’s strong suit, so one would hardly be surprised by his juxtaposing Satie, Scriabin and Manuel de Falla for the group on Fire, pun probably intended. Scriabin’s Vers la flamme (Towards The Flame) was lit with a long fuse before its eventual detonation, while Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance ignited with volcanic intensity from the word go. Earth gave Tiu even greater latitude. Rachmaninov’s song transcription Lilacs ended on the same key – A flat major – as Godowsky’s Gardens Of Buitenzorg began. This lush floral tribute was book-ended by rustling leaves and precipitation in Liszt’s Waldesrauschen (Forest Murmurs) and Debussy’s Gardens In The Rain respectively.

The second evening’s fare opened with the half-lights of Evening, rhythmic Debussy and dreamy Grieg gave way to the soaring climax of Liszt’s Harmonies du Soir, leaving no one in doubt that this was the time of day for love. The largest group of five pieces was dedicated to Birds of all shades and plumes; Liszt and Saint-Saens (The Swan, what else?) shared the same page as Ravel’s haunting Oiseaux tristes (Mournful Birds), Messiaen’s placid La Colombe (The Dove) and the most paradoxical creature of all, Griffes’s White Peacock, whose regal preening and strutting was indelibly captured.

Nature, more specifically bodies of water closed this adventurous ramble in the musical gallery. More Liszt and Griffes prefaced Debussy’s L’isle joyeuse (The Joyous Isle), the one work that was directly inspired by a painting, in this case Antoine Watteau’s L’Embanquement pour Cythere. From the probing pianist and intrepid artist in Tiu, there could not have been a more spectacular conclusion.

All the photographs were taken from the piano recital on 19 January.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2012)

2012-01-20T11:41:00.004+08:00

DE FALLA Piano Works
Nights in the Gardens of Spain
JAVIER PERIANES, Piano
Harmonia Mundi 902099 / ****1/2

Thanks to Arthur Rubinstein. Alicia de Larrocha, Martha Argerich and Daniel Barenboim, Noches en los Jardines de España (Nights In The Gardens Of Spain) by Spanish nationalist Manuel de Falla (1876-1946) is no longer considered such an exotic species of piano concerto. Its sultry blend of hot-blooded Spanish dance rhythms, nocturnal allure and Romantic pianism make its three conjoint movements pleasurable listening. Brilliantly realised by young Spanish pianist Javier Perianes and the BBC Symphony conducted by Josep Pons, this recording is more than a match for his famous predecessors.

The 80-minute anthology offers much more besides. Fantasia Baetica, written for Rubinstein, is a substantial work that distils the same passion and sweeping virtuosity of the concerto, a glorious extrapolation of the popular Ritual Fire Dance. Four Spanish Pieces (1906-09) are wonderfully written dance music from various regions including Aragon and Andalusia. Two Homages (to Debussy and Dukas) and four further salon-like short works complete this rather comprehensive survey. Perianes’s sensitivity and impressive pianism distinguishes him as an ideal interpreter of music from his homeland.

BACH Sonatas & Partitas
REGER Preludes & Fugues
SAYAKA SHOJI, Violin
Mirare 128 (2 CDs) / *****

The late 19th and early 20th century saw the emergence of a “Back to Bach” movement, led by composers like Ferruccio Busoni and Max Reger (1873-1916) who sought to relive the complex counterpoint and baroque formality of Johann Sebastian Bach’s aesthetics in their music. This lovely double album (retailing at the price of a single disc) marries Bach’s matchless unaccompanied violin music with selected Preludes and Fugues from Op.117 for solo violin by Reger. Was Bach a visionary or was Reger a retrogressive?

Reger’s Prelude in G minor opens with exactly the same chord as Bach’s Sonata No.1 in G minor, while Reger’s fugue follows a similar rhythmic dance pattern as the corresponding Bach fugue. Similarly the Fugue in B minor seamlessly leads the ear into Bach’s Partita No.1 in the same key. Although Reger does not bring anything new (not even dissonant asides) to the form, this is an act of homage rather than plagiarism. Young Japanese Sayaka Shoji offers immaculate versions of all six works (including the Bach Partita No.2 with its famous Chaconne), allying perfect intonation with faultless articulation, which demand an unqualified recommendation.

GALA: NEEME JÄRVI and VADIM REPIN / Review

2012-01-20T11:21:00.007+08:00

GALA: NEEME JÄRVI & VADIM REPIN
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Wednesday (18 January 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 January 2012 with the title "Estonian folk music with a lavish touch".

SSO’s first Gala Concert of 2012 was conducted by venerated Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi, whose last appearance here was in 1987 when he led the Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra. Remembered for his solid, probing and viscerally exciting interpretations, he brought more of the same tonight.

No concert of his is complete without music of his homeland, on this occasion the very pleasing Estonian Dance Suite by Eduard Tubin. This is folk music at its simplest yet lavishly scored, with ringing harp accompaniment for the short opener, and the central movement’s horn melody taken up by a succession of solo instruments, before closing with bounding energy not dissimilar to Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance in the final dance.

The main work was Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Not again, one might exclaim, but Järvi’s version was worth many listens. It was expansive in breadth yet possessed a dramatic tension that made the four movements coalesce into a gripping whole. Uniting this was the opening motto theme, solemn and lugubrious on first hearing, but transformed through the passage of time.

While the first movement rumbled in throes of angst, the slow movement radiated warmth. First the low strings providing a comforting sonic hug, ushering in Han Zhang Chou’s splendid French horn solo that was a highlight. The smooth lilting grace of the third movement reminded all that Tchaikovsky was a ballet composer par excellence.

The finale came as one overarching sweep, with the motto theme re-stated, then undergoing a thrilling baptism of fire before emerging in a valedictory march of triumph, which sees the usually morose Tchaikovsky at his smiling best. It was clearly a performance worth remembering.

Before the interval, Russian violinist Vadim Repin emoted in Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto. Bread and butter for this greying virtuoso who retains the chubby cheeks of youth, his big tone carried the opening G minor melody first heard unaccompanied, and then the lyrical sweetness of the slow movement. He went for broke in the manic dance of the finale, playing faster than anybody or any recording in memory. Exciting it certainly was, but was that really necessary?

His encore was almost impromptu. Accompanied by orchestral pizzicatos, he launched into a series of variations on Carnival of Venice, while conductor Järvi kept beat behind the strings. Järvi also had a plush encore of his own, highlighting lush SSO strings in Sibelius’s Andante Festivo. If the mission of musicians was to make people happy, the audience certainly had its fill.

SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2012: Auditions begin in Singapore!

2012-01-19T00:37:00.006+08:00

The long road to Sydney, Australia begins in Singapore! On 25 January 2012 (3rd day of the Lunar New Year), the first hopefuls vying for a finals placing at the 2012 Sydney International Piano Competition will be performing their audition recitals at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Recital Hall C5.02, Fifth Floor) at Bencoolen Street from 10 am. Admission is free.

The performing schedule and pianists are as follows:

10.00 Nima Jarchi (Iran)
10.30 Louis Page (USA)
11.00 Poom Prommachart (Thailand)
11.30 Pianist withdrawn
12.00 Jeremy Yeo (Malaysia)
12.30 Jing Jing Wang (China)
13.00 Jin Jin Wan (China)

What, no Singaporeans?

Each pianist will play a 30 minute recital that comprises repertoire from Stage I and II of the actual competition, which might include a virtuoso Étude from Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin or Rachmaninov, and a Prélude by Debussy (except Ce qua vu le vent d'Ouest).

To find the 36 finalists for the competition in July, auditions will be held in 10 cities worldwide, with Singapore being the first stop. The other cities are Rome, Vienna, Hamburg, London, Moscow, New York City, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Sydney.

This is the first time that an audition of an important international competition is being held in Singapore, and it promises to be an amazing race for the successful pianists who eventually make the trip Down Under. SIPCA (Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia) has one of the most gruelling of repertoire requirements but promises a bounty of prize money and concert opportunities for the winners. Given the strength of the Australian dollar these days, this competition has certainly become one of the "big ones".

MUSIC AT BUKIT DAMAI / January 2012

2012-01-16T00:30:00.015+08:00

Bukit Damai is a historical "black and white" bungalow house located on Royal Road in Alexandra Park, dating from the days of the British Raj. A British Raj still resides there, except most of us refer to him as Neil Franks, that retired oil-man who now turns his attention to triathlon and Iron Man competitions, building palatial villas, organising soirees and music festivals, and pursuing things musical and beautiful. Music @ Bukit Damai is a series of impromptu music events where his guests get to play anything on two pianos, before tucking into a sumptuous Indian buffet spread and alcohol...

It's still daytime when the soiree begins with Neil and his teacher Boris Kraljevic take on Beethoven's Sonata in D major (Op.6) for four hands. Its not exactly Op.111, but its lots of fun (especially when the opening theme looks ahead to the Fifth Symphony!)

Tou Liang still can't quite figure out Brahms's Intermezzo in A major (Op.118 No.2), so he inflicts it yet again on an unsuspecting audience.

Another Sonata in D major, this time by Mozart, from Boris and visiting Oxford don (and Professor of History) George Rousseau.

Music on two pianos now, Poulenc's Elegie, from Neil and Boris.

Four becomes six hands, for Percy Grainger's Zanzibar Boat Song, now becoming one of the favourite pieces for the Bukit Damai crowd. The most difficult part belongs to the guy in the centre, naturally.

Neil is now an old hand in Liszt's Petrarch Sonnet No.123.

Rachmaninov's Romance for 6 hands, written for the three Skalon sisters.

More Rachmaninov, the 18th Variation from the Paganini Rhapsody. Neil plays the solo while George is the orchestra.

George the historian (history of medicine and the body is one of his specialties) plays one of Domenico Scarlatti's 581 Sonatas, a melancolic one.

Positively the last item to placate a hungry throng, nothing is more lively than Wilhelm Ganz's grand tango de concert Qui Vive. Then its dinner time.

The performers make a final stand. There's going to be 8 hands piano music during and after dinner, but the audience has yet to find out...

HAROLD IN ITALY / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

2012-01-16T00:28:00.005+08:00

HAROLD IN ITALY
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (14 January 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 January 2012 with the title "Crashing chords from Haefliger".

It is a rare occasion that one gets to hear two full length concertos in a single concert. That luxury was afforded as the two major works by Berlioz and Brahms were totally different. The term concerto may be used rather loosely here, as Berlioz’s Harold In Italy is more like a four-movement symphony.

The famous story was that he had written the work for the violin virtuoso Paganini, who rejected it because he was not required to “play all the time”. In other words, it was too simple, too non-virtuosic. The fact that a chair was provided for viola soloist Zhang Manchin on centrestage said it all, as she sat through long stretches of orchestral tuttis.

When the SSO’s principal violist (left) was called upon, she delivered with a throaty and sonorous beauty, as much as the Cinderella of stringed instruments allowed. Hers was a role of poetic presence, rather than spewing pyrotechnics, reflecting the more introspective musings of Lord Byron’s Childe Harold on his continental adventures.

Ably supporting her were other soloists, harpist Gulnara Mashurova in the opening mountain scene, and Elaine Yeo’s plaintive cor anglais in the Abruzzi villager’s serenade, who lent further sublime moments. The swashbuckling bravado came instead from Shui Lan’s orchestra, whose merry rather than bloodthirsty Orgy Of The Brigands pulled out all the stops.

The symphonic architecture and writing of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto may be seen as his first attempt at writing a symphony. The dramatic opening orchestral tutti, all lightning flash and thunderbolts, set the monumental tone for Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger’s (left) disarmingly calm entry. With nerves settled, this soon worked itself into one of the most authoritative and stentorian of performances.

His big-boned playing of barnstorming octaves and crashing chords was equal to and sometimes surmounted the orchestra’s outsized gestures, and a titanic struggle ensued. Fired by his mentor Robert Schumann’s suicidal plunge into the Rhine, the passionate angst was only equalled by the tenderness and spirituality of the slow movement, an early manifestation of feelings for Schumann’s widow Clara.

Haefliger’s near-faultless account encompassed all of these, rounding up with an exciting romp of the final Rondo, where the orchestra backed up to the hilt with much immediacy and responsive playing. So was it two concertos or two symphonies heard this evening? The greatness of the music and quality of playing made these academic issues moot and ultimately irrelevant.

Flute and Piano Recital @ Steinway Gallery

2012-01-14T09:23:00.007+08:00

It would seem like Korea has the largest share of young talented musicians that are making our world a better and more pleasant place to live in. Just a couple of weeks ago, I made the acquaintance of young flautist Beomjae Kim (who studies in Oberlin, Ohio) who performed most beautifully in the Bali Classical Nights festival. Just this evening, I got to meet yet two more wonderful young Korean flautists, Sanghwa Lee and Yeji Kim, who performed in a short recital with Ukrainian pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina at Steinway Gallery Singapore. This little venue is now becoming Orchard Road's most cultured place with its series of concerts featuring young talents. Never mind if its located next door to the notorious Orchard Towers...

Sanghwa Lee opened the recital with Gary Schocker's Regrets and Resolutions, enjoying herself in its jazz-inflected idiom. We enjoyed it too. She also performed Franz Doppler's Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy, showcasing a fine technique with its contrasted slow introduction and fast dance to close on a high.

The only solo came from the diminutive Yeji Kim, who mastered the tricky turns of Astor Piazzolla's Tango Étude No.3. The work can get breathless at times, but she coped very well for all the hoops it makes the musician jump through. She also performed Georgian composer Otar Taktakishvili's Sonata, a delightfully melodic work not so much influenced by folk music but the looming shadow of Prokofiev. Another effortless romp.

Both Kim and Lee joined forces for Doppler's Rigoletto Fantasy, the work we almost go to hear in Bali. A dramatic introduction, then a few bars of La donna e mobile quite well hidden, before the main event, which was a set of ridiculously virtuosic variations on Caro nome. The duo blended beautifully throughout, surprising one and all with their sheer nimbleness, and then closing the evening's fare with a big bang.

Applause for all three performers.

FLIGHTS OF FANCY / Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung Piano Recital / Review

2012-01-14T09:20:00.006+08:00

FLIGHTS OF FANCY
Dennis Lee & Toh Chee Hung, Piano
National Museum Exhibition Galleries
Thursday (12 January 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 January 2012 with the title "Double the fancy".

The series of concerts at The National Museum’s Dreams & Reality exhibition of Musee d’Orsay treasures has truly come alive. One way of getting most out of this worthy art meets music adventure is to arrive early, preferably when doors open at half-past-seven to secure your favourite seat. That done, head to a quiet corner to view just a small number of art pieces.

There should not be pressure to pack in as much as you can. Take your time, there is no hurry. Allow the details, colours and flavours of each painting to register its unique set of impressions, so that you can make a recollection that remains firmly lodged in the mind. Be it a Degas ballet scene, a Pissarro landscape or an Ingres nude, the same processes applies.

