THE ROMANTIC PIANO VIRTUOSO / ALYSSA KOK PIANO RECITAL / Review

 

THE ROMANTIC PIANO VIRTUOSO

ALYSSA KOK Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (11 August 2026)

Very often, we as an audience get to experience a young prodigy perform in concert, often wondering what happens to them later in life. Chances they become doctors, lawyers, engineers et cetera, lost to the world of music. On a rare occasion, that prodigy blossoms to become a concert artist fair and true. This was the case with Singaporean pianist Alyssa Kok, whom I last heard in 2014. Twelve years on, she has graduated from the Salzburg Mozarteum University, later pursuing further studies in Poland. It was an absolute pleasure to see her again in concert.

Entitled The Romantic Piano Virtuoso, she waxed lyrical about two pivotal figures of early musical Romanticism, Fryderyk Chopin and Franz Liszt. She spoke most eloquently and engaged the audience on historical backgrounds and lives of both composers. She opened her recital with the Variations on La ci darem la mano (Op.2), the famous duet from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. An early work from 1827, it is impossibly fussy with filigreed ornamentation, where digital brilliance often trumped musical substance.

The solo version also includes orchestral tuttis, and there is a lot going on. An extended introduction soon ushers in the theme, which she plays plainly and without exaggeration, leading to six variations which get more florid as they come. Surmounting all the technical difficulties quite effortlessly, these included treacherous leaps from both hands in opposite directions in Variation 4, which must have given Schumann ideas for his Fantaisie Op.17. There was no loss of momentum all the way through to the final Alla Polacca, in the form of a striding polonaise for a blazing conclusion. Little wonder Schumann had exclaimed, “Hats off gentlemen, a genius!”

Coming from the polar end of Chopin’s output was the mature Sonata No.3 in B minor (Op.58) from 1844. By this time, Alyssa had sufficiently warmed up, bringing out quintessential qualities of Chopin’s Romanticism, contrasting fierce Polish nationalism with pure lyricism in the opening movement’s themes. She omitted the exposition repeat, going straight for the jugular in the development and the gambit worked wonders. 

The swift etude-like Scherzo was dispatched with ease before baring the soul in the nocturne-like Largo, the true beating heart of the work. The final Rondo in tarantella rhythm was a return to scintillation, building up to a simply thrilling close. One can already imagine this passionate first half to be one straight out of the later rounds in the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Alyssa then emerged in a fire-engine red gown for a much shorter second half of music by Franz Liszt. She began with the popular Paganini Etude No.3, La Campanella, where the repeated finger leaps and extended trills held no terrors for her. Later, her account of running straight into a fiesta in Spain, wide-eyed and starry recollections, were relived in the blistering Rhapsodie Espagnole. 

A symphonic poem for piano in all but name, the opening La Folia theme was delivered in full glory Technicolor, its massive octaves and chords coalescing into a satisfying whole before the more animated Jota Aragonesa took over. There was some loss of control at this blinding speed, but there was no doubt she was building to something monumental. Generating a big plethoric sonority that completely filled the hall, she brought her recital to a grandstanding close.

Her encore of Chopin’s achingly beautiful Nocturne in E major (Op.62 No.2) showed where her allegiances and empathies lay, in the lap of the long-suffering, consumptive Pole.

IN RETROSPECT: THE ROAD TO NEOCLASSICISM / RYAN CHOW Piano Recital / Review

IN RETROSPECT:

THE ROAD TO NEOCLASSICISM

RYAN CHOW, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (2 January 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 January 2016 with the title "Scaling neoclassical heights".

Neoclassicism in music refers to the 20^th century movement in which composers looked to the past and antique forms for inspiration. Retrospective views were nothing new even in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, and this intelligently-conceived piano recital by young pianist Ryan Chow, presently studying in America, showed that such an approach need not be over-intellectual or didactic.

A warhorse, the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, opened the evening in grand style. Chow was equal to its rigorous succession of short variations, building up in arch-like manner to a massive climax. His technique was more than secure, bolstered by a beefy and sonorous tone in Busoni's romanticised transcription of Bach's solo violin piece.

There was a rare outing for Grieg's Holberg Suite in the original piano version, its five movements in imitation of baroque dances. Chow could have yielded a lighter touch for these miniatures, but there was no diminution of the left hand's delicate melodic line in the Air and the prestigiditation of the Prelude and Rigaudon was well-served.

