I OWE MY LOVE OF CLASSICAL MUSIC TO GARY GRAFFMANN

 

Gary Graffman making a point.
Photo taken in Hong Kong, 2016

I OWE MY LOVE OF CLASSICAL 

MUSIC TO GARY GRAFFMAN

It is with much sadness that we learn the death of American pianist Gary Graffman (1928-2025) on 27 December. He was 97 years old. Gary Graffman was the reason why I fell in love with classical music, and to him I owe a debt of gratitude.

Remember this cover?
Mine was a bootleg copy of this cassette.

It was 1979, and with pocket money saved up I was beginning to discover the joy of music. Those were the days of cheap $2 cassette tapes (now known as a mixed tape) that were sold at almost every street corner in Singapore. It was at one such shop in Dhoby Ghaut which also sold tropical fish (a site now occupied by the School of the Arts) that I bought a cassette titled Rachmaninoff’s Greatest Hits. The main work was his Second Piano Concerto, which may be described as the “sound of falling in love”. I was immediately smitten by the Russian Romantic composer’s bittersweet melodies and luscious orchestration, and played that tape over and over until it squeaked terminally. The performance was bold yet tender, speaking with an immediacy, voice and presence that swayed me intoxicatingly into the “dark side”. As if on drugs, I had been hooked forever. The pianist was Gary Graffman, partnered by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

Another version of the album on CD,
complete with Malaysian copyright sticker.

This music followed and haunted me over the years, and I bought multiple versions of that 1964 Columbia Masterworks recording after the old $2 cassette gave up its life, including another bootleg cassette in Kuta Beach, Bali and that too soon wore itself out. Then, I got the CD version in its various guises, including the same record but with a different cover in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. By some stroke of fortune, I was gifted the LP of the greatest hits album with the original iconic artwork of the series by former Singapore Lyric Opera general manager Ng Siew Eng. Now I have many CDs, the sole LP while all the cassettes had gone kaput.

That same Rach 2 recording,
but in different CD guises.

The original vinyl recording.
Photo taken in Hong Kong on 14 October 2009,
Gary Graffman's 81st birthday.

My wish of seeing Gary Graffman perform with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra never came to fruition, as he developed focal dystonia of the right hand that disrupted his career during the early 1980s. Then he transitioned into a career of teaching the piano (at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute), also becoming a serious collector of Asian art. Among his many students whom I was fortunate to see perform were Lydia Artimiw and the young Chinese triumvirate of Lang Lang, Yuja Wang and Haochen Zhang. He was always proud of his students, and would never be fazed by any criticism of them. To every adverse comment on LL, he would just add, “And he’s so much more than that”.

Notice that Lang Lang's autograph
is far bigger than Gary Graffman's.
The Gary Graffmann Sony Classical box-set.

GG with Yuja Wang

GG with Haochen Zhang

GG with the young Tengku Irfan (Malaysia)
and Aristo Sham (Hong Kong) in 2009,
after hearing the youngsters improvise.

I finally got to meet my musical idol in 2005, at the 1st Hong Kong International Piano Competition where he was a jury member (alongside other piano luminaries like Leon Fleisher, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Vladimir Krainev). He was a regular presence at the Chopin Society of Hong Kong’s festivals and events. In 2006, I finally got to see him perform a recital of left hand solo repertoire and Erich Korngold’s Suite for piano quartet at the HK Cultural Centre. 

GG (extreme right) and the jury of the 2008
Hong Kong International Piano Competition
headed by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

He also gave an illuminating talk about his life in music at the Society’s breakfast meeting, the proceedings which have been described here:

pianomania: Breakfast with GARY GRAFFMAN (December 2006)

At the same event, he also autographed my copy of his autobiography I Really Should Be Practising, a candid, witty and self-deprecatory account of his life till the early 1980s. Its title alone could easily describe the state of all of us would-be piano players.

Sometime in 2009, I was asked to accompany him in a taxi from the Peninsula Hotel to City Hall Concert Hall where a concert of The Joy of Music Festival was to take place. That was, for me, the greatest honour thought possible, and within that 20 short minutes, I went on to regale him on how his Rachmaninoff recording had changed my life forever. He sat there quietly, probably wondering how many times he had heard all of this before. After finding out I was from Singapore, he warmly recounted a former Singaporean student of his who had invited him to a concert she was conducting. He had to decline since he was now in Hong Kong. That Singaporean was the conductor Wang Ya-Hui, who is presently based in Taiwan.