Such an approach would also be helpful in listening to music, especially in the hands of artists as perceptive and insightful as Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung. The veteran duo began with three varied movements from Gabriel Faure’s Dolly Suite. Simplicity and innocence were the key to the lovely Berceuse, its melodic line gliding gracefully over a gently rocking accompaniment.

The duo is incapable of making an ugly sound, their seamless teamwork born of decades of performing together and listening to each other. The feline elegance of Kitty-Valse gave way to rhythmic precision and clacking castanets in The Spanish Step, the set’s most tricky number.

In the solo segment, Toh applied the most variegated of touches to Debussy’s Estampes (Imprints), beginning with Pagodas, inspired by the exotic Orient. Dreamy and sunbathed, its pentatonic heaven melted into a shimmer of delicate bell sounds. Evenings In Granada wallowed in sultry relaxation, then interrupted by a guitar’s serenade. The concluding Gardens In The Rain was more like the Botanics pelted by a sumatra rather the Tuileries sprinkled with a light drizzle.

Lee’s view of Debussy’s First Book of Images was no less gripping. One could envision Monet’s Water Lilies in Reflections In The Water, his feather-light touch seemed to skim the surface as naturally like ripples around a falling drop. In Homage To Rameau, a cortege regally made its way, a stark contrast to the relentless perpetual motion of Movement, where the pianist may be excused for tiring a little.

Both pianists then joined four hands for their perennial favourite, Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. Lee provided some prefatory quotes which touched on the music’s propensity to relive the joy and purity of childhood. And how they enchanted and delighted with their interplay and witty repartee. The gamelans headily ran out in Empress Of The Pagodas, a foil to the alternately lilting and gauche waltz of Conversations Of The Beauty And The Beast, before cascades of glissandi concluded The Fairy’s Garden. Music, too, can tell stories as vividly as pictures.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2012)

2012-01-13T00:16:00.003+08:00

RACHMANINOV
Piano Concerto No.2 / Paganini Rhapsody
YUJA WANG, Piano
Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Claudio Abbado
Deutsche Grammophon 477 9308 / *****

It is curious to note that the last two Deutsche Grammophon recordings of these Rachmaninov concertos were recorded by young Chinese pianists in their 20s. First it was Lang Lang in 2004, with his idiosyncratic pacing that almost wrecked the opening of the Second Piano Concerto, but no such fears exist for Yuja Wang. Her totally idiomatic readings are a pleasure from start to finish, rekindling fond memories of her teacher Gary Graffman’s legendary recording with Leonard Bernstein’s New York Philharmonic (reissued on Sony Classical) from the 1960s.

She does not merely master the notes but owns the music, knowing instinctually when to broaden the tempos to savour the aromas and to when step on the gas to go for broke. This is a characteristic of live performances where liberties are taken, such as rounding up the last movement’s final cadenza with an ecstatic chord, and the feel of spontaneity keeps the listener hooked. The Paganini Rhapsody is no less exciting, with the build-up to the glorious 18th Variation a perfectly rising arch. The highly responsive Mahler Chamber Orchestra is somewhat a misnomer, because it does “big” works too. This is the new recording of the Rachmaninov warhorses to have.

RUFINATSCHA
The Bride of Messina Overture / Symphony No.6
BBC Philharmonic / Gianandrea Noseda
Chandos 10665 / ****1/2

Johann Rufinatscha (1812-1993) was born in South Tyrol along the Austrian-Italian border but spent much of his professional life in Vienna. His orchestral music is distinguished by its academic vigour, written in the early Romantic idiom of the Central European school that spanned Schubert to Brahms. The Bride Of Messina Overture opens with Beethovenian overtones of tragedy and expends a good 14 minutes making it a tone poem of sorts. His ambitious and last symphony, the Sixth Symphony in D major (1865), runs close to an hour, but is well worth hearing.

There is a lightness of spirit that suggests Schubert and breadth of scope that looks towards Bruckner and early Mahler. Like many composer before and after him, its Scherzo is a lively country dance followed by an expansive Schumann-influenced slow movement that displays a more serious side. The celebratory finale is one the young Brahms might have written, and it is an enjoyable romp to cap an unlikely symphonic legacy. This is Volume One of a projected cycle, and the quality of playing – responsive and committed - from the Manchester-based orchestra makes further instalments a welcome prospect.

IVORY METAL / Gamelan Asmaradana and Shane Thio / Review

2012-01-09T12:37:00.005+08:00

IVORY METAL
Gamelan Asmaradana with Shane Thio
Esplanade Recital Studio
Saturday (7 January 2012)

This review was publised in The Straits Times on 9 January 2012 with the title "Gamelan blends with piano".

The sight and sounds of a Javanese gamelan is one that is not easily forgotten. Upon encountering the gamelan for the very first time in Paris during the 1880s, a mesmerised French composer Claude Debussy declared that it had made the polyphony of Palestrina sound like child’s play.

The gamelan music heard in temple and village festive ceremonies is handed down the centuries via an oral tradition, but actual concert music for gamelan is a relatively new phenomenon. Operating on specific fixed scales, the music is highly tonal with much of the colour coming from the interplay of instruments used, including a battery of metallophones, gongs of varying range and size, untuned percussion and auxiliary partners.

Lou Harrison (1917-2003), doyen of American gamelan composers, loomed large in this sparkling concert by Gamelan Asmaradana, Singapore’s only professional gamelan orchestra. His Gendhing Bonang Alexander opened the evening, a quiet prelude compared with the more rowdy traditional Gendhing Bondhet Kethuk 2 Kerep, which had an extra layer of counterpoint provided by unison male voices of the ensemble.

In Jody Diamond’s Sabbath Bride, a Hebrew melody was first sung on its own with piano accompaniment and later euphoniously married with gamelan textures to the point where the separation of these disparate traditions became nigh impossible. Such was the versatility within the medium which made it so attractive to Western composers and ears.

On the subject of crossover, Barbara Benary’s Rag for Deena, clearly modelled after Scott Joplin, raised a ripple of mirth. Its rhythm-based form riddled with “wrong note” moments had found an unlikely yet plausible idiom in the gamelan.

The evening’s masterpiece was the Concerto for Piano & Gamelan by Harrison. In the conventional three movements, it included taxing solos for collaborative pianist extraordinaire Shane Thio, who had transposed his demanding part from a hand-written score.

The pianoforte may be considered a percussion instrument itself, operated by ivory keys activating hammers which strike metallic strings. When heard with the gamelan, it merges imperceptibly to be one in the family, and later emerging as a soloist on its own. The overall effect was uncommonly invigorating.

Closing the concert was young local composer Isaac Tan’s Running With The Wind, a pop-inspired number with a catchy chorus. On the evidence at hand, the gamelan should not be considered a traditional museum piece but a living and breathing organism.

MAHLER 5 / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

2012-01-09T12:24:00.002+08:00

MAHLER 5
Orchestra of the Music Makers
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (6 January 2012)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 9 January 2011 with the title "Marvellous Mahler".

The first orchestral concert of the year was given not by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra but its young amateur counterpart, the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM). To be even more specific, the first notes to be heard came from the Combined Schools String Camp Orchestra, an even younger group mentored by members of OMM.

As Mahler was the theme carried over from last year’s centenary festivities, Mahler’s own arrangements of Bach’s orchestral music opened the show. There was something familiar yet strangely unfamiliar about the music. It was Bach for sure, a suite of popular movements from the Second and Third Orchestral Suites. However the elephantine scoring for massed strings, encumbered with pompous organ chords and timpani, made the music overblown and bloated.

It was however the fine string sound and expert pacing coaxed by conductor Chan Tze Law that saved the work. Emphatic yet subtle, they allowed flautist Cheryl Lim’s virtuosity to shine through the thick molasses for the Rondeau and Badinerie. The famous Air on G String was given a suitably luxuriant feel, but authenticity was probably the last thing on their minds.

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony was however the real thing. Nuttapong Veerapun’s superb trumpet solo commanded the stage for the funeral march, and soon the procession went underway. As with OMM’s earlier performances of Mahler’s First and Second Symphonies performances in 2010, this reading was characterised by force of will and an overall sweep that was totally captivating. There were bum notes here and there, committed in the heat of the moment, but that mattered little in the grand scheme of things.

The tumultuous second movement came like the whirlwind, with a shuddering force which contrasted wildly with the intoxicating Ländler country dance of the central third movement. In the latter, Alan Kartik’s French horn was a pillar of strength, holding sway steadfastly as the world revolved around its axis.

The much-vaunted Adagietto provided an oasis of beauty from strings and harp, and resisted the temptation of becoming sappy and sentimental. The finale, thick with intricate counterpoint, flagged a little in tempo but that provided an opportunity for much of the details usually glanced over to be better savoured. The final rush of adrenaline to its breathtaking conclusion was however one to be remembered. Is Singapore becoming a city of Mahler orchestras? Better believe it!

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2012)

2012-01-08T00:57:00.004+08:00

LISZT MY PIANO HERO
LANG LANG, Piano
Vienna Philharmonic / Valery Gergiev
Sony Classical 88697891402 (CD & DVD) / *****

In the piano music of Franz Liszt, Lang Lang finds a special resonance. His bicentenary tribute to the Hungarian pianist-composer is an unqualified success. He completely identifies with Liszt’s modus operandi as super-virtuoso non pareil in his selection of showpieces and transcriptions. Ironically, the solo segment opens with pure lyricism. The seamless melodic threads of Liszt’s chanson O porquoi donc and Schubert’s Ave Maria receive sumptuous readings, the singing tone continuing in the celebrated Un Sospiro, Liebesträume No.3.and Consolation No.3. Liszt’s transcription of Wagner’s Isolde’s Liebestod is a passionate bonus.

For out and out showboating, he pulls all the stops in Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos.6 and 15. He clearly revels in the stunning right hand octaves of the former and hams it up for Horowitz’s transcription of the Rakoczy March. The popular La Campanella and the vulgar Grand Chromatic Gallop get close to definitive performances. To close, Lang is joined by the Vienna Philharmonic for the First Piano Concerto, the work he performed at the Last Night of the Proms last year. In terms of sheer visceral excitement, he is up there with the likes of Argerich and Cziffra. The accompanying DVD, just 13 minutes of a recording session, is only for diehard fans.

Could Lang Lang become the 21st century’s greatest Liszt player? That is certainly worth a thought.

LA NOCHE Works for Flute & Harp
ROBERTO ALVAREZ, Flute
KATRYNA TAN, Harp
*****

This is a unique, unlikely to be repeated, anthology of new works for flute and harp by Singaporean and Spanish composers from the northern region of Asturias. It could only have been conceived here in Singapore, presently home to Asturian flautist Roberto Alvarez (from the SSO) and Malaysia-born harpist Katryna Tan. All eight works are World Premiere recordings, covering a wide and diverse range of voices and idioms. Most accessible is Miguel Prida’s Romantic-leaning Motionless Vault, its lyricism starkly contrasted with the astringently atonal Pieza (Piece) by Maria Dolores Malumbres.

The mystery and splendour of the night is the unifying theme. Fernando Agüeria’s Moonlight was inspired by Singapore’s skyline, its restless pulse echoed by Ignacio Rodriguez Guerra’s Gigante Blanca (Gigantic White Star) which had repose alongside restlessness. Chen Zhangyi’s Five Constellations evoke fairy tale scenes and fantastical imagery, which was a perfect foil for Robert Casteels’s Nachtlied, a play on a child’s fear of darkness. Here, Alvarez also performs the piccolo and alto flute. Jorge Muniz’s La Nueche De San Xuan (St John’s Night) portrayed playful mythological spirits, displaying a certain kinship with flight of Ho Chee Kong’s Last Butterfly Dance, a tranquil scene of Peirce Reservoir at dusk. Here is strikingly beautiful music, loving performed.

NEW YEAR’S CONCERT 2011
Vienna Philharmonic / FRANZ WELSER-MÖST
Deutsche Grammophon 478 2601 (2 CDs) / ****1/2

For the Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst’s début at the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual New Year’s Day Concert, a musical history lesson of sorts takes place. The maestro is a descendant of Ferdinand Dommayer whose casino and ballroom was where the two Johann Strausses – father and son – both violinists and band leaders made their names as the “Waltz Kings” of Vienna. Works like the Début Quadrille, Amazons’ Polka and Forward With Valour Polka – all included in this concert – were first heard and danced to at Dommayer’s.

The inevitable nod to the Franz Liszt bicentenary takes the form of The Dance In The Village Inn (from Lenau’s Faust) and Furioso Gallop, rousing orchestrations of the First Mephisto Waltz and Grand Galop Chromatique respectively. The theme of Hungarian gypsies and faraway lands unearths the Csardas from Ritter Pasman, Spanish March, Cachucha Gallop and Helmesberger’s Gypsy Dance, before closing with the short-lived Josef Strauss’s nostalgic My Life is Love and Joy. The obligatory Blue Danube and Radetzky March get their usual airing but it is the happy surfeit of rarities that make this year’s outing most satisfying. Happy New Year!

DREAMING DEBUSSY / Melvyn Tan Piano Recital / Review

2012-01-08T00:56:00.002+08:00

DREAMING DEBUSSY
MELVYN TAN, Piano
National Museum Exhibition Galleries
Thursday (5 January 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 January 2012 with the title "Dreams with Debussy".

Holding recitals in art galleries is not a new idea, even in Singapore. About 12 years ago, Esplanade organised Music Box, a festival featuring young musicians within art spaces of the Singapore Art Museum. Nevertheless the move to present four pairs of concerts on “impressionist” music, showcasing the cream of local talent alongside the Dream & Reality exhibition of Musée d’Orsay art treasures was an inspired one.

The music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel would surely gain an added resonance when heard within the gaze of canvasses by Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. Held within the biggest chamber which seated 180 comfortably on four sides around the piano, the setting was one of intimacy. However the high ceiling and dry acoustic did little to enhance the sonic bloom of the Steinway grand, which was made to sound diffuse, even brittle.

This however did little to deter Melvyn Tan, who clearly has a special affinity for Debussy. He is a master colourist, with a palette of rainbow shades, and multitudes of nuances to make each piece and turn of phrase come alive. The recital began with Suite Bergamasque, a longing look at French dances of antiquity.

The Menuet was crisply danced, while the Passepied scampered with a playful elegance. The centrepiece was surely Clair de lune; the moonlit nocturne found an iridescent glow in Tan’s hands, while its harp-like figurations glided as smoothly as a hand running through silk.

The main course was the First Book of 12 Préludes, which were as varied as the paintings themselves. Superb pedalling and control ensured that much of the multi-layered textures were discerned with great clarity, as the opening solemn procession of Danseuses des Delphes (Delphian Dancers) proved.