Frenchman Albert Roussel's Three Pieces are true rarities, the brief Allegro con brio providing a nod in Stravinsky's direction (himself an avid neoclassicist) and the longer Allegro con spirito a whiff of dancehall frivolities that was all the rage in Paris between the wars. The elegant waltz rhythms of the intervening Allegro grazioso found Chow in convivial mood.

The second half was an enthralling journey “back to Bach” beginning with two vastly contrasted Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich and Mendelssohn. While the Russian's (Op.87 No.2) was jerky and angular, the German's (Op.35 No.1) was broad and sweeping, culminating in a grandstanding chorale transformed by a glorious modulation to a major key.

The piece de resistance of the recital was surely Paul Hindemith's Third Sonata, receiving its Singapore premiere. Despite the astringent melodies and apparent dissonance, there was no disguising its homage to J.S.Bach, from the siciliano rhythm of the opening movement, the manic and sometimes jazzy scherzo, to the two fugal movements to close.

Chow was in complete command throughout, mastering its intricacies and lightning-quick turns with virtuosic aplomb. With tongue firmly held in cheek, the riotous final fugue piled outrageously high with contrapuntal voices to nearly breaking point and brought down the house. But he was not done with fugues yet.

His encore saw the two-hour long concert come a full circle. That was a masterly reading of the mighty Fugue from the Bach-Busoni Organ Toccata in C major BWV.564 which alternated the lightest of touches with thunderous chords. Now we must get to hear the whole thing from this exceptional artist sometime. 

HENRY WONG DOE Piano Recital / Review

HENRY WONG DOE Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (4 August 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 August 2015 with the title "Piano notes that sound like tinkling bells".

There are many fine pianists giving concerts out there who are not household names just because they are not named Lang Lang. New Zealander Henry Wong Doe, Juilliard graduate and prizewinner in the Arthur Rubinstein, Busoni and Sydney International Piano Competitions, is one of these. His debut recital in Singapore, which was not widely publicised, should have garnered a bigger audience.

He has an iron-clad technique that easily surmounted the most technically daunting of pieces, and capable of bringing out myriad shades of the piano. Beginning with Beethoven's brief Sonata in F major (Op.54) in two movements, he highlighted its stark contrasts with much purpose and care. The genteel minuet-like opening was upstaged by a procession of marching octaves, and a breathless perpetual motion blazed the way of its second movement without missing a step.

As if to change tact, his breezy account of Liszt's long-breathed Ricordanza (the ninth of 12 Transcendental Etudes) sounded almost improvised, its lyricism and singing tone enveloping the hall with a warm glow. This was the perfect salve for the coruscating energy of Argentine Alberto Ginastera's First Sonata, three of its four movements being fast and brilliant expositions.

Raw power and pummeling brute force were delivered in spades in its opening movement, while the Presto Misterioso second movement ghosted like a chilly winter wind. There was a concession for quietude in the nocturnal slow movement before the finale coasted home with a percussive Bartokian violence which brought out spontaneous applause.

Further indelible impressions were made in the second half with Eve de Castro-Robinson's this liquid drift of light from Landscape Preludes, an anthology of short pieces inspired by New-Zealand geography. Impressionistic in character, its indolent portrayal of languid lapping waters resonated in the high registers of the piano like gently tinkling bells. 

More bells came to the fore with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. From its imposing opening Promenade, Wong's reading stood out as a brisk and no-nonsense one which operated between fortissimo and further decibels more. One wished he could have taken more time to smell the flowers, as The Old Castle sounded unsentimental, while the playful Tuileries was tarred with the same brush as the lumbering ox-cart Bydlo, which served as an early climax of sorts.

The Ballet Of Unhatched Chicks wanted for lightness but Goldenberg & Schmuyle (Two Polish Jews) was suitably brutal in its characterisation. When it came to fast and furious, Baba Yaga's Hut swooped down menacingly but at that high speed, some wrong notes were inevitable. However all came to a heady end with the grand strides of The Great Gate of Kiev, with its deafening tintinabulation of pealing carillons.

Wong's sole encore was a balm for the ears, Gareth Farr's The Horizon from Owhiro Bay (from Landscape Preludes) with its wind-swept climes bathed in pentatonic and gamelan-like tones. It made for a colourful conclusion to a flavoursome evening of piano music.

This concert was presented by MW Events Management.

HERE'S ONE CONCERT YOU SHOULD NOT MISS: PIANO FANTASIES by KENNETH HAMILTON

Just love piano music but cannot wait till the annual Singapore International Piano Festival? Here is a recital by one of the piano world's most interesting and intrepid pianists, Kenneth Hamilton.