A left hand piano recital in The Joy of Music Festival 2009 was covered by yours truly here:

pianomania: THE JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009: Gary Graffman Piano Recital / Review

Years later, I was asked to write a blurb to promote Singaporean violinist and Curtis alumna Siow Lee-Chin’s autobiography From Clementi to Carnegie. I was most honoured to find my musings placed in the same page and below that of Gary Graffman’s.

Also notice how great artists
get their message across in far fewer words.

About piano concertos, I finally got to see Graffman perform and these concerts were also in Hong Kong. These included Prokofiev’s Fourth Piano Concerto (in 2008) and Ravel’s Left Hand Piano Concerto (2011), both conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Needless to say, those were unforgettable musical events for me.

Gary Graffman after Ravel's Left Hand Concerto
with Vladimir Ashkenazy in 2011.
Andrew Haveron is the young concertmaster.

pianomania: Hong Kong International Piano Competition 2008: Gala Concerts Evening Three

pianomania: The Joy of Music Festival 2011: Concerto Gala Concert

I own many recordings of Gary Graffman of varied repertoire – solo, chamber and concertos – including 20th century composers like Schnittke, Rorem and Skrowaczewski, and these continue to be an inspiration for me. For Graffman, music always came first, and his role as a servant of the great composers and their music will always be a constant reminder to all of us who profess to love music.

GG with Liang Liang,
our last selfie, in 2016.

Ultimate memorabilia:
the only Gary Graffman Rachmaninoff
drinking mug in the world.

Now let's enjoy Gary Graffman 

playing Rach 2 again:

Gary Graffman reminisces 

with Ben Laude on legendary pianists.

(Posted 18.1.2026)

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2013)

GARY GRAFFMAN

Complete RCA & Columbia Albums

Sony Classical (24 CDs) / ****1/2

Gary Graffman is better known today as the teacher of Lang Lang and Wang Yuja at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Born in 1928 to Russian emigrants in USA, he studied with both Vladimir Horowitz and Rudolf Serkin. Hence his recordings which date from 1956 to 1979 (when he was forced to “retire” because of focal dystonia affecting his right hand) have strong Russian and German inclinations. He still performs on occasion but only of works for the left hand alone. Pride of place go to his piano concerto recordings of Rachmaninov (No.2 and Paganini Rhapsody), Tchaikovsky (all three) and Prokofiev (Nos.1 and 3), which have the rich Russian sound, which is fulsome, passionate and imbued with emotional heft.

His generation, known as the OYAPs (Outstanding Young American Pianists), was equally strong in the Austro-German classics. Four Beethoven Sonatas and the Third Piano Concerto, together with Schubert (Wanderer Fantasy and Sonata D.959) and Schumann (Carnaval and Symphonic Etudes) display his sympathy and authority in this repertoire. Any doubts to his virtuosity are immediately dispelled in Brahms’s Paganini and Handel Variations (although there is a bad editing error in the beginning of the latter), Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition and Balakirev’s Islamey. This is rounded up with a performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, which was used in the soundtrack of the Woody Allen movie Manhattan. The original LP artwork and sleeve-notes have been reproduced in miniature, which should please collectors and nostalgics no end. 

Gary Graffman turned a grand 85 on Monday 14 October 2013.

Happy Birthday and Good Health, Gary!

PIANO RHAPSODY

ROLAND PÖNTINEN, Piano

BIS 9044 (4 CDs) / ****1/2

Roland Pöntinen has been the “house pianist” for the Swedish BIS label since its early years in the 1980s, recording a wide and eclectic range of solo, chamber and concertante works. This collection, comprising mostly short pieces and encores, is a cross-section of his catholic tastes, in the manner of those “Piano Albums” conceived by Stephen Hough. The first disc showcases popular and children’s pieces, including Bach’s Prelude in C, Schumann’s Träumerei, Beethoven’s Für Elise and the like. The second disc explores piano’s “Golden Age” and transcriptions from Chopin, Liszt, Rubinstein to Moszkowski and Rachmaninov. He is an ever-tasteful advocate who does not let virtuosity get in the way of music-making.

