SCHUBERT: THE PIANO TRIOS / Kelvin Chan, Vladimir Choi & Brandon Voo / Review

SCHUBERT: THE PIANO TRIOS

Kelvin Chan (Piano),

Vladimir Choi (Violin) & 

Brandon Voo (Cello)

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (28 May 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 May 2016 with the title "Newly-formed trio's baptism of fire".

Despite the popularity of Franz Schubert's chamber music in Singapore, his two piano trios have not been performed enough. Thus it was a rarity to encounter both works in a single concert, given by the newly formed trio of Singaporean pianist Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong-Canadian violinist Vladimir Choi and very active local cellist Brandon Voo.   

It was totally apt that Chan was listed first, as he was the de facto leader, who was also endowed with technically the most demanding parts. He was a rock-solid pillar, whose procession of piano octaves and chords mandated the complexion and pace of the notes, not to mention the regular flourishes of filigree called upon him.

That was how the B flat major Piano Trio (D. 898) opened, resolutely and tautly conducted. The exposition repeat was observed, thus doubling the pleasure, not least from Voo's cello, for which the juiciest melodies fell. The threesome was completed by Choi, whose initial diffidence in projection and intonation soon dissipated as the trio got warmed up.

There are few tunes that can match the slow movement's rocking cradle-song, which was milked for all its worth. The Scherzo that followed was a delightful exercise in staccato and crisp playing, and the Rondo finale with all its cheerful lightness and chirpiness, never lapsed into outright sentimentality.

The full-house audience applauded after every movement, however inappropriately, but this gave the players short breathers to re-tune and regroup. Imagine this to be a Viennese house concert during Schubert's day and these intrusions do not seem so bad after all. By the final chord, the trio had played close to 45 minutes.

The E flat major Piano Trio (D.929) after the intermission was to be an even longer work. Now totally acclimatised to the venue and audience, the trio coaxed a more nuanced and arguably better performance. The declamatory unison opening was delivered with great purpose and much poise, and the darker countenance of its musings more fully realised.

Even if the Andante con moto direction of the slow movement was taken a tad briskly, the engagement of the music's tragic quality felt wholly genuine. The tenseness evoked in its faster central section was also heightened to very good effect.

Like its counterpart in the earlier trio, the Scherzo also floated with the lightness of angel's wings. However the finale, easily the most difficult of all eight movements in both trios, threatened to make heavy weather. The treacherous repeated notes called for in all three parts were negotiated not without some effort, and Chan's beleaguered piano held steady to the very end.

After almost 50 minutes, the appreciation showered on the trio was requited with an encore, a lovely arrangement of what is possibly Schubert's most popular melody – the Ständchen (Serenade) from song-cycle Schwanengesang. More is to be expected from this trio after its baptism of fire.   

DOCTORS IN RECITAL @ Steinway Gallery Singapore / Just Photographs, No Review

So it finally happened, when the doctors descended upon Steinway Gallery Singapore on a Saturday afternoon and early evening, turning the area around Orchard Towers into a cultural zone, as opposed to a vice zone. 

To our shock, the event was oversubscribed, and bus-loads of people (OK I jest, BMW-loads of people) had to be turned away for fear of overcrowding and turning Steinway's pristine showroom into the black hole of Calcutta. It was standing room only, and the pressure was on. There were several music critics (from The Flying Inkpot) in the audience, so the pressure was really on.

The chief pleasure was to get to play on a Steinway B model, which plays like a dream. Whoever can afford a BMW (current COE prices and all) should be able to take one of these babies home.

The lovely programme booklet produced by Steinway,
which helpfully included the Russian composers'
patryonomic names when most people don't bother.

Dr Lin Xiumin opened the programme with
George Winston's transcription of Pachelbel's Canon.

Dr Ronald Ling, a health-industry advisor and investor, who
regularly plays chamber music in France and Switzerland,
contributed Brahms's Scherzo in C minor,
accompanied by Dr Lin on the piano.

