MARK CHENG Piano Recital / Review

 

MARK CHENG Piano Recital 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Saturday (14 September 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 September 2024 with the title "Mark Cheng's recital boasts unusual programme but restrained delivery".

Lovers of rarely performed piano music in Singapore would have over recent years noticed that the most varied and exotic of recital programmes are not offered by concert pianists, or people who make a living from professional music making. 

Instead, the most intrepid recitals have come from Clarisse Teo (lawyer by training), Jefferson Darmawan (scientist) and most recently Mark Cheng, who is also an attorney. All three are united by being alumni of the National University of Singapore Piano Ensemble and students of Timothy Ku, locally based pianist known for exploring daring and offbeat repertoire. 

True to form, Cheng’s recital offered no Bach, Beethoven, Chopin or Rachmaninov. Instead he opened with Frenchman Gabriel Fauré’s Ballade in F sharp major (Op.19), a work of lush lyricism but notorious for multitudes of ornamentations which get denser as it progresses. While assiduously maintaining a singing line, his playing was hampered by over-pedalling, causing a smudging of textures and loss of clarity. This need not have been so as his technical command was secure and there were little or no indiscretions to hide. 

One remembers an infamous incident when a famous French pianist (Marie-Francoise Bucquet) performing this work with the Singapore Symphony during the early 1980s coming to grief by grinding to a complete halt. Cheng had no such issues, his phenomenal memory serving him well to the last note. 

Just as tricky were six varied short pieces from Forgotten Melodies (Vergessene Weisen, Op.38) by Nikolai Medtner, known as the “Russian Brahms” for his attention to serious compositional form. These were dances and songs, with recurring themes that unite the pieces. Cheng found a syncopated lilt in Danza Graziosa, delighting in bell-like sonorities in the celebratory Danza Festiva before playfully toying with the canonic form of Danza Rustica. 

After wallowing in the gorgeous melody of Canzona Serenata, there was a donning of fairies’ dancing shoes in the animated Danza Silvestra, a true scherzo in every sense. Given the freedoms afforded, one just wished Cheng could have broken out from a somewhat constricted bandwidth to further express himself. 

After the intermission, the recital was completed by the Four Rhapsodies (Op.11) of Erno Dohnanyi, considered by many as the “Hungarian Brahms”. This very substantial work plays like a four-movement sonata, with dark-hued passion worn on the sleeve in its opening. Finally the smily Cheng would emerge from his protective shell by taking some risks, and he did so while still exhibiting sensitivity and lovingly detailed counterpoint in the brooding second piece. 

The march-like Third Rhapsody in C major was Dohnanyi’s piece de resistance, a favourite encore of esteemed British pianists like Martin Roscoe and Joseph Cooper. Cheng should have just let it rip, however his restraint and politeness stood in its imperious way. 

The last piece used the Dies Irae medieval chant (as in Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody), and also relived themes from earlier movements. A sort of musical memento mori (a reminder of mortality), Cheng’s fondness of the sustaining pedal finally became wholly appropriate as his fascinating recital drew to a sonorous close.

Pianophiles unite!

CD Reviews (The Straits Times. October 2016)

THE CLASSICAL ELEMENTS

ALBERT TIU, Piano

Centaur 3503 / *****

The Philippines-born and Singapore-based pianist Albert Tiu has come up with another winner in his second solo album on the American Centaur label. The Classical Elements comprises four suites of five pieces each, inspired by the ancient notion of Earth, Air, Water and Fire as the four pillars of the natural world. 

Each suite includes one of Luciano Berio's Encores, entitled Erdenklavier, Luftklavier, Wasserklavier and Feuerklavier respectively, which are surprisingly accessible short pieces. Debussy, the master of musical impressionism, is also sine qua non, with his Hills Of Anacapri, Wind On The Plains, Reflections In The Water and Fireworks as programming pivots.

Tiu's other selections are excellent, with warhorses by Liszt, Ravel and Rachmaninov, and rarities like Godowsky's Gardens Of Buitenzorg, Griffes' Night Winds, Ibert's Wind In The Ruins and Mompou's The Lake, all evocatively coloured. His touch is variegated and exquisitely weighted, and often each piece flows seamlessly into the next. 

