CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2017)

STRAVINSKY The Rite Of Spring

GIUSEPPE ANDALORO 

& ILYA RASHKOVSKIY, Pianos

GIOVANNI SOLLIMA 

& MONIKA LESKOVAR, Cellos

Alpha Omega Sound 14-01-12 / *****

This is a live recording of a concert held in Hong Kong's City Hall Concert Hall on 17 October 2013 to commemorate the centenary of Igor Stravinsky's epoch-making The Rite Of Spring, which premiered to a famous riot in Paris. Receiving its first Asian performance (and now World Premiere recording) was an unusual transcription of the ballet for 2 pianos and 2 cellos by Italian pianist-conductor Giuseppe Andaloro.

Adapted from the orchestral score rather than the four-hands piano version, there is a symphonic scope to its conception. Giovanni Sollima's cello replaces the famous bassoon solo with an other-wordly quality to its timbre. The cellos produce a wiry tone and are also employed percussively, thus extending the range of sonorities on the pianos. This vivid performance truly brings out the music’s virility and savage intensity.

Also employed for the same forces is Andaloro's arrangement of Ravel's La Valse, a sweeping performance contrasted with the languid and atmospheric stillness to Sollima's transcription of Debussy's Prelude To The Afternoon Of The Fawn for just 2 cellos. The memorable programme is completed by Lutoslawski's witty Paganini Variations for two pianos. 20^Th century music has never sounding this engaging or enticing.

  

THE THANK YOU RECITALS / Chopin Society of Hong Kong / Review

THE THANK YOU RECITALS

Chopin Society of Hong Kong

Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall

Saturday & Sunday 

(25 & 26 October 2014)

Thanks or no thanks to the student demonstrations taking place throughout the civic, business and shopping districts of Hong Kong S.A.R., the 4^th Hong Kong International Piano Competition (originally scheduled to be held from 10 to 27 October) had to be postponed to 2016. The reasons are obvious: any stage of disruption in the competition process would have derailed the entire event, and the safety of the participants and jury (Ashkenazy and Co.) could not be guaranteed. This is especially so because City Hall is just a few hundred meters from the Admiralty / HMS Tamar demonstration site, and any gunfire and explosions would have been easily audible, and we’re not talking about Prokofiev’s piano music.

While jury chairman Vladimir Ashkenazy was conducting the otherwise-idle Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in free concerts at the HK University in support of the students’ just cause, the Chopin Society organised three free recitals on 24-26 October featuring past First Prize Winners of the Competition, namely Ilya Rashkovskiy (2005), Jinsang Lee (2008) and Giuseppe Andaloro (2011).

Having just arrived from Macau, I was able to catch the second and third evenings of what would be considered a truncated version of The Joy of Music Festival. The attendances were good, just as good as if the competition had taken place in peace and tranquillity, and the response was typically warm-hearted and full of goodwill. The “Thank You” was directed at the good people of Hong Kong (known to put up with loads of governmental and political shite, not to mention the air pollution) and the ever-supportive competition sponsors.

Jinsang Lee opened his recital with unknown and undiscovered Schumann. Almost every note was unfamiliar to me, including a Sonata for Children (Op.118), a movement that would have been Schumann’s Fourth Sonata, the late Gesange der Fruhe (Songs of Dawn), and an earlier version of the finale to the Third Sonata in F minor. Lee played from a score, but his responses were totally musical, from the idiomatic phrasing to the singing tone that is characteristic of Schumann’s music. Just a point of interest, that finale quoted Clara Wieck’s theme that was the subject of variations in the famous third movement, and the original finale is almost as brilliant as the final and definitive version.

Jinsang Lee and his bride Jiwon Kang.
They got married on 9 October 2014.

As a complete contrast to the first half, Lee performed a selection of Poulenc (Pascal Roge terriotory) including the First Nocturne, and two Improvisations, the ones in tribute to Schubert (a Landler) and Edith Piaf. These were beautifully crafted and one was willingly transported to Gay Paree, before he was joined by Ilya Rashkovskiy for Poulenc’s madcap Capriccio for two pianos, yet another one of his cheeky and delectable confections. Still on France, the two winners converged on a single keyboard for Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. The Balinese-inspired third movement Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas was pentatonic heaven, with Lee striking the low strings inside the piano to simulate a gong.

