CHOPIN VS AI / CHUREN LI PIANO RECITAL / Review

 

CHOPIN VS AI

Churen Li Piano Recital

Chamber @ The Arts House

Sunday (19 April 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 April 2026 with the title "Recital proves that AI will replace mediocrity but not true inspiration". 

Organised by the Embassy of Poland in Singapore as part of its PolandShiok! Festival, this unusual hour-long recital by Singaporean pianist-composer Churen Li pitted the composition skills of Poland’s national composer Fryderyk Chopin against the modern marvels of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The premise was simple. Li performs on the Yamaha grand and the audience is asked to vote as to whether each piece was by Chopin or AI. A big question was being asked: can human composers be replaced by AI? This experiment was both thought-provoking and interesting.

Li’s opening piece was silky and nocturne-like, with a gentle legato melodic line accompanied by G major arpeggios on the left hand. There were also discrete ornamentations that dressed up the invention. Those in the know would recognise Chopin’s serene Andante Spianato in G major (Op.22), played without the Polonaise.

Next came another elegant nocturne, this time in A minor, but with regularly shifting tonalities. There were Chopinesque touches for sure, but some uncharacteristic ones as well. Li explained that AI generated sound files, which she needed to transcribe and edit into a score that was playable.

The key of C sharp minor figured prominently in the next segment, beginning dark and smouldering but gradually morphing from night to brightness of day at its climax. Following that was a very familiar number, with a scintillating opening contrasted with a D flat major big tune at its centre. Nobody was fooled as that was clearly Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op.66), but the preceding number was also by Chopin, his less familiar Nocturne in C sharp minor (Op.27 No.1).

The next two pieces in A minor were dances in three-quarter time, either the waltz or mazurka. The first included some dissonances which jarred somewhat but had some Chopinisms heard elsewhere. The second sounded quite like Japanese anime music trying to imitate the inimitable Pole. These flights of fancy were very pleasant but hardly authentic. AI, for certain.

Then came the Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2), simplicity personified, and the recital closed with the longest work on show, Chopin’s Ballade No.4 in F minor (Op.52). One of his greatest single-movement utterances, a short introduction was followed by variations building up to a stirring climax, prompting premature applause at a strategic pause. Closing with a thunderous coda, this was a work of true genius not to be randomly cooked up by some app. At least not yet.

Li’s marvelous encore was her own improvisation on Chopin’s Prelude in E minor (Op.28 No.4), which skillfully played on its two pivotal notes, before gloriously reliving the original in full. In this musical duel, Chopin won handsomely simply because of his blindingly obvious genius. If Chopin’s teenaged and unformed Polonaises or his many Mazurkas were put to the test, the result might have been less one-sided.

On the other hand, had Austrian composer / pianist / teacher Carl Czerny’s 861 eminently forgettable works been scrutinised, AI has at least a fighting chance. In short, AI can and will replace mediocrity, but not true inspiration.

VIRTUOSO FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN / DMITRY ISHKHANOV on NAVONA RECORDS / Review

VIRTUOSO

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN

DMITRY ISHKHANOV, Piano

Navona Records NV6372

 

How exactly does one define a “virtuoso”? Is that someone who can master the most technically difficult exercises, proficiently making the seemingly impossible appear like child’s play? Or is it much more than that? That the creations of Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) come from a virtuoso mind is without doubt, but is this début album by young Maltese-Russian Dmitry Ishkhanov worthy of its title?

 

The four early Mazurkas of Op.17 are not virtuoso fodder, but the 16-year-old infuses these miniatures with an aching nostalgia and the Polish sense of heimat, the secure feeling of being at home. The celebrated A minor Mazurka (No.4) is taken at a measured pace, and that works because it is allowed to breathe whole-heartedly while maintaining the vital triple-time rhythm and pulse. The Nocturne in C sharp minor (Op.27 No.1) smoulders with intent, then catches fire in its central climax. As the album plays for under 55 minutes, surely there should have included its companion, the D flat major Nocturne (Op.27 No.2), if anything to better appreciate Ishkhanov’s feel for cantabile.