All are virtuoso pieces, and he pulls out all stops in Louis Brassin's transcription of Wagner's Magic Fire Music from The Valkyrie and Scriabin's Vers La Flamme (Towards The Flame). The fever-pitch in this 80-minute recital is also mirrored by the psychedelic cover design. Simply unmissable. 

DON'T MISS:

ALBERT TIU 

Piano Recital: Grand Russian

TCHAIKOVSKY Grand Sonata

RACHMANINOV Sonata No.1

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday, 7 October 2016 at 7.30 pm

Free admission by Registration

MEDTNER PLAYS MEDTNER Vol.II

NIKOLAI MEDTNER, Piano

Melodiya 10 02274 (2 CDs) / *****

The grossly underrated music of Russian composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) has enjoyed a renaissance thanks to the advocacy of pianists like Nikolai Demidenko, Marc-Andre Hamelin and Hamish Milne. Medtner's own recordings however have pride of place, especially those of his three piano concertos which are classics of the late Romantic repertoire. 

Gathered in a single album for the first time, these deserve special acclaim for their authority and authenticity. Recorded in 1947 with The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by George Weldon (Concerto No.1) and Issay Dobrowen (Concertos Nos.2 & 3), with sponsorship by the Maharajah of Mysore, these reveal Medtner as an adroit and mercurial pianist.

Medtner’s interpretations inform and influence the modern interpretation of his music far more than most other contemporary composer in their own compositions. The use of recurrent motifs lends tautness and unity despite the sprawling structure, and these repay more dividends than his close friend Rachmaninov's piano concertos on further listening. 

The Third Concerto, arguably his best, carries the subtitle “Ballade” and takes on an inexorable sweep through its three connected movements. This is astutely coupled with his rhapsodic Sonata-Ballade, a masterpiece of thematic development and counterpoint, which is similarly inspired. These performances are essentially listening for all true pianophiles. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, May 2015)

SCRIABIN Piano Concerto

MEDTNER Piano Concerto No.3

YEVGENY SUDBIN, Piano

Bergen Philharmonic / Andrew Litton

BIS 2088 / *****

This is a most apt coupling of piano concertos by two Russian pianist-composers who were contemporaries of Rachmaninov yet trailed him considerably in terms of popularity. Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was Rachmaninov's classmate and rival at the Moscow Conservatory. His Piano Concerto of 1896 was an early but transitional work, revealing Chopinesque influences yet gradually finding a voice of his own. It is in the finale, the longest movement, where his flight of fantasy finally takes wing with an impassioned climax that would please any Rachmaninov fan.

Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) was a junior but close friend of Rachmaninov. His Third Piano Concerto (1940) is arguably the best of three he wrote. Cast in three movements played without a break, it exhibits a mastery of the sonata form but does not reveal its secrets on first acquaintance.   More Germanic than Russian, it nevertheless is imbued with the lush Romanticism and scintillating piano writing for which Rachmaninov was acclaimed.  

The young St Petersburg-born pianist Yevgeny Sudbin is a true successor of the great Russian pianists Dmitri Alexeev and Nikolai Demidenko, going one further having recorded all three Medtner concertos. His playing is incisive and brimming with vigour, matched by his own thoughtful programme notes. He quotes Horowitz who once asked, “Why nobody plays Medtner?” The answer is simple: Medtner’s music is often too difficult and cerebral to pull off convincingly. On those counts, Sudbin at least proves him wrong. 

SOLO

ALISA WEILERSTEIN, Cello

Decca 478 52962 / *****

Young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein's first solo album has an underlying theme based on folk music and dances from around the world. The Hungarian nationalist composer Zoltan Kodaly's Sonata Op.8 is the longest work at over a half hour, with three concentrated movements of impassioned laments and soul searching, typical of deep Slavic melancholy. She launches headlong into the music and does not flinch at its myriad complexities.

Hispanic fire lies at the heart of both contemporary Argentinian Osvaldo Golijov's Omaramor and Spaniard Gaspar Cassado's Suite. The former is a set of variations on Carlos Gardel's My Beloved Buenos Aires, with the melody revealed at the very end. The latter incorporates three dances, a Zaraband, the Sardana (a Catalan dance) and an infectious Jota to close.