His annual offering on Sunday 5 April at the Esplanade Recital Studio (7.30 pm) is a recital wholly of fantasies for the piano. Here is the full programme listing:

BEETHOVEN Fantasy, Op.77

SCHUMANN Fantasie in C major, Op.17

CHOPIN Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op.61

MENDELSSOHN Fantasy on 

The Last Rose of Summer

HANDEL-LISZT Almira Paraphrase

VERDI-LISZT Rigoletto Paraphrase

Sunday, 5 April 2015 at 7.30 pm

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tickets still available at SISTIC

For more about Kenneth Hamilton's interesting programme, check out this INTERVIEW with Natalie Ng where he displays his usual erudition and good humour: 

http://plinkplonkplunk.com/2015/04/01/piano-fantasies-interview

  

Here's what I had to say about Kenneth Hamilton's previous performances in Singapore in my Foreword to his latest recital. Hope that helps in persuading you to attend another masterly evening of piano music!:

It gives me great pleasure in welcoming back Scottish pianist Kenneth Hamilton for yet another exciting and intriguing recital of piano music.

I first got to meet Ken after his first Esplanade Recital Studio recital in 2007, when I was the Artistic Director of the Singapore International Piano Festival. Then I was busily involved in planning thematic programmes around specific piano repertoire, incorporating the great Romantic works for piano by Chopin, Liszt, Godowsky, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Medtner and their like. Some of the themes had included The Golden Age of The Piano (in 2006) and Lisztomania: The Art of Virtuosity (2007), and then out of the blue came an invitation from the University of Birmingham to attend a piano recital entitled An Orchestra At The Keyboard by some Professor Kenneth Hamilton.

Having never heard of Kenneth Hamilton before, I wondered what sort of crazy person would programme Chopin’s Funeral March Sonata, Liszt’s transcription of Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Alkan’s Aesop’s Feast in the same recital, and then offer the Sousa-Horowitz The Stars and Stripes Forever as an encore. In short, the zaniest programmer of piano festivals (a title I would gladly claim) had met his match in the most intrepid and adventurous of pianists, a sort of David Livingstone meets Indiana Jones on the keyboard.    

The reference to the great explorer Livingstone is probably apt because he too was Scottish, and Hamilton’s explorations in the more arcane alleyways of the piano literature and the missionary zeal in which he applies himself to his pursuits are just astounding. Not just satisfied with promoting Liszt, Alkan, hyphenated-Bach and Busoni, he has also been an indefatigable proselytiser of John Ireland (who was English despite his name) and fellow Scotsman Ronald Stevenson.

Here are the themes which Ken has created in his Singapore recitals down the years:

2007: An Orchestra At The Keyboard

2008: Virtuoso Piano Transcriptions
2009: Virtuoso Piano Transcriptions - Encore!

2011: The Virtuoso Liszt

2012: 200 Years Of The Piano

2013: Romantic Masterpieces

2014: Back To Bach

Titles alone do not do justice to the wealth of piano treats he has bestowed on Singaporean audiences, including Singaporean premieres of the Hexameron (by 6 Romantic composers including Liszt and Chopin), Alkan’s transcription of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 and Alkan’s own devilish Concerto for Solo Piano. You may call him a one-man piano festival.

As the author of After The Golden Age, a treatise on piano performance practice in the late 19^th century and early 20^th century, Ken has had on occasion put preaching into practice. Who can forget the time when he came out and serenaded the audience while they were finding their seats, or the art of preluding, when he doodled for a few moments before actually playing a work, or interluding by improvising between pieces? All these are is part and parcel of being a pianist from a bygone era, and Ken with his inimitable manner of introducing each work never fails to engage his audience.  

This evening, he delves into the world of fantasies with yet another delicious selection of works written in the free form (hence the word fantasy, as opposed to the boring old sonata form), some familiar and others less so. One thing is for certain, be prepared to be entertained, enthralled and enlightened.     

Chang Tou Liang

www.pianofortephilia.blogspot.com

Former Artistic Director,

Singapore International Piano Festival

LAURA PEH Harp Recital / Review

HARP RECITAL

LAURA PEH, Harp

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (23 August 2013)

Piano and violin recitals are fairly rare occurrences in Singapore, so what more a harp recital? Of course there are concerts by the indefatigable Katryna Tan and her lovely I-Sis Trio, and the HarpFest (also organised by Katryna), but beyond that, a harp recital is a positive rarity. So there is cause for celebration when a teenager takes up that challenge. 19-year-old Laura Peh, a student of Katryna, is the first Singaporean to be accepted as a harp student at the famed Paris Conservatory. She has been there for two years and studies with Isabelle Perrin.

