WE REMEMBER PIONEERING SINGAPOREAN VIOLIST LIONEL TAN (1965-2026)

It was with great shock and sadness that we learn of the passing of Singaporean violist LIONEL TAN. He was a founding member of T'ang quartet, Singapore's first professional chamber group, formed in 1992. He leaves behind his partner Marcia, elder brother cellist Leslie, a younger brother Leroy and his parents. He was diagnosed to have oesophageal cancer in early 2025, and fought a good fight until his ultimate passing on 31 May 2026.

Playing for Jiri Heger

Lionel was the first viola student of the late Czech violist Jiri Heger (1946-2023) who was then the Principal violist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO). Lionel was a member of the Singapore Youth Orchestra, who later pursued his studies in London's Royal College of Music as a SSO scholar. I remember Lionel as a student of from the south wing of Raffles Institution who was regularly seen attending SSO concerts. Little did I know then the role he would play in Singapore's classical music scene as one of its greatest violists.

A more informal session with Jiri Heger

T'ang Quartet poster with a retro design

It was as a violist in the SSO when he teamed up with brother Leslie, and violinists Ng Yu Ying and Ang Chek Meng to form the T'ang Quartet. All four members left the SSO and pursued further studies in Houston's Rice University and won prizes at the Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar. Thus began T'ang Quartet's international performing career.

I was fortunate to have been asked to write programme notes for the quartet's concerts and early international tours, and also for its first two commercial CD releases - The Art of War (Pavel Haas and Erwin Schulhoff quartets) and Made in America (Dvorak String Quartet and Quintet). I also did the editorial work for and appeared in a cameo in their four-part documentary No Strings Attached.

Many people have the misconception that musicians without a solo career end up performing in chamber music groups. That is a fallacy. The truth is you have to first be a top-notch soloist in order to master chamber music. And Lionel was a top violist, and a string player of the highest order.

In 1988, at the finals of the Diners Club String Player of the Year Competition, three of Singapore's top young musicians vied for the award performing concertos with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The final three happened to later become founding members of T'ang Quartet. There was Ng Yu Ying performing Bruch's Violin Concerto No.1, Leslie Tan in Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No.1 and Lionel Tan in Hungarian composer Gyula David's Viola Concerto.  

Exhibiting a beautifully rich and dusky tone, and displaying a virtuosity that defied all viola jokes, Lionel was awarded the first prize. No one would look at the viola and violists the same way again.

Mentoring and inspiring the next
generation of chamber musicians.

Lionel Tan leaves behind a memorable career in performing chamber music, and a rich legacy of teaching as a faculty member of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. His students have gone on to enrich our musical scene in Singapore. Lionel is well-loved and will be sorely missed.

Lionel Tan with Jiri Heger and Noriko Ogawa.

Lionel Tan, founding T'ang Quartet violist, dies at 60 | The Straits Times

100 PIANO MASTERPIECES by Harmonia Mundi

 

100 PIANO MASTERPIECES

The Best of Classical Music

Harmonia Mundi

HMX 2908990.95 / 6 CDs

This is a compilation box I like. All classical music, and none of the tedious and vacuous New Age, minimalist, “easy listening” dross for spa resorts that passes as classics. Harmonia Mundi has done a fair job by cramming 100 tracks onto six discs. Some of these are very short, movements or bits excerpted from longer works, but there are some quite substantial pieces which are played complete. The discs are chronologically arranged, from Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) to William Bolcom (born 1938, still living) and performed by the French label’s roster of seriously good artists.

Not enough Paul Lewis heard here

The Baroque period is limited to a single track, Scarlatti’s Sonata K.492 (played by Korean Cliburn laureate Joyce Yang), understandably because Harmonia Mundi mostly involves period instruments in baroque music, and no harpsichord music has been included. So, no J.S.Bach or Handel to be heard here. Disc 1 has Haydn and Mozart sonata movements (from Alain Planes and Georges Pludermacher) and the late Brigitte Engerer playing Fur Elise. HM star pianist Paul Lewis is heard in Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (first and third movements only) and the Andante cantabile from the Pathetique Sonata. The sole curiosity is the Storm movement from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (transcribed by Liszt) played by Michel Dalberto. Interesting but hardly essential.