Chinese-American Bright Sheng's Seven Tunes Heard In China was dedicated to and premiered by Yo-Yo Ma. Its short movements include the popular song Little Cabbage (Xiao Bai Cai) from Hebei, the onomatopoeic train song Diu Diu Dong from Taiwan and a Tibetan Dance. Weilerstein's outsized cello tones tempered by sensitivity and a variety of timbral colours is joy throughout this magnificent recital. Highly recommended.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2014)

BRAHMS Complete Piano Music

Deutsche Grammophon 479 1965 (9CDs) 

****

Despite its title, this is not quite the whole hog. Only German composer Johannes Brahms’s major solo piano works have been included, as well as the better known pieces for piano four hands. Pride of place however go to the reissue of Wilhelm Kempff’s vintage 1950s to 70s recordings of the 20 late pieces (Op.116 to 119), the monumental Third Sonata in F minor (Op.5) and Four Ballades (Op.10). These masterly readings have worn well despite their age. A young and totally musical Daniel Barenboim offers three sets of variations (after Handel, Schumann and the Sextet Op.18), as does the more virtuoso-inclined Tamas Vasary, whose take on the Paganini Variations and the short Op.76 pieces are breathtaking.  

There is fair barnstorming in the First and Second Sonatas from Anatol Ugorsky, who also plays Brahms’s left hand transcription of Bach’s famous Chaconne, originally for violin. The four hands works, including the F minor Sonata (after the Piano Quintet), Haydn Variations and 21 Hungarian Dances, from Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky sound staid by comparison. As a bonus, the ninth disc houses Brahms’s Chorale Preludes and Preludes & Fugues for organ, performed by Peter Planyavsky. Here is an inexpensive way to discover the length and breadth of this very interesting repertoire.

MEDTNER Violin Sonatas Nos.1 & 3

CHLOE HANSLIP, Violin

IGOR TCHETUEV, Piano

Hyperion 67963 / *****

The violin sonatas of Russian composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) are even more obscure than his piano sonatas, but this should not be so given their quality and accessibility. His style has been likened to that of Brahms and Beethoven, but an air of Slavic wistfulness and melancholy hangs about his musings. First listen to the delightful First Sonata in B minor (1910), a slender and graceful work capped by two dance movements, a lilting Danza followed by a more animated Ditirambo, an ode to Dionysius.

The Third Sonata in E minor (1938) is dubbed Sonata Epica for good reason. Its four movements play for 47 minutes, surpassing even Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata for breadth and scope. Medtner’s retiring nature prevents him from wearing heart-on-sleeve like his friend Rachmaninov, and the music ambles along with much purpose and meticulous craftsmanship without descending into heart-wrenching pathos. British violinist Chloe Hanslip and Ukrainian pianist Igor Tchetuev distinguish both works with beauty of tone and an understated virtuosity. Try it and fall in love.      

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, July 2013)

MEDTNER Piano Sonatas Vol.1

PAUL STEWART, Piano

Grand Piano 617 / ****1/2

The music of Russian pianist composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) is not so much obscure as it is neglected. His is as cerebral as his contemporary and close friend Rachmaninov is visceral, but repeated listening brings its rewards. This new piano sonata cycle by Canadian pianist Paul Stewart contrasts the “familiar” with the obscure. The single-movement Sonata Reminiscenza (Op.38 No.1, from his cycle of Forgotten Melodies) qualifies to be his most famous piece, even though it is much less often performed than Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata. The melancholic spirit so typical of the Slavs is worn heart-on-sleeve, and there is even a tumultuous outburst in its middle as a show of passion to unsettle the spirits.

Its quarter-hour of nostalgia is relatively brief heard alongside the 35 minutes and four movements of the Sonata in F minor (Op.5), his first essay in the genre. The moodiness and restlessness of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata, also in the same key, is recalled, and Medtner’s thematic cohesion (he rarely allows one to forget his ideas) marks him as a master of the sonata form. The early Sonatina in G minor, composed as an 18-year-old, provides a clue to his quite unmistakeable style which he had honed from young. The playing is both spirited and stylish, suitably brooding but never histrionic or over-characterised, which makes the rest of the cycle worth waiting for. 

BEETHOVEN String Trios Op.9

Trio Zimmerman

BIS SACD-1857 / *****

Before Beethoven composed his six string quartets Op.18 and went on to redefine the genre, he wrote string trios. Comprising just a violin, viola and cello, the medium has lighter and more transparent textures, but from the great German as a young man sprung forth the gravitas of his later works. The three Trios of Op.9, composed in 1796-98, are undoubted masterpieces, even if overshadowed by the quartets. The first movement of the First Trio in G major is a weighty 12 minutes of pure sonata form, almost like an opening movement of a symphony. Its furious finale has a theme which he re-uses in his First Symphony several years later.

