MIKKEL MYER PLAYS BEETHOVEN PIANO SONATAS PART III / PRODIGIOUS 2026 / re:Sound / Review

 

BEETHOVEN:

THE COMPLETE 

32 PIANO SONATAS - PART III

MIKKEL MYER LEE, Piano

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (23 May 2026)

PRODIGIOUS 2026

re:Sound

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (24 May 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 May 2026 with the title "More mature piano-playing from Mikkel Myer Lee; Cathy Chen Xi, 12, impresses".

The third instalment of 13-year-old Mikkel Myer Lee’s Beethoven piano sonata cycle played to a full-house at Esplanade Concert Hall. It comprised four sonatas, two each from the German composer’s Early and Middle periods. Opening with Sonata No.2 in A major (Op.2 No.2), there was a palpable sense of maturity since his last Beethoven recital in December 2024.

Appearing more relaxed, he had less of a tendency to rush the fences. Articulation was as clear as before, while phrasing and placement of accents showed he understood Beethoven’s idiom well. The astute omission of repeats also ensured a breezy account through its four movements. In the “facile” Sonata No.20 in G major (Op.49 No.2), he displayed fluency and buoyant spirits while not underselling the work’s value as a teaching piece.

In two mature sonatas, his true mettle was revealed. Sonata No.26 in E flat major (Op.81a), or Les Adieux, has such difficult passages that would slay pianists triple his age. He took these well within his stride, its arch-like programme of the farewell, absence and return of Beethoven’s beloved patron Archduke Rudolf being very well-characterised.

The most challenging work was Sonata No.23 in F minor (Op.57), the mighty Appassionata, where a big brawny sound was demanded. Here, Lee’s diminutive stature became a limitation, but he made up by being never short on nuance, wits and endurance, tiding him through three gruelling movements. 

His encores of the slow movement from Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata and Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words (Op.53 No.2) were also rapturously received by the noisiest and most ill-disciplined audience in recent memory.

In Lee, Singapore has its answer to Russia’s Evgeny Kissin and UK’s Benjamin Grosvenor, the most significant piano prodigies of the past four decades.

Somewhat less unwashed was the audience that greeted 12-year-old violinist Cathy Chen Xi, 1st prizewinner of the 2025 Hengqing International Mozart Competition (Zhuhai), in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4 in D major (K.218). Although partnered with the professionals of re:Sound who towered over her, she was more than able to hold her own.

She played with the ensemble in the tuttis, and in her solos, she emerged with a clear and pristine voice. Her tone was pure and unwavering, and her intonation immaculate. An unfailing singing line was maintained through all three movements, only asserting herself in cadenzas, which were very impressive as well.

The finale’s graceful little dance exuded pure joy and its rustic interlude with drones that simulated bagpipes provided delightful contrasts. In Chen, we have another violin prodigy who could become the next Chloe Chua.

This concert also provided opportunities for over 20 young musicians from the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and other schools to perform alongside Singapore’s top chamber orchestra. String players were placed side-by-side with pros for 20th century Polish composer Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa, a minimalist showcase that opened with just three instruments and then expanded to a full-voiced ensemble. The build-up of sonorities to a final shout was simply spectacular.

In Franz Schubert’s Symphony No.5 in B flat major, modelled on Mozart’s symphonies, woodwinds were added, and the sound generated was further enhanced. This listener first heard this work performed in 1979 by a very young Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and can conclude that good teaching and guidance has made the young musicians of today sound even more polished, and thus more prodigious.

HANS GRAF FAREWELL SERIES: MOZART AND SALIERI / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

HANS GRAF FAREWELL SERIES:

MOZART AND SALIERI

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday (21 May 2026)

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 26 May 2026 with the title "Mozart and Salieri under the spotlight in Hans Graf’s farewell concert in Singapore".

Let’s first get this out of the way. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a musical genius while Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) a skilled journeyman. The premise of Hans Graf’s final concert in his six-year tenure (2020-2026) at the helm of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra was not just to compare achievements of both composers, but to ponder the gulf between hard work and divine inspiration, and how we live with both.

The evening opened with Salieri’s Piano Concerto in C major (1773), from a rising 23-year-old who still had 52 years to live. The opening Allegro maestoso was a martial ritornello that exuded the same vibe as Mozart’s K.503, also in the same key. Big chords paved the way for young pianist Adrian Tang’s clean and accomplished delivery, which lacked nothing in polish and purpose. 

