PIANOMANIA @ Esplanade Concourse

Abigail Lim performs a Bach Prelude & Fugue.

It was pure coincidence that I stumbled onto Pianomania, a free piano concert held at the Esplanade Concourse on Sunday evening (3 March 2013), Being similarly titled as this blog was also a coincidence, but  the talent on display was something to be proud of. There were three separate concerts, held at a quarter past 5, 6 and 7, and on show were the piano students of well-known local piano pedagogue Benjamin Loh. I stayed on till the end, buoyed on by the fond memories of the 13-hour long SSO Piano Marathon of 1998 - featuring no less than 122 pianists - which I had helped to organise.    

It may be said that the audience was almost as colourful as the performances on stage. On the right, Phang Wei Jun performs Brahms's Rhapsody in G minor Op.79 No.2.

Wu Chin Ying had the requisite technique to pull off Schumann's ABEGG Variations.

There were also younger performers. Carmellia Chang (no relation) played the Toccatina by Dmitri Kabalevsky.

The second group of performers take their bow.

10-year-old Alyssa Kok was a most confident and engaging emcee. She also performed Glinka's Variations on Alyabiev's Nightingale beautifully. 

The youngest performer, Megan Lim (8 years old) played a ragtime piece by Milne called Vendetta. 

Abel Ling gave a masterful account of Tchaikovsky's Dumka.

Jonathan Chua pulled out the stops for Granados's Los Requiebros from Goyescas. How he got the melody out from the left hand so seamlessly was very admirable. 

The evening closed with a no-holds-barred account of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No.12 from Gavin Jared Bala, winner of the Pianomania Award in last year's Performers Festival.

Applause for the marvellous young performers.