Back on two pianos, the duo closed with Saint-Saens’s Danse Macabre and Shostakovich’s Concertino in A minor. The camaraderie between the two was excellent, with give and take being a hallmark of chamber music making. Two became three when Giuseppe Andaloro joined in for an uproarious encore by Vincenzo Panerai, a quick march with lots of hands-crossing and flipping the score over at the half way mark. One could tell that all three pianists were having a great deal of fun.

On the final evening, Giuseppe Andaloro had to grapple with multiple styles in his recital which included three Rachmaninov contrasting Preludes, Stravinsky’s Tango, Scriabin’s Vers la flamme, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.13 and three Messiaen Preludes, not an easy feat. He got the notes down pat, but the frequent shifts in musical idioms and dynamics rendered the sum somewhat less than the individual parts. One however cannot but marvel at the Horowitzian energy and incandescence he lent to that little Scriabin incendiary masterpiece.

For the second half, Andaloro provided a treat of a different kind, his own arrangements of Beatles songs (Come Together, Imagine, Across The Universe, Yesterday and Norwegian Wood among them). The last song included plucking the strings inside the piano for a quite magical and quasi-Oriental feel. This was followed up with a Lisztian paraphrase of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which almost makes one forget the original. The piano duo segment was shorter, with Jinsang Lee joining him in Milhaud’s Scaramouche and Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance for a glittering close.

Andaloro’s solo encore was significant, a World Premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Mirroring, the work commissioned for the piano competition that had been scuttled. It is an etude-like work on A-B-A form ((hence the mirror reference) where A represented prestidigitation in the manner favoured by Ligeti and B a series of sonorous chords. It is a rather effective showpiece and morceau de concours that would hopefully not be lost to posterity because of the events of Occupy Central.  

The HKIPC is down but not out, and the 4^th edition has been pledged to take place in September-October of 2016. In the meantime, a big “Thank You” is in order for the Chopin Society of Hong Kong for sharing the joy of music happen, even (and especially) in a time of dissidence and strife.

Three 1st Prize Winners of Hong Kong:
Jinsang Lee, Giuseppe Andaloro & Ilya Rashkovskiy.

Cello and Piano Recital by GIOVANNI SOLLIMA and GIUSEPPE ANDALORO / The Joy of Music Festival 2013 / Review

Friday (18 October 2013)

Cello and Piano Recital by

GIOVANNI SOLLIMA & 

GIUSEPPE ANDALORO

On paper, this recital appeared like a hodgepodge of seemingly unrelated pieces, from Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland to living Ukrainian jazzman Nikolai Kapustin, with Beethoven, Webern and a pair of Sicilians filling in between. The reality was a sizeable audience, one larger than previous evenings, presenting themselves to witness one of the most stunning displays of cellism, if there were such a word.

The Palermo-born Giovanni Sollima, like Yo-Yo Ma, is a cellist who defies convention and tradition. Although classically trained, he refuses to be pigeon-holed as a classical cellist. Improviser, innovator, inventor and iconoclast seem like more appropriate epithets. Informally attired, sporting eye-glasses and a five o’clock shadow, one would sooner see him in a jazz club or smoky dive rather than a concert hall. His collaborator pianist Giuseppe Andaloro, almost 20 years younger, would be his more-than-able side-kick for the evening, partner rather than accompanist. The first thing they did was to place music scores inside the Steinway grand in preparation of their first piece, an unusual setting of John Dowland’s well-known song Come Again.

Whoever thought this Elizabethan song could be scored for cello and prepared piano? The piano took on an otherworldly timbre, light metallic twangs interspersed with the gently flickering sound of felt-lined hammers striking paper as Andaloro sensitively accompanied Sollima. The cellist, for his part, skilfully improvised with each strophe and variation in what must be an imagination of jazz in the 1590s. Very quirky but highly original.

The most conventional part of the programme was Beethoven’s Cello Sonata in A major (Op.69) and here the classical credentials of both performers in traditional repertoire were on show. Sollima’s opening unaccompanied solo in the 1^st movement had a plaintive quality, and the tone on his 1697 Ruggeri cello was firm and robust. Andaloro’s contribution as an equal partner in chords and running passages was alert and responsive, continuing into the Scherzo with its tricky syncopations and abrupt rhythmic changes.

The duo then sneaked in Anton Webern’s Three Little Pieces (Op.11), very short atonal aphorisms, as a jarring contrast, just before the third and fourth movements of the Beethoven. Besides making one sit up and listen, it was their way of juxtaposing the two Viennese schools in a single sitting. I can’t say it worked wonders for me, but it certainly fooled the audience and hall technicians, who were still waiting for the Webern after the Beethoven (a very good performance, as a matter of fact) had concluded with an emphatic A major chord. The house lights did come on eventually to reveal some red faces.