The problem was how Salieri worked his musical ideas and themes. While Mozart delighted in variety and nuance, Salieri resorted to what virtuosi of the day did best, note-spinning and striving for effect. The development and cadenza had lots of that, and one soon tired of listening. The slow movement in A minor had an opening solo resembling the corresponding movement of Mozart’s K.488, but fell short of his combo of gravitas and elegance. The finale’s Rondo saw delicate and nimble fingerwork on display with passages of Sturm und Drang by way of contrast. While pleasant and euphonious to the ear, it proved ultimately unmemorable.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.14 in E flat major (K.449) was premiered when he was 28, right at the cusp of greatness. What a big difference it made with the workmanlike Salieri. Young soloist Toby Tan did the honours, giving a dream performance of fluency and care for detail. He truly got into the spirit of Mozart, imbuing the score with a singing quality and en point articulation. 

The slow movement was a lyrical gift that kept on giving, milked for all its worth, while the finale’s theme and variations sparkled, going full buffo in a comedic coda for a final flourish. Both pianists, students of Albert Tiu, joined hands for a delightful encore, the finale from the Sonata for four hands in D major by ... Mozart (K.381), thank goodness.

Toby Tan and Adrian Tang
with their teacher Albert Tiu

Rimsky-Korsakov’s one-act opera Mozart and Salieri (1897), based on Pushkin’s little tragedy from 1830 and sung in Russian (with English surtitles), received its Singapore premiere. This piece of speculatory fiction had spawned an industry built on the scurrilous rumour that Salieri murdered Mozart. He did nothing of the sort, but judging by Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov’s self-pitying monologue as the industrious but pedantic Salieri, might as well have done so. By poisoning the god-given genius of an irreverent and flippant Mozart, played by the much younger-looking Russian tenor Boris Stepanov, he was preserving hoards who bore the badge of mediocrity.

This was not so much a lyrical opera in the traditional sense but a psychological melodrama that pitted earth-bound against celestial talent. Rimsky-Korsakov was also comparing himself with the cultural giants that were Pushkin and Mussorgsky. 

A chamber-sized orchestra accompanied the action, and there were cameos by Matthias Oestringer as the blind street violinist and Adrian Tang in the pastiche piano part. Members of the Singapore Symphony Chorus (Eudenice Palaruan, choral director), placed high in the balcony sang the opening page from Mozart’s Requiem, as the musical rivals memorably walked into the pages of infamy. Graf’s final act as music director of the SSO could not have been more poignant.

Rating ****

Posterity has shown
who's got the last laugh.

SUKA MAKAN: OASIS BISTRO & CAFE @ AA CENTRE

If you happen to need an international driver's license and are hungry, there isn't a better place to go than Oasis Bistro & Cafe. Located on the 4th floor of AA (Automobile Association) Centre, you'll have to pass through the AA office to get to Oasis. On a Sunday morning, it's a small and quiet corner, thus a good place for conversations and heart-to-hearts while sipping coffee or having a meal. 

Lots of greenery, overlooking the
Leng Kee Road and Bukit Merah area

The menu is mostly Western, with the standard fares including an all-day breakfast. The side dishes are also worth trying. Here is the photographic evidence. If you are an AA member, a 15% discount awaits.

Starters fritters:
King Oyster Mushroom & Calamari

Avocado on toast and omelette

Beef cubes with blue cheese

All-day English breakfast

A very decent ribeye steak

Mango sago (complimentary dessert) &
Lava cake with vanilla ice-cream

OASIS BISTRO & CAFE

2 Kung Chong Road, #04-01

AA (Automobile Association) Centre

Singapore 159140

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SUKA MAKAN: SYIFA' SATAY @ MAKANSUTRA GLUTTONS BAY

Strange as it may seem, there is only one stall I patronise for my pre-concert meals at Esplanade Theatres By The Bay. And that is Syifa' Satay. The reason is very simple. I need a quick and not too heavy meal before attending evening concerts at Esplanade. The dishes served by Syifa' Satay fulfill that need, besides being the best Malay dishes I ever had in Singapore.

It started with a simple Soto Ayam, chicken soup, in this case I take it without noodles or rice cake (ketupat) and just with bean sprouts (taugeh). The first spoonful of soup made the difference - I have not had a soto dish this good. Add a small bit of chilli, and the soup flavour is just heaven. The chicken chunks are substantial and one bowl can easily fill two persons.

