FREDDY KEMPF LIVE IN SINGAPORE / Review

FREDDY KEMPF LIVE IN SINGAPORE

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (1 August 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 August 2018 with the title "An agile journey through the geography of piano etudes".

The etude or study is a short piece written to train digital and motor technique, thus honing agility in students of the instrument. Piano etudes have often struck fear and dread, especially those dry and didactic finger-twisters by Czerny and Hanon which barely pass as listenable music.

British pianist Freddy Kempf served up a coup with a recital of 24 etudes, but fortunately those written by Chopin, Rachmaninov and living Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin. Quite uncharacteristically, he opened with three Concert Études from Op.40 by Kapustin, jazz-inspired numbers which are usually performed as encores.

Getting off to a thunderous start, he immediately had listeners audience eating from his hands. The central Étude No.7, entitled Intermezzo, opened with smoky and night-clubby insouciance before working to a tipsied frenzy that was hard not to wholeheartedly applaud at its conclusion.

That was exactly what the audience did, clapping through short breaks between the 12 Études Op.10 by Frederic Chopin, mostly after those which ended with a big bang. One wondered whether Kempf was distracted by the inappropriately timed and intrusive accolade, but he more than held his nerve.

Scintillating bravura was the order of the day, beginning with the wide arpeggio stretches in the C major Étude (No.1) and concluding with the coruscating passion of the C minor “Revolutionary” Étude (No.12). In between, his razor-keen reflexes and hyper-acute synapses fired, tossing off such treacherous pieces like the A minor “Chromatic Étude” (No.2) and G flat major “Black Key” Étude (No.5) without so much as breaking a sweat.

There was none of that mindless playing-by-the-numbers pianism so often encountered in keyboard automatons churned out by the dozen. Instead these were very nuanced readings, where purring pianissimos and furious fortissimos were mixed in with deliciously timed rubatos, that inimitable soul of musical Romanticism.

Kempf's performances of the 9 Études-Tableaux Op.39 by Rachmaninov that followed after the interval were arguably even better. Moving away from mere virtuoso display, these are little tone poems which seem to tell stories from deep within the Russian soul. The first two were obsessed with the Dies Irae (the medieval plainchant of Judgement Day), first angry rumbling followed by calming placidity.

Then there was that astonishing sequence of etudes that relived bells of all nature and kind. The E flat minor (No.5) tolling variety was vividly contrasted with the heavier-laden pealing in C minor (No.7). In between was wild scampering in A minor (No.6), which listeners will be readily reminded of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.

Gentle swirling eddies in D minor (No.8) soon gave way for the triumphal procession in D major (No.9), where a marching band's parade closed with a thrilling and sonorous carillon. Kempf's journey through the geography of piano etudes had come to an end, and there was one encore. That was a complete antithesis to the mighty study: Chopin's simple little waltz called L'Adieu, or Farewell.  

    

Freddy Kempf's piano recital was presented as part of the Aureus Great Artists Series.

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO BE MISSED: FREDDY KEMPF LIVE IN SINGAPORE

The prize-winning British pianist Freddy Kempf makes a long-awaited return to Singapore with a piano recital at Esplanade Concert Hall on Wednesday 1 August 2018. Kempf was brought to world attention at the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, when he was awarded the 3rd Prize. 

In a cause celebré rivalling Ivo Pogorelich's at the 1980 Chopin Competition, the Russian audience and many critics had been scandalised as they felt he was denied the rightful gold medal. His subsequent career has been nothing less than meteoric with international performances and highly rated CD recordings on the BIS label.

His recital on 1 August is unusual as it comprises wholly of concert etudes, a reminder of his prodigious technique displayed at his 2001 Singapore debut when he performed four of Liszt's Transcendental Etudes at the Singapore International Piano Festival.    

Programme:

KAPUSTIN Concert Études, Op.40 Nos.1,7 & 8

CHOPIN 12 Études, Op.10

RACHMANINOV 9 Études-tableaux, Op.39

Wednesday, 1 August 2018 at 7.30 pm

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tickets available at all SISTIC outlets

or Book online at:

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cfreddy0818

Freddy Kempf Live in Singapore is presented as part of the Aureus Great Artists Series.

VALENTINA LISITSA LIVE IN SINGAPORE / Review

VALENTINA LISITSA

LIVE IN SINGAPORE

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (20 May 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 May 2018 with the title "Fast, furious and masterful takes on epic works".