Even in a subject as elusive as the wind, there was much scope for fantasy. In Voiles (Sails), a fluttering caress was raised by a gentle breeze. Contrast that with Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest (What The West Wind Saw), which had the violence of a force ten gale. Immediately following this was the popular La fille aux cheveux de lin (Girl with the Flaxen Hair), whose utter simplicity was hard to resist.

The final two Préludes were equally gripping in different ways. Le danse de Puck (Puck’s Dance) insinuated with each twist and turn, heightened by Tan’s inimitable body movements, while the vulgar guffaws of Minstrels, exaggerated to perfect effect, brought the set to a memorable close. The next seven recitals will be keenly anticipated.

Treasures of the Musee d'Orsay at The National Museum

2012-01-04T10:58:00.023+08:00

One of the most important exhibitions to come to Singapore is the set of travelling artworks from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The museum specialises in 19th century and early 20th century artworks, notably the French Impressionists. Included in the set at The National Museum are several works by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pisarro, Gauguin, Cezanne and Van Gogh. Held in conjunction with the exhibition are four pairs of recitals, by pianists Melvyn Tan (5 & 6 January), Dennis Lee & Toh Chee Hung (12 & 13 January), Albert Tiu (19 & 20 January) and the T'ang Quartet (26 & 27 January), all commencing at 8pm.

What are they photographing?

The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Carbanel.

Venus in Paphos by Ingres. Note the way how the artist distorts the back of the model to accentuate her sensual curves.

A view of the gallery and its visitors. Admission charge is only $11, and complimentary for NTUC cardholders.

Henri Rousseau's War.

Box at Theatre des Italiens by the woman painter Eva Gonzalez. Note the bored and vacant expression on the woman's face at this social event.

Renoir's Young Boy and his Cat.

One of Paul Cezanne's several versions of The Card Players.

Toulouse-Lautrec's portrait of The Female Clown Cha-U-Kao.

A Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. Its not the same one we are accustomed to seeing in most books, but its still a compelling Van Gogh landscape.

Eugene Laermanns's The End of Autumn, an allegory of old age and infirmity.

Young Girl and Death by Marianne Stokes.

Claude Monet's chilling portrait of his first wife Camille on her deathbed.

On the way out, one can just sit down and enjoy some of the books on art that are available on display.

First Orchestral Concert of the Year: ORCHESTRA OF THE MUSIC MAKERS PLAYS MAHLER SYMPHONY NO.5

2012-01-04T10:12:00.005+08:00

The first orchestral concert of the new year is not given by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra but the young Orchestra of the Music Makers! Having conqured the twin peaks of Gustav Mahler's first two symphonies, it now embarks on his purely orchestral Fifth Symphony, the five movement masterpiece which includes the beautiful Adagietto orchestrated for strings and harp.

The orchestra's mission to involve the community will also be keenly felt when its string players join the Combined Schools String Ensemble to perform Mahler's orchestration of movements from Bach's Orchestral Suites. Conductor and master orchestra-builder Chan Tze Law leads and an enjoyable and stirring concert awaits!

Date: Friday, 6 January 2012

Venue: Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30 pm

Tickets: $14 to $25, available at SISTIC

Results of PIANOMANIA POLL: Which is your favourite label for piano recordings?

2012-01-02T11:57:00.014+08:00

Thank you for participating in the recently-concluded Pianomania Poll: Which is your favourite label for piano recordings. There was a decent voter turnout of 85 votes over three months, which was less than previously but nevertheless respectable. Maybe not everybody is a crazy record collector like Phan Ming Yen or Pianomanic.

1st place: Deutsche Grammophon (47 votes, 55%). Pollsters voted overwhelmingly for the German yellow label, which is not a big surprise given that pianists like Maurizio Pollini, Daniel Barenboim, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Vladimir Horowitz, Mikhail Pletnev and Martha Argerich all had their wares proudly paraded here. These days, DG is banking on younger talent like Helene Grimaud, Lang Lang (now flown to Sony Classical), Alice Sara Ott and Yuju Wang.

2nd place: EMI Classics and Hyperion (20 votes, 23%). Joint second is shared by two proud British labels. The former has had its share of great pianists including Alfred Cortot, Claudio Arrau, Georges Cziffra, Walter Gieseking, Edwin Fischer and Dinu Lipatti, and with Evgeny Kissin and Martha Argerich still on its books, it is doing well. Independent label Hyperion probably has the biggest share of pianophile's pianists - Marc-André Hamelin, Stephen Hough, Angela Hewitt, Steven Osborne, Leslie Howard, Hamish Milne, Nikolai Demidenko (once upon a time). Need one go on?

3rd place: Decca / Philips (19 votes, 22%). Not far behind are the two great labels which have now merged. Vladimir Ashkenazy, Nelson Freire and Jean-Yves Thibaudet still do the business for the Brits, and it has the rising Benjamin Grosvenor in its books. Philips lives on a legacy that included Claudio Arrau, Alfred Brendel, Stephen Kovacevich (formerly Bishop), Zoltan Kocsis and Adam Harasiewicz.

4th place: Naxos / Naxos Historical (13 votes, 15%). Not bad for a super budget label, whose house pianists have included Jeno Jando, Idil Biret, Konstantin Scherbakov, Bernd Glemser (fine pianists all) and some younger names. Its historical re-issues, well-remastered recordings are a treaure trove that keeps on expanding. Recordings by Rachmaninov, Arthur Rubinstein, Horowitz, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Cortot, Friedman, Levitzky, Schnabel are just the tip of the iceberg.

5th place: Sony Classical (12 votes, 14%). The Japanese label that incorporated Columbia Masterworks and RCA has a piano discography that hinges on just two pianists, the multiple Gramophone Award winner Murray Perahia and the superstar who won't win any Gramophone Award soon, Lang Lang. Its back catalogue however boasts Van Cliburn, Rubinstein, Horowitz, Rachmaninov, Gary Graffman, William Kapell and Alexander Brailowsky. Not too shabby indeed.

6th place: Harmonia Mundi 6 votes (7%). The French label with strong American input specialises in period performance groups and early music, but has had some fine piano recordings over the years by Paul Lewis, Frederic Chiu, Alain Planes, Alexandre Tharaud, Cedric Tiberghien, just to name a few.

In the rear with fewer than 5 votes were Chandos and Piano Classics (4 votes), Appian or APR (3 votes, which is great with historical recordings and re-issues), Testament (2 votes, another purveyor of vintage recordings) and the now-inactive ProPiano (2 votes).

Thank you for your participation, and watch out for the next Pianomania Poll: Who is your favourite bald pianist?

PIANOMANIA'S NEW YEAR'S EVE IN BALI!

2012-01-02T11:55:00.012+08:00

Its 31st December, the last day of the year, and this is how Pianomaniacs do it in the mystical isle of Bali. The six hands of Boris Kraljevic, Neil Franks and Tou Liang are now put to good use for the purpose of rowing! We went white water rafting on the Ayung River, near Sayan where the legendary Colin McPhee built his thatched house in Bali.

Team Pianomania: The Changs, Neil Franks and Robert.

Team Boris: Ong Khian Heng, Milan Stevanovic, Beomjae Kim and Boris.

A dramatic shot, one fits for the books.

Team Pianomania is the champion! (largely thanks to Neil, Robert, Janet and Ming)

Last sunset of the year 31 December 2011, Pura Gede Luhu Batungaus on the Balinese coast off Cemagi, just southeast of Pura Tanah Lot.

New Year's Eve dinner at Villa Ombak Laut, home of Neil Franks, where the gracious host carves a fantastic Pavlova.

The new year 2012 is greeted with yet another piano soirée, with two, four and six hands at the piano.

PIANOMANIA wishes everyone a happy and prosperous 2012.

BALI CLASSICAL NIGHTS / Canggu Club / Thursday 29 December 2011

2011-12-30T10:19:00.016+08:00

The second evening of Bali Classical Nights was held at the Canggu Club, a Balinese scaled-down version of the Tanglin Club, on Thursday 29 December 2011. There was a smaller audience in a more intimate venue, but the general vibe and spirit was more pervasive and infectious. With the new year looming ahead, everybody was determined to enjoy themselves, and have a jolly good time. The choice of music seemed to reflect that joie de vivre.

The wonderful strains of Beomjae Kim's unaccompanied flute kicked off the evening, with a Telemann Fantasia and Isang Yun's fiendishly difficult Etude No.5, which provided a dramatic tour de force of technical display.

Tou Liang thinks he can perform Rachmaninov, in this case the Vocalise (transcribed by Alan Richardson), especially because he has the same hairstylist as Sviatoslav Richter.

Next, Korean violinist Yoojin Jung and Montenegrin pianist Boris Kraljevic put the polish on Beethoven's Spring Sonata Op.24 (1st movement).

Bali resident Ruzanna Staroverova played Babajanian's Poem without her shoes! At any rate, it still sounded great.

Boris then performed Chopin's Berceuse beautifully, and went on to accompany soprano Nancy Yuen in two Puccini arias, O mio babbino caro (Gianni Schicchi) and Vissi d'arte (Tosca).

After the interval, it was piano 6 hands - Grainger's Zanzibar Boat Song, inspired by a poem by Rudyard Kipling. Normally, the teacher plays the more demanding secondo part, but here Neil Franks was more than up to the challenge.

Debussy's haunting Syrinx for solo flute, played by Frenchman Philippe Bernold, gave one of the evening's most sublime moments.

Yoojin and Boris were back for Vittorio Monti's rousing Csardas, which gave the audience much to cheer about.

Neil provided a degree of gravitas in Debussy's Sarabande from Pour le piano.

The evening's main programme closed on a high with Philippe and Boris in Francois Borne's Carmen Fantasy, which began with the Entracte from Act 3 of Bizet's opera.

There's always time for one delightful encore: Wilhelm Ganz's grand gallop de concert Qui Vive, played on 6 hands piano with two flutes and one violin for good measure. Was that a world premiere or what?

All eight performers enjoy the overwhelming applause, a grand close to Bali Classical Nights 2011. Now we can't wait for Bali Classical Nights 2012!

BALI CLASSICAL NIGHTS / Bali Tugu Hotel / Wednesday 28 December 2011

2011-12-30T09:23:00.022+08:00

The first evening of Bali Classical Nights took place on Wednesday (28 December 2011) at the luxurious Bali Tugu Hotel on Canggu beach. The splendid setting was a Balinese stage complete with a Garuda and a Yamaha grand piano specially flown in from Jakarta. The roar of the surf, clicking of geckos and the occasional firework going off provided a typically Balinese counterpoint to the proceedings. The heady spirit of Bali during the 1930s, of luminaries like Walter Spies, Colin McPhee, Rudolf Bonnet, Margaret Mead, Miguel and Martha Covarrubias, was relived albeit for a couple of hours...

Opening the concert was Korean violinist Yoojin Jung and Montenegrin pianist Boris Kraljevic in Dvorak's Humoresque. Yoojin played a short improvised prelude to begin.

Tou Liang tried his best in the late Intermezzo in A major (Op.118 No.2) by Brahms, in between his emcee duties.

Korean flautist Beomjae Kim performed an unaccompanied Fantasy by Telemann and Caprice No.23 by Sigfried Karg-Elert, an impressive show of sensitivity and virtuosity.

Then it was Boris's turn to go solo, with Franz Liszt's Sposalizio from his Années de pélérinage, inspired by Raphael's painting "Marriage of the Virgin".

A segment of the enthusiastic audience, seated on three sides of the stage.

Bali-based Russian-Armenian pianist Ruzanna Staroverova produced a stunning display of digital dexterity in Arno Babajanian's Poem.

Accompanied by Boris, Hong Kong soprano Nancy Yuen sang two Chinese songs, I Live At The Source of the Yangtze River and The Green Pastures of July.

The sound of 6-hands piano opened the second half, when Boris, Neil Franks and Tou Liang played Rachmaninov's Romance, written for the three Skalon sisters. Neil had the honour of playing the introduction, which later appears in the slow movement of the Second Piano Concerto.

A glorious examplar of the hallowed French flute school, Philippe Bernold played Francis Poulenc's Flute Sonata, all three lovely movements, with Boris at the piano.

Neil Franks, the British gentleman who was the inspiration behind Bali Classical Nights, performed the Petrarch Sonnet No.123 by Liszt.

Nancy completed her programme with a Bellini arietta and Verdi's Ah forse lui... Sempre libera, Violetta's big coloratura aria from La Traviata.

To conclude the formal programme, Yoojin and Boris returned for the rousing Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens, with its diablerie enthralling the full-house audience.

An obviously chuffed Boris played a sublime encore, with Debussy's Bruyeres from Preludes Book Two.

All the performers take a final bow, after an enjoyable evening of music-making.

THE BEST OF 2011 (CLASSICAL CONCERTS) as reported on The Straits Times

2011-12-26T10:53:00.005+08:00

MAHLER’S Symphony No.9
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
22 January 2011, Esplanade Concert Hall

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has been living with Mahler’s Ninth Symphony for almost 20 years, and how it has matured with time. Under Shui Lan’s direction, the orchestra is no longer content in accurately churning out the notes but actually living the music and faithfully bringing out the composer’s intentions. Little wonder that SSO was the only Asian orchestra invited to perform Mahler’s symphonies at the 2011 Beijing Festival.

ELGAR Cello Concerto
QIN LI-WEI, Cello
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / JASON LAI
8 April 2011, Esplanade Concert Hall

Forget about Yo-Yo Ma, because we have in our midst another great Chinese cellist Qin Li-Wei, whose breathtaking account of Elgar’s Cello Concerto is one for the ages. In the same concert, the Conservatory Orchestra directed by Jason Lai also scaled great heights with Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life).

BEST DÉBUTS: Tie between
MELVYN TAN, Piano
19 January 2011, Esplanade Concert Hall
ALAN CHOO, Violin
27 August 2011, Esplanade Recital Studio

One is a seasoned veteran while the other a fledgling artist, but both have music flowing in their veins. Melvyn Tan made a welcome return after 35 years in exile, enthralling a full house with Schumann, Debussy and Chopin. 21-year-old youngster Alan Choo showed his mettle in Mozart, Beethoven, Biber, Bloch and Saint-Saëns, his prowess later confirmed by winning 1st Prize in the National Violin Competition (Artist Category). Certainly a name for the future.

What we can do less of:

Unruly, noisy students attending concerts. Well-intentioned schools may think they are doing their students great service by packing them into bus loads to attend concerts. However more effort should be made to inculcate in them the finer points of concert etiquette. Courtesy, consideration and commonsense, is that too much to expect?

