NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION 2023 / Piano Artist & Violin Artist Finals, Prize Winners Concert / Review

NATIONAL PIANO & 

VIOLIN COMPETITION 2023:

ARTIST FINALS & 

PRIZE WINNERS’ CONCERT

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (2 December 2023)

Sunday (3 December 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 December 2023 with the title "National Piano & Violin Competition showcases fresh young talent".

 

The National Piano & Violin Competition (NPVC), Singapore’s premier music competitive musical platform, returned to live concerts after the pandemic had reduced its 2021 edition to just online performances. The finals of the Artist categories also saw an upgrade from mere piano accompaniment with the return of concertos performed with the NPVC Orchestra (Singapore Symphony in all but name) conducted by Joshua Tan.

 

This made for two very satisfying concerts showcasing six musical talents in six concerto performances. The piano finals held on Saturday evening was an all-Beethoven affair, opening with university undergraduate Long Jing Xuan in the Fourth Piano Concerto in G major (Op.58). Technically and interpretively the most difficult concerto of five, it received a very musical reading despite him betraying nerves with some missed notes and the occasional brief desynchronisation with the orchestra.

 

Compensate he did, by projecting a big sonority which could sound overdone at times, and this also informed Conservatory student Lee Ann slightly more confident performance of the Third Piano Concerto in C minor (Op.37). Here, some over-emphatic responses to certain phrases were equated with reliving the Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) of this urgent and dramatic work.

 

Their valiant efforts were however eclipsed by national serviceman Joshua Lau Jin Quan, a supreme figure of composure in the Second Piano Concerto in B flat major (Op.19). Crispness of articulation, realisation of the music’s humour and unexpected but delightfully turned ornamentations made his reading the very definition of joie de vivre. The international jury of three awarded Lau with a deserved first prize, with Long and Lee sharing joint third places.

 

The Violin Artist Finals on Sunday afternoon had the more impressive concerto performances, all from the Conservatory’s international students. There were two readings of Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, first by Ukrainian Datsiuk Leonid who evoked a sense of mystery in its quiet opening and lots of pathos further on. There were minor intonation lapses and missed notes in the heat of the moment but the music’s high-wire tension was maintained throughout.

 

The other Sibelius performance came from the Sichuan native Zou Meng, who exuded a quiet confidence and then let rip with a searing intensity that surpassed the earlier reading. A big tone and perfect intonation certainly helped and this 20^th century concerto had seldom resounded with white-hot incandescence from the hands of students.   

 

In between was Tchaikovsky’s popular Violin Concerto in D major by Zou Zhang, and the audience could be excused for doing a double-take as the Zous are actually identical twins. Whatever fireworks one could generate was replicated by the other, and it must have been a razor-thin decision separating the two.

 

Meng’s Sibelius was the denser and more compact work, which allowed his delivery the vital immediacy which just about topped Zhang’s sprawling Tchaikovsky. The violin jury placed Meng first, Zhang second and Datsiuk third, a fair decision.

 

Artist category 1st Prizes:
Joshua Lau (Piano) &
Zou Meng (Violin)

Senior 1st Prizes:
Adrian Tang (Piano) &
Low Peng Guan (Violin)

 

The prize-winners concert relived movements from the winning concertos partnered by orchestra and also unveiled the set-pieces commissioned for the Artist and Senior Categories. Young composer Terrence Wong’s Life (for piano) and Death (for violin) – works recalling Arvo Pärt-like minimalism and Paganinian calisthenics - received glowing performances from Adrian Tang (Piano Senior) and Low Peng Guan (Violin Senior) respectively.

 

Intermediate 1st Prizes:
Ethan Peleg (Piano) &
Kaleb Toh (Violin)

Junior 1st Prizes:
Chua Suen Ern (Violin)
Newman Tong (Piano)

Not to be ignored were seriously good solo performances from the children of the Junior and Intermediate categories, whose prowess at their tender ages have consistently impressed juries over the decades. The names of violinists Chua Suen Ern and Kaleb Toh, pianists Newman Tong and Ethan Peleg may some day be as ubiquitous as NPVC’s most famous alumnus: Chloe Chua.  

More photographs from NPVC Award Ceremony:

All the judges with SSO CEO Kenneth Kwok:
Erik Heide, Kevin Lin & Tseng Yu Chien (Violin),
Marianna Shirinyan, Noriko Ogawa
& Christopher Park (Piano)

Seeing double:
Zou Zhang & Zou Meng
with NAC Chairperson Goh Swee Chen.