Michel Dalberto in Beethoven-Liszt

Alain Planes and Alexandre Tharaud
get the most tracks in all.

Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann occupy Disc 2. Instead of Lewis, Planes contributes single movements from a Schubert Sonata (D.625) and the Wanderer Fantasy, an Impromptu and a Moment Musicaux (No.3, of course). Alexandre Tharaud and Zhu Xiao-Mei perform the first movement from Schubert’s Divertissement a la Hongroise. Spanish phenom Javier Perianes gives a dextrous account of Mendelssohn’s Rondo capriccioso and two Songs Without Words. Very short Schumann movements, 8 minutes in total, come from 1997 Cliburn winner Jon Nakamatsu, Beatrice Rana and Engerer.

Jon Nakamatsu and Javier Perianes

The entirety of Disc 3, all 16 tracks, is devoted to Chopin. There are five Waltzes and three Preludes performed by Perianes and Tharaud. All three Nocturnes from Op.9 are heard complete by Engerer, a nice uninterrupted sequence. There are also complete performances of the Barcarolle (Perianes), Fantaisie-Impromptu (Olga Kern) and best of all, Polonaise-Fantasy Op.61 from Cedric Tiberghien. A rather satisfying 79 minutes.

Frederic Chiu and Cedric Tiberghien

More of the Romantics occupy Disc 4, including Liszt, Brahms, Chabrier and Janacek. Nakamatsu gets 17 minutes to play Liszt’s Impromptu (Nocturne), Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 and the transcription of Schumann’s Fruhlingsnacht. Frederic Chiu plays the Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli while Paul Lewis is heard in the central seven minutes of the Sonata in B minor. 

Great Russians:
Alexander Melnikov and Olga Kern

Brahms is shared by Tiberghien (two Hungarian Dances and a Ballade) and Alexander Melnikov (the first movement of Sonata No.2). HM would be remiss for missing out on 11 minutes of Chabrier (played by Planes). Thankfully, Janacek’s Sonata 1.X.1905 is heard in its entirety, followed by a movement from On The Overgrown Path (Planes). Kern plays Rachmaninov’s transcription of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee.

More great Slavs:
Nikolai Lugansky and Vadym Kholodenko

Disc 5 dwells on the French Impressionists and late Romantics. Debussy gets representation from Nikolai Lugansky (Deux Arabesques and Clair de lune) and Planes (Jardins sous la pluie and a posthumous Image). All the Ravel tracks come from Tharaud’s excellent integrale, including Jeux d’eau, Pavane pour un infante defunte, Un barque sur l’ocean, Ondine and the Prelude from Le Tombeau de Couperin. Sandwiched in between are Satie shorts (Tharaud), Scriabin Preludes (Vadym Kholodenko) and Rachmaninov Preludes (Lugansky). Particularly delightful is Rachmaninov’s Italian Polka from Brigitte Engerer and Oleg Maisenberg.

Frank Braley's Gershwin is excellent

The final disc is all 20th-century. Short pieces by Falla, Mompou, Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich are represented by the likes of Perianes, Planes, Melnikov and Chiu. American composers get the final say here too. Frank Braley gives a fine solo accounts of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, The Man I Love and Jasbo Brown Blues (from Porgy and Bess). The most contemporary piece is William Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost Rag (dating 1970) from Michael Sheppard. 

Michael Sheppard is totally
idiomatic in William Bolcom's rag

Here is a fine, no nonsense compilation box of piano performances that is well worth sampling or listening right through. Retailing at super budget-price, there is little or no cause for regret.

