A PERSONAL TRIBUTE
TO DENNIS LEE (1946-2023)
Dennis Lee Ean Hooi was the first concert pianist to emerge from Malaya. Born in Penang in 1946, he was Malaysia’s premier pianist, the first one to make it big in the West. His name was on the lips of all who knew classical music here during the 1970s through 90s. The first time I heard him perform was on a radio broadcast on Singapore Broadcasting Corporation’s 92.4 FM channel during the early 1980s, long before the station went into terminal decline. It was a recital from the Cheltenham Festival, which had works like Schubert’s C minor Sonata (D.958) and Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales. I was hearing a major artist at work and got hooked immediately. Then I wondered when I would actually catch him in person.
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| Dennis Lee's autograph (left) is typically modest and self-effacing, reflecting an unassuming personality. |
That came in 1987, when he performed Prokofiev’s compact First Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Choo Hoey conducting. He autographed my 2-piano score (above), and I still have it today. Years later, he played the same concerto with the Malaysian Philharmonic in Kuala Lumpur, and performed it much like before, incisive in his attack and never forsaking the inherent wit in the music.
It took some nerve to introduce myself to him in his next SSO appearance in 1997, when he performed Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Gaetano Delogu directing. I remember his encore, the Schumann-Liszt Widmung, which was prefaced by him reading the original love poem. I then found out that he knew my maternal uncle, a fellow-student in Penang Free School, and that he attended my grandfather’s bible study class in Green Lane during the 1950s.
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| Dennis Lee's famous Szymanowski disc on Hyperion, and the Ravel with Philippe Entremont |
By that time, I already owned two CD recordings of his, the wonderful Hyperion disc of Szymanowski’s piano music (still his finest recording, and one that would open the floodgate of Szymanowski piano recordings to come) and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite with Philippe Entremont. I later learnt he had the same agent as the famous Frenchman, and when CBS Masterworks needed someone to partner Entremont for the 4-hands work, Dennis got the gig. More recently, Dennis Lee began his Debussy solo cycle on the ICSM Records label, and two critically acclaimed discs have been issued. A third CD is awaiting release and I hope that happens soon.
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| Dennis Lee's two latest recordings of Debussy's piano music. |
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| From the 1977 Casagrande Competition, Dennis Lee with Alexander Lonquich. |
It must be remembered that Dennis had won prizes in multiple international piano competitions, including 2nd Prize at the prestigious Busoni (Bolzano, Italy), Casagrande (Terni, Italy) competitions and 1st prizes in Epinal, France. He was also a finalist at the Sydney International Piano Competition during its inaugural year 1977.
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| Dennis & Chee Hung signing autographs at Kuala Lumpur's Dewan Filarmonik Petronas. |
By 2000, Dennis and his Singapore-born fellow-pianist wife Toh Chee Hung were performing regularly in Singapore. Arguably the finest performances of Mozart’s Double Piano Concerto (K.365) I had ever heard were given by them with the SSO under Shui Lan, both in Singapore and on tour to Kuala Lumpur. Their performances of 4-hands piano music were legendary, and I imagined them to be the Southeast Asian version of the famous Israeli duo of Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir. Their intuitive and near-telepathic communication, allied by unfailing good taste and examplary stage deportment made them the final word in duet playing.
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| Outside Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore International Piano Festival 2005. |
I was privileged as Artistic Director of the Singapore International Piano Festival to have had them perform in 2005 the most demanding of 2-piano programmes, which included a set of Schubert variations, Mozart’s Sonata in D major (K.448), Colin McPhee’s Ceremonial Balinese Music, Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, Debussy’s Nocturnes (Nuages & Fetes, arranged by Ravel) and Chabrier’s Espana. I believe the Debussy and McPhee to be Singapore premieres, works which they had specially learnt for the occasion. At the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre later in the same year, they performed a less arduous programme, capped by Dennis’ passionate yet lyrically fine take on Brahms’ mighty Third Sonata (Op.5).
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| Four hands at Victoria Concert Hall. |
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| At Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre HSBC Classics 2005. |
Being a regular at the SSO, I also saw Dennis play Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto (with Libor Pesek) and Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto (with Okko Kamu), both memorable for different reasons. In the Rachmaninov, he was at his most comfortable, totally at home with the music’s lush melancholy, while being stretched to his physical and technical limits in the Brahms. More recently, he gave a very fine reading of Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto with Singapore’s professional chamber outfit re:Sound Collective, which I described as being “more classically attuned, ...with transparent textures, measured gestures and no little nimbleness”.
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| At Chateau Konishi, Penang, 2007 |
He had a wide and catholic repertoire, which included not just the classics but also an imperious Liszt Polonaise No.2, heard at a concert at the University Cultural Centre. Oh, now I totally regret missing a 1980s recital which had at its centrepiece Villa-Lobos’ Rudepoema. In his later years, he included Liszt’s Sonata in B minor and Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit to his already vast repertory. He was however happiest performing with Chee Hung in duets which many people may not know (Mozart, Schubert, Clementi, Dussek et al), and I got to witness more of their work as a dinner guest of theirs in Tan Sri Fumihiko Konishi’s French-styled chateau by the edge Penang’s Turf Club. And he could also improvise and play popular melodies, as seen in a New Year’s Eve party at the home of famous surgeon N.K.Yong.
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| After a Kuala Lumpur recital, with Esther Budiardjo, George Wong & Margaret Yeoh, 2005. |
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| Dennis regaling Kun Woo Paik & Mrs Paik, Makansutra 2005. |
Music aside, I remember Dennis most for his warmth, kindness, hospitality, friendship and infinite good humour. Without fail every year, I would receive a birthday e-mail greeting from him, asking about my plans to celebrate. For me, music is a celebration of life and Dennis (and Chee Hung) provided many such wonderful moments. There have been many meetings and meals together over the years, and these always brought out the raconteur in him, his many stories and escapades of concert life and piano examinations truly tickled the funny bone.
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| Dennis Lee with fellow jurors at the London International Piano Competition 2002 Photo by Gustav Alink. |
I close this simple tribute with a memory from 2002 as a guest of Dennis’ when he was a jury member in the now-defunct London International Piano Competition. We were driving from his home in Ladbroke Grove to South Bank Centre, when the car was caught in a midday gridlock on High Street Kensington, with minutes to spare before a semi-final round was to begin. I had never seen him lose his cool, but this came very close to it. He drove as fast as he could, jamming on the accelerator, but there were no swear words or expletives. He just exclaimed to the imaginary vehicular flock of sheep in front of him, “Can’t you see I need to judge a competition!!!”
London traffic got to him even when the Hammerklavier fugue failed.
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