THE BEST OF 2011 (CLASSICAL MUSIC RECORDINGS) as reported on The Straits Times

2011-12-26T10:35:00.008+08:00

LISZT Années de Pélérinage (Years of Pilgrimage)
LOUIS LORTIE, Piano
Chandos 10662(2)

This double-CD album by French-Canadian pianist Louis Lortie sets a new benchmark besides arriving propitiously in Franz Liszt’s bicentenary year. Collected over 40 years of the composer’s creative output, the 26 varied pieces contain some of his most poetic and virtuosic utterances, besides casting a glance into the future.

MAHLER Symphony No.2 “Resurrection”
Orchestra of the Music Makers / CHAN TZE LAW

Few people would have guessed that a group of young musicians (average age 21-22 years old) in Singapore could band together to play a Mahler symphony. It happened on 10 July 2010, and this live recording is the glorious result of that miraculous concert. You can hear it on Singapore Airlines KrisWorld, but it’s better to have a CD of your own.

NOCTURNAL FANTASIES
ALBERT TIU, Piano
Centaur 3093

There have been great interpreters of the piano music of Chopin and Skryabin over the decades, but nobody had thought of combining the two until now. Locally based Filipino pianist Albert Tiu possesses the intellectual nous and prodigious technique to do both composers justice, and the recorded sound is simply gorgeous.

BALI CLASSICAL NIGHTS

2011-12-24T10:23:00.004+08:00

If you happen to be in Bali, Indonesia just before the New Year, why not enjoy a couple of evenings of classical music with BALI CLASSICAL NIGHTS, a mini-festival featuring musical talents from all over the globe?

Featured artists are:

Soprano: NANCY YUEN (Hong Kong / Singaopore)

Violin: YOOJIN JUNG (South Korea)

Flute: BEOMJAE KIM (South Korea) & PHILIPPE BERNOLD (France)

Piano: BORIS KRALJEVIC (Montenegro / Singapore), NEIL FRANKS (UK / Singapore), CHANG TOU LIANG (Singapore), ARIANE JACOB (France) & RUZANNA STARAVEROVA (Armenia)

Dates:

Wednesday (28 December), Hotel Tugu Bali, 7 pm

Thursday (29 December), Canggu Club, 7 pm

Tickets at:

Rp 550,000 for Concert & Dinner

Rp 300,000 for Concert only.

Programmes include music by:

Dvorak, Brahms, Telemann, Karg-Elert, Liszt, Babajanian, Rachmaninov, Poulenc, Debussy, Bellini, Verdi, Francaix, Saint-Saëns, Puccini, Grainger, Monti, Ravel, Dutilleux, Duparc & Bizet.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2011)

2011-12-23T10:52:00.005+08:00

SCHUMANN Works for Violin & Orchestra
ULF WALLIN, Violin
Robert-Schumann-Philharmonic / Franz Beerman
BIS SACD-1775 / ****1/2

Did Robert Schumann really compose three violin concertos, as this album has us believe? The one most listeners know of is the D minor concerto (1853), his last orchestral work. Suppressed by his widow Clara, it was not heard until 1937. It is a somewhat rambling 32-minute work with pleasant if not totally memorable themes, closing with a slow but stately polonaise-like finale. The only violin concertante work he heard in his lifetime was the Fantasy in C major (Op.131) of 1853, adopting the slow-fast two part form that displays both lyricism and virtuosity to equal degree.

The best music is however reserved for Schumann’s own violin version of his 1850 Cello Concerto in A minor (Op.129), premiered as recently as 1987. It is a bona fide original violin concerto, not to be confused with Shostakovich’s orchestration of the same work. With its own share of thrills and spills, one hardly misses the original cello solo itself. Swedish violinist Ulf Wallin extracts every last ounce of its bittersweet melodies, contrasting the emotional peaks and troughs with great alacrity. Well supported by the Chemnitz orchestra renamed after the composer, this is a persuasive case for an often overlooked genius.

ECHOES
Seattle Symphony / GERARD SCHWARZ
Naxos 8.559679 / ****1/2

The progress of modern music has mostly been in incremental steps, founded upon tried and tested past models. This anthology of new American orchestral works revisits older examples, seen and heard through the prism of time and changing musical tastes. At its simplest, Bright Sheng’s Black Swan is a lush transcription of Brahms’s Intermezzo in A major for piano (Op.118 No.2), with no new harmonies offered. Aaron Jay Kernis’s Musica Celestis is an amplification of a pre-existing movement from his own First String Quartet, having the same moving effect as works by Vaughan Williams and Barber.

Venturing further afield, David Stock’s Horn Of Plenty plays with motifs from Jeremiah Clarke’s popular Trumpet Voluntary before finally quoting the famous march it its entirety. David Schiff’s Infernal turns the Danse Infernal from Stravinsky’s Firebird into a brassy score in the style of B-grade pulp movie music. John Harbison’s Rubies is a fantasia on Thelonious Monk’s standard Ruby, My Dear, and the final result is a luxuriant wallow. Conductor Schwarz himself takes on Handel’s three concerto grosso movements for a Concerto for brass quintet, a virtuoso vehicle that is guaranteed to be heard regularly. Performed with polish and much spirit, this is recommended listening.

LOST TO THE WORLD / The Sing Song Club / Review

2011-12-22T10:06:00.007+08:00

LOST TO THE WORLD
The Sing Song Club
The Arts House
Tuesday (20 December 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 December 2011 with the title "Sing Song Club in fine voice".

From the organisers of the First Singapore Lieder Festival in August and September came one final recital of art songs by Gustav Mahler and Franz Liszt, whose anniversaries are being observed this year. The Sing Song Club is Singapore’s version of Britain’s renowned The Songmaker’s Almanac, with pianist Shane Thio being the local Graham Johnson, that indefatigable instigator of the most ambitious singing projects.

Although the following for art song is small here, its practitioners are a young and determined lot who will become our top singers of tomorrow. Baritone Daniel Fong (above), a student at London’s Royal Academy, exuded a warm and expressive tone for the five Mahler songs on texts by Friedrich Rückert. Rich, sonorous and unafraid to project himself, his views on subjects like love, solitude and abandonment sung in clearly enounced German were palpable, even believable.

Ich bin der Welt abhanden (I Am Lost To The World), which lent the title to this concert, was treated with a world-wearied gravity that belied its apparent wistfulness. In Um Mitternacht (At Midnight), the shift from minor to major mode came like a shaft of life-affirming sunlight that washed away all gloom.

Tenor Brendan-Keefe Au (above) was less confident, and had a false start in Rheinlegendchen (Rhine Legend), but possessed a youthfulness that suited his set of Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn) songs well. These whimsical and often ironic songs of German folklore and country life found a sympathetic soul. Amid the militaristic undertones of Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen (Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow), melancholy gave way to the expectancy of love.

For sheer tonal beauty, it was hard to beat soprano Rebecca Li (above), whose petite frame also packed a poignant punch. Such purity and innocence were distilled in two rarely heard Mahler songs and a further three by Liszt. Often overshadowed by his florid piano works, Liszt’s Freudvoll und leidvoll (Joyful and Sorrowful), Es muss ein wunderbares sein (It Must Be A Wonderful Thing) and S’il est un charmant gazon (If There is a Lovely Grassy Plot) basked in a radiant glow that can only be described as sublime.

This recital shows our young vocalists to be far more than enthusiastic bathroom singers. Further events by The Sing Song Club in March and May of next year are to be watched out for with keen anticipation.

CHRISTMAS WITH THE KING'S SINGERS / Review

2011-12-19T10:49:00.001+08:00

CHRISTMAS WITH THE KING’S SINGERS
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (17 December 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 December 2011 with the title "King's Singers' a right royal show".

Even before a single note of music was sung, The King’s Singers was greeted with a storm of applause that would customarily take place after a concert, not before. Such was the reputation that preceded the six-man outfit, formed in 1968 as students at King’s College, Cambridge. The singers are, of course, a different group now but the immaculate ensemble and that infectious sense of humour and fun are steadfastly retained.

Much of its Christmas programme consisted of arrangements, transcribed for its unusual combo of two countertenors, one tenor, two baritones and one bass. Neatly packaged in groups of four or five songs, it began with ancient songs of Christmas Past. Veni, Veni Emmanuel opened with voices unison as in its original form of plainchant, and then it split into six parts.

The glory of polyphony pleases the ear with its myriad shifts and variations of harmonies, and with voices ringing as clearly as bells, the effect was magical. Whether it was in German (Est ist ein Ros’entsprungen), French (Noël nouvelet), Spanish (Oyd, Oyd, Una Cosa) or Catalan (El ni ño querido), the ensemble was magnificent in its intonation and unity, joyfully communicating the essence of the festive season.

Forget all those faux versions of the syncopated Dutch carol Gaudete, Brian Kay’s arrangement made it sound less corny that what most are accustomed to. And shame on whoever’s errant cell phone that competed with countertenor David Hurley’s wonderful solo in Francisco Guerrero’s Virgen Sancta at its quietest point, almost ruining the special moment.

Christmas Present showcased more contemporary fare, but rooted in the anthems of old. Some of the Singers themselves had composed their own original pieces, both baritones Philip Lawson’s Lullay My Liking and Christopher Gabbitas’s Mary’s Lullaby were given the most personal and loving of touches.

The jive in the African-American spiritual Rise Up, Shepherd, And Follow was expressed like true soul brothers, and Geoff Keating’s arrangement of God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen in the manner of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five rejoiced in its unmistakeable ostinatos.

If there was a song that summed up the evening’s enjoyable fare, it was Peter Knight’s transcription of Mel Torme’s classic Christmas Song. The wistful solos and chorus evoked true nostalgia, and probably not a few teary eyes.

Just as three more carols were sung – Stille Nacht (Silent Night in its original German), Jingle Bells and Deck The Halls – tenor Paul Phoenix pondered aloud as what to do next. A female voice from the Circle cried out, “Marry Me!”, to which he unhesitatingly replied, “OK, then.” Promises, promises…

SOUNDS OF JAPAN 2 / The Philharmonic Winds / Review

2011-12-19T10:37:00.005+08:00

SOUNDS OF JAPAN 2
The Philharmonic Winds
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (16 December 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 December 2011 with the title "Rousing sounds of Japan".

When many local musical groups opt for the tried and tested, trust The Philharmonic Winds to do just the opposite. Its well-attended concerts have consistently programmed new music and works that are unlikely to be heard on disc or broadcasts, and have the quality of memorable once-offs.

Its latest project was Japanese wind band music, not exactly exciting on paper but rousing and raucous in reality. Led by the highly regarded British conductor Douglas Bostock (left), the concert opened with Kiyoshige Koyama’s Hana-Matsuri, a brief monothematic work that recounts a solemn procession of the Okagura festival. A strict percussion beat dictated the proceedings, a prelude for more to come.

Hiroshi Ohguri’s A Myth, programme music on the creation of light on earth, was made of sterner stuff. Its almost atonal beginning soon gave way to rhythmic exuberance of a dance that sent the gods into a frenzy and flights of fantasy.

Yasuhide’s Ito’s …Yet The Sun Rises was a reflective look at the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake-tsunami tragedy of March this year. Instead of wrath and gnashing of teeth, its elegy is channelled into something positive. Piano and percussion was judiciously employed, and the overall effect that recalled big Straussian gestures and film music radiated a karmic warmth. From despair comes hope, it declares.

The longest work was Isao Matsushita’s Hiten Trilogy, three linked movements on the “Flying God” of Japanese mythology. The hall was plunged into complete darkness, before the sounds of flutes and piccolos issued antiphonally from the aisles as the musicians paraded on stage to their seats. Last to appear was Bostock and the taiko drummer Makoto Tashiro (left), whose muscle-bound arms appeared to have the girth of thighs.

That sort of physique comes from a strict discipline of drumming, and he was made to sweat throughout the vigorous and enervating work. Beginning with impressionistic hues, the music then shifted irreversibly to its main inspiration – the insistent and violent beat of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Through this unrelenting score for both musicians and listeners, the ears ached from Tashiro’s pugilism on a number of drums before closing with a tour de force on the wadaiko, the biggest drum of them all. When Stravinsky carefully chose his moments to shock and awe, Matsushita seemed to go apoplectic from the outset. It was an impressive showing for certain, but one that was exhausting as well.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2011)

2011-12-16T09:32:00.002+08:00

RACHMANINOV The Symphonies
Russian National Orchestra / MIKHAIL PLETNEV
Deutsche Grammophon 477 9505 (4 CDs)
****1/2

There was a time when recordings by Soviet-era Russian orchestras were praised for authenticity but vilified for poor sound. This changed when Russia’s first “hard currency” orchestra – the Russian National Orchestra – was formed by pianist Mikhail Pletnev with the encouragement of then-Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and realised by recordings on the German “yellow label”. Rachmaninov’s three symphonies and choral symphony The Bells were recorded between 1993 and 2000, and remain close to definitive performances on disc.

Although Rachmaninov was not an overt nationalist, an over-arching Russianness pervades the symphonies, hung-over from Tchaikovsky and obsessed with the medieval chant Dies Irae (Day of Wrath). The melancholy and sense of doom are captured convincingly, also indelibly colouring the tone poems The Rock, The Isle Of The Dead and his final work, the three Symphonic Dances, almost a fifth symphony. This chief rival to this budget box-set is the Concertgebouw Orchestra led by Vladimir Ashkenazy (on Decca) but that does not include the cantata John Of Damascus by Rachmaninov’s teacher Sergei Taneyev, a masterpiece of Russian choral orthodoxy and counterpoint. A must have for lovers of Russian music.

SSO CHRISTMAS CONCERTS / Review

2011-12-15T09:18:00.001+08:00

SSO CHRISTMAS CONCERT
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Tuesday (13 December 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 December 2011 with the fitle "Fun songs that deck the halls".

Honestly, how does one begin to review a Christmas concert? Does one appraise the performances of itsy-bitsy little pieces that invariably crop up, or give a blow by blow account of what transpired? This reviewer feels it is the warm feelings engendered by time, place and context of the festive season, fuelled by appropriately cheery music, that ultimately matters most.

On this account, the year’s yuletide offering by an otherwise secular outfit, succeeded beyond the sum of its parts. There were no big works, merely excerpts such as dances from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, and the longest works were probably Philip Lane’s narrated The Night Before Christmas and the repetitive Twelve Days Of Christmas.

The much touted audience sing-alongs often have the effect of a damp squib, which is why conductor Lim Yau enlisted the irrepressible William Ledbetter to be his cheerleader. Looking like Ebenezer Scrooge’s more generous kid brother, he was a hoot. Dispensing with all formalities, he coaxed his listeners into a state of relaxation, and a mood to sing.

For Franz Xavier Gruber’s Silent Night, usually sung by candlelight, he got the audience to reach out for their cell-phones and voila, instant illumination! To complement this, conductor Lim was handed an electric candle to conduct. There was an onstage dialogue about King Wenceslas and his good deeds, an act which did not quite gel as the laconic conductor is neither an actor nor totally comfortable as a speaker.