PEACEFUL PIANO MOODS from Deutsche Grammophon

 

PEACEFUL PIANO MOODS

Deutsche Grammophon

486 0288 9 / 4 CDs

I am not one for compilation CDs, simply because they tend to be brainless and clueless when it comes to programming choices, something like Singapore’s so-called classical radio station. These usually pander to the lowest common denominator, and the listener is left none the wiser. One of the worst compilations involved Universal Music and Popular Bookstore years ago, when one thought they should know better.

Peaceful Piano Moods is a four-disc compilation of quiet mood music, solo piano selections supposed to soothe the soul and calm the nerves. It comes from the vast back catalogue of Deutsche Grammophon and some newer recordings issued not in albums but for streaming and downloads but including here. There are 103 tracks in total, of which 59 (57.3%) are actually classical music, from J.S.Bach to John Cage. At worst, these represent musical wallpaper, best heard as muzak or elevator music in lounges too cheap to hire an actual pianist. At best, there are individual tracks by some of classical music’s greatest artists to enjoy, but all submerged within swathes of sound.

The four discs are named according to the times of day, Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night, and the pieces chosen more or less (usually less) conform to this. In another classification, the music is sub-themed The Eternal Piano (presumably the classics), The Infinite Piano (minimalist music, who knows?) and The Celluloid Piano (music from the movies). There are more tracks than I care to name that belong to the mind-numbing New Age, minimalist, quasi-spiritual, spa-friendly categories which can easily be generated by AI (artificial intelligence) nowadays, and are pretty much easily forgotten and thus disposable.

Lilya Zilberstein & Vikingur Olafsson

So what are the classical tracks worth listening to? Disc 1 (Morning) has two selections by Russian pianist Lilya Zilberstein who is excellent in Brahms’ Intermezzo in E flat major (Op.117 No.1) and Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G major (Op.32 No.5). Icelandic phenom Vikingur Olafsson’s transcription of Rameau’s Entree de Polymnie from Les Boreades called The Arts and The Hours is worth listening to, equal to the great baroque transcriptions of Busoni and Kempff. The great French duo of Katia & Marielle Labeque contributes the Berceuse from Gabriel Faure’s Dolly Suite. Just to name drop, there are also tracks from Martha Argerich (Schumann’s Traumerei), Daniel Barenboim (Liszt’s Consolation No.3), the late Tamas Vasary (Debussy’s Arabesque No.1) and Alfred Brendel (just one variation from Beethoven’s Eroica Variations)

The Kontarskys also perform
a few of Brahms' Waltzes Op.39

Disc 2 (Afternoon) has the box’s longest track in Debussy’s Prelude a l’apres-midi dun faune in its two-piano guise from the German duo of Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky. Another duo is Mary Howe’s arrangement of Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze, played by Lucas and Arthur Jusson. There are almost 9 minutes of Gershwin, Someone To Watch Over Me from Andre Previn and Love Walked In from Chinese pianist Moye Chen. Mozart’s most famous sonata movement, in C major (from K.545) is heard from Maria Joao Pires, no less. A surprise is to hear Beethoven’s little Minuet in G (a popular children’s piece) from Mikhail Pletnev. Shorts by classical piano’s hotshot youngsters – Yuja Wang, Behzod Abduraimov, Alice Sarah Ott, Seong-Jin Cho and Jan Lisiecki – may also be found here. A particular favourite of mine is Sergei Babayan playing Rachmaninov’s Lilacs. Clearly the best disc of the four.

Andrei Gavrilov gets the most
playing time of all the pianists.

Disc 3 (Evening) includes many Russian and Slavic pianists of distinction. Care to name them? What about Andrei Gavrilov (Grieg’s Summer Evening, Schubert’s Impromptu in G flat major and the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations), Lazar Berman (Rachmaninov’s Moment Musicaux No.5), Anatol Ugorsky (Beethoven’s Fur Elise and Chopin’s Largo in E flat), Ivo Pogorelich (Scarlatti’s Sonata “Pastorale” K.9 and one of Mussorgsky’s Promenades from Pictures at an Exhibition) and Zoltan Kocsis (Debussy’s Page d’Album). The best tracks are Shura Cherkassky playing the Saint-Saens-Godowsky The Swan and Martha Argerich and Nicolas Economou in Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

We should have had more Chopin Nocturnes
from Maria Joao Pires!

