BEETHOVEN:
THE COMPLETE
32 PIANO SONATAS - PART III
MIKKEL MYER LEE, Piano
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (23 May 2026)
PRODIGIOUS 2026
re:Sound
Victoria Concert Hall
Sunday (24 May 2025)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 May 2026 with the title "More mature piano-playing from Mikkel Myer Lee; Cathy Chen Xi, 12, impresses".
The third instalment of 13-year-old Mikkel Myer Lee’s Beethoven piano sonata cycle played to a full-house at Esplanade Concert Hall. It comprised four sonatas, two each from the German composer’s Early and Middle periods. Opening with Sonata No.2 in A major (Op.2 No.2), there was a palpable sense of maturity since his last Beethoven recital in December 2024.
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| Photo: Zoan Guan Ziwen |
Appearing more relaxed, he had less of a tendency to rush the fences. Articulation was as clear as before, while phrasing and placement of accents showed he understood Beethoven’s idiom well. The astute omission of repeats also ensured a breezy account through its four movements. In the “facile” Sonata No.20 in G major (Op.49 No.2), he displayed fluency and buoyant spirits while not underselling the work’s value as a teaching piece.
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| Photo: Zhang Xiaochen |
In two mature sonatas, his true mettle was revealed. Sonata No.26 in E flat major (Op.81a), or Les Adieux, has such difficult passages that would slay pianists triple his age. He took these well within his stride, its arch-like programme of the farewell, absence and return of Beethoven’s beloved patron Archduke Rudolf being very well-characterised.
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| Photo: Zhang Xiaochen |
The most challenging work was Sonata No.23 in F minor (Op.57), the mighty Appassionata, where a big brawny sound was demanded. Here, Lee’s diminutive stature became a limitation, but he made up by being never short on nuance, wits and endurance, tiding him through three gruelling movements.
His encores of the slow movement from Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata and Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words (Op.53 No.2) were also rapturously received by the noisiest and most ill-disciplined audience in recent memory.
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| Photo: Zoan Guan Ziwen |
In Lee, Singapore has its answer to Russia’s Evgeny Kissin and UK’s Benjamin Grosvenor, the most significant piano prodigies of the past four decades.
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| Photo: Yong Junyi |
Somewhat less unwashed was the audience that greeted 12-year-old violinist Cathy Chen Xi, 1st prizewinner of the 2025 Hengqing International Mozart Competition (Zhuhai), in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4 in D major (K.218). Although partnered with the professionals of re:Sound who towered over her, she was more than able to hold her own.
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| Photo: Yong Junyi |
She played with the ensemble in the tuttis, and in her solos, she emerged with a clear and pristine voice. Her tone was pure and unwavering, and her intonation immaculate. An unfailing singing line was maintained through all three movements, only asserting herself in cadenzas, which were very impressive as well.
The finale’s graceful little dance exuded pure joy and its rustic interlude with drones that simulated bagpipes provided delightful contrasts. In Chen, we have another violin prodigy who could become the next Chloe Chua.
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| Photo: Yong Junyi |
This concert also provided opportunities for over 20 young musicians from the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and other schools to perform alongside Singapore’s top chamber orchestra. String players were placed side-by-side with pros for 20th century Polish composer Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa, a minimalist showcase that opened with just three instruments and then expanded to a full-voiced ensemble. The build-up of sonorities to a final shout was simply spectacular.
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| Photo: Yong Junyi |
In Franz Schubert’s Symphony No.5 in B flat major, modelled on Mozart’s symphonies, woodwinds were added, and the sound generated was further enhanced. This listener first heard this work performed in 1979 by a very young Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and can conclude that good teaching and guidance has made the young musicians of today sound even more polished, and thus more prodigious.
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