I had first encountered the name of Giovanni Sollima several years ago when cellist Qin Li-Wei performed his Alone for solo cello as a substantial encore after a concerto performance with The Philharmonic Winds. I remembered liking the piece very much; tonal, accessible and expressive in a brief but profound way, and wondered what else he had written. As it is, there are two musical Sollimas, Giovanni and his late father Eliodoro, composition professor and sometime head of the Conservatory in Palermo. Both Sollima Jr. and Andaloro were among his many students.

The Cello Sonata (1948) by Sollima Sr.(left), despite its date of composition, was a very listenable post-romantic work in three movements. The opening Lento recitativo and ensuing Allegro vivo were based on a motif of a descending fifth, and due to its monothematic nature, never let one forget its musings. This was followed by an elegiac slow movement, full of emotion displayed by Sollima, an Italian Yo-Yo Ma who himself is quite a sight to behold. He and his cello are one and the same spirit, and the sonorities he coaxes from it – full-bodied and deeply breathed - is quite unlike any other. A short but furious Perpetuum mobile closed the work on a brilliant high. Sollima Jr. appears to be a chip off the old block, as demonstrated in his Tema III for his film score Il bell’Antonio, another emotionally charge piece which began quietly and built to an ecstatic high.

The three pieces by Kapustin that closed the concert played like three movement suite with the fast-slow-fast schema. The Nearly Waltz (Op.98) charmed with its insouciant lilt, while the Elegie (Op.96) and Burlesque (Op.97) provided ample opportunity to improvise, and here is the essence of jazz relived. Although the score is provided, it is merely a blueprint for what is heard onstage. Sollima’s rhapsody sounded so free, as if the piece were composed on the spot. Having heard several versions of this movement on YouTube, none matched his spontaneity and expressiveness. At one point, he inserts his bow in between the strings and allows it to rock roughshod over the strings like some demented spiccato. One doubts whether this is indicated in the score, so I guess this is something which Sollima invented de novo.  

Rapturous applause meant he and Andaloro had to offer an encore, and this was a movement from his Bestiary of Leonardo da Vinci, another enjoyable and energetic piece, one inspired by waves. The concert was one journey of discovery, which will not be forgotten for some time to come.  

TWO PIANOS AND TWO CELLOS RECITAL / The Joy of Music Festival 2013 / Review

THE JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL 2013

Thursday (17 October 2013)

2-PIANO & 2-CELLO RECITAL by

GIUSEPPE ANDALORO, Piano

ILYA RASHKOVSKIY, Piano

GIOVANNI SOLLIMA, Cello &

MONIKA LESKOVAR, Cello

This was the highlight of this year’s The Joy of Music Festival, and true to form, it did not disappoint. Italian pianist Giuseppe Andaloro, the third 1^st Prizewinner of the Hong Kong International Piano Festival (2011), was making his name as a conductor, composer and arranger, built around a steady career of concertising. This was to be a culmination of all these facets, his own transcription for two pianos and two cellos of Stravinsky’s iconic ballet The Rite of Spring. The original idea was mooted and experimented in concert several years ago, even before his competition win, but after several revisions, this was to the World Premiere of the masterpiece. Hong Kong was to be the lucky beneficiary.

A century after its riotous Paris premiere, the Rite remains a source of fear and trepidation among audiences in Singapore and perhaps also Hong Kong. That might explain the relatively small audience that greeted this concert. Its sheer iconoclasm, violent dissonance and narrative savagery do not sit well with those more accustomed to the prettiness of Mozart or the lush gushings of Rachmaninov. According to Andaloro’s notes, he did not follow Stravinsky’s own bare-bones four-hand arrangement, but instead went back to the orchestral score to craft his transcription, with the intention of making it sound more orchestral. With all the musical details retained, his conception was a tour de force, not just of instrumental virtuosity and sonic projection, but one of originality and love of the music.

Fellow Sicilian Giovanni Sollima’s cello was given the honour of playing the opening bassoon solo. Immediately one realised why the cello was cast into this role. Its sheer range, from guttural plaint in the high registers to low pitched groans and percussive effects, made it a suitable partner for Andaloro’s first piano. Now multiply this by two with Monika Leskovar’s cello and add Ilya Rashkovskiy on second piano, we have a virtual orchestra. Just suspend expectations of a full orchestra, as this arrangement is becomes a new piece on its own terms. The pianos merge into the canvas with quiet chords and do not dominate until the rhythmic huffings and puffings of the Dance of the Adolescents.

