Photographs from PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2023

 

PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2023

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (22 April 2023)

So it finally happened! Piano Extravaganza 2023 took place at Victoria Concert Hall last Saturday and proved to be a feast of piano music, graced by the five of Singapore's finest young pianistic talents. Here are the photographs from that historic evening, proving that the global Covid pandemic could not stop good music, but merely delayed it. The event was dedicated to the memory of Vincent Chong, founder of MW School of Music, who presented the first Piano Extravaganza (2019) and the Young Virtuoso Recital Series before that.

Ukraine-born Kseniia Vokhmianina 
opened the evening with music by her
compatriots Kosenko and Skoryk, and Chopin.

B-L Piano Duo (Bertram Wee & Lynette Yeo)
give the Singapore premiere of
Nancarrow's Study No.7
as arranged by Thomas Ades.

Cherie Khor performed 
Quilter-Hough Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal
and Liszt's Dante Sonata.

Donald Law opened the second half
with Janacek's Sonata 1.X.1905
and Debussy's La plus que lente.

Two sides of V.Gryaznov's transcription of
Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe Suite No.2:
Lynette Yeo and...

... Bertram Wee.

Kseniia, Donald and Cherie
lap up 6-hands works by Rachmaninov:
the Romance and Waltz.
Note that Kseniia is now
dressed in Ukrainian colours!

Husband and wife play together for once!

Kelly Tang's Symphonic Suite
on a Set of Local Tunes
as arranged for 10-hands by Bertram Wee
received its World Premiere.

Young virtuosos, take a bow!

The pianists with H.E Ms Kateryna Zelenko,
ambassador of Ukraine to Singapore (seated).

A busy meet-and-greet
concluded the evening's event.

Two reviews of this concert 

can be found here:

pianomania: PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2023: Two Reviews from Singapore's Youngest Music Critics (pianofortephilia.blogspot.com)

PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2023: A SPECIAL PIANO RECITAL NOT TO BE MISSED!

PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2023 returns after a hiatus of four years. It remains Singapore's foremost showcase of the best young local pianistic talents. This year, the spotlight is shorn on pianists Donald Law, Cherie Khor, Kseniia Vokhmianina and B-L Piano Duo (Bertram Yeo and Lynette Yeo), who will perform a diverse programme of piano works for 2, 4, 6 and 10 hands, including several Singapore premieres and a World Premiere!

Programme:

KOSENKO Etude in B minor "Gavotte" 

SKORYK Waltz in A minor

CHOPIN Etude in A flat major, Op.10 No.10

CHOPIN Waltz in A minor, Op.34 No.2

CHOPIN Polonaise in A flat major, Op.53 "Heroic"

  KSENIIA VOKHMIANINA, Piano

NANCARROW-ADES Study No.7

  B-L PIANO DUO: 

  BERTRAM WEE & LYNETTE YEO

QUILTER-HOUGH 

Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal

LISZT Dante Sonata

   CHERIE KHOR, Piano

JANACEK Sonata.V.X.1905 "From the Street"

DEBUSSY La que plus lent

  DONALD LAW, Piano

RAVEL-ADES Daphnis et Chloe Suite No.2

  B-L PIANO DUO:

  BERTRAM WEE & LYNETTE YEO

RACHMANINOV Waltz and Romance 

for piano 6 hands

 DONALD LAW, CHERIE KHOR 

 & KSENIIA VOKHMIANINA

KELLY TANG Symphonic Suite on a Set of Local tunes 

for 10 hands on 2 pianos, 

arranged by BERTRAM WEE

  BERTRAM WEE, LYNETTE YEO, 

  DONALD LAW, KSENIIA VOKHMIANINA

  & CHERIE KHOR

When: Saturday, 22 April 2023

Where: Victoria Concert Hall, 7.30 pm

Tickets available at SISTIC:

PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2023 [G] | SISTIC

As featured in The Straits Times

As seen in Lianhe Zaobao

Rehearsal Photos

Kseniia, Donald and Cherie
work on Rachmaninov's Romance & Waltz
for piano six hands.

Now that Bertram & Lynette have arrived,
the five pianists practise on 
Kelly Tang's Symphonic Suite on Local Tunes.

You're never too young to
appreciate piano music!

A Concert Not To Be Missed: PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2019

Lovers of the piano will not want to miss this concert:

PIANO EXTRAVAGANZA 2019

Saturday 22 June 2019

Esplanade Concert Hall at 7.30 pm

An extension of the long-running Young Virtuoso Recital series, Piano Extravaganza 2019 showcases four of Singapore most exciting young piano talents in concert. They will be performing a variety of solo works, and works for 4 hands and 8 hands, including a World Premiere.