Then I had the Satay - usually a mix of chicken, beef and mutton. Seldom has satay tasted this good - tender, flavoursome, and eaten with cut cucumber and onion in a thick peanut kuah. Every stick is freshly prepared, and is never over-grilled. There is enough oil to keep the flavour in but not too much. Every stick (I usually have ten) is savoured to the last morsel. To put it on record, this is my favourite satay in all of Singapore. The many stalls at Satay Club by Lau Pa Sat come nowhere near. 

The third dish is probably the healthiest - Tahu goreng - which has a generous helping of grilled tofu and lots of julienned vegetables. I take that whenever I prefer a vegetarian option, and it too has never disappointed.

Finally, I want to give the proprietors a shout out. They are possibly the friendliest people in all of Esplanade. Desmond, Umi Faridah and kitchen maestro Sheila (the latter two own the stall) always greet me with a smile, and I know I'm going to have a great meal, and a great concert to follow!

SYIFA' SATAY

Makansutra Gluttons Bay

8 Raffles Avenue #01-15C

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HANS GRAF FAREWELL SERIES: MYSTERE DE L'INSTANT / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

HANS GRAF FAREWELL SERIES:

MYSTERE DE L’INSTANT

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (15 May 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 May 2026 with the title "Conductor Hans Graf tests virtuosity of musicians with French programme of avant-garde and fun fare".

The second concert programme of Singapore Symphony Orchestra music director Hans Graf’s Farewell Series was an all-French affair. Although well-known for his interpretation of Austro-German and Central European repertoire, his sympathy for modern French music extended to two albums of orchestral music by 20th century master Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013).

Dutilleux’s Mystere de l’instant (Mystery of the Moment), composed as recently as 1989, received its first Singapore performance. Scored for strings, cimbalom (dulcimer) and percussion, its rarefied palette of shades and dissonances was a revelation all through ten short but volatile movements.

All form of string techniques encapsulated in 24 independent parts were experimented, while Patrick Ngo’s yangqin (doubling as cimbalom), Mario Choo’s percussion and Christian Schioler’s timpani were used sparingly but strategically. Graf was putting to the test the virtuosity of his players, succeeding admirably while also opening the ears of listeners unaccustomed to the avant-garde.

The rest of the concert offered much easier listening in the form of lollipops. Two showpieces for violin highlighted the uncommon prowess of young Salzburg-based Chinese violinist He Ziyu. Opening with Camille Saint-Saens’s popular Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso, he exhibited a singing tone and spot-on intonation.

Arguably more challenging was Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane, a gypsy rhapsody that opens with an extended solo of immense difficulty, leading to an unbuttoned dance which gave a new meaning to gay abandon. The natural ease at which he negotiated the music’s myriad twists and turns was further highlighted in his encore, Ukraine-born violin virtuoso Nathan Milstein’s Paganiniana, a fiendish mash-up of Nicolo Paganini’s Caprices with the infamous No.24 as a starting point.

The celebration of miraculous youth continued into the concert’s second half with Singapore’s most prominent classical saxophonist Samuel Phua in Darius Milhaud’s Scaramouche. Originally conceived for two pianos, this orchestral version delighted in its sheer busyness, with the opening movement pitting sax against the forces of some implacable big band.

His voice finally came to the fore in the slow movement, a creamily-tone romance turned bluesy by discreet pairs of trumpets and trombones, which sounded even better than the original. The finale was a Brazilian samba with the irrepressible spirit of a Mardi Gras in Rio. Speaking of festivals, his encore of local composer Wang Chenwei’s Thaipusam, originally for violin solo, swung like cool Carnatic jazz.

Despite its diminutive title, Francis Poulenc’s four-movement Sinfonietta (1948) is a major 30-minute work in four movements which exceeded the lengths of most Mozart symphonies. Conceived in neoclassical style with influences by Igor Stravinsky and the cabaret, the line between popular and serious music became blurred beyond recognition.

Wit and humour abounded in its pages, captured with requisite verve by Graf and his charges. The scherzo-like second movement relived the jive of the earlier Milhaud (both composers were part of a Parisian clique called Les Six), while the slow movement lilted with the gentle grace of a baroque-era dance. It was left in the Mozartian finale to pull out all stops for a delightful conclusion of an intriguing but enjoyable programme.

All photos by Yoricko Liu, 

courtesy of Singapore Symphony Orchestra