The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah was lustily sung by the Singapore Symphony Chorus, which led some in the audience to re-enact that Georgian tradition of standing up for its entire duration. Some clueless usher’s efforts to force them to sit down were stoutly ignored, even rebuffed. Good on them.

Despite not playing Mahler, the orchestra had many moments to shine. Lustrous strings in Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, energised brass in a Dixieland styled arrangement of Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and David Smith’s neighing trumpet for Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride.

The Children’s Choir sang like angels, and John Rutter’s saccharine-infused carols stirred the spirits. The sea of red, green and gold donned by choir and orchestra members, many with accessories like Santa hats and reindeer antlers, added to the sense of occasion. All in all, great fun but where were the balloons?

SINGAPORE NATIONAL PIANO AND VIOLIN COMPETITION 2011 / GRAND FINALS / Review

2011-12-13T09:36:00.014+08:00

NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION 2011
Grand Finals & Awards Ceremony
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Saturday & Sunday (10 & 11 December 2011)

A much-edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 13 December 2011 with the title "Alan Choo wins violin finals".

Singapore has yet to have an international piano or violin competition to call its own but the Finals of the Artist Categories in the National Piano and Violin Competition, supported by the Singapore Festival Orchestra conducted by Chan Tze Law, comes very close. In terms of the diversity of nationalities represented by the finalists, all of whom are pursuing their musical studies here, and the quality of performances, there is much to be proud of.

Violin (Artist) 2nd Prize: Adelya Nartadjieva

This year’s violin finals marked a new high. Only a wafer-thin margin separated two front runners, Uzbekistan’s Adelya Nartadjieva and Singapore’s Alan Choo, both Conservatory students. In Tchaikovsky’s evergreen Violin Concerto, Nartadjieva proudly upheld the Russian school of Oistrakh and Kogan with a sizzling reading of passion and poise. Exhibiting a full and gorgeous tone, its numerous technical hurdles were overcome with an ease and aplomb that came as naturally as breathing.

Violin (Artist) 1st prize: Alan Choo Su-Ho

Choo opted for the Armenian Aram Khachaturian’s ethnic-flavoured Violin Concerto, an unabashed showpiece which he attacked with ferocity and fervour. He also had a free-wheeling quality, resounding as if improvised on the spot. The intoxicating brew of poetry and dare-devilry was persuasive enough to edge Nartadjieva for the First Prize. Choo is the first Singapore-born violinist to win this accolade since 2001. Third place went to China’s Yang Yunjie whose very musical but cautious performance of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto was more than competent.

Violin (Artist) 3rd prize: Yang Yunjie

The piano finals on Sunday afternoon was equally riveting, with Singapore’s Clarence Lee opening with a rock solid, honest to goodness account of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto.

Piano (Artist) 2nd prize: Clarence Lee Zheng Le

Blending brawn with sensitivity, his wide-striding playing comfortably matched the dense orchestral textures. In the treacherous central section of the finale, a cool head averted almost certain disaster when the accompaniment went off kilter for a split second. Saving the day, he closed with thunderous authority.

Piano (Artist) 3rd prize: Kseniia Vokhmianina

There were two performances of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto. Ukraine’s Kseniia Vokhmianina brought out many lovely insights but was dogged by mistakes and lapses. Taiwan’s Yeh Shih-Hsien was far more confident, with note perfection transcending into a nuanced reading of rare polish and elegance. His uncanny mastery of rubato, that most intuitive and Romantic of expressive devices, provided a gilded edge that earned him the victor’s title. Lee was awarded the second prize.

Piano (Artist) 1st prize: Yeh Shih-Hsien

The evening award ceremony and concert also showcased four set-pieces chosen for the competition from local composers Eric Watson, Bernard Lee, Emily Koh and Denise Lee, demonstrating that the creative front was no less impressive.

Goh Soon Tioe Award: Elvina Sung-Eun Auh

The Goh Soon Tioe Outstanding Performer Award of ten thousand dollars, by far the biggest bounty, went to 12-year-old violinist Elvina Sung-Eun Auh from the Junior Category, presently a student in England’s Menuhin School. Her stunning performances of works by Suk and Wieniawski, so mature in conception and faultless in execution, have to be witnessed to be believed. Mere words do scant justice. Have we just found Singapore’s own version of Midori and Sarah Chang?

Some of the winning pianists and their teachers with jury members Phillip Shovk and John Perry.

Albert Tiu's Midas touch does it again, seen here with winning pianists Li Chu Ren (1st Prize, Senior Category) and Yeh Shih-Hsien (1st prize, Artist Category)

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2011)

2011-12-11T10:38:00.005+08:00

A DOUBLE LIFE
LOKE HOE KIT, Cellos
NICHOLAS LOH, Piano
****

This might very well be the very first CD recording from a Singaporean cellist. Loke Hoe Kit, just 23 years old, was a student of the American cellist Nathaniel Rosen who in turn was mentored by the great Russian Gregor Piatigorsky. It is this illustrious lineage that inspired this disc of works for two cellos. Gian Carlo Menotti, better known for his operas, had written his Suite for two cellos (1973) for Piatigorsky. It is a pleasant neo-baroque work in four movements that makes a good companion for the Sonata for two cellos attributed to Handel.

Following the example of the great Jascha Heifetz (who himself was a famous collaborator with Piatigorsky), Loke performed and recorded both parts in both works, achieved by overdubbing. He has genteel and cultivated sound, coaxed from a 1987 Clifford Roberts cello once owned by Rosen. Pianist Nicholas Loh is a sensitive accompanist for this short but pleasant album, which at under 30 minutes plays like a CD single. There are at least seven quirky photos of the self-styled fashionista in Loke. One could do worse than to support local talent and innovation.

This CD is available at the Esplanade Shop and all Gramophone outlets.

CHOPIN Piano Recital
INGOLF WUNDER, Piano
Deutsche Grammophon 477 9634
***1/2

Although it was the Russian Yulianna Avdeeva who won First Prize at the 2010 Chopin International Piano Competition, it was joint runner-up Ingolf Wunder from Austria who trumped the coveted recording contract with the German yellow label. Much of this “artistic triumph” is played up in a rather self-absorbed interview article in place of sleeve notes, but what is his playing like?

Thankfully he is no Ivo Pogorelich, the controversial Serb who “lost” in the 1980 competition. As expected, the performances are well-turned and tasteful, with the best readings going to the Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise (Op.22) and Polonaise-Fantasie (Op.61), the latter which won him the special Best Polonaise Prize. However in the Fourth Ballade and Third Sonata, he is curiously stolid. When there are opportunities to soar and go for broke, he remains too unruffled and ultimately earthbound. Perhaps his Teutonic sensibilities dictated that the heart be ruled by the brain. One goes to Argerich, Zimerman, or even Lang Lang and Li Yundi, for more sparks.

FREDDY KEMPF Piano Recital
BIS SACD-1810 / ****1/2

British pianist Freddy Kempf, of German-Japanese descent, has recorded extensively for much of his career, ever since the controversy of not being awarded First Prize at the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. Now in his early thirties, he has lost none of the youthful exuberance that made him so popular. In this well-balanced recital of virtuoso works, a fiery disposition is evident in Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations, based on the baroque theme La Folia. At 15 minutes, his account of Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka is one of the swiftest off the block. It is exciting, stunningly accurate, yet does not stint on the details.

The mark of an artist’s maturity may be discerned in the Bach-Busoni Chaconne. Here, Kempf’s acute sense of its breadth and architecture is allied by a grandstanding approach that is quite breathtaking. In the eight linked dances of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales, a flexible view of its chameleonic swings in pacing and dynamics add to the character of the interpretation of this elusive work. With this recital disc, Kempf is seen to have transcended his prodigy years to become a true artist.

Kathmandu's Best Kept Secret: Pilgrims Book House in the Thamel

2011-12-11T10:34:00.012+08:00

What do you do during the evenings in Kathmandu? The sun sets at 5.30pm, and dinner takes you an hour at the most. There is no Kathmandu Symphony or Nepal Philharmonic, and we are not into that Irish public house thing. Street hustlers try to entice you with hashish, with souvenir and craft shops shouting for business in every corner of the Thamel. Our favourite haunt is the Pilgrams Book House, the Indian-Nepali solution to Borders and Kinokuniya. Located on Thamel's main drag, just north of Kathmandu Guest House, it is the bibliophile's dream.

There are over twenty rooms on two storeys filled from floor to ceiling with books, and more books. Books on Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and India take up much of the space, as do books on religion (all religions besides the obvious Buddhist and Hindu volumes), but there are lots of classics, fiction, non-fiction, travel and of course, mountaineering. Prices are very reasonable, a fraction of what would normally cost in Singapore. Many of the books are in its Indian edition, so expect paper of lesser quality, but the hack, a good read is still a good read!

That's what I call a real bookstore! We found a 1980s Let's Travel to Nepal guidebook, written for young people by no less than Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The price? 99 rupees (about $1.60)

When you're hungry, just pop to the back of the bookstore for Pilgrims Feed N' Read, a vegetarian restaurant and bar. The sort of place where you can laze and relax with a book. I think readings and occasion recitals take place here too.

The bohemian interior of the restaurant. You can choose to sit on the floor with cushions at a raised section or at the usual tables.

The restaurant has an impressive colelction of books, and CD recordings, as well as some musical instruments, and art.

A fireplace at the al fresco section is good for winter evenings, or you could sit at one of its quiet corners. We had curries, a vegetarian burger and a vegetarian pizza, a fine way to spend your final evening in exotic and pretty civilised Kathmandu.

Kathmandu Valley's Best Kept Secret: Changu Narayan

2011-12-11T10:33:00.013+08:00

If asked to name the seven UNESCO Heritage Sites in Kathmandu Valley, most travellers will confidently come up with six of them. The seventh that is invariably forgotten is the Hindu temple of Changu Narayan. Located on a hillside just north of Bhaktapur, it is largely shunned by large tour groups, which adds to its quiet mystique and serenity.

A winding road from Bhaktapur that goes past terraced fields eventually ends in a carpark near the top of a hill. On its west is the gateway entrance (above) to the town of Changu Narayan, its single path lined with modest handicraft shops. This leads to a flight of stairs that ascend the cloistered complex of Changu Narayan Temple.

The main temple stands in the middle of a spacious courtyard. It is a square two-storeyed building opulently covered with gilded and wood carvings. Although the temple dates to the 5th century AD (reportedly the oldest in Kathmandu Valley), the present structure was built in the early 1700s. Surrounded by smaller shrines, this temple to Vishnu is a most impressive sight.

The southeast corner of the main temple, with its beautiful carvings.

One of the four temple doors in the cardinal directions.

Only Hindus are allowed to go past these doors.

A legacy of gold and expert craftsmanship.

A window on the upper floor.

The temple bell.

The winged Garuda pays homage to Vishnu.

Some of the other Vishnu shrines within the temple complex.

A quiet corner of Changu Narayan Temple, truly a living museum.

A view of Kathmandu Valley from near the carpark. The top of Changu Narayan Temple is just visible in the extreme left of this panorama. This is certainly Kathmandu Valley's best kept secret.

IMAGES OF NEPAL / Panoramas from Nepal

2011-12-06T18:48:00.013+08:00

Here is my usual collection of panoramic shots, taken from our 10-day holiday to Nepal from 30 November to 9 December. As expected, it was colourful and a little bit exotic. Expect us to visit the former Himalayan kingdom again sometime soon.

Kathmandu's Durbar Square, also known as Hanuman Dhoka Square, with the Maju Dega Temple in the middle, and the Shiva Parvathi Temple on the right.

An aerial view of Kathmandu Durbar Square and the old city, as seen from the Kasthamandap rooftop restaurant.

The Buddhist centre of Bouddhnath (or Bouddha), with Nepal's largest stupa, has the highest concentration of Tibetan monasteries or gompas.

The Hindu temple of Pashupatinath is set on the sacred Bagmati River, and is the scene of daily cremations.

The Garden of Dreams, or Kaiser Mahal, is a formal garden set in the old Victorian style, constructed by Field Marshal Keshar Shumsher Rana. Its just a quiet walk away from the bustling Thamel.

The organised chaos of Thamel, where guesthouses, restaurants, touristy shops and bars lie cheek by jowl, the centre of Kathmandu nightlife.

Patan (Lalitpur) Durbar Square, just south of Kathmandu.

Bhaktapur Durbar Square, another 18th century historical site, which appeared in the filming of Bertolucci's film Little Buddha.

Mustard fields of Sauraha, near Chitwan National Park, which looks like a landscape by Vincent Van Gogh.

Sunset over the Rapti River, Chitwan National Park.

Boating on Pokhara's Phewa Lake. The mountains have been obscured by thick mist.

Finally, a view of the Himalayas, including Everest (centre), Lhotse (to its right) and Makalu (far right), three of the world's five highest peaks, from the aeroplane. Just be sure to sit on the left side of the plane when departing Kathmandu.

IMAGES OF NEPAL / Chitwan and Pokhara

2011-12-06T18:45:00.014+08:00

Chitwan National Park is a picturesque five-hour drive from bustling Kathmandu. At once, you are transported to a tropical landscape, a completely different world with its wide natural expanses. Here are elephants bringing tourists on their early morning safari. shrouded in a cloud of mist.

An elephant crossing over the Budhi Rapti River near Sauraha.

An elephant bashes through the forest like no other creature.

We saw no tigers, but the prize find was an Asiatic one-horned rhinoceros and her child. Notice the distance kept between the visitors and the rhinos.

Mustard fields forever in Sauraha.

A view of the Rapti River near Sauraha.

The start of a short boat safari on the Budhi Rapti River on a look out for gharials, mugger crocodiles and wading birds.

Sunset over the forest at the Baghmara Community Forest.

Devi's Falls in Pokhara. Sometimes called Devin's Falls or Davis Falls, named after the unfortunate European woman who was swept away by the river in 1961.

A shrine overlooking Phewa Lake in Pokhara.

Colourful boats on Phewa Lake.

IMAGES OF NEPAL / Bhaktapur and Patan

2011-12-06T18:44:00.012+08:00

Bhaktapur is one of the old capital cities in Kathmandu Valley. Much of the town still retains the old world charm and has the feel of a living museum. The well laid-out Durbar Square (Palace Square) is seen with King Bupatindra's column with the Golden Gate and Palace of 55 windows in the background.

The all-wood Chyasin Mandap pavilion is a showpiece of Bhaktapur Durbar Square.

There's a temple in every corner of Bhaktapur.

The "Barking dog" Bell and Taleju Bell (left) of Bhaktapur Durbar Square.

Erotic temple carvings on the struts of the Pashupati Mandir.

The 5-storeyed Nyatapola Temple, Kathmandu Valley's highest temple, on Tamaudhi Square in Bhaktapur.