The fourth disc, incorporating his album Cinerama, is most unusual in featuring Pöntinen’s own improvisations of movie music from Amarcord (Nino Rota) and Diva (Vladimir Cosma). Erik Satie’s  dreamy Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes, dancehall music Fantasie-Valse and Je Te Veux (I Want You) make stark contrasts with rhythmic Iberian-flavoured dances by Spaniards Albeniz, Falla, Granados and Argentine Ginastera. The added bonuses take the form of excellent readings of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto and Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Bamberg Symphony conducted by Leif Segerstam. Over five hours of enjoyable piano music here retail at super-budget price.

The Joy of Music Festival 2011: Concerto Gala Concert

Cheekily referred to as the "Mother of Piano Concerto concerts", the final gala concert of this year's The Joy of Music Festival and 3rd Hong Kong International Piano Competition closed with a big bang. There were four piano concertos in total, featuring four judges from the competition partnered by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

The evening began on a lighter note with Cristina Ortiz performing Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto in F major, one of her signature pieces. Interestingly, the very first recording I had of this work (on EMI Classics) was performed by her as well, and bought in Hong Kong way back in 1981! Make no mistake, despite this being an "easy" work written for a teenaged Maxim Shostakovich (DSCH's son), this is by no means a walk in the park. Perfect timing, wit and humour are crucial for its success, and she succeeded with great aplomb. There was tenderness and nostalgia in the Rach-like slow movement, and perfect prestidigitation in the Hanon-like exercises of its riproring finale. Marvelous, just like old times!

I had never heard of the Russian piano pedagogue Tigran Alikhanov prior to this, but I did check out a Melodiya recording of his playing Taneyev and Mendelssohn chamber works, which was very impressive musically. In Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto, he is a livewire, capturing the ascerbic wit and mechanistic brilliance very well. There were some unfortunate lapses in the slow movement's 2nd and 5th variations but that did not cloud a very lively finale - perfectly hewn - to close an enjoyable Russian first half.

The pianists got older as they came. Peter Frankl is now 76, but would not have guessed it by the way he launched himself into Liszt's Second Piano Concerto in A major. A far more subtle work than its predecessor, its transformation of themes unfolded majestically in his hands. The sublime page with cellist Richard Bamping was particularly beautiful, and when it came to crunching chords and those outlandish octave glissandi on both hands, Frankl is up there with all those youngsters. A totally impressive showing. Let's hope he play's Bartok the next time around!

Finally it was the turn of Gary Graffman, who just turned 83, in the Left Hand Concerto by Ravel. These days he only performs concertos for the left hand, which means he plays this and the Prokofiev Fourth Concerto with some frequency. His was a thoroughly assured reading, although sometimes the piano gets drowned by all the dense orchestration. The central jazzy march was totally delightful, as if turning back the years, while the final cadenza - one of the most fearsome exercises thought possible - was taken with great confidence. A chorus of bravos greeted the fiery end of the concerto, and of a magical evening of concertos with the stars.

What will they think of next in 2014?

THE JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009: Breakfast Meeting of The Chopin Society of Hong Kong

THE JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL
BREAKFAST MEETING:
REFLECTIONS ON THE PROCESS OF MUSIC MAKING
Tom Lee Auditorium, Megabox (Kowloon)
Thursday (15 October 2009)

Breakfast meetings of The Chopin Society of Hong Kong are held once a year and take place during The Joy of Music Festival or Hong Kong International Piano Competition. Attended by locals and delegates from Southeast Asia, wide-ranging issues about music are discussed and aired. Guest speakers have included Gary Graffman and Jeremy Siepmann, but this year’s meeting featured two child prodigy pianists, 13-year-old Aristo Sham (Hong Kong) and 11-year old Tengku Ahmad Irfan (Malaysia), who improvised and played their own pieces.

Dr Andrew Freris, President of the Society, pondered on what possibly a young person can offer in musical composition, neither having lived, loved, gained nor lost in their very few years of life. He also mourned the loss of the art of the composer-pianist, citing Rachmaninov and Prokofiev as the last exemplars of this once-hallowed tradition.

Tengku Ahmad Irfan performs his original compositions.

Note that his feet barely touch the ground.

