VICTOR KHOR PLAYS CHOPIN AND NIER / Review

VICTOR KHOR PLAYS CHOPIN AND NIER

Victor Khor, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (27 June 2026)

It takes some guts and chutzpah to make a comeback piano recital at the age of 60, but Victor Khor is not an ordinary pianist. His programmes have been unusual and different, and this one was par for the course. Opening with Fryderyk Chopin, his view is not the hyper-accurate and gladiatorial variety to be found in Warsaw competitions, but one so personal as to be almost haram.

The very deliberate pacing in Ballade No.4 in F minor (Op.52) is rubato pulled to its extremes, with accents so placed as to be the opposite of subtle. He wants the melody to be heard in expense of everything else, and elsewhere he wants inner voices to be brought out. Whatever it is, he makes you listen intently. At his languorous tempi, his technique also held up and there was no moment of doubt or that of losing control. The struggles of the ferocious coda were well-captured, with all caution thrown into the wind for a tumultuous finish.

In the Barcarolle in F sharp major (Op.60), one wished for a greater variety of colour and tone. Hidden voices were brought out, and his epic view incorporated that of a rather aggressive gondolier plying overused Venetian canals. Growing into confidence, Ballade No.3 in A flat major (Op.47) followed the course of its successor by combining lyricism with dogged vehemence. Victor’s Chopin is in-your-face and certainly not for everyone. This Moscow Conservatory-schooled pianist might just be Singapore’s solution to Ivo Pogorelich, not the 1980 version but his 21st century iteration.

Over the years, Victor has been most successful playing the music of Radiohead, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Joe Hisaishi. Now his attention is turned to the videogame music of NieR: Automata. This is not to be confused with Nie Er, the composer of China’s March of the Volunteers, but by a collective of Japanese composers formed by Keiichiro Okabe, Keigo Hoashi and Kuniyuki Takahashi. His suite of six selections, arranged for piano, was very well chosen to showcase the music’s acute introspective qualities and sentimentality.

Most of all, these pieces suited Victor’s temperament to a tee. City Ruins (Okabe, arranged by Yo Suzuki) possessed rich harmonies, sometimes even sounding symphonically conceived. Peaceful Sleep (Okabe, arr. Yasumasa Kumagai) is a slow and leisurely trawl in cool jazz sensibilities. The lushness of Voice of No Return (Okabe, arr. Suzuki) needed no special pleading, neither did it outstay its welcome.

The Tower (Okabe, arr. Kumagai) was perhaps the most reflective piece in the collection, and Victor was ever sensitive to its plaints. Its pulsing heartbeat was carried on in Vague Hope (Hoashi), which was very sentimental but not to the point of being cloying. Ending with Weight of the World (Okabe, arr. Dai Sakakibara), its upbeat vibe, excitably generated, provided an optimistic close to the recital proper. I have heard these on YouTube, all of which pale in comparison to Victor’s live readings, where he adds notes of his own, and where passion is worn on the sleeve, expressed to the fullest possibilities.

I will be happy to hear these again in a heartbeat, but only with Victor as the guide. As an encore, Victor offered an improvisation, the rapid figurations of Vavilovskaya (titled after a new Moscow underground station) inform this to be a short and flashy railway piece. Simply brilliant.

VICTOR KHOR was presented by VIRTUOMUSIC.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM MAVERICK PIANIST VICTOR KHOR'S BIRTHDAY CONCERT

MAVERICK PIANIST VICTOR KHOR'S 

BIRTHDAY CONCERT

Friday (26 July 2024)

Christopher Guy

There aren't that many pianists who belong to Singapore's Majulah Generation (born 1960-1970), and they may in fact be counted on one hand. Victor Khor, who celebrates his 58th birthday this month, is one of them. 

I have known Victor since 1989, when by chance I heard a church pianist at the Manchester Chinese Christian fellowship play some Scriabin just before a Sunday service. Piqued and curious, I asked him whether he happened to be a concert pianist, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was also from Singapore. It is curious how friendships start. 

Since then, I have heard him in multiple piano recitals in various venues, and he has the penchant of surprising his audiences with off-beat repertoire. One recital had Alban Berg's Sonata, Schumann's Sonata No.1, Debussy's Estampes, Borodin's Petite Suite and Liapunov's Lezghinka, capped by an encore of Liszt's Transcendantal Etude No.10. He was also the first Singaporean pianist to perform J.S.Bach's Goldberg Variations in recital.