 

In the 12 Études of Op.25, one finally arrives in true-blue virtuoso territory. That Chopin’s myriad technical challenges hold no terrors for Ishkhanov comes as little surprise. He tosses off the runs of  treacherous thirds in the G sharp minor Étude (No.6) with nonchalant ease, while the stampeding octaves of the B minor Étude (No.10) do not sound blindingly fast but delivered with specific purposes in mind. That is to highlight the melting lyricism of its soft centre, and a similar experience may be enjoyed in the E minor “Wrong note” Étude (No.5). In the C sharp minor “Cello” Étude (No.7), the art of bel canto is in full flow, thus revealing the true secrets of his virtuosity. He has the sensibility of a poet, not the “shock and awe” modus operandi of the common garden child prodigy, and the maturity of one double or thrice his chronological age.

 

Come 2025, watch out Warsaw and the 19^th Chopin International Piano Competition, a winner is coming your way! 

CD Review (The Straits Times, April 2019)

PRELUDES TO CHOPIN

KENNETH HAMILTON, Piano

Prima Facie 084 / ****1/2

Does the musical world need more recordings of Frederic Chopin’s piano music? If your answer is “No”, then think again, as the Cardiff-based Scottish pianist Kenneth Hamilton makes a persuasive case of listening to Chopin differently, based on his research of historical performances. Even his ordering of the pieces is unusual. Every major work is prefaced by one Prelude. These short pieces, originally conceived to precede longer pieces, can now be heard in context.

The nocturne-like Prélude in C sharp minor Op.45, often played as a stand-alone piece, is heard before the “Funeral March” Second Sonata (Op.35) in B flat minor. These two keys are harmonically related, and the ear perceives the movements as almost seamless. 

In the Funeral March proper, the inclusion of bass octaves makes it sound doubly harrowing. His later inclusion of the stormy Prélude in E flat minor (Op.28 No.14) is canny too, serving as a belated echo to the sonata’s eerie finale, once described as “wind blowing over the graveyard”.    

Hamilton’s view of the Third Sonata in B minor (Op.58) is short-winded by omitting the 1^st movement repeat, the perfect antithesis of Lang Lang’s intractable reading. In the “Heroic” Polonaise in A flat major (Op.53), he plays Ferruccio Busoni’s amplifications in the galloping octave episode, creating an over-the-top and thunderous effect. 

Finally, he performs Franz Liszt’s own elaboration of Chopin’s Polish song Moya Pieszczotka (Mes Joies or My Joys) as remembered by Liszt student Bernhard Stevenhagen on a piano roll. This is Chopin heard through new ears indeed.  

CD Review (The Straits Times, April 2018)

CHOPIN+

MARTIN STADTFELD, Piano

Sony Classical 88985369352 / ****

There are many recordings of Chopin's 24 Études (Op.10 & 25), but young German pianist Martin Stadtfeld's album has a major difference. Inserted before ten of Chopin's studies are short original improvisations, which seem to sound stylistically foreign but segue seamlessly into the Chopin pieces. In certain cases, a Chopin Étude ends but the sound imperceptibly shifts into a different musical landscape, often in the same key but eventually modulates to another tonality for the next Étude to emerge.

This practice of “preluding” is not new, previously employed by historical pianists like Wilhelm Backhaus, and more recently in recitals here by Kenneth Hamilton and Steven Spooner. There is no jazz technique involved, but a playful use of pre-existing keyboard textures, chords and harmonic progressions. In a way, Chopin's well-known C minor Prélude (Op.28 No.20) seems like the ideal “preluding” subject, thus famously exploited by Rachmaninov in his Chopin Variations.

Stadtfelt's technical mastery in the 24 Études are as good as most of his contemporaries, although one might find the E major Étude (Op.10 No.3) too fast and unsentimental, while the F minor (Op.10 No.9) a tad indolent. This 70 minute recital is otherwise a fascinating listen.     

CD Review (The Straits Times, January 2018)

CHOPIN EVOCATIONS

DANIIL TRIFONOV, Piano

Mahler Chamber Orchestra 

Mikhail Pletnev (Conductor)

Deutsche Grammophon 479 7518 (2 CDs) 

****1/2

Here is yet another recording pairing both of Frederic Chopin's piano concertos, but this one is quite different. Spread over two discs, multi-award winning Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov plays the concertos in reverse order, which is chronologically correct. 