Yours truly rehashed some oldies, including the
Bach-Siloti Air on D string (the decent version of the G string),
Gershwin's Promenade and Mayerl's Shallow Waters.

Arguably the highlight, a professional cellist joined in.
Brandon Voo Esq., former student of the great Nella Hunkins,
performed the Andante from Rachmaninov's Cello Sonata,
and One Thousand Years, made famous by The Piano Guys.
From now, Voo and Lin will be known as The Cello Guys.

The evening concluded with the inimitable Dr Au Kah Kay
(aka I Could Have Played All Night) in Chopin's Barcarolle and
Granados's Allegro di Concierto. As the audience demanded
an encore, he obliged with the Schumann-Liszt Widmung.

All the Piano, Violin and Cello Guys,
from the shortest to the tallest.

Posing with Ms Celine Goh, manager of Steinway Gallery
Singapore, herself a pianist who could outplay the best of us.

The official Steinway poster with our autographs.
Does that make us Steinway artists?

With our guests the Cheong Family.
Little Benjamin already plays on a Steinway piano.

All photographs strictly by the permission of Steinway Gallery Singapore, the Piano, Violin and Cello Guys, and the management of Palais Renaissance, Orchard Towers and the Royal Thai Embassy. Violators of copyright will be subject to worse than legal action, that is being forced to sit through multiple sessions of Pianomaniac practising.

DOCTORS IN RECITAL: Come and get your MC!

And here's an awful bit of shameless self-promotion.

If you happen to have nothing better to do on Saturday afternoon, and also happen to be in the vicinity of Orchard Towers or the Royal Thai Embassy, you might like to make a visit to Steinway Gallery Singapore @ Palais Renaissance for some music.

Three doctors (the kind you get MCs from) will be performing a short recital on a Steinway grand. They will be joined by a doctor of radiology on violin, and a doctor of cello in a couple of chamber works.

Place: Steinway Gallery, 

  Palais Renaissance, 

  Orchard Road (next to Breitling)

Date: Saturday 

   22 February 2014 (Tomorrow!) 

Time: 4-6 pm 

(I've been told the playing starts at 4.00 pm)

The programme goes something like this:

PACHELBEL-WINSTON Canon in D

BRAHMS Scherzo in C minor (FAE Sonata)

BACH-SILOTI Aria in D

GERSHWIN Promenade

MAYERL Shallow Waters

RACHMANINOV Andante from Cello Sonata
Theme from Twilight (Piano Guys cover)

CHOPIN Barcarolle

GRANADOS Allegro de Concierto

Dr Lin Xiumin will be doing the chamber pieces (with Dr Ronald Ling, violinist and Brandon Voo Esq.), Dr Au Kah Kay will take on the virtuoso works, while yours truly the slower and simpler pieces. 

To register, please call or e-mail as in the notice below. I heard that places have been filling up faster than the Accident and Emergency Department of Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

We don't know who Brandon Ang is, but there's only one Brandon Voo Esq.

POPULAR CLASSICS / Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra / Review

POPULAR CLASSICS
Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra
Singapore Conference Hall
Sunday (29 August 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 31 August 2010.

The Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (BHSO) is Singapore’s only community-based orchestra. Since 1986, it has provided an invaluable platform for non-professional musicians, students and budding soloists to perform the great classics in public. Its latest concert was a good example of egalitarianism at work.

The guest conductor was Seah Kar Heng, better known as a mechanical engineering professor specialising in racing cars and all-round renaissance man. The soloists were members of the Incursion Trio (below), which performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major (Op.56). Although not the German master’s greatest effort by a long shot, it is the only example of the genre in the active repertoire.

Cellist Brandon Voo, the chief protagonist, cogently presented his opening statement, later joined by his partners violinist Siew Yi Li and pianist Beatrice Lin. Balance between the three young professionals, who have been playing together for about a year, was generally good, but problems arose when the orchestra joined the fray.