Straight off, let me say that this serious-looking and thoughtful young lady is a wonderful musician with the makings of a true artist to come. Her 70-minute programme was varied and interesting, even though there was a preponderance of music from the 20^th century and France in particular. Although the harp has existed since biblical times, harp repertoire truly took wing in the 19^th century, and it was the French and Belgians who led that renaissance. I am no expert in this area, but Laura’s very encouraging performance made me wish I were.

Laura Peh is a figure of grace and concentration.
(Photograph by courtesy of Katryna Tan)

She began with the music of Bach, a transcription of his Lute Suite in E minor (BWV.996), which begins with a French overture followed by a series of ancient dances. She gave a very spirited display of the fast movements, contrasted with the aria-like Sarabande which breathed an air of elegance. 

Then came three French works. Jacques de la Presle (1888-1969) is a new name for me. His Le jardin moulle (The Wet Garden) has the same impressionist colourings as Debussy’s more famous scores, and the use of the whole tone scale gave it that exotic feel. The pitter patter of the rain as suggested by the music was on a whole gentler than the windswept pages of Debussy’s Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain), just to compare two pieces on a similar subject. The music reached an impassioned climax before closing quietly.

Laura, performing completely from memory, was confident and sensitive throughout. This continued into the more modern Bamyan by Philippe Hersant (born 1948), inspired by the stark Afghan landscape and Buddha statues destroyed by the Taleban (the inbred mongrels). Here she adopted a different sound palette for its mysterious and more desolate (but still tonal) idiom. Its quiet opening was contrasted with a more dramatic and starkly surprise close.

The stage was shared with excellent young flautist Cheryl Lim for Bernard Andrés’s Narthex, which presented this euphonious combination in a series of linked musical tableaux inspired by biblical sculpture in French cathedrals. Special effects were employed in this work, requiring Laura to use the tuning key to slide down the tuning pins, hitting the wood of the harp, rattling a tuning fork against the strings and the like. She seemed to produce these items at will, reaching behind her with a conjuror’s sleight of hand. Cheryl, for her part produced a curious glissando by sliding a finger through the flute’s head joint, which sounded like some lascivious wolf whistle. This is a curious but entertaining work to say the least, one which has some currency, as it will be heard again later this week at Jin Ta and Gulnara Mashurova’s recital at the Conservatory.

The programme was completed by Hindemith’s three-movement Sonata (more melodious than one would have expected from this master of musical astringency), Heinz Holliger’s Sequenzen uber Johannes I,32 (the only truly atonal work in the concert, one requiring the services of a screwdriver) and Ekaterina Walter-Kuhne’s Fantasy on Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. The last has the same music and sequence as the Paul Pabst Fantasy for the piano, with the main focus on the Waltz and Lensky’s Aria, but without the magical sequence uniting the two melodies. It is a sparkling work of great virtuosity, one in which taxed Laura to the fullest of her abilities. There were some awkward moments with the widely spread chords of the Waltz, which almost came unstuck at one point, but she ultimately held the work together to close the recital on a high.

Laura Peh does not stun you with flashy showmanship, but moves one by her musicianship and sincerity, which are far more enduring qualities. She is still young, and will undoubtedly go on to further heights in the long road that is being a professional musician. She has accomplished much for her tender years, and the sky’s the limit for one who shows dedication to her art. I look forward to hearing more of her in the near future.     

Note: According to the Singapore Harp Society, Laura Peh is the first Singaporean to give a solo harp recital in Singapore. (Katryna Tan, her teacher, was born in Malaysia but is now a Singapore permanent resident.)

MUSIC OF LOVE AND DEATH / DANIEL GLOVER Piano Recital / Review

MUSIC OF LOVE AND DEATH

DANIEL GLOVER Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Monday (19 August 2013)

Honestly, I had never heard of American pianist Daniel Glover before this recital. His name reminded me of the black dude who played Detective Sergeant Murtaugh opposite Mel Gibson in those Lethal Weapon movies. That’s one guy who packs a mean punch besides breaking into a wisecrack or two. However when I learnt that his recital included movements from Granados’s Goyescas and never-played-in-Singapore-before Wagner piano transcriptions, my interest was piqued. His recordings of Liszt, Spanish works and virtuoso Russian transcriptions on his own CD label DG2 were impressive enough, and so that warranted a Monday evening away from the family. 

The recital began with the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, and Glover certainly knows how to create an outsized organ-like sonority on the Steinway in the reverberant Esplanade Recital Studio. He has a good grasp of the work’s architecture, which built into a great arch-like edifice. I liked the way he brought out some hidden voices, mostly from the left hand. Although he wasn’t technically infallible, that did not seem like a big issue because the music simply flowed.