The Second Piano Concerto in F minor (Op.21) was composed before the First Piano Concerto in E minor (Op.11) but published later, hence the larger opus number. He takes an expansive view of both concertos, aided and abetted by veteran pianist-conductor Mikhail Pletnev's orchestrations which drags out the tuttis, highlights and adds quirky and piquant woodwind voices.

Trifonov's playing is however light-footed and scintillating which prevent the performances from sounding portentous or ponderous. His Chopin-inspired additions are excellent, teaming with his teacher Sergei Babayan on two pianos in the delectable Rondo in C major (Op.73), and two wonderful sets of variations. 

Chopin's own La Ci Darem Variations after Mozart's Don Giovanni and Federico Mompou's Variations On A Theme By Chopin, based on the little A major Prelude (Op.28 No.7), get performances which will be hard to better. Throw in further encores in the form of Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu, Barber's Nocturne and shorter pieces by Schumann, Grieg and Tchaikovsky, one gets a more complete picture. This is truly Chopin advocated with dedication and love.    

RESEMBLANCE & REMEMBRANCE / ANTHONY HEWITT Piano Recital / Review

RESEMBLANCE & REMEMBRANCE

ANTHONY HEWITT Piano Recital

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory 

Orchestral Hall

Tuesday (12 September 2017)

The idea of pairing the piano music of Frederic Chopin and Alexander Scriabin is not new, having been previously showcased by Albert Tiu in recital and his brilliant recording Nocturnal Fantasies. In the recital by British pianist Anthony Hewitt (no relation to Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt), 12 Préludes (from Op.11) by the Russian Scriabin were juxtaposed with 16 Préludes (Op.28) by the Pole Chopin.

Scriabin was a devotee of Chopin and made no secret of it in his early piano works. Hence the “resemblance” half of this recital, which began with Scriabin's short and lyrical musings. Hewitt laced the selection with lots of rubato, sometimes stretching the tempos to the point of improvisation.

There was, however, colour and variety to the sequence, which sometimes bordered on violence in Scriabin's more intense and impetuous efforts. In the Chopin set, which also ran the gamut from C major to D minor, similar mood swings were experienced.

The astonishing transitions from the dark and turbulent Prélude No.14 (E flat minor), to the luminous clarity of No.15 “Raindrop” (D flat major) and relentless barnstorming No.16 (B flat minor) were starkly contrasted and trenchantly brought out. There were missed notes here and there, especially in running passages in pieces of both sets but that mattered little, as none of the playing came across as sounding bored.

The “remembrance” component fell to Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, a suite of character pieces written in tribute to his late artist-architect friend Viktor Hartmann. Hewitt's performance was accompanied by a visual component, a series of paper cuts by Czech-British artist Klara Smith representing individual pieces of the tableaux.

Bydlo, the oxcart

Projected on a large screen behind the pianist, the stylised illustrations – intricately crafted with cobwebbed finery - resembled that of wayang kulit. A purist will decry that piano music does not need such extra-musical stimuli to express itself. However in this case, Smith's handiwork proved more imaginative and interesting than Hewitt's playing.

Marketplace at Limoges

His rather constricted tonal dynamics, which hovered mostly between mezzoforte and tripleforte, would have proved more tiresome without the visuals. Hesitations, mistakes and misreadings would have also been less acceptable in a conventional recital, hence the picture show was more boon than bane.

Baba Yag's Hut on Fowl's Legs

And even that was not perfect. The playing of Tuileries was accompanied by birds, while the Ballet Of Unhatched Chicks was represented by children playing in a park. In short, the two movements had simply been mixed up. In the closing Great Gate Of Kiev, the picture was prematurely faded, with a giant black screen in its place.

Here with subtlety no longer an issue, Hewitt's portrayal of the E flat major carillons was gloriously clangorous, drawing a prolonged and vociferous reception. The encore, also in E flat major, Schubert's Impromptu (Op.90 No.2), was gratefully accepted.   

CD Review (The Straits Times, May 2017)

THE CHAMBER VERSIONS

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.1        

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.4

SEE SIANG WONG, Piano

Gemeaux Quartet et al

RCA Red Seal 88875061442 / ****1/2

There are different ways of listening to piano concertos, either regarding them as orchestral works with virtuoso piano parts integrated within the formal architecture, or as chamber music with solo pianist in the driving seat. This interesting new recording by Dutch-Chinese pianist See Siang Wong seeks the latter viewpoint, with two popular piano concertos sounding like new works in the process.