Unusual performing locations included NUS Lecture Hall 13, Zouk, Singapore Management University, Yamaha Hall in Marina Square and Plaza Singapura. Later he included works by Radiohead, Joe Hisaishi and Ryuichi Sakamoto in his programme, alongside those of Erkki-Sven Tuur, Jean Philippe Collard-Neven and Zhang Chi. His curiosity knows no bounds, and his thirst for the arcane and unusual translates into his quirky but interesting programmes.

His birthday recital programme at Christopher Guy (268 Orchard Road) was a total mystery for all who attended. It was serendipity and spur of the moment that guided his choice of works, which included a baroque piece, Debussy's Arabesque No.1, Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major, Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte, works by Hania Rani, Jay Chou, Soloviev-Sedoy (Moscow Nights), Dante Marchetti (Fascination), before closing with Chopin's Ballade No.3.

His students were also given a chance to perform on the Steinway C, before he closed with an encore reminding one and all of his days of study at the Moscow Conservatory, Scriabin's Etude in C# minor (Op.42 No.5). For Victor's 58th birthday, we quote an Abba song by saying, "Thank you for the music!"

Former student Zhang Chi, now resident
in Penang, gave arguably the best performance
of the evening, Scriabin's Waltz Op.38.

PIANO MUSIC BY RYUICHI SAKAMOTO & JOE HISAISHI / Victor Khor Piano Recital / Review

PIANO MUSIC BY

RYUICHI SAKAMOTO & JOE HISAISHI

Victor Khor, Piano at Zouk

Thursday (4 December 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 December 2014 with the title "Zealous pianist scores in Zouk for a good cause".

When it comes to piano recitals, few pianists in Singapore dare to venture into the peripheries of piano repertoire or perform in unusual venues as Victor Khor. For someone equally at home with the music by Bach, Rachmaninov and Radiohead, it would come as little surprise to hear him in the scores of popular Japanese film composers Ryuichi Sakamoto and Joe Hisaishi, played in the unlikely setting of the disco hall in fave nightspot Zouk.

All this was also for a good cause, as his performance raised funds and increased awareness for the Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP). This was all the more relevant as great composer Bela Bartok and legendary pianist Dinu Lipatti both died of leukaemia before a definitive cure was found, and tenor Jose Carreras was saved by a bone marrow transplant. All it needs now are for potential donors to volunteer and save lives.

The first half belonged to Hisaishi’s music, with six pieces performed on solo piano. The Wind Forest, W.Nocturne and The Post Modern Life were mostly slow short works in ternary (three part) form, pop-inspired, fully tonal and amenable to easy listening. Typically meditative to begin, each developed to a chord-laden central climax before receding quietly to nothingness.

Khor played with a pile of scores throughout, and could have done with an assistant to avert awkward page-turns and accidents caused by draughts, which came close to disrupting the flow of the pieces. Eventually a violinist came forward to steady the leaves and salve the pianist’s nerves.

Four other Hisaishi pieces were performed with the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra conducted by young Taiwanese conductor Brian Liao, which added an extra layer of harmonies. Hatsukoi flowed with a Mozartian simplicity with its Alberti bass while Ashitaka And Son rose to a climax alla Rachmaninov, boosted by woodwinds and percussion. Princess Mononoke featured a yangqin and a dance choreographed by Kwok Min Li of the Singapore Ballet Academy, with a holographic projection by Digimagic.

Sakamoto’s music is arguably better known, through the worldwide distribution of his award winning film soundtracks. His styles and forms used were also more varied. Solo oboe, flute with strings accompanied Energy Flow, while solo violin graced the Ending Theme of Seven Samurai. The imagery of dark clouds and interesting harmonic progressions distinguished The Sheltering Sky, the film based on Paul Bowles’s best-selling 1949 novel.

The two best-known scores were performed last. Khor’s evenness of fingering brought out well the familiar figurations of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, the Pacific war movie starring David Bowie, and the melancholic life of Aisin Gioro Puyi was portrayed in the bittersweet music of The Last Emperor. Khor’s advocacy of this music approached missionary zeal, and like everything he does, there are no half measures. Musical and humane causes have an ardent champion.