The pianos and cellos do not get stuck in their expected (and pre-conceived) roles in this score. Both groups of instruments take their turn in providing melody (or fragments thereof) and rhythmic percussion, and they alternate roles totally seamlessly. Soon one does not actually miss the orchestra, but is taken on a miraculous journey of sound and colour. Given the multitudes of notes encountered, one was not surprised at the physicality and movement demanded of the performers, but that did not include the amazing sight of Sollima abandoning his cello and rushing off to Andaloro’s side to be his third hand! While pounding the bottom A note with his right hand, he swept the bass strings of the piano with a percussionist’s brush. Although the scraping metallic effect did not quite come off, the theatricality of it all was a most appropriate response.   

Although The Sacrifice (Part Two of the Rite) did not employ a similar trick as The Adoration of the Earth, the shock value of the sound continued unabated. The virgin’s dance to the death was built up inexorably, and at its final leap into the abyss, all four performers were firing on all cylinders. If the Chopin Society of Hong Kong were to issue this World Premiere as a CD recording, an accompanying DVD would be imperative. Not only was it visually exciting, the visceral responses that came with experiencing the live act fully deserves to be relived.

Jinsang Lee at the lighting control console
(Photo by courtesy of Jiwon Kang)

Interestingly, there was also a light design element to this performance. Nothing elaborate but it involved changes to the onstage illumination which varied according to the music being played. The controller was one who obviously knew the music and sequences in the ballet, and it came as no big surprise that was Jinsang Lee (above), last night’s pianist.  

If one thought the second half was to be more conventional, one was mistaken. Lutoslawski’s Paganini Variations for two pianos was already well-known. In fact it was the only work played in its original form this evening. Andaloro and Rashkovskiy gave it a good workout, revelling in its playful dissonances, unexpected harmonies and rhythmic quirks. More revealing was Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of the Fawn, scored for two cellos by Sollima. In many ways, it scores above the two piano version, not least because the dreamy harp arpeggios are well brought out, in this case Leskovar reciprocating Sollima’s “flute” solo with much affection. Again, melody and accompaniment changed hands frequently, and the give and take between both players so well integrated to be inseparable.

The final work of the programme was Ravel’s La Valse, arranged by Andaloro for the foursome. Here he retained Ravel’s original score but the addition of cellos gave the work a different complexion. In order for the cellos’ lilt to be better appreciated, tempos built up rather gradually. One criticism of the piano version is that the work climaxed too soon, but not so here. The heartache of Viennese society heading towards destruction in this fatal whirling was not plunged headlong but rather caught on a slippery slope. After all it was some stretch of years from 1855 to 1914. A civilisation does not always implode overnight but often slides into its doom while its members gaze on helplessly. Similarly, this performance was one where the audience was slowly but surely drawn into an inescapable vortex, from which no escape is possible.

The tumultuous final bars were greeted with a storm of applause. What could come after this exhausting outing where La Valse seemed like the perfect mirror image of The Rite of Spring? The foursome reprised the last minute of The Adoration of the Earth, which more than whetted the appetite for the next performance of this masterpiece.   

  

THE JOY OF PIANO / Review

THE JOY OF PIANO

ExxonMobil Campus Concerts

University Cultural Centre

Tuesday to Thursday (23-25 October 2012)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 27 October 2012 with the title "Bask in a breathtaking piano landscape". 

The Joy of Piano, Singapore’s only free international piano festival, brought together three talented young pianists in challenging recital programmes that could rival the established Singapore International Piano Festival. They were united by having won top prizes at the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, organised by The Chopin Society of Hong Kong, as well as other major awards.

 

In the Russian Ilya Rashkovskiy, who opened the festival, one found an interpreter par excellence of Russian repertoire in the mould of legends Richter and Gilels. In Prokofiev’s Eighth Sonata, he negotiated a treacherous tightrope between bittersweet melancholy and lacerating violence with a cool steely resolve. In commanding control throughout, he also yielded poetry from Rachmaninov’s clangourous Second Sonata through its dense thickets of notes.

Breathtaking virtuosity aside, lyricism was breathed into Schubert’s desolate Impromptu in C minor and seemingly hackneyed Chopin began to resound anew. The Second Ballade and “Heroic” Polonaise could often be reduced to a mass of loud clichés, but the passion Rashkovskiy instilled into these warhorses both inspired and invigorated. His seamless legato singing line in the Nocturne in D flat major (Op.27 No.2) was also one to die for. 

