ELEGY AND ECSTASY / Lin Hengyue & Nattapol Tantikarn / Review

ELEGY AND ECSTASY

DANCES OF LIGHTS AND SHADOW

Lin Hengyue & Nattapol Tantikarn

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (1 November 2025)

The husband-and-wife piano duo of Lin Hengyue and Nattapol Tantikarn first met as students at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, where they attended the studios of Albert Tiu and Thomas Hecht respectively. Their offical debut as a duo, a 70-minute recital without intermission, was a showcase of how foreign talents (they came from China and Thailand respectively) have truly enriched our local musical scene.

Opening with Camille Saint-Saens’ The Swan from Carnival of the Animals in an arrangement by Greg Anderson (of the renowned Anderson and Roe Piano Duo) was pure pianistic elegance personified. The seamless melody gilded by fine filigree made the original for cello accompanied by two pianos sound almost staid in comparison.

What followed was a rare performance of Anton Arensky’s Suite No.1 (Op.15), of which the central movement – the Waltz - is the Russian composer’s most famous piece by far. Hearing that in context was important as the music was imbued with the very same qualities which made Arensky’s most notable students – Rachmaninov and Scriabin – famous. 

The duo performed with great sensitivity, relish and togetherness. Seated adjacent to each other but with keyboards facing opposite directions helped in their communication. The Romance sang with utmost lyricism, while the Waltz lilted with a grace that was hard to ignore. The Polonaise, filled with rhythmic vigour, brought the work to a most satisfying conclusion. Those who love Rachmaninov’s two Suites (Op.5 and 17) will find much to enjoy here.

From Greg Anderson again came his arrangement of the Ballet from Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orpheus and Euridice, popularly known as the Melody from Orpheus, often heard in Giovanni Sgambati’s solo version. The Anderson arrangement for four hands offered both division of labour as well as subtly added voices, again impossible to dislike.

Nattapol proved to be an excellent arranger himself as he performed improvisations on Minuets in G minor and G major by Christian Petzold, once thought to be by J.S.Bach (these were included in his Anna Magdalena’s Notebook). Entitled Romances, these simple melodies were dressed up with delightful ornamentations that suggested the work of a jazzman. Similarly, the Stranger in Paradise song of Alexander Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor was subjected to jazzing up, and the outcome was no less enjoyable.

No further dressing was needed for two of Antonin Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances. Sounding as one, the familiar E minor dance (Op.72 No.2) was taken at a swifter tempo than one normally associated with this dreamy number. The dance in A major (Op.46 No.5) was sprightly, and rightly so.

A new rule: the music of Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) should be heard more often, at least as often as his famous compatriots Astor Piazzolla and Alberto Ginastera. Hengyue and Nattapol showed why, as his Tres Romances Argentinos based on Argentinian dance music were simply ravishing. 

The insouciant charm of Las Ninas (The Girls) was contrasted with the virile moves of Muchaco Jujeno (The Boy from Jejuy), while the sheer exuberance and vigorous syncopations of Baile (Dance) rang out – as if saying “play me!” This closing suite perfectly mirrored the dances of Arensky, with South American rhythms taking the place of Eastern European ones.

The duo’s encore, the 18th Variation from Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, was simply the two-piano score, where both pianists got a chance to sing out its big melody. Lin Hengyue and Nattapol Tantikarn were excellent in all their pieces, and with time, they will continue to mature. More importantly, they brought back fond memories of the land’s finest piano duo for many decades: Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung.

Hamamatsu International Piano Competition 2009 now on!

The 7th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition is currently in progress, and now into its Second Stage. This competition is one of the most unforgiving, as it admits close to a hundred pianists in its First Stage, all of whom play for just 20 minutes. Sadly, Singapore's involvement has ended with the elimination of Tommy Seah Tsu Tham and Nattapol Tantikarn.

Tommy Seah Tsu Tham, a Singaporean who resides in Perth (Western Australia), performed Bach's Prelude & Fugue in F sharp major (WTC Book 2), Beethoven's Sonata in F sharp major (Op.78, 1st movement) and Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No.1. He displayed much sensitivity in the Bach, and good facility for repeated notes in the Beethoven. Although there was no lack of ardour in the Mephisto Waltz, it requires a certain diablerie which was somewhat short in his performance. Nevertheless, he did Singapore proud.

Nattapol Tantikarn (Thailand) was a student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, now studying in USA. His recital included Bach's Prelude & Fugue in E major (WTC Book 2), Beethoven's Sonata in D major (Op.10 No.3, 1st movement) and Chopin's Sonata No.2 "Funeral March" (Op.35, 1st movement). No major problems with technique, but he seems to lack confidence and a stage demeanor to win over an audience... and jury.