The Ukrainian-American pianist Valentina Lisitsa is no stranger to monster programmes, so it may seem that she showed relative restraint by limiting her most recent recital (her third in Singapore since 2007) to just four works. Yet, these were epics of the repertoire, and she knew exactly how to make them sound big.

First off was Beethoven's Sonata No.23 in F minor (Op.57), better known as the “Appassionata”. The opening was icy and sullen, then came the build-up of huge chords which soon filled the hall with red hot passion, matching the bright shade of her gown. A few wrong notes were tossed off with nonchalance, as nothing would stand in the way of her single-minded steely charge.

The slow movement's theme and variations provided moments of calm respite, before the perpetual motion in the whirlwind finale swept any hint of doubt aside. The next work, Rachmaninov's First Sonata in D minor (op.28), purportedly inspired by the Faust legend, would follow a similar schema except on an even larger scale.

Most pianists take between 35 to 40 minutes to tackle this behemoth, but Lisitsa horse-whipped it to just under 31 minutes. It sounded rushed at parts, especially in the Mephistophelean finale, but there was no mistaking her mastery of its overarching narrative. An ageing but restless Faust (portrayed in the opening movement) was well contrasted with the innocence and tenderness of Gretchen (the slow movement) before the finale's Dies Irae chant-filled onslaught to the abyss.

For the first of three devilish pieces in Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, Lisitsa found a silken and pearly touch for the watery realm of Ondine, before a tidal wave of arpeggios at the end revealed a more malevolent intent. Le Gibet (The Gallows) was coloured with the incessant tolling of a distant bell, a sort of fatal aural balm hypnotically cast in B flat.

In the notorious Scarbo, the suite's most fiendishly difficult movement, she went for broke by tearing through its thorny and barbed thickets. Again it seemed all too fast, with the crossing octaves and chords at the rapturous climaxes coming across like a blur, but the effect was no less gripping. There was a stunned silence before applause rang out unreservedly.

The programme's final work was Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, which began with a take-no-prisoners approach for its opening Promenade. Fortunately a more nuanced performance than earlier anticipated unfolded, with a wealth of contrasts and dynamics displayed in the successive movements. However, one would still marvel at the speed and power in Lisitsa's cascading octaves for Baba Yaga's Hut (almost a first cousin of Scarbo) and the concluding Great Gate of Kiev, which brought down the house.     

Ever generous with encores, Lisitsa showered her adoring audience with Liszt's coruscating Second Hungarian Rhapsody and all three movements of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. A standing ovation ensured that no one went home empty-handed.  

Valentina Lisitsa's piano recital was a presentation in the Aureus Great Artists Series.

BORIS BEREZOVSKY: TITAN OF THE PIANO / Review

BORIS BEREZOVSKY

TITAN OF THE PIANO

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (21 February 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 February 2018 with the title "Super-virtuoso pianist makes a splash".

In the second recital of the Aureus Great Artists Series, celebrated Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky, 1^st prize winner of the 1990 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, took to the stage. There was an eleventh-hour programme change, with the more standard selection of Beethoven, Chopin, Bartok, Scarlatti and Stravinsky replaced by an all-Russian smorgasbord.

Here are the Russians (L-R):
Balakirev, Liadov, Rachmaninov, Scriabin & Stravinsky.

The music of Mily Balakirev rarely features in recitals, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear a suite comprising two Mazurkas, a Nocturne and a Scherzo from the leader of “The Mighty Handful” clique of Russian nationalist composers, who was also enamoured of Chopin.

Within minutes, Berezovsky, a hulking bear of a performer, showed why he is regarded a super-virtuoso among pianists. That he could deliver huge splashy chords and the finest filigree within mere moments was much to savour, his enormous dynamic range achieved with seemingly the greatest of ease, minimum fuss and absolutely no histrionics.

Even the notorious oriental fantasy Islamey was tossed off with searing pace, lightness and clarity that defied physics. One of very few who can play it under 8 minutes, a canny excision towards its coruscating end lopped off further seconds, thus comfortably hitting the sub-seven mark.

Speed records do not apply to Anatol Liadov's exquisite miniatures, which Berezovsky treated like sparkling gems. There was a gently rocking Barcarolle and lilting Mazurka, reliving Chopin and early Scriabin, and a bouquet of Preludes. This was distinguished by the Borodinesque melody of Op.11 No.1, the melancholy of which could not have been more Russian.

