LIM
YAN Piano Recital
Victoria
Concert Hall
Thursday
(16 July 2015 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 July 2015 with the title "Tales from the keyboard".
It was almost exactly ten years ago when
Lim Yan became the first Singaporean pianist to perform at the Singapore
International Piano Festival, in the process inaugurating the ongoing Young
Virtuoso Recital Series. Since then he has gone on to become the nation's most
active collaborative pianist besides the first local to perform all of
Beethoven's piano concertos in a cycle.
His latest piano recital, part of the
Singapore Symphony Orchestra's SG50 series of concerts at Victoria Concert
Hall, revealed how he has matured during the intervening years. His was an
example of excellent programming, involving works of related keys and forms,
yet providing much-needed contrasts.
It opened with Beethoven's Sonata in E flat major (Op.27 No.1),
designated “quasi una fantasia” as it departed from the standard sonata form,
resembling a fantasy in freedom of expressing its themes and ideas. Immediately
apparent was his richness of sound and clarity of articulation. Within the
second movement's undercurrents of disquiet and the finale's perpetual motion,
there was always utmost control. The sudden and unexpected reintroduction of
the slow movement's theme near the end, sensitively handled, provided a
gratifying touch of nostalgia.
Beethoven's Eroica Variations (Op.35), also in E flat major, was based on a
quirky dance from his ballet The
Creatures of Prometheus that later famously appears in the finale of his Eroica Symphony. Often overshadowed by
the Diabelli Variations, it is still
a demanding work, which found a sympathetic hearing from Lim. He understood
well its built-in humour and discursive asides, including a fugue to spice
things up.
In between, he performed local composer
Liong Kit Yeng's Roller Coaster Ride,
an etude-like showpiece which like its title suggests, traverses tumultuous
shifts of dynamics. From Messiaen-like chords to manic runs in the manner of
Ligeti's studies, and strumming the insides of the piano a la Cowell and Crumb,
the brief work had it all. It closed with sweeping glissandi up and down the
keyboard and a jerking full stop.
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| Lim Yan with young Singaporean composer Liong Kit Yeng. |
Liszt's Sonata in B minor may be considered the ultimate fantasy for the
piano. Its introduction and transformation of four simple themes through an
Olympian half-hour's journey is the stuff of pianists' dreams and nightmares.
Lim has lived with it for years, but this was his first public performance
here. And he is only the third or fourth Singaporean to survey it within the
last 30 years.
Such a landmark got the reading it
deserved, as Lim was fully attuned to its complex structure and successive series of emotional pinnacles and
valleys, in short another roller coaster ride. Its cascading octaves, scintillating
runs and chordal climaxes held no terrors for him, conquering each obstacle
with fearless accuracy and no little finesse.
Far from being just technically adroit,
Lim also found poetry amid the drama in its quiet spots and spiritual silences.
There is no programme or back-story attached to this Romantic masterpiece, but
Lim's musicianship was its best story-teller because whatever he plays, one
cannot but be drawn in and totally absorbed.
Prolonged applause drew an encore from
the otherwise reticent Lim: Beethoven's little Bagatelle (Op.126 No.3) in E flat major. That, is perfect symmetry
and eloquence for you.
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| Lim Yan with his students, past and present. |
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