PIANO & ERHU PROJECT 3 / Review

 

PIANO AND ERHU PROJECT (PEP)

Volume Three

NICOLE GE LI, Erhu

COREY HAMM, Piano

DMA Discs TK 474

Globalisation was what made the meeting of seemingly disparate musical instruments - the erhu and pianoforté - possible. East meets West was the premise of PEP (Piano and Erhu Project), founded in 2011 by Chinese erhu exponent Nicole Ge Li and Canadian pianist Corey Hamm, and based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The duo has already produced three discs of erhu and piano music, having commissioned over 70 composers to write for them. This is a genre creating a history for itself, and very much a labour of love.

That the Chinese two-stringed fiddle and European piano become cosy bed-fellows should not come as a total surprise. Just listen to this disc’s final track, a transcription of Sergei Prokofiev’s Scherzo from his Flute Sonata, better known as his Violin Sonata No.2 written for David Oistrakh. Also try Somei Satoh’s still and hauntingly beautiful Birds In Warped Time II, also originally for violin and piano. The erhu negotiates Prokofiev’s hairpin twists and turns, and sustains long lines in the Satoh with natural flair and great finesse. This is essentially violin and piano territory albeit with an Oriental accent.

Holding greater interest are the works specific to this medium. Three Pieces (2015) by Gabriel Prokofiev (Sergei’s grandson, presently residing in UK) was not written for PEP, but are idiomatic, simpler in form and without the idiosyncrasies of his larger scores. The American Marco Mellits contributes the two most diverse works of the programme, the soothing serenity of Mara’s Lullaby (2005) contrasted with Mechanically Separated Chicken Parts (2005), a minimalist take on a vigorous ostinato.

The balance of the programme are PEP commissions. Gao Ping’s Hu Yan (2017) comprise six short but varied movements, each with its own vivid tale to tell. The title refers to “random and careless words” or “utterances” (according to the composer’s notes), and one might add casual jests or gossip to these descriptions. There is a palpable feel of the Chinese in these pieces, with the erhu’s penchant for portamenti simulating the Beijing operatic voice, backed by percussion provided by the piano. 

Similarly, Lucas Oickle’s Firewall (2015) and Michael Finnissy’s Sorrow and its Beauty (2017) are slow movements where Chinese influences consciously come through. The title of the former is self-explanatory, a barrier of censorship surrounds China and nothing foreign (thus deemed suspicious) gets through. The apparent bliss continues into the latter’s flow of melancholic sound expression. Here, one is reminded of Chinese scenic brush painting and its visual virtues.

If anyone doubted that the disparate worlds of Chinese music, the Afro-American spiritual, Gershwin (Our Love is Here to Stay) and John Cage could ever be united, Stephan Chatman’s Remember Me, Forever (2015), accompanied by prepared piano, might change their mind. From Satoh to Chatman, the seamless wall of lyricism was an unmitigated pleasure. For those who understand Chinese, it should not be forgotten that Li’s given name in Chinese means “song”.

This is a lovely programme, compelling performed, and one looks forward to further volumes.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2014)

RZEWSKI 

The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

COREY HAMM, Piano

DMA Discs TK431 / ****1/2

It was the summer of 2008 when Singapore audiences witnessed not one but two performances of The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975), the hour-long theme and variations masterpiece for piano by American composer Frederic Rzewski (born 1938). The second of these was given in a studio at the Conservatory by Canadian pianist Corey Hamm, a remarkable achievement as he had performed with virtually nine fingers, having injured his right little finger. This 20^th century equivalent of Bach’s Goldberg Variations or Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations takes no prisoners given its immense complexities and physical demands on the performer.

The subject is a Chilean workers’ revolutionary anthem, which gets treated to 36 variations in total (6 sets of 6, with every 6^th variation an amalgamation of the 5 preceding it).The set runs the full gamut of 20^th century styles and idioms including folk, jazz, minimalism and atonality, with the pianist also expected to vocalise and whistle at certain points. One of few pianists in the world to tour with this work, Hamm brings out its panoply of nuances with missionary zeal and vigour. Although the improvisatory section has been omitted, this 2012 recording compares well with those of the composer and its dedicatee Ursula Oppens. A must listen for anyone interested in 20^th century piano literature.    