 

Wednesday evening saw an equally trenchant response from Hong Kong’s Colleen Lee, an epitome of feminine grace whose lithe stature belied a big sound and enormous reserves. There was whimsy and fantasy to Schumann’s little Arabeske, while world-weariness coloured the Fantasy in C major, with a share of wrong notes in the treacherous second movement as if to prove the point.

Her overall vision and conception was never in doubt, volatile and excitable in Chopin’s Second Scherzo and displaying a kaleidoscopic range of moods and colours for the 24 short Préludes of Op.28. The journey was eventful and highly personal, one that revolved around the “Raindrop” Prélude, where time stood still for a full five minutes. The coruscating final number in D minor was the perfect a jolt to the senses, delivered with stunning panache.

 

On the final night, Italian Giuseppe Andaloro played what must have been the most unusual recital thought possible. Completely eschewing classical and romantic repertoire, baroque and 20^th century music held sway. In Frescobaldi’s Partita on La Follia, harpsichord-like ornamentations on the Steinway grand astonished as well as delighted, while his view of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne traversed dynamic extremes, from tinkles of a music box to thunderous organ sonorities. 

The keyboard wizardry continued in the contemporary works, where impressionistic hues of Messiaen’s Préludes sat easily with the bald dissonances of Bartok’s Suite Op.14 and syncopations of Stravinsky’s Tango and Ligeti’s Two Capriccios. Four of Kapustin’s free-wheeling Études, played with a fearless disregard of their complexities, brought down the house. The capacity audience, rewarded with two further encores, was clearly captivated and basking in the joy of outsized pianism

The Joy of Piano is part of the ExxonMobil Campus Concerts Series and was generously sponsored by The Chopin Society of Hong Kong. All photographs courtesy of NUS Centre for the Arts.

THE JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL 2012 / GIUSEPPE ANDALORO and London Chamber Orchestra Strings / Review

JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL 2012

GIUSEPPE ANDALORO, Piano with the

London Chamber Orchestra Strings

Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall

Friday (12 October 2012)

                                                  

Concerts featuring the piano at The Joy of Music Festival over the years follow a distinct format – a short solo recital followed by chamber music. The pianists are invariably first prize winners of the Hong Kong International Piano Competition or members of its jury. This year’s concerts brought back the three first prize winners, with the most recent victor Giuseppe Andaloro (from the 2011 competition) giving the most unusual of recital programmes.

The unorthodox juxtaposition of Baroque and 20^th century music suggests a whiff of Glenn Gould, but there is method behind the madness that unites Frescobaldi with Gershwin. Being Italian, Andaloro decided to devote the first part of his recital to works inspired by the La Follia (or La Folia) theme. Its origins come from Spain (hence La Folies d’Espagne or The Follies of Spain) or South America, but we know it through the music of Vivaldi, Corelli, Liszt (Rapsodie Espagnole) and Rachmaninov (Corelli Variations). 

Frescobaldi’s Partita sopra l’aria di Follia uses an earlier version of the theme, and Andaloro applies the most delicate of touches to its procession of fine filigree. It’s a fussy little piece, full of decorative flourishes and grace notes, and he makes it sound as if coming from a harpsichord. Pasquini’s Partite diverse di Follia, now based on the more familiar D minor La Folia theme, is a more traditional set of variations. In Handel’s Suite in D minor, the theme appears as a graceful Sarabande. Andaloro’s refined approach on the piano make those piano versus harpsichord debates irrelevant.

Variations are what these baroque pieces have in common with what we call 20^th century jazz. Even Morton Gould’s Boogie Woogie Etude, a favourite encore of Shura Cherkassky, is composed of micro-variations over an ostinato bass, in this case the infectious boogie woogie beat. Andaloro simply rocked. In the Three Preludes by George Gershwin, an incisively rhythmic beat defined the outer pieces which sandwiched the famous Blues number. Here, Andaloro took many liberties by varying the syncopations and later adding a little ornamental doodle of his own. I am sure GG would not have minded. Turkish pianist-composer Fazil Say’s outrageous Paganini Jazz, an improvisation on that ubiquitous Caprice No.24, completed this jazz outing.