Irfan was set to prove him wrong with two original compositions. The first was Tarantella, a prestissimo showpiece which sounded like a melange from Chopin and Liszt’s own Tarantellas and the finale of Schubert’s Sonata in C minor (D.958). Gary Graffman pointed out that it was uncannily similar to the Schubert “in twenty places”, and I asked whether young Irfan had known or played the above works. To our surprise, he was unfamiliar with any of these! So what were his influences? The answer was not too surprising given the times we live in: youtube! What on youtube had he remembered? “Chopin and Burgmuller” was his modest reply.

His second composition was titled Introduction and Fugue. Written in C minor, the chordal opening suggested Chopin’s Prélude in the same key (Op.28 No.20) and then there was an improvisatory section in the enharmonic A flat major, played in the Romantic style. The subject of the fugue sounded like a promising one but he was not able to develop it beyond the first few bars. The loud emphatic ending also indicated he had heard Beethoven’s Appassionata and Hammerklavier Sonatas somewhere along the way.

Aristo Sham improvises on BACH-DSCH.

Then it was Aristo’s turn. He was asked to improvise on any theme posed by the delegates. I gave him 8 notes based on the motto themes of J.S.Bach and Shostakovich to chew on, essentially two of classical music’s most famous “four letter words”.

B flat - A - C - B minor -

D - E flat- C - B minor 

(BACH-DSCH)

What resulted was a 20th century styled piece, with the motto themes appearing in both right and left hands, as well as in bass octaves. It sounded more sophisticated (Aristo is after all 2 years older than Irfan) and something even Ronald Stevenson would have been proud of.

Irfan also improvised on a theme of D-F sharp-B flat-A provided by Dr Yeo Kuei Pin from Indonesia, and the result was a concert étude filled with Lisztian chords and octaves. He completed his morning with a performance of the Rondo from Beethoven’s early Piano Concerto in E flat major (WoO.4 from 1784), composed when he was only thirteen. Here was proto-Beethoven, assimilating all he had heard from Haydn, Mozart and the Bach brothers (CPE and JC). It was derivative for certain, but full of brio and even included a gypsy interlude in B flat minor thrown in for contrast. Aristo replied with the Rondo from the First Piano Concerto in C major (Op.15).

By this time, the delegation had seen and heard the craft of composition at the most organic stage. The boys (with Gary Graffman, left) had done exactly what a 13-year-old Beethoven did some 225 years ago: the process of learning, copying, assimilating, improvising and finally creating. Needless to say, it was a morning well spent.

THE JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009: Gary Graffman Piano Recital / Review

THE JOY OF MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009
GARY GRAFFMAN Left Hand Piano Recital
City Hall Concert Hall, Hong Kong
Wednesday (14 October 2009)

Today marks the 81st birthday of the great American pianist and pedagogue Gary Graffman, but do not even begin to suggest that he gradually tail off his activities. Possessing the musical sensibilities of a sage and the vitality of a teenager, his stupendous piano recital of left hand piano music combined the programmes from his 2006 and 2007 concerts, with several new additions.

The familiar Two Pieces Op.9 by Alexander Scriabin opened the demanding programme; the wistful Prélude retained its melodic line throughout, and a seamless flow distinguished the well-known Nocturne in D flat major. Jay Reise’s transcription of the Étude in C sharp minor (Op.2 No.1) is a positive rarity, but it faithfully follows the original while sprinkling some naughty exotic harmonies.

Carl Reinecke’s Sonata in C minor (composer left) in three movements was the big piece of the recital. Flushed in Romantic colours and gestures, it came across as an engaging work with pleasant enough themes worth more than several listens. Despite its plethora of notes, one began to wonder whether the limitations of writing for one hand had militated against going for broke musically. This is not a criticism of Graffman’s amazing technique but rather an observation of a certain awkwardness of the medium. Try running a 100 metre sprint on one leg, for example. Nevertheless, this is not a work for the arthritic, with its quick central scherzo and tempestuous finale that reminded one of Chopin’s Revolutionary Étude, written in the same key and ending on a triumphant C major.

The other big piece was Brahms’ transcription of the Bach Chaconne in D minor (from the Violin Partita No.2). Possessed with far fewer notes that Busoni’s famous take, it is however far more faithful to the original inspiration. Here, Graffman was the perfect guide and his unerring control acted as story-teller par excellence. His conception built up arch-like to a magnificent climax and closing on a chord of nobility.