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON WELL SPENT AT THE NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION 2023

 

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON 

WELL-SPENT AT THE 

NATIONAL PIANO & 

VIOLIN COMPETITION 2023

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (26 November 2023)

The Covid pandemic had wreaked havoc for Singapore's premier music competition for locally-based pianists and violinists. In 2021, the National Piano & Violin Competition (NPVC) was held completely online with no live audience in attendance. The grand finals of both Piano and Violin Artist categories were performed with piano accompaniment instead of an orchestra. Thus, it was a pleasure to be able to attend the quarter-final recitals of the Piano Artist category in person at Victoria Concert Hall. A lazy Sunday afternoon never felt more well spent.

Thanks to astute choices made by the preliminary judging panel, only eight pianists were chosen to perform their quarter-finals recital, and they were mostly excellent. The repertoire was limited to just a single baroque work lasting between 15-25 minutes. As fortune would have it, all eight pianists performed different works - with no repetition of repertoire - and this made for an enthralling afternoon.

The afternoon opened with Michelle (only one name, as Indonesians are wont to be) performing an unusual choice of Handel's Keyboard Suite in D minor (HWV.428). This multi-movement work could easily have been mistaken for Bach, if not for a fugal second movement, and with theme and variations as its finale. Hers was a very clean and articulate reading, with good pedalling and contrapuntal lines well delineated. The variations felt almost improvisatory and she finished emphatically.

Next was Zongxi He in the often-performed Bach Partita No.1 in B flat major, a work that risks been over-familiar. There were some nice ornamentations applied, and she was very fluent in the fast running dance movements. Taking risks, there were some missed notes, but it was still a satisfying reading.

Giving the most personal performance of the afternoon was Long Jing Xuan in Bach's Partita No.6 in E minor, easily the longest work on show. He was determined to make each movement count by taking as many liberties as possible and extracting the maximal sonorities from the Steinway grand. Improvisatory in feel for many parts, his was the most interesting reading of all, but would he be considered mannered by the jury? One good thing: he was allowed to perform the entire without any interruption (that dreaded time-keeping bell was not employed for the entire afternoon) and that was just great.

Another very familiar work was Bach's French Suite No.5 in G major, which saw a reading by Lee Ann that exposed her nerves, when she had a minor stumble in the opening bar. She nevertheless recovered and offered some of the more interesting ornamentations (some might consider these overdone) heard this afternoon. The prestidigitation in the Gigue was excellent, and she had the requisite technique to keep the dynamo running unimpeded.

After a 15-minute intermission, the baroque feast continued with Wang Chien Jou in Bach's English Suite No.3 in G minor. Hers was a very confident and sonorous performance with very clean and no-nonsense approach. Parts could sound metronomic at times, but a well-schooled technique ensured a cool but emphatic close.

There was little to separate her and Fong Zi Ying, who followed with Bach's Partita No.3 in A minor, which had similar qualities of being very fluent, tasteful and ultimately satisfying. I expect both of these young lasses to advance.

Bach's English Suite No.2 in A minor has the most virtuosic Prelude of them all, and Fong Kai De made every note count by channeling an inner Argerich or Pogorelich with a sure-fingered brilliance. This performance was not mere superficial flash but possessed with a nuanced approach which not just exciting but also touched. Just for the febrile nature of his reading, this might have been the standout performance of the afternoon.

Closing the afternoon was Joshua Lau in Bach's Partita No.5 in G major, in a very strong, very crisp and very musical reading. His was epitome of good taste and refinement, with not a single hair out of place. The fugal passages in the closing Gigue were very well articulated, the brilliant close suggests this young man to be the person to beat in this competition.

It was close to 6 pm when the pianists, jury and audience dispersed for dinner and well-earned rest, and four pianists would be picked to advance - Long, Lee, Fong (the lady) and Tang. The semi-finals and finals (three out of this goodly quartet) should be exciting prospects.

Piano professors meet:
Nicholas Ong, Boris Kraljevic and Albert Tiu
account for all four semifinalists
in the Piano Artist category this year!

Tickets for the Grand Final (only $10, a steal in Singapore!) on Saturday 2 December 2023 to watch three piano concertos accompanied by the NPVC Orchestra (actually the Singapore Symphony Orchestra but in name) may be purchased here: 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra (sso.org.sg)