As a tribute to the host nation, Andaloro closed with Abram Chasins’s Three Chinese Pieces. These are as authentic as the likes of Fu Manchu, Ming the Merciless through Western eyes and Sir Peter Ustinov playing Charlie Chan. A Shanghai Tragedy and Flirtation in a Chinese Garden contained all the clichés of the Far East thought possible, and ending with the ching-chong chinoiserie of Rush Hour in Hong Kong (another Cherkassky favourite). Andaloro played these most sympathetically and got the rush hour part of Des Voeux Road Central spot on. 

The second half’s chamber music began with Rachmaninov’s single-movement First Piano Trio in G minor, an early work heavily indebted to his mentor Tchaikovsky. The brooding opening theme, first heard on the piano, could only have come from a Russian. It is one of those melodies or romances (rather laments) founded on grief and tragedy, and Rachmaninov toils at it like a work horse, only relieved by a second, soaring theme on the violin. Without outstaying its welcome, it closes with a pall of doom and gloom and unfathomable darkness. 

This is not vintage Rach, but wearing his heart on his sleeve, this clearly states his inclinations and how later works would turn out. This rare performance was well brought out by Andaloro and his string partners, violinist Andrew Haveron and cellist Pierre Doumenge. Could we get to hear the Second Trio Elegiaque in D minor in a future festival?

Also in a similar vein was Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, also in G minor, with violist Joel Hunter and cellist Pierre Doumenge joining in. It begins like a neo-Bachian Prelude and Fugue, updated in the Soviet’s acerbic colours and trade-in-stock dissonance. Andaloro’s opening piano solo, heralded by a fortissimo G minor chord, served like a declamatory statement, and from the first measure, the performance was a gripping one that went for the jugular and never let go. 

The rather substantial fugue opened in hushed tones, raptly delivered by muted strings, and the movement ambled from strains of beauty to mounting screeching discords and a massive climax. The big chord from the piano returned, but it isn’t in the home key of G minor! Shostakovich was indeed a master of surprises.

The Scherzo, returning to G minor, was anarchic and subversive in thought and deed. Cryptic messages abound but what were these? Without further pondering, the slow movement, pensive and meditative as Shostakovich’s passacaglias tend to be, seemed to provide some respite in its deep and dark funereal repose. 

The finale, instead of offering solutions, was unexpectedly light and even cheery. But this is the irony that a composer in Stalin’s repressive regime has to live with, grinning from ear to ear but concealing a veil of masked scowls. The quintet played it straight, po-faced but in the face of the strings’ comic responses towards the end, could not truly suppress the music’s true nature.

For this listener, this trenchantly delivered performance, with its wide-ranging plethora of emotions, surpasses the last outing of the Shostakovich Quintet at the 2006 festival, helmed by the late Russian virtuoso Vladimir Krainev and another group of LCO string players. That’s saying quite a lot. 

THE JOY OF PIANO / Singapore's Only Free International Piano Festival

Not to be missed! THE JOY OF PIANO, to be held on three evenings from 23 to 25 October 2012 at the University Cultural Centre Theatre, is Singapore's first and only free international piano festival. Featured are three extremely talented prize-winning pianists who have been associated with the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, organised by The Chopin Society of Hong Kong. Two of them are 1st prize winners of that competition: Ilya Rashkovskiy (2005) and Giuseppe Andaloro (2011). Joining them is Hong Kong's most decorated pianist in the SAR's history, Colleen Lee.

Tickets for the recitals at 8 pm are available on a first come first served basis and can be obtained at the door on each evening. Please come very early to claim them. 

Ever wondered what the programme is going to be? Here's a low down on the prizes each pianist has won and their exciting recital programmes.   

ILYA RASHKOVKIY (Russia)

1st prize, Hong Kong International Piano Competition 2005

2nd prize, Marguerite Long International Piano Competition, 2002

4th prize. Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition 2007

3rd Prize, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition, 2011

SCHUBERT Impromptu in C minor, Op.90 no.1

PROKOFIEV Sonata No.8 in B flat major, Op.84

CHOPIN Ballade No.2 in F major, Op.38

CHOPIN Nocturne Op.27 No.2

CHOPIN Polonaise Op.53 "Heroic"

RACHMANINOV Sonata No.2 in B flat minor, Op.36

COLLEEN LEE (Hong Kong) 

Finalist, Hong Kong International Piano Competition 2005

Finalist, Chopin International Piano Competition 2005

Finalist, Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, 2006

Finalist, Sendai International Piano Competition 2007

SCHUMANN Arabeske in C major, Op.18

SCHUMANN Fantaisie in C major, Op.17

CHOPIN Fantaisie in F minor, Op.49

CHOPIN 24 Préludes, Op.28

GIUSEPPE ANDALORO (Italy)
1st Prize, Hong Kong International Piano Competition 2011
1st Prize, Sendai International Piano Competition 2001
1st Prize, London International Piano Competition 2002
1st Prize, Busoni International Piano Competition 2005