Richard Hofmann's transcription of Chopin's First Piano Concerto does not significantly alter the solo piano part. However there are surprises when the piano is heard with the string quintet (two violins, viola, cello and double bass) in the tutti sections.

Wong and his chamber partners play a radically different version of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto which combines Vinzenz Lachner's string reduction of the orchestra with a little-known piano score edited by violinist Franz Possinger, which was first performed at a private concert in 1807. The piano part sounds more improvisatory and virtuosic than the published version that listeners know today.     

The performances here are highly idiomatic and sympathetic, and even if they provide a mild shock to the senses, the departure to parts less trodden is well-worth the time.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, July 2016)

LISZT Works for Two Pianos

Piano Duo Genova & Dimitrov

CPO 777 896-2 / ****1/2

The complete solo piano works of Franz Liszt (1811-1886) have been recorded by Leslie Howard, however what is left are his works for piano 4 hands and two pianos. These are rightly considered obscure because of the paucity of concert performances. 

The excellent Bulgarian duo of Aglika Genova and Liuben Dimitrov serves up five tasty pieces, beginning with the Grand Concert Piece on Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, an oversized elaboration stringing together three miniatures. This is a musical case of making a mountain out of a molehill, but fun nonetheless.

Liszt's operatic conflations, the Reminiscences De Norma (after Bellini) and Reminiscences De Don Juan (after Mozart) are well-known in their piano solo versions. Heard on two pianos, the element of derring-do and risk is diminished on the performers’ parts but are nonetheless exciting. 

The best work is Concerto Pathetique, based on the Grosses Konzertsolo and employing the art of thematic transformation to be found in Liszt's symphonic poems and Sonata in B minor. Completing the album is the Hexameron, a fantastical set of variations on a Bellini theme with contributions from six different composers. This edition is shorter than the solo version, but still worth a listen for its share of high jinks.

CHOPIN Ballades

YUNDI, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 481 2443 / ****

Frederic Chopin's Four Ballades for piano are four of the Polish-born composer's most exquisite single movement essays, filled with passion, longing and fantasy. However these are more associated with literary rather than musical sources, with the musings of Adam Mickiwiecz, regarded as Poland's national poet, cited as major inspirations. 

The Ballades get what one expects from Li Yundi, who takes a more tempered approach than his rival Lang Lang, without the agogic distortions and deliberately ear-catching exaggerations experienced in concert.

His playing is polished, tasteful, and not without moments of aural beauty. Of the four, the Second Ballade Op.38, with its alternating calm and violence, gets the most satisfying performance. By mostly sticking to the middle of the road, he does not add much more to what regular listeners know about Chopin. 

It is the fillers which hold greater interest. The Berceuse Op.57 is a model of elegant poise, and Yundi fares best in the Four Mazurkas Op.17, where he is one with Chopin's rhythmic subtlety and aching nostalgia.

JINHO KIM PLAYS CHOPIN / Review

JINHO KIM PLAYS CHOPIN

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (26 April 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 April 2013 with the title "Chopin with sympathy and authority".

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) is one composer whose piano music is varied and absorbing enough to sustain an entire recital. When performed with both sympathy and authority, it makes a rewarding proposition. Such was the case with Korean pianist Jinho Kim, presently an artist-in-residence at the LaSalle College of the Arts. Kim may be considered a Chopin specialist, having been the only person to have performed both Chopin’s piano concertos at Esplanade in a single concert.

Tickets for his all-Chopin recital were “sold out” and people had to be turned away at the box office. Yet there remained significant gaping lacunae in the seats, a public relations faux pas on the part of event management and no-show patrons, which was only mitigated by the quality of the playing. Kim showed that Chopin’s music was full-blooded, not effete or sickly.

Both dramatic and declamatory, the opening bars of the Second Sonata in B flat minor (Op.35), marked Grave, demonstrated on the outset he had something urgent to say about the music. The life and death struggles were brought out trenchantly, and the repeat which rightly included those vital bars upped the ante for the movement’s tumultuous development.