Streaming of "live" performances here:

http://www.piacon.jp/live/en.html

Video archive of past performances may be found here:

http://vod.piacon.jp/

Leon Fleisher Masterclass @ Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

LEON FLEISHER 

MASTERCLASS
Tuesday evening, 

10 March 2009

The octogenarian American pianist Leon Fleisher gave two masterclasses at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. The first class on Tuesday was greeted by a sizeable audience and its two and a half hours passed ever so swiftly. All photos by Jonathan Wong.

First up was Abigail Sin (Singapore) who gave a very clear-headed and accomplished performance of Bach’s Toccata in C minor (BWV.911), one which showed much awareness of its contrapuntal possibilities.

Fleisher gave the first poser, “Do you have any questions, doubts or frustrations?” which came unexpectedly. About the work’s introduction, a recitative on the right hand, he looked for simplicity in response to its declamatory and rhetorical character. He felt it could have been more direct and played less fast, and there was no need to find variety so soon in the piece. Also, he gave more emphasis to the off-note, while playing down the need to find extra voices when these were not written. He played the entire passage with his left hand and did so quite perfectly too!

In Baroque music, he felt that the temptation to introduce Romantic devices should be resisted, remarking that people often “got tired of simplicity and injected their own neuroses” to the music. On the fugal subject, he observed syncopations to be special events, and deserved to be supported, that is to linger that slight bit longer on the held note. He also helped Abigail shape the voice of the theme, so that it sounded less literal and less metronomic.

In the reprise of the fugue theme with the right hand decoration, he reiterated the importance of these extra notes as a means of variation. For a very short while, he also rested his hands on Abigail’s shoulders and the top of her head, indicating “don’t move excessively!” There is enough in the music for the pianist not to respond physically. So keep it simple, was his message.

The burly Akkra Yeunyonghattaporn (Thailand) played the first movement of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto in C minor (Op.37), accompanied by his teacher Thomas Hecht on second piano. It was big and blustery, as expected, but one filled with unusual sensitivity as well.

At the first instance, Fleisher reminded the young virtuoso to always acknowledge his orchestra ie. the accompanist. He described performing to be a complex activity. A musician is three persons at once: the first plans the performance in advance, the second does the playing, and the third listens and judges, and tells the second how to attain the goals of the first. This was according to him, an “ideal state of schizophrenia”, combining a microcosm (the purpose of each note) and a macrocosm (the grand vision of the work, from the first note to the last).

About the performance, he wanted the pianist’s entry to be more than just scales, a mini-eruption if possible. He gave the analogy of fast-acting yeasts, and how they achieve a rising quality immediately. On the scintillating descending arpeggio passage, he thought it could be achieved with one hand. “You’re too good a pianist to do it with two hands!” he joked, quite seriously. Again, he exhorted the young person to experience the music inside him, and not to be “physically active”.

Fleisher brought up the association between music and mathematics. He felt music to be closer aligned with physics – direction, forces and momentum – especially with its irresistible and inexorable drive. Thus, even a simple scale should not sound like a flat typewriter but rather a force that swells, and “takes the listener by the lapels”. 

He also noted that pianists are at an enormous disadvantage compared with their string and wind counterparts. They need to constantly create and recreate the illusion of continuity with their instrument. Finally, he discussed pedalling and the effect of senza sordino (without dampers), which he concludes to be with the sustaining pedal after all. He however warned that this effect “offends certain people, mostly Republicans.”

The third pianist to perform was Nattapol Tantikarn (Thailand), whose choice of Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole seemed like a self-indulgent one. One wondered what Fleisher might have to say. What is there to be gained by bringing Balakirev’s Islamey to Arthur Schnabel, for example?

Fleisher, impressed by the flashy pianism, quipped, “That was a lot of piano playing,” and went on to help the young man work on his colour. “Silence, or air space, is often underestimated” he added and got him to take his foot off the right pedal. The effect was startling, as the amorphous mass of sonority had become so much better defined. Finding the right accents and effects amid the dotted rhythms also helped to make Folies d’Espagnole sound more orchestral. As to achieve pianissimo, Fleisher questioned him about not using the middle (sotto voce) pedal. “Why?” he asked. About Spanish music, Fleisher advised him not to be too sentimental as the “Spanish danced with straight backs”, adding that “bullfights were a ritual of blood and sand.”

Fleisher finally described music to be “a horizontal activity with vertical events”, and all musical activity to be “an adventure in anti-gravity”. He emphasised the need for a lift or a spring forward after the keys have been played, and not “hammering coffin nails”. He also asked the pianist to “go for a direct ending”, that is to be off the stool and off the stage before the sound dies out. With that, he leapt off his seat - to the appreciative applause from all who attended.

Leon Fleisher with Abigail Sin,
Akkra Yeunyonghattaporn &
Nattapol Tarntikarn & their teacher Thomas Hecht.