YUNCHAN LIM IN RECITAL / HAYATO SUMINO "CATEEN" IN SINGAPORE / Review

 

YUNCHAN LIM IN RECITAL 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Friday (28 June 2024)

HAYATO SUMINO 

“CATEEN” IN SINGAPORE 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Saturday (29 June 2024) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 July 2024 with the title "Asian pianists strut their stuff".

There was a time when Asian musicians in the world of Western classical music were regarded with suspicion and scepticism. A common criticism was that while technically proficient, they lacked depth and gravitas, not having been brought up or schooled in the original cultures of the West. That myth was partly dispelled when Chinese pianist Fou Ts’ong was awarded the Mazurka Prize at the 1955 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, and Vietnam’s Dang Thai Son won the first prize outright in 1980, the first Asian to do so. 

Since then, many international music competitions have been dominated by Asians, who outnumber their Western counterparts in the world’s music conservatories. A watershed was the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Texas, where the three top prizes were awarded to Japan’s Nobuyuki Tsujii and China’s Zhang Haochen (Joint Gold), and South Korea’s Yeol Eum Son (Silver). The last two winners of the Chopin were Seong Jin Cho (2015, from South Korea) and Bruce Liu (2021, Canada). All have performed in Singapore to enraptured audiences. 

Photo: Alvin Ho

The advent of social media has also played a part in raising young musicians’ profiles. South Korea’s Yunchan Lim became an instant YouTube sensation at the Cliburn in 2022, with thousands viewing his winning live performance of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto. The current viewership stands at 3.6 million with over 50 thousand likes. 

His recital, the second here in as many years, showcased why audiences were so taken by him. He stands out from cookie-cutter technicians by embracing a very personal vision of the music he performs. The disappointment that he had dropped all 27 of Chopin’s Etudes was immediately made up the moment he set fingers on Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. 

In two of these miniatures, a silky smooth cantabile tone was the first thing one noticed. He continued directly into Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, each of its 12 movements representing a month of the year. One could dismiss these as salon fluff, but for him, every note seemed to matter. 

Even the lesser-known pieces stood out, such as the busy machinations in Harvest (August), and The Hunt (September) where the stampeding steeds of 1812 Overture were alluded to. The simple waltz of Christmas (December) shared the delightful lilt of The Nutcracker ballet. 

Photo: Alvin Ho

In Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a piano score originally cast in monochrome, his vistas were delivered in full Technicolor. Liberties were taken from the very first Promenade, then casting tremolos and accents galore in Gnomus, where the definition of grotesque was taken most literally. Purists gasp at the audacity of added notes and extra effects, but was that not how the great Vladimir Horowitz bewitched his audiences? 

Photo: Alvin Ho

The Steinway grand was long out of tune by the time he launched into Baba Yaga’s Hut, a full-frontal assault that included outlandish glissandi in place of grace notes, and the tolling carillons of The Great Gate of Kiev. Never had there been a more spontaneous standing ovation than this, and Lim took short and quick bows in acknowledgement, his modesty belying outsized talent and charisma. 

Photo: Pianomaniac

While Yunchan remained taciturn throughout 
his recital, Cateen spoke to his audience.

The more personable Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino, nicknamed Cateen, was already well-known as a YouTuber (over 2 million subscribers on various channels) with his cutesy videos of improvisations and popular repertoire. A semi-finals showing at the 2021 Chopin International Piano Competition introduced him into the classical mainstream as a serious musician. 

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

The first parts of his recital were strictly classical, but with a difference. In J.S.Bach’s Italian Concerto he performed on two pianos, a grand and an upright, swivelling between keyboards between movements. In the aria-like slow movement, he played both simultaneously; the right hand’s melody on the brighter grand, with left hand accompaniment on the dampened and mellower upright. 

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

His Chopin was close to unimpeachable in Rondo a la Mazur (Op.5), Second Ballade (Op.38) and Nocturne in C minor (Op.48 No.1). He followed up with two improvisations. Recollection was a dusky reminiscence of both F major pieces (Op.5 & 38), heard sotto voce throughout on the upright. New Birth was an outrageous but entertaining spin-off from Chopin’s arpeggio-laden Etude in C major (Op.10 No.1). 

The late great Ukrainian jazzman Nikolai Kapustin was represented by a selection of five Etudes (from Op.40), with the Intermezzo (No.7) and its honky-tonk lounge inspiration rightly heard on the upright. Sumino’s original compositions Baby’s Breath and Nocturne, and Joe Hisaishi’s Spirited Away Suite, showed a genuine affinity for the pop / sentimental / film music idiom. 

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

His own transcription of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, with myriad orchestral effects, was played on both pianos and its grandstanding finish bringing down the house. His encores drew another standing ovation, for the second consecutive night. East Asia is where the next revolution of the classical piano, and classical music itself, takes place. Believe it or not, the diverse musical personalities of Yunchan Lim and Hayato Sumino are just the tip of the iceberg. 

Cateen was a smiling presence
throughout his recital
Photo: Pianomaniac

Encores: 

YUNCHAN LIM (28 June)

 

  TCHAIKOVSKY Moment Lyrique 

  LISZT Liebestraume No.3 

HAYATO SUMINO (29 June) 

  CATEEN 7 Levels of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 

  CHOPIN Polonaise in A flat major Op.53 

  “Heroic”