FRESCOBALDI Partita sopra l’aria di Follia
BACH-BUSONI Chaconne
MESSIAEN Three Préludes
STRAVINSKY Tango
BARTOK Suite, Op.14
LIGETI Two Capriccios
KAPUSTIN Four Études, Op.40

The Joy of Piano is presented by the NUS Centre for the Arts under its ExxonMobil Campus Concerts series, and generously sponsored by The Chopin Society of Hong Kong.

SSO Concert: Ashkenazy and the SSO / Review

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.

A Few Words with GIUSEPPE ANDALORO, 1st Prizewinner of the 3rd Hong Kong International Piano Competition

SOME WORDS WITH 

GIUSEPPE ANDALORO 

1st Prizewinner of the 3rd Hong Kong 

International Piano Competition (2011)

It has been said that the reputation of Italian pianist Giuseppe Andaloro precedes him wherever he competed in international piano competitions. The Hong Kong International Piano Competition, for example, published its list of competitors rather late in the day, because it was feared that other pianists might have pulled out when they saw his name on the list, and felt that they did not have a ghost of a chance winning. 

A mafia hitman he certainly is not, as the Sicilian oozes a Mediterranean warmth and charm. Several years ago when I last saw him perform, I described him as looking more like a computer programmer than concert pianist, but now having beefed up and putting on some girth, looks more like the part. His dark Polliniesque curls and rimless spectacles give him a serious and thoughtful look, but it is the pianism and musicianship that still stands out.

Andaloro receives congratulations 

from the competition jury.

The Sicilian 

Giuseppe was born in Palermo, Sicily in 1982 but was brought up in the little town of Delia, near Caltanissetta. His father was a draughtsman, now retired, and mother a director in the local chamber of commerce. Both are great music lovers. He began piano lessons at eight, first under the tutelage of Adriana Mirisola and several other local teachers, and gave his first public recital playing Beethoven and Schubert just six months later in the town square for an audience of 3000! 

At nine and ten, he was already winning piano competitions, mostly first prizes, in regional towns. He was heard by several important pedagogues, and it was his teacher Paolo Pollice who advised him to study with the great Italian pianist Sergio Fiorentino, who became a major influence in his life and music making. 

Growing up in Sicily was simple and leisurely. When asked about stories about the local mafioso, his reply was direct, “I’ve seen all those Godfather movies, and it bears no resemblance with reality. In all my 30 years or so, I never saw any shooting or kidnapping! The Mafia only go for big money, and there is no big money in Sicily. You’ll find them in Milan, or maybe in competition juries!” (Hong Kong excepted, of course!)

Sergio Fiorentino the coke addict 

Giuseppe started studying with Fiorentino when he was thirteen. Lessons took place in Calabria at the “boot of Italy”, and Giuseppe and his father would travel by a combination of car and boat from the island of Sicily to the mainland, a trip that would take nine hours each way! This went on weekly or fortnightly for three years, causing him to miss much of local school and academic subjects, which he would catch up by reading and swotting during those lengthy commutes. 

He remembers Fiorentino to be very interesting, incredibly deep and extremely funny. “He was the perfect gentleman, who respected every student no matter how good or how untalented. He was never rude or negative about their playing, and was not interested in gossip. For example, he would never allow any student to speak ill about any teacher or school, and if they did so, the lesson was ended,” he explained. 

“I always remember him with a Coca-Cola in hand, and cigarette in another (his favourite were unfiltered Stop cigarettes from UK) as he taught. Sometimes he would go for ice-cream. He could never do without these! He cared more about the aesthetics and thoughts about musical performance, rather than the mechanics of playing. He taught on two pianos, demonstrating by playing any repertoire a student may be learning. If it was a concerto, he played the orchestral part perfectly and completely from memory.” 

Under his tutelage, Andaloro learnt the cornerstones of the repertoire, including Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninov. “After the lesson, he would unwind by playing for me, for example, an entire Brahms symphony. And of course, it was from memory too!” 