The pianists are:

AZARIAH TAN

CLARENCE LEE

GABRIEL HOE & 

SONG ZILIANG

Repertoire includes:

BACH-BUSONI Chaconne

BRAHMS Hungarian Dances Nos.1&4

MILHAUD Scaramouche

LISZT Dante Sonata

BEETHOVEN Sonata No.30 in E major, Op.109

RACHMANINOV Suite No.2 for 2 Pianos

LU WENCHENG / CHEN PEIXUN
  Autumn Moon on Calm Lake

REN GUANG / WANG JIANZHONG
  Colourful Clouds Chasing The Moon

STRAUSS / GRÜNFELD Soirée de Vienne

TSAO CHIEH / BERTRAM WEE 
  The Republic from  Singapore Suite 
  (World Premiere)

Special Encore: Another World Premiere 

Tickets are available at:

https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cpiano0619

Do not miss this!

NEW MUSIC IN A MYTHIC LANDSCAPE / SIFOM Ensemble / Review

NEW MUSIC IN A MYTHIC LANDSCAPE

SIFOM Ensemble

Singapore International Festival of Music

Chamber, The Arts House

Wednesday (19 October 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 October 2016 with the title "Three strikes and New Music is out".

New music has the perpetual problem of attracting audiences, and presenters are usually mindful of engaging patrons with various outreach efforts to win them over. This concert of new Singaporean music however did nothing of the sort as its presentation was lamentable and unacceptably poor.

There were neither composer biographies nor programme notes provided, just a host who happened to be Paris-based conductor Marlon Chen merely reading out titles of performed pieces. Even the names of performers were omitted. Strike One. Two works on the printed programme by John Sharpley and Koh Cheng Jin were discarded with no reasons given. The compensation was a  complimentary drink offered on the house. Strike Two.

Without fanfare, the 65-minute long concert (originally marketed as 90 minutes) began with Chen Zhangyi's Sandcastles. Violinist Arisa Ikeda and pianist April Foo gave an evocative reading with lyrical lines accompanied by rippling keyboard textures, like waves gently lapping on a serene tropical beach.

Bertram Wee's Love Songs for piano trio was sterner than its title suggested. Its 5 movements were atonal and dissonant, with the idea that the course of true love is never easy. Violinist Rida Sayfiddinov, cellist Dzhama Saidkarimov and pianist Thomas Ang covered a full gamut of 20^th century technical devices including harmonics, slides, brusque pizzicatos and heavy chords which cemented his case in no uncertain terms.  

A surreal soundscape was created for Ding Jian Han's Slow Jogging On A Not-So-Silent Night, scored for flute (Jeremy Lim), clarinet (Andrew Constantino), violin, cello and piano (Foo), conducted by Marlon Chen. No actual notes were played in its opening minutes, comprising only the sound of air passing through channels or over strings. This soon cystallised into tones, both short and long-held, which generated a Zen-like calm and mysticism.  

Newly commissioned was Mick Lim's #9 (Sharp Nine), a brief work for pipa (Chua Yew Kok), zhongruan (Loi Eevian), violin, viola (Ho Qian Hui) and cello, which ran a course of plucked notes and pizzicatos. The first work to actually resound with a distinctively Oriental idiom was Ho Chee Kong's Echoes Of Fall for marimba (Kevin Castelo), clarinet, gambus (Loi on ruan) and cello. There were virtuoso roles for each in this enjoyable serenade-like work, which could have come from Central Asia.  

The last and most substantial work was Tan Yuting's Chinatown, a song cycle with texts by Tan Chee Lay featuring talented and expressive soprano Angel Cortez. Its scoring with strings, winds, piano and percussion was lush, and two central fast movements took on the form of rhythmic dances. The subjects involved a culinary paradise and a back-alley barber, but Cortez's Chinese pronunciation was indecipherable, again not helped by the lack of texts or translations. Strike Three and you're out.  

Good music performed by dedicated musicians will always endure, but the cause of new music was not honoured with proper contexts and annotations on this occasion, thus coming off as a wasted opportunity.  

...AND DELIVER US FROM... / NICHOLAS LOH Piano Recital / Review

...AND DELIVER US FROM...

NICHOLAS LOH Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (5 July 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 July 2015 with the title "Speaking pianist toots horn".

After returning from his post-graduate musical studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, Singaporean pianist Nicholas Loh has established himself as a fervent exponent of new music. His first solo recital since 2009 (when he performed works by John Sharpley, Frederic Rzewski and Nikolai Kapustin) was to be as cutting edge, and controversial to boot.

There was an underlying theme of protest in his latest offering, which opened with Latvian composer Peteris Vasks' Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Its Mozartian title belied the music's wide dynamic range, with spectral harmonies and Debussyan chords, then progressing to rapid figurations, repeated notes and sonorous bell sounds. Dispelling the idea of night as a haven of solace, this was more of a nightmarish scenario which ended with Loh plucking the lowest strings of the Yamaha grand piano.