Without neither a break nor fanfare, he seamlessly eased into five Préludes by Rachmaninov, closing with the popular E flat major and G minor numbers (Op.23 Nos.6 & 5). As the alert listener would have noticed by now, Berezovsky had chopped and changed the programme, omitting certain listed pieces and adding new ones as he progressed. It was anybody's guess what came next, but this serendipity was more enthralling than disorientating.

With no further surprises, the second half began with six Études by Alexander Scriabin. Working from Op.42 to Op.65, and mirroring the composer's ascent from neurotic excitability into outright hysteria, the music became more frenzied in Berezovsky's hands. The climax came in the volcanic spewings of Sonata No.5, the so-called “Poem of Ecstasy”.

Despite getting lost somewhere in its psychedelic ruminations, Berezovsky obeyed the cardinal law of concert pianists by not stopping, instead recovering and finishing in the most exulted of highs. As if that were not enough, Stravinsky's fearsome Three Movements from Petrushka followed, further revealing Berezovsky's metier as a true keyboard colourist.  

While not pin-point accurate, it was the rough-and-tumble of the Shrovetide Fair dances that truly mattered, with swathes of orchestral colour emanating from the keyboard like never before. Its raucous conclusion raised a spontaneous standing ovation, and three of Grieg's Lyric Pieces (Berceuse, March of the Trolls and Wedding Day at Troldhaugen) - conjuring a different sound world altogether – as encores, had exactly the same effect. 

A CONCERT NOT TO BE MISSED: BORIS BEREZOVSKY - TITAN OF THE PIANO

Here is a concert not to be missed, an all-Russian piano recital by the great Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky entitled "Titan of the Piano". 

Berezovsky was the 1st Prizewinner in the 1990 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. He last performed a solo recital in Singapore in 2005 (Chopin-Godowsky Etudes and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition), and has appeared on multiple occasions with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

His piano recital programme (please note the changes) is as follows:

BALAKIREV Mazurkas Nos.4 & 5
Scherzos Nos.2 & 3 
Nocturne No.1 
Islamey

LIADOV Barcarolle Op.44 
Mazurka Op.57 No.3
Preludes (Selection)

RACHMANINOV Preludes Op.32 (Selection)

SCRIABIN Études Op.42 Nos.3, 4 & 5
Etudes Op.65 Nos.1-3
Sonata No.5

STRAVINSKY 

Three Movements from Petrushka

When: Wednesday 21 February 2018

Where: Esplanade Concert Hall

What time: 7.30 pm

Tickets are available at SISTIC by clicking here:

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cboris0218

This concert is presented by Aureus Productions as part of the Aureus Great Artists Series. 

MELVYN TAN GALA CONCERT / Review

MELVYN TAN GALA CONCERT

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (27 December 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 December 2017 with the title "Pianist Melvyn Tan lights the way for series of concerts".

Singapore-born British pianist Melvyn Tan was the first performer of the Aureus Great Artist Series, an ambitious line-up of concerts organised by Aureus Academy, Singapore fastest growing private music education institution. His recital, entitled Dances and Mirrors, was a well-conceived programme built around the music of Maurice Ravel.

The short first half featured waltzes, opening with Weber's Invitation To The Dance. Its slow and courtly introduction depicts a gentleman politely addressing a lady, and her gracious acceptance, before leading to the ballroom floor. The entreaties were however broken by a bawling toddler who had to be carried out of the hall.

Unperturbed, Tan leapt brilliantly into the waltz proper, one that pulsed and heaved as one breathed. Far from being metronomic, Tan's dance delighted in liberal rubato, deliberately slowing down before gathering speed once more, giving the music both life and lilt. The over-arching climax and false ending had the audience applauding prematurely, before a return to the earlier pleasantries.

The eight short waltzes of Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales came next, modelled on Schubert's similarly titled groups of dances. A plethora of dynamic contrasts were brought out, highlighting many facets of these sparkling polished gems. Boisterous yet coy, brusque yet tender, Tan found them all and never once did he miss out on the vital and unceasing rhythm.

The longer second half saw the five impressionistic pieces of Ravel's Miroirs (Mirrors) separated into four suites. Within each group, works by Liszt and Scarlatti were imaginatively selected to mirror Ravel for a show of converging inspirations and diverging outcomes.

Some masochistic impulse must have possessed Tan to begin with Liszt's Feux Follets (Will-o'-the-wisp), arguable the keyboard repertoire's most merciless finger-twister. Although he came through relatively unscathed, the account came across as effortful. More comfortable he was with the flittering and flickering denizens of Ravel's Noctuelles, an evocative portrait of night moths, and the resounding echoes of Oiseaux Tristes, which sounded magical.