After Fiorentino 

When Fiorentino died in 1998, Giuseppe was shattered and could not play the piano for several months. He resumed lessons with Vincenzo Balzani in Milan when he was 18. “Balzani was a very sensitive and sensible teacher, who helped me solve technical problems, adopt proper ways of practising and to discover new possibilities in interpretation.” With him, Giuseppe learnt the Chopin Etudes. He graduated with a Diploma for pianoforte after ten years of formal study, the first nine of which was conducted privately. He spent the tenth and final year in Milan's Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, which in any case was happy to claim him as one of its alumni.

Andaloro got his wish to perform 

a concerto with Vladimir Ashkenazy

A life in competitions 

Giuseppe won his first international piano competition in Stresa, at the age of 15. It was a small and simple competition where he played for only ten minutes; his Liszt Mephisto Waltz No.1 bagged him the 1st prize. The year 2000 saw successes in Oporto (Portugal, 1st prize), and the Italian Casagrande Competition (2nd prize with no 1st prize awarded). 2001 saw off the Casella Competition (1st prize) and the very prestigious Sendai Competition in Japan (1st prize). The latter has an interesting footnotes as the 2nd prize was won by Korea’s Jinsang Lee (we know him as the winner of the 2nd Hong Kong Competition) while the 3rd prize went to a 13-year-old Chinese girl called Yuja Wang. 

In 2002, Giuseppe won 1st prize at the London International Piano Competition, when he played Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall. This reviewer was fortunate to be present at his scene of triumph, having also enjoyed his earlier performances of Ligeti’s Etudes, a Haydn Sonata, Chopin's Fourth Scherzo and Liszt’s coruscating Twelfth Hungarian Rhapsody. 

There was the usual flurry of concert engagements, but it all dried up. “By 2004, I performed almost no concerts. Actually there was one concert, but the fee was so small, just enough to pay for a single pizza!” he recounted. In 2005, he was back on the competition circuit, but early eliminations at the Van Cliburn Competition (Fort Worth, Texas) and a competition in Spain left him despondent. The latter was particularly galling. “I thought I had performed well, and asked the Chairman of the Jury what I did wrong. His reply was, “None of us voted for you but we thought you were the best musician. So please come back next year, and I will guarantee you the first prize.” What about now? Thanks but no thanks, I told him!” (Ilya Rashkovskiy was the eventual the 1st prizewinner) 

Meanwhile, he was successfully admitted to the historic Busoni Competition in Bolzano and 1st Hong Kong International Piano Competition, but was still in a pall of depression. “I was sitting on the beach, feeling very depressed and sorry for myself. And then an old friend of mine, a chemistry professor, had some words of encouragement, and within ten minutes was totally galvanised to reboot my career. That was just eight days before the Busoni, and I went straight back home to practise." As Fate had it, Giuseppe won the 1st prize and did not make the Hong Kong date (Ilya Rashkovskiy then went on to win that too!) 

Giuseppe was done with competitions, but what brought him back into the fray after a six year hiatus? “I’ve always wanted to work with Maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy, and when I saw that he was conducting the final concerto round with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, I decided to sign up. It did not matter whether I got the 1st prize or the 6th prize.” He was directly admitted into the Second Round with a bye, which he accomplished with relative ease, and got his wish granted. As further reward for winning the 1st prize, he also gets to perform Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra at Esplanade Concert Hall under Ashkenazy’s baton on 4 November.

That 2011 performance of Rachmaninov with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the SSO may be viewed here: 

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 2 Giuseppe Andaloro Vladimir Ashkenazy - YouTube

Andaloro and his winner's certificate

A wide repertoire 

What concertos does Giuseppe play? He has performed all the five Beethoven piano concertos (including the full cycle over two evenings) and the Choral Fantasia, a number of Mozart concertos, Schumann, Chopin No.1, both Brahms concertos, Ravel G major and the first two concertos by Rachmaninov. He has a special love for Liszt, having won all his competitions (save Hong Kong) with either the First or Second concertos, and also recorded the four Mephisto Waltzes and the Grosses Konzertsolo on the Naxos label. He has also made a recording of baroque and renaissance works on the piano for Sony Classical. Recently he performed Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto and Mozart K.414 with the strings of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in Trieste. 

He has an ongoing collaboration with the Italian cellist-composer Giovanni Sollima. One of their more interesting projects together is Andaloro’s own transcription of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, scored for two pianos and two cellos. Here they was joined by his wife, fellow pianist Tijana Andrejic from Serbia and Sollima’s fiancée who is also a cellist. This sounds like a lot of fun, and before long one could even catch it on youtube! 

Please visit Giuseppe Andaloro’s website at:

www.giuseppeandaloro.com