POLAND MAY 3RD
CONSTITUTION DAY CONCERT
Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre
Tuesday 4 May 2021
Imagine the feeling of surprise and pleasure to be invited by the Embassy of Poland in Singapore to attend an evening of Polish chamber music performed by Singaporean musicians. I had honestly never quite realised the close relationship between our city-state and the Eastern European powerhouse. For example, I did not know that Poland had donated ten thousand chicken eggs to the residents of Sembawang during last year’s Covid lockdown, nor was I aware of Singapore’s investments in the Baltic sea port of Gdansk. Thanks to HE Ambassador Magdalena Bogdziewicz and Alvin Tan, Singapore's minister-of-state for Culture, Youth, Information, Trade and Industry, in their respective speeches, I am that little bit wiser.
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| Before the actual concert, Li Churen performed on piano the national anthems of Singapore and Poland. |
The concert was performed by a newly formed local trio of violinist Yang Shuxiang, cellist Leslie Tan and pianist Li Churen, all of whom have affiliation with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Yang and Li are fairly recent graduates while the veteran Tan, founding member of the T’ang Quartet, is part of the faculty. Despite their age gaps spanning almost three decades, the threesome displayed rather good chemistry together, but more later.
The evening began with Chopin’s solo music, with Li performing the Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2), displaying insouciance and rubato to equal measure, before letting rip in the Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op.66), dizzying fingers alternating with pure poetry in its lyrical centre. The solo segment was completed with the Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brilliante (Op.22). The showstopper was given its due, with a nocturne-like introduction leading up to a fiery show of digital virtuosity. Churen has been engaged to perform in Fever’s Chopin By Candlelight recitals and this year’s Singapore International Piano Festival. The organisers really know their pianists.
Wieniawski’s Legende was given a passionate reading by violinist Yang and Li, opening with calm but smouldering disquiet before erupting into a full-throated rhapsody. Shuxiang is well-known for the wide breadth of his string tone, but his largesse did not come to fruition in the hall’s dryish and somewhat unflattering acoustics.
Leslie Tan’s instrument was cast in better light for two varied movements from Krzysztof Penderecki’s Suite for Solo Cello. This is a largely tonal work, quite different from the recently departed composer’s notorious Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, but still retaining a spiky dissonance and acerbic quality. The Aria was more of a lament while the Scherzo taxed his limits of agility to the full. It was not easy listening but rewarding nonetheless for the emotional depth on display.
All three performers were united for the early Piano Trio (Op.1) by Sir Andrzej Panufnik (1914-1991) in three short movements. This was a student work, dating from 1934, when his personal musical voice had not fully formed. Eminently tonal and late Romantic in idiom, the first movement were redolent of Debussy or Ravel but not so impressionist. There was melodic interest in the central movement, albeit all-too-brief before heralding lively finale’s ostinato beat. Elements of Polish folk music come into play, and one is reminded of Szymanowski’s compositions influenced by his sojourns in the Tatra Mountains. This must certainly be the Singapore premiere of this very engaging work, and the trio members worked well together to make it spark.
You can hear it again when the Yang-Tan-Li trio perform a similar programme at the Singapore International Festival of Arts on 22 May at The Arts House.