The Second Trio in D major, the lightness and shortest of the three, has the feel of a serenade. The Third Trio in C minor begins with sonorous drama and tragedy, but transforms to litheness and humour, concluding with a jocular Presto that looks forward to its counterpart in the First Quartet of the Op.18 set. Trio Zimmerman, led by German violinist Frank Peter Zimmerman, with violist Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltera, play with precision and beauty, making the best case possible for these underrated classics. The famous 1990s recording by Anne-Sophie Mutter, Bruno Guiranna and Mstislav Rostropovich (Deutsche Grammophon) has not been reissued, so this BIS SACD is the one to have. One cannot imagine these being played better.



ROMANCING RUSSIA / Chisato Kusunoki Piano Recital / Review

ROMANCING RUSSIA 

CHISATO KUSUNOKI, Piano 

Singapore Airlines Theatre, 

LaSalle College of the Arts 

Tuesday (12 July 2011)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 14 July 2011 with the title "Classic Russia with passion". 

There is some innate quality in Russian music that transcends the sound and fury, and it has to do with a psyche tormented by centuries of turmoil, oppression and bloodshed. To unlock its secrets takes special understanding beyond mere mastery of notes. Non-Russian pianists like Van Cliburn, John Ogdon, Moura Lympany and Hamish Milne have it in their veins. One is tempted to add young Japanese pianist Chisato Kusunoki to that list.

Her second all-Russian piano recital here in two years was proof of her prowess. It began with Variations On A Polish Song by Anatol Liadov (left), better known for his miniatures. A simple mazurka-like melody was subjected to a series of Chopin-styled elaborations, reliving passages of his études and nocturnes before closing in a quasi-polonaise rhythm.

Kusunoki’s care for detail, no matter how minute, was admirable and so was the overall arch applied to short pieces played as an integral set. That came to a heady fruition in Nikolai Medtner’s Forgotten Melodies (Op.39, left), a Singapore premiere, where the main thematic thrust was never sacrificed by the complex counterpoint and dizzying filigree. Medtner does not wear his heart on sleeve as blatantly as his close friend Sergei Rachmaninov, but who could resist the tenderness of Canzona Matinata (Morning Song), violently contrasted with the hot-blooded flailings in Sonata Tragica. In Kusonoki’s hands, one begins to feel the toil and pain. 

Alas, her passion and effort were hampered by the unflattering acoustics of this new venue. Whereas she was able to roar like a bear in last year’s Victoria Concert Hall recital, the lack of projection and bloom afforded by the hall reduced the keyboard’s potential (Steinway no less) to a toothless whimper.

Rach & Medt, Russian pals

In Rachmaninov’s early Morceaux de Fantasie (Op.3), that mattered somewhat less as her gilded cantabile in the Elegie and Melodie, and comedic turns of the Polichinelle and Serenade came across well. However the chordal procession and pealing of bells in the popular Prélude (the composer’s infamous albatross) was rendered one dimensional by recessed sound. 

It was even worse for Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata in B flat minor (Op.36), where its oceanic dynamic range became a puddle in a teacup. No fault of the pianist, who delivered every note assiduously and with visible gusto. Kusunoki repeats this splendid programme on Friday (15 July). Pity about the sound, but go instead for her artistry.

Chisato Kusunoki's piano recitals are presented by InTune Music School.

Some Words with CHISATO KUSUNOKI

The Japanese pianist CHISATO KUSUNOKI is back in Singapore, performing two piano recital at the SIA-LaSalle School of the Arts on 12 and 15 July. As before, she has chosen to perform an all-Russian programme entitled "Romancing Russia", a sequel to her highly successful "From Russia With Love" recital in 2010. I was fortunate to have a few words with this Russophile, who leads a very interesting and cosmopolitan existence in London. The programme for both evenings are:

RACHMANINOV Morceaux de Fantaisie Op.3 (including that Prélude!)

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

LYADOV Variations on a Polish Song

MEDTNER Forgotten Melodies Op.39

Date: 12 & 15 July 2011 / Time: 7.30 pm, SIA LaSalle School / Tickets available at SISTIC.

