SEEDS OF HOPE: YOUNG INTERNATIONAL PIANISTS IN CONCERT / Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts / Review

 

SEEDS OF HOPE: 

YOUNG INTERNATIONAL PIANISTS 

IN CONCERT 

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts 

Lee Foundation Theatre 

Sunday (2 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 June 2024 with the title "Young international piano talents dazzle".

Ever wondered what it was like to witness Lang Lang and Yuja Wang performing as children way before they became global icons of classical music? The School of Young Talents at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts gave a glimpse of that in two concerts celebrating its 25th anniversary. The first featured local students including violinist Chloe Chua, while the second highlighted five visiting piano talents, all winners of international competitions. 

The youngest was 7-year-old Joseph Yourong Cai from Hong Kong who opened accounts with the first movement from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonata in C major (K.330). Displaying hallmarks of good teaching, he gave a crisp and limpid reading which had rhythmic drive and poetry. The swift pace was upped for Franz Schubert’s vertiginous Impromptu in E flat major, whipped off effortlessly and balanced by a central section of true impetuosity. 

Photo: Antonius Lawrence

A selection of Sergei Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives, varied character pieces, revealed a wide range of moods and colours. He certainly understood the meaning of the tenth piece, described as ridiculosamente (ridiculously). 

Two years older was Cheng Sio Ioi from Macau, so diminutive he needed pedal extensions as both feet could not reach the floor. That he mastered the first eight of Frederic Chopin’s Preludes (Op.28) was without question. More telling was his ability to infuse the minor key pieces (Nos.2,4 and 6) with a depth of feeling and gravitas that even eludes adults. His approach to Nikolai Kapustin’s Toccatina was bold and brash, but showy in the best possible way. 

Photo: Antonius Lawrence

Gao Jingzhi (10, China) was perhaps the first pianist to be self-aware of his virtuosity. Sporting a cut similar to Lang Lang’s, he also exhibited some of his mannerisms without direct imitation. His view of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Meditation was somewhat prosaic but unleashed prodigious fingers on two Chopin Etudes, No.7 and 8 from the Op.10 set. These possessed pizzazz and humour to equal degree, as did the rapid-fire repeated notes of Moritz Moszkowski’s scintillating Caprice Espagnol. 

Photo: Antonius Lawrence

When it came to the turn of Cai Rongzhe (14, China), one instinctively felt being in the presence of mature performers. There was little to suggest in Chopin’s Third Impromptu that he was not yet of age to imbibe alcohol. 

Photo: Antonius Lawrence

More impressive was his bracing accounts of Franz Liszt transcriptions of three Franz Schubert songs. In The Miller and the Brook, To Sing On The Water and The Trout, melodic lines were gloriously upheld over busy accompanying filigree. Maurice Ravel’s Scarbo from Gaspard de la Nuit then raised the roof and temperature of the hall. 

At seventeen, Phoebe Papandrea (United Kingdom) is all ready for a professional performing career. Her varied repertoire choices and excellence of execution all point to that. Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Le Rappel des Oiseaux (The Call of the Birds) took buoyant flight, while violent contrasts in Chopin’s Second Ballade were capped by a furious coda. With Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Sixth Moment Musicaux (Op.16 No.6), she completed a fine evening of music with the clacking of castanets and rolling thunder.

Photo: Antonius Lawrence