There was no relenting in the equally belligerent Scherzo, and even some notes were missed here and there, it was forgivable during the heat of the moment. The eponymous Funeral March was a dignified procession, the central cantabile being a brief oasis of repose. The whirlwind Presto finale, played with a remarkable evenness, was a chilling portrayal of the afterlife – an unforgiving terminal void. Little wonder the genteel Mendelssohn was so sickened by this work.

Chopin by Eugene Delacroix

The shorter works between the big sonatas were very well chosen. The Nocturne in D flat major (Op.27 No.2), beautifully gilded, evinced genuine warmth and nostalgia. The Second Scherzo in B flat minor (Op.31) closed the first half on a coruscating high despite the split note at the end. The three Mazurkas that opened the second half were totally satisfying, the gentle lilt in triple time being a potent reminder of Chopin’s Polish nationalism.

Concluding with the less frenzied Third Sonata in B minor (Op.58), Kim brought out a patrician, more restrained view of a classic. His sense of proportion was unerring in the substantial first movement, omitting the exposition repeat being a good choice on the occasion. The etude-like Scherzo could have sparkled a little more, but it was the expansive slow movement and its painstaking build-up that evoked the greatest pathos.

The rollicking finale that followed rode on waves of seemingly unlimited reserves, each statement of the resolutely striding theme arriving inexorably and with greater finality. After its brilliant end, Kim asked the audience, “Shall I play some Rachmaninov?” His view of the Elegie in E flat minor (Op.3 No.1) had an elegant and brooding melancholy that was hard to resist. The Russian Rachmaninov could be the subject of his next recital. So, what about it?

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2012)

 

CHOPIN Piano Concertos

ARTHUR RUBINSTEIN & CLAUDIO ARRAU

Fabula Classica 2211 / ****1/2  

 

The piano concertos of Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) have always been popular and recordings have never been in short supply. The usual criticism that Chopin was no orchestrator may be true, but these works were meant to highlight the piano and not the orchestra. Despite the many modern recordings that exist, these historical recordings deserve to be heard because they come from great Chopinists of the last century.

 

The Chopin playing of Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982), a fellow Pole himself, was characterised by largesse and generosity of spirit. His 1953 recording of the First Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Alfred Wallenstein captures his big sound and an overall sweep that is a reflection of his personality, extroverted, a little brash, but hard to dislike.

 

The Chilean Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) was taught by a pupil of Franz Liszt, which underlines his technical prowess in the Second Piano Concerto, partnered by the New York Philharmonic and Fritz Busch. This mono recording of a 1950 live concert crackles with verve and spirit, infusing the work with fluid lyricism and rhythmic vitality. The audience responds accordingly by applauding even before the last chord. Arrau also plays in the bonus track, the Grand Polonaise Brillante Op.22 (without the preceding Andante Spianato) from 1947. This life-affirming confirms that we can enjoy the best of both worlds, that is having the choice of both modern and historical performances today.

 

 

 

 

GUITAR 101

Decca  4783655 (5CDs) / ****

 

The 101 series co-presented by Universal Music and CD-Rama delivers popular classics by the shovel – 101 tracks on six CDs for just $19, or just under 19 cents per track. This works out to be cheaper than a digital download from the Internet, which is the ostensible aim of this range. Guitar 101 is one of the better sets, because there is a logical sense of programming and the quality of the artists. The first two discs are devoted to Spanish and Latin American music, and all the usual suspects are here. Francisco Tarrega’s tremolo study Memories of the Alhambra and Romanza (whose composer remains unknown) are understandably the first two tracks.

 

Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto De Aranjuez from Pepe Romero and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields is heard in its entirety on Disc 3, together with the neoclassical Concierto Para un Gentilhombre and the obscure but enjoyable Concierto para una Fiesta. Disc 4 is devoted to other popular concertos by Vivaldi, Giuliani, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Villa-Lobos with Eduardo Fernandez and the English Chamber Orchestra. The lute music of J.S.Bach fills Disc 5 entirely, also from the excellent Fernandez. The final disc is all about transcriptions; the four members of Los Romeros play selections from Bizet’s Carmen and Falla’s Three Cornered Hat. Violin music in guitar guise completes the picture: Paganini’s Caprice No.24 from Nicola Hall and Bach’s Chaconne from Fernandez sound just as virtuosic in this form. There are no accompanying notes but for once, this compilation does not disappoint.