One would have imagined Max Reger’s Four Special Etudes (composer left) to be a dour affair but thanks to Graffman’s deft handling, it was rather engaging. The first two pieces – Scherzo and Vivace – seemed cut from the same cloth, both demonstrating agility with runs up and down the keyboard. The Romanze had a lovely chorale melody and much was made of it. The final Preludium and Fugue was neo-Bachian with delicious harmonies, closing the set on a contrapuntal high.

Two 20th century American works provided the contrasts, first with Leon Kirchner’s For The Left Hand, which was chromatic, almost atonal but not forbiddingly so. The first movement from John Corigliano’s Etude-Fantasy, now a popular competition piece, filled the air with bell-like ostinatos and resonances, delicious spice for the palate.

Out and out virtuosity capped this special evening. There is no more beautiful left hand piece than Felix Blumenfeld’s Étude in A flat major (Op.36, left), its melancholic melody an expression of Romanticism in full bloom. Blumenfeld was a teacher of Horowitz, who in turn taught Graffman, so there is a special connection. Graffman also made light of the phenomenal demands of two Chopin-Godowsky Études, No.13 (based on the E flat minor study, Op.10 No.6) and No.41 (Octave study in B minor, Op.25 No.10). More importantly, he coaxed more colours in one hand than many pianists with both. Such is the true meaning of artistry. Happy Birthday, GG!

The Joy of Music Festival is organised by The Chopin Society of Hong Kong.

Breakfast with GARY GRAFFMAN (December 2006)

BREAKFAST WITH GARY GRAFFMANN

The Miramar, Kowloon (Hong Kong SAR)

December 2006

Breakfast meetings organised by the Chopin Society of Hong Kong are always eventful affairs, not least because it is attended by Hong Kong’s top piano aficionados, pedagogues and a smattering of overseas guests. 

At the 2006 event at The Joy of Music Festival, the Guest-of-Honour was American pianist GARY GRAFFMAN (left), who spoke about his long and illustrious glittering concert career, amongst other things. Modest to a fault, he preferred to concentrate on the “other things”. The rest, you can read all about it in his autobiography I Really Should Be Practising.

This article was first published in The Flying Inkpot in 2006.

From Russia to the West

Although Gary Graffman was born in the USA, both his parents were immigrants from Russia. His father Vladimir (also known as Volodya) was a well-known violinist who was a student of Leopold Auer. His friends and contemporaries included Jascha Heifetz, Efrem Zimbalist and Mische Elman. On their way to America via the long trans-Siberian route, they made many, many stops, taking on jobs along the way in Omsk, Harbin, Tianjin and Shanghai. They eventually reached the West via Yokohama and San Francisco.

Early days at Curtis

Graffman leant the violin for three years with his father (who was also the teacher of the great violin pedagogue Joseph Gingold). He remembered playing scales and creating “gawd-awful sounds” and was declared to have no talent whatsoever. Naturally he moved on to an “easier” instrument – the piano. He was later able to accompany his father in the “standard sonatas” and works like the Conus Violin Concerto. 

He was seven years old when he auditioned for a place in the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He remembered a roomful of adults hearing him perform, including Josef Hofmann (left) who was the Principal. He did not realise who that was at the time, and addressed him with the familiar “tu” instead of the more formal “vu”!

Consistent with the Russian tradition, less emphasis was placed on chamber music as opposed to solo playing. Graffman was no exception and he offered this anecdote: As a young pianist, he had performed Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with Georg Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. As Szell drove him to the train station after the concert, the great conductor asked, “You don’t play much chamber music, do you? It shows!”

All this changed when Rudolf Serkin (from the Austro-German school, left) became the Principal of Curtis. This same scenario is however repeated today with Chinese conservatories. Many young Chinese pianists come to Curtis without having played the piano part of a single violin sonata. He feels that more attention should be given to chamber music, as an addition to what they are already learning.

When Gary Graffman entered Curtis, there were at most one or two students from Asia. Today, the majority of students are Asian. He currently has five students, four from China and one from Korea. He is amazed at the number of young Chinese who are musicians or studying to be musicians today, and added this riddle: How do you tell that someone in the city of Chengdu (in Sichuan) is a pianist? By the fact he or she isn’t carrying a violin case.