Next came two contrasting Chopin works. The lovely little Berceuse was very steady and sturdy; the left hand chords resounded bell-like, over which the right hand filigree was spun with much evenness. This was prelude to the Second Sonata in B flat minor (Op.35), a performance which had the requisite drama one could have hoped for. Again, Glover’s power and sound projection did not disappoint. He played the 1^st movement repeat, and rightly included the opening Grave introduction. The sense of urgency and tragedy was well captured, continuing unabated into the rumbling Scherzo. The well-known Funeral March formed the work’s emotional core, its procession built to a mighty climax, contrasted with a cantabile central section in D flat major that provided a soothing balm. The brief and mysterious finale – uncannily described as wind over the graveyard – was a one-way journey to the abyss, bringing the work to a stunning close. For me, this represented the evening’s best moments, fully living up to the concert’s title.

After the intermission, Glover spoke at length about Granados and his unfortunate watery demise in 1916, after being torpedoed by the Germans (der schwein) with American gold bullion weighing down his jacket. He played the Second Book of Goyescas, which comprised the Balada (Love and Death) and the epilogue, The Spectral Serenade. Both are dramatic and extended movements, a complete reversal of the fortunes in the first four movements of the First Book. Themes and motifs from the earlier pieces were rehashed and revived in the overwrought melange that is the Balada, and the Epilogo to a certain extent. And if one did not recognise those motifs, the episodic nature of the pieces may not have made much sense. That was the warning provided by Glover, and to his credit, he did attempt to make it sound like a coherent whole.

Richard Wagner, Louis Brassin & Karl Tausig.

About the Wagner excerpts, these are Singaporean premieres, to my best knowledge. Surprisingly he did not include the Isoldes Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, but three pieces from Die Walküre. The Magic Fire Music arranged by Louis Brassin is devilish to say the least, and there was some approximate playing in those upward sweeping arpeggios in various intervals, and the music wanted for some ethereal lightness. Better was Karl Tausig’s transcription of Siegmund’s Aria from Act One, which truly sang. Then came that impossible arrangement by Tausig of the Flight of the Valkyries, which almost came to grief at one point (Fright of the Valkyries?) but there was no want of trying. Whatever happened, Glover never lost control of the left hand’s big melody, even if it came in spadesful of octaves played at an unrelenting speed. He finished in one piece, and garnered a tumultuous ovation for his efforts.

Glover’s encores were lovely, first Liszt’s Liebestraume No.3 – full of romantic ardour – and the little known Jazzy from Aaron Copland’s Three Moods, a delightful trifle that sent the audience home happy.   

PIANOMANIA OFFER: 10% Discount to PIANO RECITAL BY DANIEL GLOVER / Esplanade Recital Studio / 19 August 2013

This is a limited-time-only special offer for followers of Pianomania. Enjoy a 10% discount for tickets to Daniel Glover's Piano Recital: Music of Love & Death.

Here's how. Please purchase your tickets at the following website: http://bit.ly/153sRWe 

Please quote: pianomania 

to enjoy the discount. Offer ends on 9 August 2013.

Programme:

BACH-BUSONI Chaconne in D minor

CHOPIN Berceuse in D-flat major, Op.57

CHOPIN Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op.35 "Funeral March"

GRANADOS Goyescas: Part 2

  Love and Death (Balada)

  Epilogue: Serenade of the Spectre

WAGNER-BRASSIN Magic Fire Music

WAGNER-TAUSIG Siegmund’s Love Song

WAGNER-TAUSIG Ride of the Valkyries 

The Wagner selections come from his opera Die Walküre, in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth.

Virtuoso pianist Daniel Glover has performed extensively in the U.S.A - his home country; as well as throughout Europe, Asia, South America and the Caribbean. Mr. Glover has trained with such luminaries as Eugene List, Abbey Simon, Jerome Lowenthal, Nancy Bachus and Thomas LaRatta. 

He holds a master's degree from The Juilliard School of Music, where he was awarded a scholarship. Among his numerous competition awards was first prize in the prestigious Liederkranz Competition in 1990. His successful 1992 Carnegie Hall recital in New York was a result of winning the Artist's International Competition. Mr. Glover also appeared in Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery and at the St. Petersburg Palaces Festival in Russia.

Here are some of Daniel Glover's recordings on the DG2 label:

Short reviews of the recordings will follow. All the CDs are available at the concert, priced at $20 a piece.