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5

SCHUMANN Fantasy Op.17

YUNDI, Piano

Berlin Philharmonic / Daniel Harding

Deutsche Grammophon 481 0710 / ****

After that unmitigated disaster in the Tchaikosky First Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony in 2009 and several humdrum years with EMI Classics, Yundi (who has since dropped his surname Li) has returned to the fold of Deutsche Grammophon. This is his first concerto recording with the German “Yellow label” since the highly successful Prokofiev and Ravel coupling of 2008. Also partnered here by the Berlin Philharmonic, it sounds like the Chinese pianist has made a note-worthy comeback.

His performance of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto is conceived on a grand scale and the big-boned playing reveals neither frailties nor idiosyncrasies. The sense of occasion, captured in live performances in January and February this year, is gratefully lapped up and the playing radiates warmth and joy. Included as a generous coupling is Schumann’s Fantasy in C major (Op.17), originally conceived as an ode to Beethoven in the manner of his late Sonatas. While the playing is somewhat less exulted as in the concerto, this is still a solid and moving account that redeems Yundi as China’s “Comeback Kid”.

Corey Hamm plays Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Review

COREY HAMM plays

RZEWSKI The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Recital Studio

Thursday (18 September 2008)

An edited version of this review appeared in The Straits Times on 20 September 2008

It is a serendipitous quirk of fortune that one of the iconic piano works of our time, The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, by contemporary American composer Frederic Rzewski (born 1938) gets heard in Singapore twice in the space of two months. American Christopher Taylor gave its local premiere at the Singapore International Piano Festival in July, and Canadian Corey Hamm's no less enthralling reading was a welcome second hearing.

The hour-long piece from 1975, an extraordinary set of 36 variations on a Chilean revolutionary socialist anthem by Sergio Ortega, is the 20th century counterpart of what Beethoven's Diabelli Variations and Bach's Goldberg Variations were to the preceding two centuries.

A short talk by Hamm and recording of the original chorus by pop group Quilapayun prefaced the performance. Very succinctly, he elucidated the structure and numerology of the work – the theme, six sets of six variations each (the sixth variation of each set being a summary of the earlier five), with the sixth set being a summary of the preceding five sets, and the final statement of the theme. While Bach was obsessed with the number “three”, in his Goldbergs, Rzewski’s was equally fixated on the number “six”.

Endurance, stamina and living the moment on the edge rather than absolute digital accuracy characterised Hamm's take, all the more daunting when playing despite nursing an injured finger.

Rzewski's fiendish and phantasmagorical score takes no prisoners, but the small audience at the Conservatory's Recital Studio was held captive by the sheer range of sound and effects achieved. The folk-like melody, first heard in bare and martial octaves, boomed loudly across the small confines of the Recital Studio. Although it was not note-perfect, the gauntlet had been laid.

Through the next fifty-five minutes or so, this theme was transformed through a kaleidoscopic range of styles —jazz, country and western, gospel, atonal and avant-garde musings. I wish I could say that Hamm’s technique was Hamelinesque; there were missed and fluffed notes at the heat of the moment, but he was mostly accurate, leaping over each thorny thicket with great courage and conviction. He really believes in this music.

Not pouting but whistling out part of the score.

The ebbs and flows of the music were very well judged, with each repetition of the said tune arriving with the warmth and fuzziness of a long lost relation. Through all of this, Hamm captured its improvisatory and free-ranging spirit with aplomb, even if the whistling (indicated and demanded by the score in two of the variations) was a tad off-pitch. At least it was audible, and that added to the character of the performance.

The afore-mentioned Taylor had used a synthesiser but that was because he was less confident with whistling skills and needed to project through the larger space of Victoria Concert Hall.

All that was missing was Hamm's slamming the piano lid (also in the score) and the optional improvisation before the final reprise of the theme. Taylor did not play the improvisation either. Both pianists played with the use of a score; I cannot imagine it otherwise.

No matter, any performance of the Rzewski is destined to be an epic. The more one gets to witness it, the more one is convinced by its greatness.