A: You are a Japanese pianist, born in Germany, living in England, and specialising in Russian music. How did that exactly happen?

I spent my early childhood in Dusseldorf, Germany and London before returning to a small town called Yokosuka (near Yokohama) at the age of 3. We then came back to London again when I was 14 because of my father’s profession. I remember my first few years being a struggle for not being able to speak English. Interestingly it was during this period that I craved for widening my knowledge of the piano repertoire. Also I spent hours practising the piano everyday. Music thus became for me a form of escapism at that time. I frequently visited my local library which stocked a good selection of classical recordings including the rarer ones. My discovery of lesser-known Russian Romantic works began after I borrowed a CD of Nikolai Demidenko and Dmitri Alexeev playing Rachmaninov’s Suite No.2 for two pianos (on Hyperion). It so happened that Medtner’s only works for 2 pianos were also on the same disc. So that was my first introduction to the world of Nikolai Medtner.

What was it in Russian piano literature that captivated you the most? Did you have any favourites among the Russian composers? And Russian pianists?

My father always listened to Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven and I was lucky to be exposed to these works from an early age. I found a cassette tape of Sviatoslav Richter (left) playing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto at home. His performance of the Rachmaninov and the music struck me so overwhelmingly, and since then I have been exploring much Russian music. I think it is the Slavic temperament which moves me from bottom of my heart; the warmth, depth of emotions and its narrative quality are so rich, as in most Russian arts. I also enjoy the challenge of the complex and pianistic writing of the late 19th to early 20th century piano music.

I have always loved Rachmaninov as a pianist and composer, and increasingly find myself programming his works in recitals. I would like very much to learn his Variations on a Theme of Chopin Op.22 and First Sonata in the future. I am constantly drawing inspirations from Russian pianists of the past and present, such as Medtner, Richter, Heinrich and Stanislav Neuhaus, Emil Gilels, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Shura Cherkassky, Maria Grinberg, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Mikhail Pletnev, Alexei Sultanov, Arcadi Volodos and Grigori Sokolov.

The piano music of Nikolai Medtner (left) appears in your recital programme. Some misguided people refer to him as a “poor man’s Rachmaninov”. What does one overcome such stereotypes and actually make his music popular?

I am often put off by this misconception, especially when I programme his music. To me Medtner’s music is as magnetic as that of Rachmaninov’s. And the depth and quality of his music seem to increase by repeated listening. Medtner’s musical language comes from his understanding of German music as well as his natural Slavic temperament. His mastery of counterpoint combined with dazzling virtuosic writing (he was a real composer-pianist) means that the textures can become both dense and highly complex. My former teacher Hamish Milne, who has dedicated himself to the study of Medtner, often said that it is the pianist’s challenge to bring clarity in such intricate writing. Also the narrative quality should be clearly brought out in the most expressive singing manner.

Are there other Russian composers that you think audiences should be more exposed to?

There are many composers that I have special affinity to and I hope to be able to introduce their works to wider audiences. I am especially fond of Myaskovsky’s piano sonatas and cello sonatas. His orchestral works are also extremely appealing. There are indeed many other composers to list: Anatol Lyadov ( his orchestral works were much loved by Rachmaninoff and he conducted many of them), Catoire, Lyapunov, Balakirev, Konstantin Eiges, Oleg Eiges, Georges Conus, Alexander Alexandrov and Samuil Feinberg.

Another composer you have championed is the Scotsman Ronald Stevenson (left). How did that come about?

I was lucky to have studied the piano with Nicholas Austin who introduced me to all sorts of unusual piano repertoire and Ronald Stevenson’s music was among them. Ronald Stevenson has been an important friend and mentor, and he has taught me most valuable lessons. He is also one of the last remaining members in the great tradition of Romantic composer-pianists, a the tradition that embraced Paderewski and Busoni, two figures with whom he feels a particular closeness.

What does Chisato enjoy outside of the world of music?

My interests are rather eclectic. I love animals, wildlife, dress making, many forms of arts and crafts, baking Central European cakes, yoga and literature. Amongst my favourite writers are Pushkin, Chekhov, Pasternak (incidentally he was also a composer!), Turgenev, Proust, Hardy, Zweig, Kundera, Mann and Kafka.