SA CHEN Piano Recital
26th Singapore
Victoria Concert Hall
This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 June 2019 with the title "Crystal clear fingerwork by Chinese pianist".
This
year marked a new chapter in the history of the Singapore International Piano
Festival (SIPF) with local concert pianist Lim Yan making his debut as the
festival’s artistic director. He also happens to be the first of four directors
who is a professional musician.
Chinese
pianist Sa Chen, prizewinner in multiple prestigious international piano
competitions, was Lim’s first opening night pick. Thankfully she did not
perform like a serial competitor, the sort often associated with faceless,
bland and spotlessly accurate playing of virtuoso fodder.
The
recital’s first half was instead filled with spirituality and depth, opening
with Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Chorale & Fugue. Despite its austere
title and thematic material, her account displayed exquisite tonal colour,
limpid fingerwork and excellent pedalling.
While
Franck is better known for his organ music, there was no overt attempt to
project an organ-like sonority, but the widely-spaced broken chords of the
Chorale radiated memorable warmth. The wearying final Fugue also showed a
mastery of handling voices which came to a glorious fruition.
Two
Nocturnes by Chopin followed, the famous D flat major (Op.27 No.2) with
its seamless cantabile line, and the more animated G major (Op.37 No.2) filled
with tricky triplets passages. It was the latter’s more beseeching central
melody that lingered in the ear.
Little
prepared one for the onslaught of rapid notes and chords that came with Olivier
Messiaen’s Regard de l’esprit de joie (Gaze Of The Spirit Of Joy)
from the monumental piano cycle Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jesus (Twenty
Gazes Of The Infant Jesus). Here was a different kind of spirituality
manifested, one of fearsome and terrifying awe and majesty. Despite her slight
frame, Chen summoned the strength and reserve to overcome its ferocious
physical demands. Some will attribute this tremendous requisite as “qi”.
The
Francophilic recital’s second half comprised eight of Debussy’s 12 Études,
three from Book One and five from Book Two. These were very well
selected, reflecting a diverse compendium of devices that made up contemporary
keyboard wizardry in the 1910s. Far from being merely technical studies, there
were tonal paintings that went beyond impressionism.
The
first study was a spoof on Czerny’s pedagogy, beginning with a simple
five-finger exercise before going off on a tangent. Next was a play of fourths
as intervals while another was a whirlwind on eight fingers with sweeping
glissandi to boot. Imagination ran high, as was Chen’s ability to shape and
make sense of these seemingly disparate and incongruous pieces.
An
elusive in-joke on Chabrier (then more famous than Debussy) was shared in the
study of repeated notes. There was a silky legato in the penultimate piece
before the finale’s exhausting trial of wide leaping chords. There seemed a
real risk of weariness enveloping both pianist and listener, but how the
evening ended was well-judged, down to Chen’s sole encore of Debussy’s sublime
prelude Bruyeres. Lim Yan’s tenure at the SIPF has gotten off to a solid
start.
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| Sa Chen with Lim Yan, the SIPF's new Artistic Director. |
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