LA BELLE ÉPOQUE / LEE CHIN SIN Baritone Recital with VICTOR KHOR, Piano / Review

LA BELLE ÉPOQUE

LEE CHIN SIN, Baritone

with VICTOR KHOR, Piano

Yamaha Recital Hall, Marina Square

Saturday (27 April 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 April 2013 with the title "Cordon bleu chef who sings with great feeling".

It is no secret that most of Singapore’s talented young singers hold daytime jobs unrelated to music. Tenor Melvin Tan is a wine merchant, sopranos Teng Xiang Ting and Lim Yan Ting are lawyer and life scientist respectively. So it is little surprise to learn that baritone Lee Chin Sin is a cordon bleu chef who co-owns a bistro.

Lee is not one of those booming-voiced operatic baritones who spout Don Giovanni or Figaro at will, but a more intimate sort comfortable with the parlando aspect of singing, one closer to the speaking voice. As such, he was well-suited for his selection of songs from the French Belle Epoque, a seemingly carefree era of bourgeois musical charm with an innocence that was shattered by the mayhem of the First World War.

He sang four groups of paired songs, beginning with Emile Pessard’s Absence and Berceuse, which revealed a casual insouciance that was easy on the ear.  His dusky tone gave Reynaldo Hahn’s Offrande and A Chloris, more commonly heard sung by a higher voice, a slightly darker hue, but still communicated its love and longing ardently.

Benjamin Godard is best remembered for his popular Berceuse from Jocelyn. His songs Les Larmes (The Tears) and Je ne veux pas d’autres choses (I Do Not Want Other Things) were both interpretively and physically challenging, and Lee was made to strain a little.

Francesco Paolo Tosti was no Frenchman, but his ‘A Vucchella (A Sweet Mouth) and Non t’amo piu (I Don’t Love You Anymore), both Italian songs, were coloured by the same sensibilities. There was a nice waltz-like lilt in the former, and how Lee tantalisingly hung on to the final note of the latter as it rose into the air, as if he was sorry to end.

In between groups of songs, Lee’s ever-perceptive accompanist Victor Khor had piano solos of his own, which dovetailed into the programme seamlessly. These included three of six Gnossiennes by Erik Satie, Debussy’s Ballade and Claire de lune and Poulenc’s Improvisation No.15, a homage to legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf. Roger Branga’s solo transcription of Ravel’s Bolero closed the programme on a rowdy high.

And there were encores too. Lee’s was Edvard Grieg’s Ich Liebe Dich (I Love You), sung in German rather than the original Norwegian, while Khor had the final notes with Ravel’s Pavane for the Dead Infanta. This well-attended event suggests that more recitals of this kind can become a norm at this venue in time to come.        

VICTOR KHOR Piano Recital / Review

VICTOR KHOR Piano Recital

Yamaha Recital Hall, Marina Square

Saturday (20 April 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 April 2013 with the title "Contemporary charms".

Yamaha Recital Hall is a little studio tucked in one corner of Marina Square, surrounded by furniture shops and boutiques. It comfortably seats 60 people and is the sort of milieu which local pianist Victor Khor thrives in. He prefers to play for small intimate groups of people, such as in dance practice rooms, cosy restaurants, private homes and the like.

His wide repertoire includes Bach, Russian Romantics and French impressionists, but his present preoccupation is tonal contemporary music. This 80-minute afternoon recital performed without a break, a follow-up to his well-received programme of Radiohead song transcriptions, was centred on piano music influenced by New Age pop culture and minimalism.

He opened with three pieces by China-born Australian composer Zhang Chi. Autumn In The Island is slow and contemplative, post-impressionist in style and tinged with the sparseness that reminded one of the Catalan composer Federico Mompou. Morning Lavender, cut from the same fabric, had some hints of Delius while the oddly titled Werewolf, though more animated in pace, was anything but fearsome.

The music did meander a little, but the audience was a patient one, responding to Khor’s sensitive musical insights with no little warmth. Two Japanese composers known for their film music were next. Joe Hisaishi’s Asian XTC was an Oriental melody all dressed up with pop leanings, while Ryuichi Sakamoto’s The Last Emperor struck several chords of recognition, the poignant music for the Oscar-winning Bertolucci movie an apt portrayal of fallen majesty and isolation.

Khor then played three selections from Between The Lines by the Belgian Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven, who is no relation of the famous French pianist Jean-Philippe Collard. The titular work itself brought out a hazy spectrum of colours, rising arc-like to a heady crescendo before receding. Shimmering, shifting hues and faster rhythms characterised Northern Lights and the concluding Falling Stars respectively.