The exquisitely carved Peacock Window of the Pujari Math, seen from a sidestreet off Dattatreya Square.

Smiling faces of Bhaktapur.

Patan (Lalitpur) Durbar Square by dusk.

Busy Patan Durbar Square.

Krishna Mandir at Patan Durbar Square.

The entrance to the Golden Temple of Patan.

IMAGES OF NEPAL / Kathmandu

2011-12-06T18:42:00.015+08:00

Little has changed in Nepal since I last visited in 1982. Its picturesque temples and pagodas, durbar (palace) squares, and narrow streets are much the same as I remembered them. However the pollution has gotten worse, with far more dodgy-looking constructions cropping up along the dusty roads, and the traffic... urghhh... These however do not diminish the beauty and mystique of this wonderful land of great culture and friendly faces. Here are some shots I took in the sunny days we enjoyed in the capital Kathmandu.

The Maju Dega and Narayan temples rise high above Kathmandu's Durbar Square. Life goes on as usual, with locals oblivious to the oohs and ahhs of hordes of tourists.

The terrifying Kala Bhairab (Black Bhairab), bloodthirsty manifestation of Kali, with a fresh coat of paint and sacrificial blood.
The courtyard of the Kumari Ghar, home of Kathmandu's living goddess. At 11 every morning, the kumari (who looks like she's seven or eight years old) makes an appearance, albeit for some 15 seconds or so.

The hilltop temple of Swayambhunath.

Multiple miniature stupas populate the grounds of Swayambhunath.

The Narayanhiti Palace, once home to King Birendra and his family, now a museum opened to the public. As expected, the rooms combine dated (1960s James Bond-like sets) with garish (stuffed tigers and rhinos). The Tribhuvan Sardan, the palace annex where the royal massacre of 2001 took place, has been completely demolished.

The Hindu temple of Pashupatinath. The riverside platform (or ghat) along the steps was where the entire royal family was cremated following the 2001 palace massacre.

An oblique view from the hill overlooking Pashupatinath.

The sadhus (holy ascetics) of Pashupatinath.

Outside the Tamang Gompa (monastery) of Bouddhnath temple, where Buddhist devotees prostrate themselves and circumambulate Nepal's largest stupa.

Smaller stupas lie around the great stupa of Bouddhnath.

One of the more colourful souvenir shops on the Thamel Marg, Kathmandu's much loved or reviled backpacker and tourist district.

QUE SERA SERA / re:mix / Review

2011-11-29T10:53:00.006+08:00

QUE SERA SERA
re:mix
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (27 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 November 2011 with the title "Melodic mix of memories".

Five years is about the age a child begins to remember the melodies he or she has heard, sung or played by a parent, or via any other media. Childhood memories and yearning for simpler times are the premise of the 5th anniversary concert of the string ensemble re:mix, that untiring purveyor of musical nostalgia.

The supreme irony is that much of its music is played by people who were born long after the original music first came out. They were essentially playing their parents’ music. As for their children, and there were many noisy toddlers in the matinee, numbers like the titular Que Sera Sera (from Hitchcock’s 1965 movie The Man Who Knew Too Much) or any of the Beatles songs, The Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby, belong in the realm of classical music.

It was nonetheless a fascinating experience to relive hoary old chestnuts distilled and re-jigged in new wineskins. Recent Cultural Medallion winner Kelly Tang (left) is a master of transcription, and his re-look at Yin Kerong’s Xiao Bai Chuan (Little White Boat) rolled back the years with pleasure.

Further arrangements by younger colleagues Wong Kah Chun and Chen Zhangyi gave new life to Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me and Chris Babida’s Xin Bu Liao Qing (New Everlasting Love) respectively, the former sung with some longing by the Singapore Lyric Opera Children’s Choir. Yet the sheer cleverness of the arrangements sometimes put the string players to a test in which they did not always emerge with flying colours.

The latter song sounded over-stretched and under-rehearsed, while the remixed Eleanor Rigby by Chen, packed in Yesterday, Hey Jude and pizzicatos in the manner of the Blues from Ravel’s Violin Sonata. Too much of a good thing, one might say. There was no denying leader Foo Say Ming’s (left) virtuosity in Vieuxtemps’s Souvenir d’Amerique, where the emergence of Yankee Doodle brought out smiles and laughs from the audience.

The theme of primary school blues replaced zoological species in a specially modified version of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of The Animals. Narrator Rosmarie Somaiah’s very witty script entitled Something’s Happening At School is worth several reruns, as was the playing of the twin sisters Low Shao Ying and Low Shao Suan (above) on piano.

The movement Pianists saw pianists and violinists swap places, and cue total mayhem. If that reminded one of school recess periods, this conception would have succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. Happy fifth birthday, re:mix, and may you always retain that inner child in yourselves.

THE LISZT CONCERTOS / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

2011-11-28T11:54:00.007+08:00

THE LISZT CONCERTOS
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (26 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 November 2011 with the title "Attacking with force and fury".

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s tribute to the Franz Liszt bicentenary came late in the year, but it could not have been better timed with the visit of British virtuoso Stephen Hough. To witness both of the Hungarian-born phenom’s piano concertos in the same evening was a luxury, but with Hough at the helm, it was added pleasure.

Make no mistake, the concert was conducted by the young Singaporean maestro Darrell Ang, but it was Hough who dictated the proceedings in the First Piano Concerto in E flat major. From the outset, the work was taken by the scruff of the neck, from which there was no let off. Rarely has the opening octaves and cadenza been attacked with such force and fury.

Forget the few wrong notes in the fray, these were swept away by the oncoming tsunami of sound. There was some respite in the short nocturne-like second movement, but then it was action stations and adrenaline on overdrive all the way to the final bar. Credit also goes to percussionist Mark Suter for his all-important contribution on the humble triangle; timing it to perfection is far more difficult than one imagines.

The Second Piano Concerto in A major, the greater work of the two, provided more semblance of sanity. Not only is the piano better integrated with the orchestra, its unfolding narrative showed Hough to be more than flashy fingers. His overall finesse and magisterial control were a joy to behold, and there is no finer moment than that wonderful passage when he sensitively accompanied cellist Ng Pei Sian’s lovely solo.

After the fire and brimstone topped off with outrageous octave glissandi, there was even time for an encore. Hough’s own transcription of Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me, was touchingly dedicated to SSO’s former principal violist, the Czech-born Jiri Heger (left), who retires after 32 years of faithful service.

Without Beethoven, there would be no Liszt or Wagner. That was the thematic thread of the concert which began with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No.2. It shares the same themes as the far better known and definitive Overture No.3, but made for fascinating listening with its thrilling build-up to the climatic offstage trumpet solo.

Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Venusberg Music closed the concert on a high, with conductor Ang’s direction emphasising on lightness and movement rather than solemn penitence. The concert’s muted ending more than made up for the revelry and wildness that came before.

THE TALES OF LOVE AND DEATH / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

2011-11-28T11:16:00.007+08:00

THE TALES OF LOVE AND DEATH

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (25 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 November 2011 with the title "Love, death and sympathy for a courtesan".

The combo of love and death, inseparable as Siamese twins, was the subject of the Singapore Lyric Opera’s annual gala, but there was to be no Tristan or Isolde. Given that the tradition of performing Wagner is close to non-existent here, the tried and tested Puccini verismo operas were among the unsurprising offerings.

Why not, as the music has popular appeal and there are no shortage of good singers in this repertoire. The usual stars who have graced SLO’s productions returned, and all three were in superb voice and form. The ageless soprano Nancy Yuen (left) was the chief protagonist with bleeding chunks from her signature roles in Tosca and La Bohème.

Nobody here does dying consumptive divas better, except in this case Floria Tosca leaps to her demise rather than wastes away. Her duet Mario, Mario, Mario (Tosca) with Korean tenor Lee Jae Wook (left) simmered and then sizzled, aglow with the anticipation of a late night tryst. The famous sequence in La Bohème which begins with Rodolfo’s Che gelida manina and closing with O soave fanciulla also sported the chemistry which has made this pairing a very special one. So far no deaths.

It was in the final moments of Massenet’s Thaïs, with Korean baritone Song Kee Chang (left), that the tears flowed. Who could not have sympathy for a courtesan turned nun who succumbs, predictably but beautifully, to the strains of the familiar Meditation. For once, that most overplayed of melodies is heard in its proper context.

As a preview to next February’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, highlights were performed, including Yuen and Song in the tender duet La ci darem la mano. Meanwhile Lee, as the roving Don, flirted with a lady in the audience in the Window Serenade by way of a rose, and then polished off the Drinking Song.

The SLO Ladies and Children’s Chorus made credible short appearances in Bizet’s Carmen and Verdi’s Macbeth, while the SLO Orchestra conducted by recently conferred Young Artist Award winner Joshua Tan Kangming (left) played rather many minutes of orchestral excerpts. While Puccini’s youthful Symphonic Prelude came off half-baked, there was no denying the passion in the Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut.

The sole encore was, of course, the Brindisi from Verdi’s La Traviata, which had all three soloists toasting the audience. One would have hoped for more singing in the two hour long concert, but it was the quality rather than quantity that truly mattered.

I-SIS TRIO performs at College of Family Physicians Singapore 40th Anniversary Dinner

2011-11-28T10:16:00.010+08:00

The I-Sis Trio, Singapore's premier harp ensemble, performed at the 40th anniversary dinner of the College of Family Physicians Singapore on 27 November 2011 at the Grand Ballroom of the Singapore Hyatt. They enchanted and enthralled an audience of Singapore's fraternity of family physicians with a selection of works from their latest album.

They performed a short programme of works which included pieces which they had specially commissioned as well as their own arrangements of popular classics tangos.

Two young girls hope to emulate their talented older sisters when they grow up!

The I-Sis Trio were a refreshing change from the boring old string quartets.

PianoManiac happened to attend the event (far away from his reviewing duties), but could not escape the strong hold of good music and charming ladies. They say good music is the best medicine for the jaded soul.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2011)

2011-11-25T10:03:00.002+08:00

MARTHA ARGERICH AND FRIENDS
Live from Lugano 2010
EMI Classics 708362 (3CDs) / ****1/2

The Martha Argerich Project of the annual Lugano Festival brings together the world’s top young musicians in a feast of chamber music, inspired by the sheer presence and personality of the Argentine piano legend herself. Every edition throws up a panoply of works, familiar and obscure. Argerich appears only in the first two discs, but her effect is electric, not least in Chopin’s First Piano Concerto – a signature favourite of hers – with the Orchestra Svizzera Italiana conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk. She also joins some-time partner Stephen Kovacevich in Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion in a fiery performance, reliving the good old days of their famed collaboration.

Rarities make this box-set a keeper as well. Where else would one get performances of piano quintets by Enrique Granados, Erich Korngold or Alfred Schnittke? The last is a particularly acerbic work that closes the collection on a pall of depression. But that is offset by sparkling works for multiple pianos by Chopin (Rondo Op.73), Brahms (Schumann Variations Op 23) and the scintillating Gershwin-Grainger (Porgy & Bess Fantasy). The pick of the crop are Liszt’s Les Preludes on two pianos (with Argerich and Daniel Rivera) and the three-piano transcription for three pianos by Carlo Maria Griguoli of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (Griguoli, Giorgia Tomassi and Alessandro Stella). Enjoy!

GRAZYNA BACEWICZ
Piano Quintets / Piano Sonata No.2
KRYSTIAN ZIMERMAN, Piano et al
Deutsche Grammophon 477 8332 / ****1/2

Only a pianist of Krystian Zimerman’s stature could have persuaded Deutsche Grammophon to devote an entire release to Polish music not composed by Chopin or Szymanowski. Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was without doubt Poland’s greatest woman composer. More of her music, obscured from the West because of her relatively early death behind the “iron curtain”, is being heard today. Perhaps the least unfamiliar is her Second Piano Sonata (1953), a virtuoso vehicle that possesses a fluent but turbulent lyricism, brilliantly realised by Zimerman. The finale is a coruscating toccata that will make it a concert hall favourite.

The two piano quintets are classically conceived despite the modern idioms employed. Tonality is retained, but with dissonance that goes beyond the pungent chromaticism of Szymanowski. The First Quintet (1952) is perhaps more memorable than the compact and ascetic Second Quintet (1965), largely due to the use of the oberek, a mazurka-like dance that goes back to before Chopin’s time. Bacewicz is a distinctive and original voice, and repeated listening will reveal a similar appeal enjoyed by established icons like Bartok, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Zimerman and his compatriots on strings invest their heart and soul in this musically rewarding outing.

CLARENCE LEE Piano Recital

2011-11-24T21:59:00.006+08:00

CLARENCE LEE Piano Recital
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Thursday (24 November 2011)

What a pleasure it is to finish a long day of work with good music, especially when it comes from a young talent who is also a passionate musician. Young pianist Clarence Lee is a final year student at the Conservatory, whose studies was disrupted by that most unavoidable of trials that comes with being a Singaporean male - 2 years of National Service (or is it National Servitude?). Thankfully his hands are intact, but more importantly that priceless inner muse that leads to instinctual music-making is gloriously preserved.

His well-conceived programme began with a tiny Scarlatti Sonata in F minor (K.466), that dovetailed neatly with Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata (Op.57), also in the same key. The former was illuminated with clarity and a rounded legato that brought out its tender bittersweet quality, contrasted with the latter's boom and bluster. The more mature musician in Lee avoided the bangy and splashy tendencies of his younger years, and went for instead for the heart of the music by projecting well and bringing volume to bear only at the right moments. Even in the coruscating finale, might and power was reserved - rightly so - for the final page. Before that, he went velocity and lightness instead, which made for a refreshing change from those all-too-loud versions that pass for passionate hearts.

The best performance fell to Liszt's transcription of Wagner's Isoldes Liebestod. Always careful to maintain the seamless soprano line, Lee never forsook beauty for the pursuit of virtuosity. The build up to the shuddering climax was perfectly judged, a truly heartrending journey before the tumultuous meltdown of crashing chords, and eternal rest.

He closed with Rachmaninov's Second Sonata (Op.36) in the 1931 revised "economical" version, which still does not disguise the thinness of its musical material. Nevertheless, Lee embraced it with a wealth of sound, bringing to bear its inherent tragedy and clangourous bells. He went for the jugular, which entailed certain risks - missed notes and lapses - avoidable but almost inevitable at this blistering pace. Yet there were moments of true poetry, such as in the central movement that shone out from within the thickets of notes. The cadenza was not perfect but brought out with scintillating panache, and the reserves of adrenaline were unleashed for the gushing finale. Despite a certain rawness, one cannot but have praise and admiration for this guts and glory reading.

How many young Singaporeans can play like this? Not many. I look forward to hearing more of Clarence Lee, perhaps in Mozart and Schubert. With these composers, more musical qualities will be discerned.

