A PIANO ODYSSEY / Kennis Ang & Jonah Kwek / Review

 

A PIANO ODYSSEY 

Kennis Ang & Jonah Kwek, Two Pianos 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Monday (30 December 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 January 2025 with the title "Exciting four hands and two pianos debut".

It is a pleasure to encounter new piano duos, ensembles which hone the performance of music for piano four hands and two pianos into a fine art. The latest to debut is the exciting duo of Kennis Ang and Jonah Kwek, which was recently awarded first prize at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Stecher and Horowitz Two Piano Competition 2024 in the United States. 

Both pianists were alumni of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (students of Thomas Hecht) and are presently pursuing Masters degrees at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. Their highly demanding programme, inspired by the virtuoso repertoire of Argentine pianist Martha Argerich and her partners, was performed completely from memory. 

Opening with Spanish composer Manuel Infante’s Andalusian Dance No.1, a keen sense of rhythm (the movement is marked Ritmo) and pin-point articulation was on display from the outset. Balancing of voices was also key, ensuring that one piano did not overwhelm the other. 

Photo: Chng Wayne

Both pianists then converged onto a single keyboard for one of the four hands repertoire’s greatest masterpieces, Franz Schubert’s late Fantasie in F minor (D.940). The intimacy developed between both players became even more apparent, opening with an air of melancholy, then quickening in pulse as the tension is gradually heightened. 

Photo: Chng Wayne

Abrupt shifts of moods, indication of the Austrian composer’s troubled state of mind (he was dead by year’s end), were well handled, culminating in a double fugue where interweaving voices stood out by their clarity. Those who cherished the wonderful performance by the American duo of Kate Liu and Eric Lu just two months ago will find Ang and Kwek a solid equal. 

Closing the first half was Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini, an anarchic and witty take on Nicolo Paganini’s popular Caprice No.24 for solo violin. Quirky harmonies, unexpected dissonances and dynamic extremes were par for the course as the duo raced through its frenetic pages with tongue firmly lodged in cheek. 

Photo: Chng Wayne

The concert’s biggest work was Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, his final composition which also amounted to an un-numbered fourth symphony. Gone were the melting lyricism and luscious harmonies of earlier triumphs, in its place a grittier and more robust musical language. With Rachmaninov being Rachmaninov, there was no escaping yearning nostalgia. 

Rhythmic elements in all three movements, vital in keeping the music alive and pulses moving, were keenly observed. The opening movement’s martial tone was balanced by flickers of sentimentality (played by alto saxophone in its orchestral version) and a final retiring quote from Rachmaninov’s failed First Symphony. 

Photo: Chng Wayne

The bittersweet waltz of the central movement was a throwback to the ballrooms of a bygone age, its ghostly cobwebs gently dispersed by playing of elegance and no little rubato. The finale’s glorious summation of Rachmaninov’s obsessions – bell sounds, Russian Orthodox church music and the medieval Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) chant – was launched with fearless aplomb, driving headily into a grandstanding conclusion.