Cellist Brandon Voo, pianist Beatrice Lin,

conductor Seah Kar Heng & violinist Siew Yi Li (from L)

Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture opened the concert, its stern opening chords and an introduction foretelling the grave final scene contrasted with the lively main body. Although the sound was anaemic and lacked homogeneity, the story was conscientiously conveyed.

The most satisfying orchestral performance came in Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony in A major, also known as the Italian Symphony. For its outset, Seah’s charges got the throbbing rhythm spot on, and the pulsating spirit of the sunny work never flagged. The second movement was also coherently delivered, its slow march-like procession paced with discipline and character.

There were some rough spots in the flowing third movement, but the sweeping intensity for the final Saltarello, a swirling Italian dance, made the journey worthwhile. The intricate counterpoint was overcome with some degree of caution, but that was never an impediment to a final decisive flourish.

The encore, the rousing Wedding March from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was dedicated to Seah’s wife. Engineers, contrary to popular stereotype, can be romantic souls too.

Chamber Music Weekend / Review

CHAMBER MUSIC WEEKEND

Incursion Trio, Esplanade Recital Studio
Saturday (15 August 2009)

VCH Chamber Series, Victoria Concert Hall
Sunday (16 August 2009, 5.00 pm)

Yang Shuxiang & Friends, Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (16 August 2009, 7.30 pm)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 August 2009.

What a busy weekend this has been. With the Singapore Symphony Orchestra on a month-long break, local chamber groups and musicians have come out in full force.

First off was the curiously named Incursion Trio (above). Word has it that the three young Singaporeans – violinist Siew Yi Li, cellist Brandon Voo and pianist Beatrice Lin - gave their first recital together in the Swiss town of Sion, hence its name. More topical was the group’s incursion off the beaten track of repertory works to present local premieres of a teenaged Claude Debussy’s Piano Trio in G minor and Spaniard Joaquin Turina’s Second Piano Trio.

These aren’t the greatest of pieces, but there are enough pleasantries to shake off the derivative nature of the former (think Saint-Saëns and Fauré in a palm court), or the paucity of Hispanic-ness in the latter. Polish, confidence and a lovely overall sound are their qualities, capped with an ability to sustain long sighs in Schubert’s autumnal Notturno.

More established are the three ladies of the Feng Trio, members of the SSO, who presented Brahms’ First Piano Trio in B major (Op.8). Has there been a more gorgeous melody than the one that opens this masterpiece? Their sense of nobility and sumptuous handling were alone worth the price of admission.

Pianist Liu Jia (above) also joined other SSO colleagues in Hummel’s Piano Quintet in E flat minor (Op.87), unusually scored to include the double bass. Stylistically caught between Mozart and Mendelssohn, this trifle was 20-or-so innocuous minutes well spent, with a scintillating piano part to tickle the palate.

Leaving the most spectacular for the last, 20-year-old violinist Yang Shuxiang made a stunning debut with pianist Khor Shang Jin (both above) to a rapturous standing ovation. 

Looking like Adonis sporting a Paganinian mane, Yang’s sheer force of personality and a sonorous vibrato to match was simply breathtaking. There was little to quibble about his effortless take on Vitali’s Chaconne, closely followed by Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.7 in C minor (Op.30 No.2), which penetrated with an intensity of a laser and bristled with brio.

His ability to blend were further highlighted with duos partnering violinist See Ian Ike and violist Tan Wee Hsin, in Moszkowski’s hyper-Romantic Suite for 2 violins in G minor and Lazar Trachtenberg’s devilishly dissonant Witches Soirée respectively. The diablerie continued with Ravel’s Tzigane, a gypsy rhapsody where free-ranging sense of abandon displayed by both violinist and pianist became an asset.

May wonders in our local chamber music scene never cease, and such weekends of musical manna never end.