The World Premiere of young Singaporean composer Bertram Wee's a little book of lies marked a new chapter in local piano writing. Although the idiom through its five movements was atonal, the violence portrayed was easily recognisable. The work was an indictment against organised religion, dogmatism and extremism, the sort that resulted in the tragedies of 911, Bali bombings and Charlie Hebdo shootings. 

No specific faith was named, as Loh emerged with sawn-off gloves and uncovered socks to perform. Listeners got the message that intolerance comes via slurs, murmurs and innuendos rather than fire and brimstone sermons. The exception was the central movement, the comedy of ignorance, with the keyboard assaulted by forearm clusters, sweeping glissandi and a stamp from the foot to complete the final insult. Wee, who studies at London's Royal College of Music, is a name to watch.

The final work was the American Rzewski's De Profundis, a 35-minute long melodrama that required a “speaking pianist” to recite, sing, pummel himself and toot on a bicycle horn amongst other things. Its text, of which Loh gave a most lucid and nuanced reading, was taken from letters by Oscar Wilde when he was incarcerated in Reading Gaol for the crime of homosexuality. Here was not a self-pitying or crusading rant, but a sobering statement of utter hopelessness, despair and ultimately sorrow, a word that appears on multiple occasions.

Loh is a natural storyteller, both while playing, acting and singing (which was very much in tune too), who left the small but very engaged audience with little doubt about his abilities and sympathies. Intolerance and hate crimes are surely suffocating the world, yet it seems politically incorrect to voice out against them publicly. This recital was one small but important step taken in the right direction.      

CHAMBER.SOUNDS IN CONCERT 2012 / Review

CHAMBER.SOUNDS IN CONCERT 2012

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (26 August 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 August 2012 with the title "High scores for Singapore sounds".

It would be no understatement to assert that the Singapore’s cultural milieu is not conducive for the creation of new music. For example, the national orchestra has not commissioned a significant symphonic work from a local composer since 2004. Singapore’s latest opera Fences by John Sharpley and Robert Yeo received neither funding nor support from the National Arts Council. Composers persevere nonetheless, and it is the dedication of small groups of musicians and zealots that ensure that their music gets heard.

Chamber.Sounds is one such group, and its call for scores in 2011 saw the fruits come to bear in this varied and interesting hour-long concert. Five young composers were represented, beginning with Jeremiah Li’s Flourishes, three short movements for flute, clarinet, cello and piano.

Jeremiah Li's Flourishes

Described as “broad brush strokes”, various aspects of instrumental colour were explored. Bass clarinet and later piccolo solos opened the atonal first movement. The insides of the piano were plucked in the second movement, where the alto flute’s shakuhachi-like passages lent an Asian feel to the proceedings, while vigorous piano and cello ostinatos led the final movement.

Bertram Wee's Blurebird

Bertram Wee’s Bluebird, inspired by Charles Bukowski, was a duo for Kevin Seah’s flute and Chan Si Han’s cello, both locked in alternating intimacy and mortal combat. Flutter-tonguing on the flute produced a typically eerie and visceral sound, which contrasted with the cello’s more sustained lines. 

Derek Lim's In Darkness, Light Shines

In Darkness, Light Shines is the middle movement of a piano trio by Derek Lim. This is a journey from despair to hope, underpinned by a throbbing pulse from Wong Yun Qi’s piano, which at times resembled that of a tango. Beginning in low registers, the music traversed through a series of emotional ups and downs before arriving at a reassuring resolution in A major. Now this listener is moved and curious to hear the other movements.

Tan Mei Ling's Paradigm of a Magician

 

In this flute-dominated weekend, flautist Seah was called upon as the protagonist in Tan Mei Ling’s Paradigm of a Magician, a three-movement quintet (with clarinet, violin, viola and cello) inspired by a children’s picture book project. His flight of fantasy in the unaccompanied first movement met its match in Daniel Yiau’s clarinet in the slow and calming second movement Encounter. More lovely sounds returned in the finale which saw the magical flute having the last words.

Emily Koh's Freyja

The most adventurous work was Emily Koh’s Freyja for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, which portrayed the changing seasonal foliage of New England. Autumn was vigourous and sprightly, giving way to the static austerity of winter before the augurs of spring brought a return to life. The astonishingly vibrant score saw the liberal use of microtones, with instruments sliding and segueing into pitches that lie between the notes. The seemingly off-pitched stances provided an unnerving and unsettling feel, which is probably the message of the piece – everything is impermanent.     

 

Chamber.Sounds has become the de facto New Music Forum of old. May its laudable endeavours continue to bring out the best of new Singaporean music.



Chamber.Sounds in Concert 2012
Performers were (from L) Jeremiah Li (conductor), Chan Si Han (cello), Ng Wei Ping (violin),  Kelvin Seah (flute), Wong Yun Qi (piano), Daniel Yiau (clarinet), and Jaryl Luo (viola).