SHANGHAI QUARTET / Review

2011-11-23T10:33:00.004+08:00

SHANGHAI QUARTET
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Monday (21 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 November 2011 with the title "Fab four from Shanghai".

It was a great pleasure to be reacquainted with the Shanghai Quartet at the Conservatory, in a concert which cemented its reputation among the world’s elite chamber groups. Now in its 28th year since its founding by students at the Shanghai Conservatory, the chemistry between individual members remains awe-inspiring.

Its performance of Mozart’s “Hunt” String Quartet in B flat major (K.458) was a model of incisive precision and togetherness. The approach on the opening movement, which reminded early listeners of a hunting horn, also had lightness and a sense of perfect control. The sound projection in arguably Singapore’s best hall for chamber music came close to perfection, with each instrument’s timbre clearly delineated in both solo and ensemble playing.

Even better was Smetana’s autobiographical First String Quartet in E minor, which carried the title “From My Life”. Li Honggang’s emphatic viola solo breathed an air of defiance, answered by his partners’ passionate outbursts. Not one for faint hearts, the quartet played as if their lives depended on it, reliving the composer’s confessions, trials and tribulations without fear or apology.

They revelled in the folksy dance moments, which alternated with sterner minutes, no better illustrated by cellist Nicholas Tzavaras’s soulful lament in the slow movement. The busyness of the finale was rendered more poignant with first violinist Li Weigang’s piercing shriek, the abrupt musical representation of tinnitus and the composer’s deafness. That the work ended on a muted and subdued note, stated with much stoicism, was a sobering statement on the transience of life itself.

The pleasure of sonority was doubled when violist Zhang Manchin and cellist Qin Li-Wei, both conservatory faculty members, joined in for Brahms’s First String Sextet in B flat major (Op.18). There cannot be too much of a good thing here, as all six musicians blended beautifully through its four movements, beginning with seriousness and closing with good cheer.

The overall excellence may be summed up in the second movement’s Theme and Variations, where together they sounded resolute in unity, and within seconds melting away for each solo thread to be discerned with stunning clarity. The camaraderie displayed was infectious, and this is the reason why recordings cannot replace the immediacy and spirit of live performance.

The Shanghai Quartet and friends take a bow. By the way, the second violinist of the quartet was Jiang Yi-Wen.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE / Review

2011-11-21T10:10:00.004+08:00

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Saturday (19 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 November 2011 with the title "Goodies from Russia".

Musicians from Eastern Europe have over the decades contributed significantly to the diversity of Singapore’s musical scene. The names of Feri Krempl, Pavel Prantl, Martina Maixnerova, Jiri Heger and Alexander Souptel immediately come to mind. It was however the fall of the Soviet Union which made the biggest impact, bringing this evening’s five Russian speaking virtuosos to our shores.

The delightfully varied programme had the intimacy of a private salon, despite being attended by a house filled to overflowing. The first half was a showcase for Tatarstani flautist Evgueni Brokmiller and Kazakh harpist Gulnara Mashurova, both musicians of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Their performance of Jean Michel Damase’s Variations on Early One Morning began with childlike simplicity before revelling in a flight of fantasy, where mildly spiced dissonances added to its attractiveness.

Earlier, Brokmiller had impressively opened the concert with Zybin’s flashy Allegro and later brought out the piquant melodies of Dutilleux’s Sonatine, while Mashurova lent a touch of boldness and finery to Fauré’s classic Impromptu. The biggest cheers went to soprano Natalia Kumkova from St Petersburg, a private singing teacher, whose vocal projection and mastery of coloratura held the greatest resonance.

Vladimir Vavilov’s Ave Maria, widely misattributed to Giulio Caccini, was given the due respect and gentility of the baroque aria antiche. It was in Mozart’s Alleluia (from Exsultate, Jubilate) and Henry Bishop’s Lo! Here The Gentle Lark where she unleashed the full gamut of dazzling devices. In all three songs, she was ably accompanied by a student string quartet, led by young Uzbek violinist Adelya Nartadjeva.

Double bassist Guennadi Mouzyka, the Principal from SSO, gave his ungainly instrument the sweetest of voices, bearing the soul in Lensky’s Aria from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and providing counter-melodies to Kumkova in Bottesini’s Tutto il mondo serra. The latter song sounds familiar because it is a vocal arrangement of Chopin’s Étude in C sharp minor.

The very popular Kumkova closed the formal programme with two haunting romances by Rachmaninov, Sing Not, O Lovely One (Op.4 No.4, based on a Georgian song) and the wordless Vocalise, partnered by her busy pianist husband Kerim Vergazov. As generous encores, the audience was transported to a Moscow cabaret where all five performers took their turns in a potpourri of Russian oldies but goodies. Moscow Nights, Dark Eyes… it was almost as good as being there yourself.

THE ARTS AWARDS 2011 / Exclusive from The Istana

2011-11-18T22:52:00.011+08:00

The annual Arts Awards ceremony took place at the Istana this evening, with two members of the musical fraternity being honoured. The 2011 Cultural Medallion in music went to composer, lecturer and administrator Kelly Tang Yap Ming, and the Young Artist Award in music was conferred on conductor Joshua Tan Kang Ming.

Joshua Tan, Kelly Tang and Singapore's No.1 jazzman Jeremy Monteiro.

Kelly Tang is the first composer of the newer generation (born in the 1960s) to win the Cultural Medallion. An extremely versatile composer and musician, he is at home with the serious classics, jazz, film, popular music besides being adept as a mridangam player. In 2010, he composed two piano concertos, one in the atonal idiom (premiered by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra) and the other a jazz concerto (premiered by Jeremy Monteiro and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.) He is also the newly appointed Dean of Performing Arts of the School of the Arts.

Joshua Tan Kang Ming is presently the Resident Conductor of the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts. He has conducted the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (the 2011 President's Young Performers Concert) and the Singapore Lyric Opera's 2011 production of Bizet's Carmen. He is also winner of several international conducting competitions.

Joining the fray is the 2003 Young Artist Award recipient Zechariah Goh Toh Chai (extreme left) and a certain gatecrashing music reviewer.

Chinese orchestra conductor Major Tay Soon Huat, soprano Yee Ee Ping (left), and Tan Wie Pin of the Ministry of Education.

Dr Kelly Tang's family

Joshua Tan and his wife Yolanda.

2004 Young Artist Award winner violinist Chan Yoong Han with the Maestro.

We came here for the food too!

For the record, the other Cultural Medallion winners were: Yusnor Ef (Music), Atin Amat (Theatre) and Lim Yew Kuan (Visual Arts). The other Young Artist Award winners were: Troy Chin (Literary Arts), Lim Woan Wen (Theatre), Nawaz Mohammad Mirajkar (Music), Peter Sau (Theatre) and Ang Song Ming (Visual Arts).

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2011)

2011-11-18T10:17:00.003+08:00

CASALS Encores
ALBAN GERHARDT, Cello
CECILE LICAD, Piano
Hyperion 67831 / *****

This is a lovely collection of short cello pieces – mostly transcriptions – played as encores by the great Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973). Besides being the first cellist to popularise and record all six of J.S.Bach’s Cello Suites, he had a wide and catholic taste in repertoire, as reflected in the 20 tracks. Spanish music was close to his heart; the unaccompanied Song Of The Birds, a traditional Catalan Christmas carol was his favourite encore. Here it sounds positively poignant and soulful, as is the equally evocative Andalusian lullaby Nana, from Manuel de Falla’s suite of Popular Spanish Songs, contrasted with the rhythmic lilt of Granados Andaluza.

The combo of familiar (Saint-Saëns’ The Swan, Elgar’s Salut d’Amour and Fauré’s Apres un Reve) and less trodden territory (Lassen, Sgambati and Popper) is an illuminating one, and there is nothing that isn’t worth listening to again. German cellist Alban Gerhardt coaxes a warm burnished tone from his Gofriller cello, always keenly attuned to the nuances of the music. The sensitive Philippines-born pianist Cecile Licad, in her Hyperion debut, sounds like the perfect accompanist for this truly enjoyable anthology.

EVER MORE CRAZY MUSICAL LOOKALIKES

2011-11-17T11:40:00.012+08:00

This is what happens when you go a few nights without attending a concert. You get bored and a little crazy, and then you start surfing the web for amusement, and you find some classical musicians who remind of someone else. So here goes for another whacy instalment of musical lookalikes...

Someone referred to Sir Georg Solti as the "screaming skull" when he rehearses orchestras, so that is quite appropriate that Captain America's nemesis The Red Skull takes his place alongside one of music's greats.

Classical music's first couple, Gramophone Award winning Sir Simon Rattle and his mate Magdelena Kozena, as played by The Duchess of Alba and Oscar winning Meryl Streep.

Conductor Helmuth Rilling and Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone.

Founder of modern Vietnam Ho Chi Minh and founder conductor of the Bach Collegium Japan Masaaki Suzuki. The VC and the BC in perfect harmony.

Give or take 20 years, the British organist, music lecturer and Gramophone critic Marc Rochester (and my colleague with The Straits Times) bears a certain resemblance to the late great East German conductor Kurt Sanderling.

It is said that Romanians originally came from India, so it isn't too far fetched to suggest that conductors Sergiu Celibidache and Singapore's pioneering maestro Paul Abisheganaden are somehow related.

Pretty Women: Julia Roberts and Helene Grimaud. One loves Richard Gere and the other loves wolves.

A young Ronald Stevenson, great Scottish composer-pianist, looking like the great cartoon magician Mandrake.

I've always thought that George the loser from Seinfeld (played by Jason Alexander) was a splitting image of the love-forlorn composer of Lieder Franz Schubert. Both were particularly bad with women.

For those familiar with the Singapore and Taiwan musical scene, I thought that the teenage pianistic prodicy Tsai Min Hao could be the kid brother of the conductor Wang Ya-Hui.

YET MORE CRAZY MUSICAL LOOKALIKES

2011-11-14T14:37:00.011+08:00

This is getting quite addictive, so I've come up with more crazy and totally ridiculous lookalikes of classical musicans who we love and adore...

Did anyone notice the similarity between Gustavo Dudamel, Musical Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Outliers and What the Dude Saw?

This after seeing James Bond's Casino Royale - Russian conductor-pianist Mikhail Pletnev bears a strange resemblance to Scandinavian actor Mads Mikkelsen who played Le Chiffre.

Women power from Southeast Asia: Filipino pianist Cecile Licad and beleaguered new Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The bee-hive of Dame Fanny Waterman, founder and Director of the Leeds International Piano Competition, and a popular cartoon character from the comics of Malaysian cartoonist Lat.

Just do it! Nigerian-British pianist Glen Inanga is also an athelete, as is American basketball great Michael Jordan.

Also from Southest Asia, rising Singaporean conductor Adrian Tan and Thai artist-architect Chalermchai Kositpipat, creator of the surrealistic Wat Rong Khun (White Temple) of Chiang Rai.

Singaporean pianist Lim Yan looks like one of those young Shaolin Temple monks if he can be persuaded to don saffron robes.

This is a naughty one. Singaporean cellist Loke Hoe Kit shares a similar fashion sense with Sascha Baron Cohen's Brüno. (This is all the more curious as his teacher Nathaniel Rosen was a splitting image of Sascha Baron Cohen's Borat!)

TRIO OWON / Review

2011-11-14T09:44:00.004+08:00

TRIO OWON
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Friday (11 November 2011)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 14 January 2011 with the title "Like a whiff of exotic perfume".

This begins to sound like a broken record-player, but if you love good chamber music, often performed by world class players, you could do worse than becoming a Conservatory regular. This evening’s visiting group, Trio Owon, formed by violinist Olivier Charlier, cellist Sung-Won Yang and pianist Emmanuel Strosser, all Paris Conservatory alumni, qualifies to be world class.

Their recital was virtually a history of the piano trio genre. Joseph Haydn is often credited as the “father of the piano trio”. His G major trio (No.39 out of 40) gets played more than all the others combined. Little surprise as it is a most congenial work, beginning with variations where violin and piano play mostly the same melody with cello providing simple harmony. The claim to fame is its Gypsy Rondo, favourite of child pianists, performed with a breezy and carefree elan by the trio.

This was merely warm-up practice for Ravel’s sublime Piano Trio in A minor, one of the great chamber masterpieces of the early 20th century. Its hushed and syncopated opening was deftly coloured, conjuring the sense of a whiff of exotic perfume, which got headier in the scherzo-like Pantoum.

Structured like verses of the Malay pantun but without Asiatic themes, the movement bristled with vitality, contrasted with the solemn procession of the ensuing Passacaille. The finale, which used pentatonic themes, provided the grand conclusion, rising to a voluminous crescendo with the threesome engaged in full throttle. Cue huge cheers from the audience.

The clock was turned back by almost a century for Schubert’s Second Piano Trio in E flat major (K.929), the less often heard of two trios. Its Biedermeyer charm, characteristic of Vienna in the first half of the 19th century, was disarming. Much in the spirit of the better-known Trout Quintet, its conviviality was akin to three friends sharing different versions of a same joke over coffee.

The chemistry between the three performers was innately felt, with the ensemble water-tight but with ample room to breathe. How Yang’s cello waxed lyrical in the slow movement’s song without words, and the good-humour of the Scherzo and Trio infectiously borne.

The drawn-out finale’s goodwill never waned, and there was vicarious thrill to the sequences of repeated notes played by the increasingly frayed hairs of Charlier’s bow and Strosser’s lightning swift fingers. Multiple curtain calls ensured two generous encores – movements from trios by Dvorak and Mendelssohn. Just about perfect.

A CHOPIN SOIRÉE by Yao Xiao Yun / Review

2011-11-12T01:52:00.009+08:00

A CHOPIN SOIRÉE
Yao Xiao Yun, Piano
Singapore Conference Hall
Thursday (10 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 November 2011 with the title "Sounds of youthful exuberance".

It is always interesting to chart the progress of a young artist through the course of time. In 2005, the Shanghai-born pianist Yao Xiao Yun won first prize in the Open Section of the National Piano Competition after several years of study at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Her prodigiousness and facility, already evident in those early years, have blossomed into the more enduring values of mature musicianship.

Her all-Chopin recital was proof that institutional life as a teacher of young prodigies in her alma mater was no impediment to having a rewarding concert life as well. Beginning with the rarely performed Rondo à la Mazur (Op.5), written by a teenaged Chopin, it seemed that youthful over-exuberance manifested by fast flying fingers would prevail.

Sounding rushed and clipped in phrases, contours were blurred and the thrust of the music blunted. Perhaps it was a case of nerves from the pint-sized dynamo, so eager to please a well-filled hall, but it soon settled with two contrasting waltzes and the sublime Barcarolle (Op.60). In the latter, her singing line, gliding over a lilting accompaniment, was a pleasure, matched by the filigreed finery of its final pages.