These Singaporean premieres were made possible by a friendship struck up between pianist and composer through the universal medium of YouTube.

The most virtuosic work was Estonian Erkki-Sven Tüür’s three-movement Sonata, also the oldest, composed in 1985. Eclectic with multiple influences, what stuck in the mind were its kinetically charged pages, athleticism alternating with the tintinnabulation (bell-like sonorities) “patented” by his compatriot Arvo Pärt. The resonances and echoes from its succession of octaves, chords and clusters produced a quite hypnotic effect.

As an encore, Khor offered Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, a familiar favourite that was very well received. More importantly, he demonstrated that contemporary piano literature was not necessarily all about serialism and atonality, and could be very accessible when it chose to be.

VICTOR KHOR Piano Recital @ Yamaha Premium Piano Gallery

VICTOR KHOR Piano Recital
Yamaha Premium Piano Gallery
Plaza Singapura / Saturday (30 July 2011)

Singaporean pianist Victor Khor was invited to perform a short piano recital at the opening of Yamaha Music's Premium Piano Gallery,which also showcases the Bosendorfer grand pianos.

Performing on a Bosendorfer 6-footer, his programme included the following works:

BACH-SILOTI Aria from Orchestral Suite No.3
SCHUBERT Impromptu No.3 in G flat major
ERKKI-SVEN TUUR Finale from Piano Sonata
FALLA Serenata Andaluza
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence
RADIOHEAD-O'REILLY You & Subterranean Homesick Alien

Victor acknowledging the applause with a simple nod of the head.

Victor meets with his fans.

At the recital was Singapore's premier piano duo of Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung. Appropriately, Dennis plays some Viennese waltzes on the Bosendorfer grand.

Victor Khor plays Radiohead / Review

VICTOR KHOR PERFORMS RADIOHEAD
SMU Arts & Culture Centre
Thursday (15 January 2009)
This review appeared in The Straits Times on 17 January 2008.

From the intrepid Singaporean pianist Victor Khor, one can only expect the unexpected. The Moscow and Manchester trained maverick was the first local to attempt Bach’s Goldberg Variations in concert, and has attracted notoriety for his programming quirks*.

His latest recital, part of Singapore Management University’s Arts Festival, comprised an hour wholly of ten Radiohead songs transcribed by renowned American classical pianist Christopher O’Riley, a former prizewinner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Metamorphoses or transformations are probably more appropriate words to describe these transcriptions, which are a world apart from the British alternative rock band’s melancholic and angst-laden songs. However without the lyrics, arresting titles like Subterranean Homesick Alien, How I Made My Millions and Fake Plastic Trees are rendered meaningless.

Mellifluous melody was never a strong suit with Radiohead (left), and climactic swells tend to be in short supply. So what goes into each treatment is a ceaselessly pulsing bedrock of rhythms, upon which a mélange of figurations and harmonic progressions, steeped in contemporary writing language is grafted upon. There are many dissonances, but these are never jarring, instead imbued with ear-catching piquancy.

Is this classical, pop, rock, New Age or minimalist piano? Perhaps a little of all of these; hear the thick chordal sequences of There There, or the gamelan-like tinkling in Let Down that gathers decibels from its nocturnal opening to its voluminous surge of a climax. And what of the repetitious ostinato in Like Spinning Plates, crafted like a Spanish fandango or the sensitive music box approach to the familiar B flat minor strains of No Surprises?

O’Riley’s ever-inventive takes were well matched by Khor resourceful pianism, which sounded almost improvised on the spot despite playing from a well-thumbed score. He also brought out a wide palette of the music’s colours from the dance studio’s 6-foot Bohemia grand, even if the latter was not the most subtle or supple of instruments.

His little encore - Schumann’s Traumerei - came like a fresh after-dinner mint, bringing this sleeper of a recital to a delightful close.

* Victor Khor's earlier programmes have juxtaposed Alban Berg and Schumann sonatas with Borodin and Lyapunov. He was also the first to perform Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit with recitations of Aloysius Bertrand's poems, programmed alongside Grieg's Lyric Pieces and Prokofiev's Eighth Sonata. A 2008 recital featured Erkki-Sven Tüür, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Radiohead-O'Riley. Quirky enough for you?