Disc 4 (Night) begins promisingly but ends in disappointment. A disc that opens with Maria Joao Pires playing Chopin’s C sharp minor Nocturne (Lento con grande espressione) and Yuja Wang playing the Gluck-Sgambati Dance of the Blessed Spirits should never include mindless slop that passes as mood music by Max Richter, unless one is in dire need of a tranquiliser. Elsewhere, Francesco Tristano plays John Cage’s In A Landscape and Alice Sara Ott plays Grieg’s Solveig’s Song.

Francesco Tristano
in a landscape (sans gravity).

Va-va-voom Van-Ahn

There are world premiere recordings by Chad Lawson and Van-Ahn Nguyen, with the Australian-Vietnamese pianist playing film music tracks including from The Sound of Music, Sense and Sensibility, The English Patient and Missing. All very charming. One personal rant: I cannot tolerate artists who graffitise classical pieces by adding ambient sounds and noise, throw in a few string textures and claim these to be personal treatments of music they love. There are two such tracks that have degraded Chopin and Satie. How very pretentious.

All in all, at budget price, one can find gems among the dross. If this helps you sleep better, Peaceful Piano Moods certainly beats paying a doctor to prescribe you sleeping pills. And probably a lot cheaper too.

EVERYONE LOVES A SOIREE: HARI RAYA MUSICA @ HEYANG'S TAMPINES HUT

It's the eve of Hari Raya Haji, a Muslim public holiday that has to do with the pilgrimage to Mecca or a haj, not to be mistaken with Hari Raya Puasa, the end of the fasting month Ramadan. Very soon after the "Three Chef" Soiree, Lianhe Zaobao musical journalist Zhang Heyang organised his Hari Raya Musica which brought together more of his musical friends on a Tuesday evening (26 May). There are more violinists this time, he promised but we were not expecting an actual concert pianist and composer to be present. But like a true jouno, Heyang knows everybody...

Enough of waffling, so here are the photos of another every enjoyable soiree. Nobody quite knew what they were going to play, so it was a case of "let's see what scores we have available". Thankfully, there were some emergency Bach and emergency Kreisler at hand, sure prophylactics against boredom and somnolence.

Where are the greens?
Here they are, very healthy!

Getting to know everybody

The ice was broken when Two-Set Zhang
played Ohne Dich by Erich Korngold

It sounded completely different when
played by true professionals:
Jonathan Shin & Zhang Xiaomeng

Jon Shin's The Other Swan
where the bird swims in an opposite direction
due to the Coriolis effect in Singapore.

Young Pei En plays Elgar's Salut d'Amour

J.S.Bach's Double Violin Concerto
with different duos in three movements.
I. Heyang with Yang Liuyi

II. Liuyi with Xiaomeng

III. Xiaomeng with Heyang

Shostakovich-Atovmyan
5 Pieces for two violins

Heyang's Intermission Tiramisu
with Tommaso from Genoa,
who certainly knows his Italian desserts.

Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No.1
with added modifications

Improvising on some Chinese songs

Bryan Ong sings Stars
from Les Miserables

More Shostakovich

Kreisler's Liebesleid & Schone Rosmarin

Jon Shin plays improvisations.
NB. He will perform a Late Night recital
at the Singapore International Piano Festival
at The Arts House on 3 July

Liuyi plays more improvisations
before locking her violin for good.

In reality, this was an Arsenal
Premiership 2025-2026 celebration.

Three-Set Zhang
(Chang + Zhang X 2) + Hubby of Zhang

 

Till the next soiree!