In a well thought-out selection of 12 Préludes from the Op.28 set, she brought forth a wealth of colour and emotions. Deliberate omitting the more extended and familiar numbers (the “Raindrop”, for example), there was more scope for contrast, concluding imperiously with the fury and cascading thirds of the final D minor Prélude.

By now fully warmed up, the four Ballades in the second half were jewels in the crown. The epic voyage Yao took her listeners on was as eventful as it was technically assured. In these poetic essays, mere accuracy was just the starting point of true artistry. Her sound was well projected, emoting in the bittersweet lament of the First Ballade, while ably alternating violently contrasting emotions of the Second Ballade.

The emotional temperature of both Third and Fourth Ballades were gradually stoked and brought to feverish climaxes to close. The fearless headlong dive into the treacherous codas was a case of maximum risk-taking, but she came out with all guns blazing. Her encore of the serene Chinese nocturne, Autumn Moon On Calm Lake, concluded a thoroughly satisfying outing. Brava!

A touching moment: Yao Xiao Yun presents her principal teacher in Singapore, Prof. Yu Chun Yee, with a floral bouquet.

MIXED METAPHORS / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory New Music Ensemble / Review

2011-11-11T10:49:00.007+08:00

MIXED METAPHORS
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory New Music Ensemble
Esplanade Recital Studio
Wednesday (9 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 November 2011 with the title "Moving images add suspense".

Probably the best way to approach new music is to leave all pre-conceptions and expectations at the door, and let the occasion and process of performance sweep you along. New music has had bad rep, especially when what one normally defines as music – a regulated combination of melody, harmony and rhythm - is suspended, replaced by seemingly random sounds, even noises. However, little effort is made on the part of listeners to understand the minds of composers and performers.

Performances by the Conservatory’s New Music Ensemble in Esplanade’s ground-breaking Spectrum Series have helped bridge this creator-audience divide. With the national orchestra avoiding this hazard-laden path, nobody does it better. The Singapore premieres of three landmark works, conducted by Chan Tze Law (left), could not have been more persuasively handled.

Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel (1971) is not for the impatient, as it ambles along in a static and glacial pace. When silences and pauses are as important as sounds, we begin to appreciate their true value. The sparse scoring gave much scope for Jonathan Lee’s throaty but emphatic viola to be a protagonist, alongside Yoo Seol Ah’s haunting dulcet soprano tones and serene voices from the SYC Ensemble Singers. Commissioned for a performance in a Houston (Texas) chapel adorned with Mark Rothko’s iconic paintings, its contemplative thirty minutes passed for a seemingly far shorter duration of time.

Quite the opposite was Thomas Ades’s Concerto Conciso (1997), which packed a great deal in three short movements. Pianist Thomas Hecht provided the main cut and thrust, with winds and brass gelling rhythmically like a jazz band. As if constrained by compositional form, there was a mini chaconne and a round dance (called a brawl), bringing the bustling work to an abrupt end with the piano’s lid slammed shut.

The evening’s most challenging work was Edgard Varese’s Deserts (1954), scored for winds, percussion and electronic tape. The composer’s vision was of vast wastelands of the physical and metaphorical, including solitude of the soul. Its dense swathes of sound were interpolated with taped noise of a more mechanical kind, and accompanied by Bill Viola’s more contemporary film of geographical wildernesses, lightning, fire and water.

This was the rare case of moving images accompanying music, but it added an edge of suspense and the unexpected to the proceedings. But given the committed and convincing playing of all involved, it also became an added luxury.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2011)

2011-11-11T10:27:00.004+08:00

ECHOES OF TIME
LISA BATIASHVILI, Violin
Bavarian Radio Symphony / Esa-Pekka Salonen
Deutsche Grammophon 477 9299 / ****1/2

Younger artists on the German “Yellow Label” have begun to present themselves in concept albums instead of single composer discs, beginning with Helene Grimaud, Daniel Hope, and now newcomer Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili. Hers is an unusual programme of music from the former Soviet republics, dominated by Dmitri Shostakovich’s darkly coloured First Violin Concerto. Memories of Oistrakh and Vengerov loom large, but Batiashvili’s take is a totally valid one, unafraid of confronting its uneasy mix of brooding disquiet and slashing sarcasm. The recorded sound is gorgeous, which ironically beautifies this troubled masterpiece.

Batiashvili’s homeland is represented by Giya Kancheli’s V & V, for strings and taped voice, a study of extreme pianissimo, harmonics and other-wordly sonorities. Her control and intonation are close to perfect. Estonian Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel Im Spiegel (Mirror in the Mirror) is a minimalist in its simplicity and slow contemplative arpeggio sequences. There are two encore-like pieces from Russia to close. Shostakovich’s child-like and cheery Lyrical Waltz is contrasted with Rachmaninov’s melancholic Vocalise, accompanied by Grimaud on the piano. All in all, this is an illuminating if not comprehensive musical tour of the former Cold War “enemies”.

TELEMANN Tafelmusik
Musica Antiqua Köln / REINHARD GOEBEL
Archiv Produktion 477 8714 (4CDs) / *****

In 1732, there was one world-renowned German composer living in Germany and his name was not Johann Sebastian Bach. Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) had completed three “productions” or extended sets of music, which he sold as subscriptions with the title Tafelmusik (or Table Music) to nobility and musical establishments of the civilised Western world. Each self-contained “production” comprised an Overture (an orchestral suite of assorted dances), a concerto, multi-movement works for solo, trio and quartet combinations, and capped with a substantial finale or Conclusion.

These sold like hotcakes, earning the composer a considerable fortune. If only Bach were as commercial-minded in his lifetime. The music represented some of the finest and most tasteful orchestral music of the time, catering to finicky French and Italian tastes in the deal. Yet these have now been totally overshadowed by Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites. German violinist Reinhard Goebel and his period instrument band Music Antique Köln have dusted off the cobwebs from these delightful pieces in vibrant and vivacious readings. Issued at super-budget price, you can decide for yourself whether Telemann’s relative neglect today is justified.

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Piano Concerto Competition Final / Review

2011-11-10T10:04:00.008+08:00

PIANO CONCERTO COMPETITION FINAL
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory
Tuesday (8 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 November 2011 with the title "Touching hearts with finesse and ferocity".

Committed piano-fanciers will point to one annual event that is a “must attend” – the final of the Conservatory’s piano concerto competition. The chance to experience four full-length piano concertos (accompanied by second piano) in a single sitting, performed by the brightest young talents here is not one to be easily dismissed.

As with previous years, the familiar sits happily with rarely performed numbers of the repertoire. It is not every day one gets to hear Bartok’s thorny Second Piano Concerto, and one played with such finesse and ferocity as the American Lawrence Holmefjord-Sarabi.

These descriptions may seem paradoxical, but his incisive attack on its relentless procession of notes was awe-inspiring, the violent outer movements contrasting with the slow movement’s quiet reverence. Yet in a flash, he can transform apparent religiosity into tongues of flames, amply demonstrated in the mysterious night music segment.

Altogether different was Indonesian Budianda Tioanda’s account of Mozart’s congenial Piano Concerto No.23, a respite for the senses. The arch simplicity of its flowing lines found a sympathetic ear in this sensitive artist, who mined poetry in its pages and relieved the joie de vivre of its ebullient finale. The lilting slow movement was a particular pleasure to behold.

The American Edward MacDowell’s Second Piano Concerto may be accused of too much eclecticism, having assimilated the styles of Liszt, Grieg, Saint-Saëns and Dvorak in its musings. The only lady finalist, Bina Jung from New Zealand, had heft and power to surmount its massive chords and octaves, with nimbleness and wit to colour its scintillating passages with a plethora of shades. The seeming episodic nature of her solo part shouted for a live orchestra to accompany her, but there was never a boring second.

The sentimental favourite had to be Singapore’s own Clarence Lee in Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. From the word go, his was a big-boned account, with heart unabashedly worn on sleeve. He went for outsized gestures, but always had a special place for its bittersweet lyricism, drawing out the melodies with much tenderness. His rapport with accompanist Matthew Mak was almost telepathic, drawing the work to a rapturous close.

While this reviewer’s vote went to Holmefjord-Sarabi and Lee, it was Jung who claimed top prize from the solitary judge, the Polish-Swiss pianist Tomasz Herbut. No matter, all four pianists had it in them to touch hearts and change lives.

The piano finalists (from L to R): Lawrence Holmefjord-Sarabi, Clarence Lee, Budianda Tioanda and winner Bina Jung.

A Short Recital by Margaret Leng Tan

2011-11-07T19:46:00.009+08:00

The Singaporean pianist Margaret Leng Tan, hailed as the "high priestess of the avant-garde", was back in Singapore for a short stopover, where she gave a short recital for a small select audience at the home of Drs M.C.Tong and Geh Min. On show was one of the most travelled of her 20 toy pianos, on which she has delighted audiences the world over.

She was proud to state that she is no longer the only toy pianist in the world today, merely the best. Her obsession has now caught on, with other artists jumping on the band-wagon. After a short preamble, she performed Stephen Montague's Mirabella (Tarantella) and a short piece from Erik Griswold's Old McDonald's Yellow Submarine.

She is the absolute master (or mistress?) of the toy piano, the art and literature is anything but child's play.

A view of the keys and the piano's internal mechanism.

She donned the headgear of Brunnhilde to perform Jed Distler's One Minute Ring, which recycles leitmotifs from Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung including the exclamation, "Das its kein Mann!", on Siegfried's discovery of Brunnhilde's repose.

One of the most beautiful pieces was Phyllis Chen's Carousel, which includes a music box playing a perforated paper roll (cranked by the left hand), Margaret's right hand playing a descant part and Cobwebbed Carousel, with the paper roll turned upside down!

Finally, Margaret sings into the inside of the grand piano while Geh Min depresses the sustaining pedal to allow the natural renonances to be heard. The work, a vocal interlude from John Cage's Four Walls.

Margaret Leng Tan's 1970s Schoenhut toy piano has been heard in all three auditoriums of New York's Carnegie Hall.

JOURNEY TO MONGOLIA / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

2011-11-07T11:42:00.005+08:00

JOURNEY TO MONGOLIA
Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (5 November 2011)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 7 November 2011 with the title "Tender is the Mongol warrior".

This very interesting concert by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra dwelled on two themes, music inspired by the rugged wilderness of Mongolia, and contrasting timbres of the matouqin (horse head fiddle) and modern cello. A short but arresting prelude introduced the remarkable voice of young Mai La Su, heftily built like a wrestler and attired in traditional Mongolian costume including headdress.

His was the art of humai, or throat singing, where the human voice produces multiple tones by the use of harmonics or overtones. At least two very different kinds of sound were discerned, a sustained low-pitched bovine grunt and an other-worldly high-pitched whine as if electronically synthesised.

These were skilfully employed in Tang Jian Ping’s Yuan (The Origin), dovetailing neatly with Mai’s matouqin playing. Cradled between the thighs, this unusual bowed string instrument produces a mellow sound similar to the viola and cello. In this rhapsodic piece, his artistry alternated between crafting a singing tone and multi-tasking - combining both skills simultaneously as well as plucking the Jew’s harp. The Mongolian minstrels of antiquity were being headily relived.

More conventional was Qin Li-Wei’s cello-playing in Wang Qiang’s Gada Meilin, a cello concerto on the life and death of the titular Mongolian general. His unmistakeably deep-breathed tone, full of body and lustre in its soliloquys, was reminded one of similar passages in cello concertos by Elgar, Shostakovich and Bloch. With such committed advocacy, this work deserves to be as well-known as the overplayed Butterfly Lovers and Yellow River Concertos.

The orchestra under Yeh Tsung’s direction also performed Tang’s Gallant Steed and Zhang Han Shu’s Beautiful Ke Er Qin Steppe, picture postcard portrayals of Mongolian lore and landscape. The former was a furiously driven depiction of the Golden Horde sweeping down the plains, the latter a tuneful suite in the manner of Khachaturian’s ballets.

Both matouqin and cello were united for Tang’s Genghis Khan Capriccio, a double concerto in one movement. Adequate amplification allowed both instruments to be heard equally, one playing the melodic line with the other accompanying, and later with the roles reversed. This was a partnership of prima inter pares – first among equals, in music that is both meditative and dramatic.

It was however Mai’s humai, which had the last words as the work came to a surprisingly subdued and subtle close. It seemed the mighty Mongol conquerer had a tender and human side too.

SSO Concert: Ashkenazy and the SSO / Review

2011-11-07T11:13:00.006+08:00

GALA: ASHKENAZY WITH THE SSO
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (4 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 November 2011 with the title "Fingers of steel".

Although the legendary Russian-born pianist-conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy has previously performed in Singapore, this gala concert marked his SSO conducting debut. The mere mention of his name filled the house, but his largesse was to share the limelight with the orchestra and a young soloist.

For months, the latter remained nameless, billed as the Winner of the 3rd Hong Kong International Piano Competition with a piano concerto “to be announced”. Early this week, that pianist was unveiled as the 29-year-old Italian Giuseppe Andaloro. Possessing fingers of steel cushioned by a velvety soft touch, his rendition of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto was one to remember.

The opening chords were taken expansively, setting the tone for bittersweet melancholy contrasted with high drama. His projection from the keyboard was uniformly excellent, roaring above dense orchestral textures for ecstatic climaxes yet possessing the lightness of a gentle sigh in quiet solo passages. Prodigious finger technique told not the whole story, but the ability to express emotions without words made the performance complete.

All this would be nought if not for the orchestra’s sensitive yet telling contribution. Marc-Antoine Robillard’s horn solo near the end of the first movement, flautist Jin Ta and clarinettist Ma Yue in the slow movement underlined the players’ individual prowess. Lush strings accompanying Andaloro’s rapturous musings also provided moments to die for.

The finale afforded display for some of the most lyrical pianism thought possible and the requisite barnstorming, with the audience eating from his hands. The rare encore of Schumann’s Widmung in Sergio Fiorentino’s transcription was further proof that Andaloro was no off-the-assembly-line virtuoso.

Andaloro plays Schumann's Widmung (as transcribed by his former teacher Sergio Fiorentino), and dedicated to the Singapore audience.

The second half belonged to Ashkenazy as he took his charges on an urgently driven and exciting ride in Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. Magnificent brass went for the jugular in the opening Fate motif, the work’s recurring theme, as screws were turned ever so inexorably through its angst filled pages.

The Russianness of this interpretation was not in the faithful recounting of folk melodies but the playing out of extremes in its vast dynamics. The plaintive oboe solo of the slow movement, massed pizzicato strings in the scherzo and the finale’s headlong charge all made for significant milestones. Ashkenazy is not the biggest of conductors but he garnered terrific energy and drew a massive sound. Never before has the orchestra been coaxed to take a collective bow alongside the conductor, but the occasion not only deserved it, but demanded it.

SSO and Ashkenazy take a collective bow.