The watery realm was explored next in Liszt's Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este, a gushy play of spouting fountains. There was a brief lapse of focus midway, but benediction was found at its spiritual close and the ensuing roar of waves in Ravel's Une barque sur l'ocean.

The third suite was the most unrelenting, with two Scarlatti sonatas simulating outsized sonorities of military parades (with drums and trumpets aplenty) and flamenco guitar. The nightmare of repeated notes in the D minor Sonata (K.141) was then mirrored in Ravel's Alborada del gracioso, the unfettered morning dance of a court jester. Here, the highly animated and demonstrative Tan became the jester himself.

Closing the recital were the pealing tones of Liszt's Bells Of Geneva and Ravel's The Valley Of Bells, which made for a sublime and quiet ending. Instead of playing an encore, Tan gave way for two of his youngest students, Aaron Oh and Asher Khoo, who impressed on four hands with the evening's final dance - a Johann Strauss polka. 

A CONCERT NOT TO BE MISSED: MELVYN TAN GALA CONCERT on 27 December 2017

Here's a concert not to be missed:

Hear MELVYN TAN, the greatest pianist Singapore has ever produced, perform in a piano recital at Esplanade Concert Hall. Presented in the Aureus Great Artists Series by Aureus Academy, Melvyn Tan performs a dance-inspired programme of music by Weber, Ravel, Liszt and Scarlatti.

MELVYN TAN GALA CONCERT

Wednesday, 27 December 2017

Esplanade Concert Hall, 7.30 pm

To book tickets, click on: 

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cgala1217

The programme:

WEBER Invitation to the Dance

RAVEL Valses nobles et sentimentales

LISZT Feux follets

LISZT Les Cloches de Geneve

LISZT Les jeux d'eau a ala Villa d'Este

SCARLATTI 2 Sonatas

RAVEL Miroirs

LUKA OKROS SALON RECITAL IN SINGAPORE

LUKA OKROS SALON RECITAL

Presented by Aureus Great Artists Series

The Aureus Salon

Wednesday (8 November 2017)

In a candid sneak peek of great things to come, Aureus Academy presented its first musical salon at the 19^th floor Scotts Road penthouse suite of Aureus CEO Lawrence Holmefjord-Sarabi in the company of young Georgian pianist Luka Okros.

Luka Okrostsvaridze was the latest 1^st prize winner of the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, having garnered that enviable accolade in 2016. Supported by the Chopin Society of Hong Kong as part of a multi-city Asian tour, Luka’s Singapore debut was an unqualified triumph, as he charmed his audience with a full-length recital that combined requisite virtuosity and utmost musicality.

His programme was an interesting and varied one, opening with two Bach Preludes from the Well-Tempered Clavier (Book One, Nos.1&2) and Chopin’s Fourth Ballade. He spoke briefly before each piece, but mostly let his playing do the talking. The contrasts between Schubert’s Impromptu in G flat major (Op.90 No.3) and Rachmaninov’s Étude-tableau (Op.39 No.6) or “Little Red Riding Hood” could not have been starker, flowing lyricism followed by a violent and nervous energy. The first half closed with the impressive coruscations of Prokofiev’s Third Sonata.

One seldom gets to hear Rachmaninov’s Six Moments Musicaux (Op.16) complete, but this was the rarest of opportunities, which Luka (and the audience) lapped up with great relish. His sense of colour, encompassing the Russian’s dark brooding style and rapturous Romantic lashings made this a memorable outing. The Rach connection continued in Liszt’s familiar Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, made more special because Luka played Rachmaninov’s own cadenza which is wonderfully decadent with its outlandish harmonies.

The hand-crossing that takes place
in Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody.

The applause and bravos were loud and prolonged, and Luka’s encores included a short Georgian-flavoured improvisation of his own and the Bach-Siloti Prelude in B minor.

The Aureus Great Artist Series will present Luka Okros in a Victoria Concert Hall recital in 2018, where he will stand proud alongside names like Melvyn Tan, Boris Berezovsky, Valentina Lisitsa and Freddy Kempf.     

This young lady seems to exclaim,
"I've never heard anything so exquisite before!"

Luka and his wife Anna (2nd from right)
with their new adoring friends.

Looks like everybody had a great time.

With the humans going or gone,
Oscar the ragdoll settles to his rightful position,
under the New York Steinway.