Once he was asked to recommend a pianist, who had to be an American. He could come up with only one – and his name was Ignat Solzhenitzyn!

Lessons with Horowitz

Gary Graffman initially studied with Isabella Vengerova (a student of Leschetizky) and she recommended him to study with Vladimir Horowitz (left). 

Graffman was not new to Horowitz as he heard him play in competitions and broadcasts. He was then offered lessons by the great man. This went on for about three years, starting with weekly lessons, which became monthly lessons, and then later four to five times a year. Horowitz was very much a night person; he slept at 2 or 3 am in the morning till noon. So lessons would take place at 5.05 pm (after the news on radio). Besides hearing a young pianist play, Horowitz was also curious to catch up on the gossip on other pianists!

Horowitz listened from a couch as Gary played. He did not say “I do it this way” but instead tried to see what a pianist was aiming for. When he commented, it was more about how and what he would do differently. He also made sure that Gary did not go off the track. Then it was the turn of the master himself. 

Often Horowitz would play for long stretches, usually of music he had planned on recording. Gary heard some twenty Clementi Sonatas, works by Medtner (a favourite of Horowitz but hardly recorded by him) and many short pieces. And then he would proclaim, “I can’t play the piano anymore!”

At the first lesson, Horowitz commented that his playing “was not in a singing line”. Horowitz then lent him bel canto recordings by Bastianini. Thus Horowitz thought of the piano in terms of the human voice, which was in contrast with Rudolf Serkin who thought instrumentally (“This is a horn, this is a bassoon…”)

Coping with disability

Initially, Gary noticed himself playing more wrong notes without quite knowing why. He was beginning to lose control of the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand. He would practise Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto three times more than before, but that work soon became an “iffy proposition”. Many of his colleagues would dismiss his concerns as trivial. “If that was your only problem, then go to hell!” they thought.

He consulted many doctors, all of whom had a different diagnosis, usually one pertaining to their own field of speciality. Some diagnosed life-threatening conditions while others suggested he needed psychiatric help! The condition which affected the control of his right hand was finally diagnosed as “focal dystonia” at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. (His colleague Leon Fleisher [left] had the same condition, but at an even younger age.) 

There was no pain nor weakness, only “the brain sending wrong information” to the hand, and there was nothing much that could be done. Relieved that only the right hand was affected and with original fears of an altogether more serious illness allayed, life went on for him.

With 200 concerts or two years of engagements cancelled (as estimated by the New York Times), Gary could devote time to teaching. He taught at the Curtis Institute and became its Director for twenty years until June 2006. More importantly, he could also indulge in another passion – Asian art.

Allure of the Far East

He studied Asian art history at Columbia University, and began amassing an extensive collection of art pieces and antiques including Chinese and Japanese paintings and Southeast Asian ceramics. He has made 27 trips to China alone, but only three or four were related to music. He has also visited Tibet, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines, the last of which included a digging expedition. Also an amateur photographer, his photographs of the more remote parts of Asia have been displayed in museums and exhibitions.

Graffman’s most famous student

Gary Graffman – an epitome of musicality – would seem the antithesis of his most famous student, the outlandish and often outrageous Lang Lang (left). Asked if he would have a word with his former student about his mannerisms, he had this to say: “I would not ask him to change anything. Lang Lang has it all there musically. All the rest are just extras!”

Footnote: Since this article first appeared, Graffman's students have included Yuja Wang (now signed with Deutsche Grammophon) and Zhang Haochen (joint 1st prizewinner of the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition).

Hong Kong International Piano Competition 2008: Gala Concerts Evening Three

Tuesday 21 October 2008

This was the highly anticipated bumper evening of piano concertos. The orchestra was the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong augmented by 30 musicians from all around Asia, under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. As expected, the City Hall Concert Hall drew its biggest audience thus far, a stark contrast with the smallish crowd that had turned out for the competition concerto finals. They had come to witness the stellar cast on show: Ashkenazy, Gary Graffman, Pascal Rogé and Cristina Ortiz. The competition proper had ended, and the bona fide stars have come out.

First up was the octogenarian Gary Graffman, who had celebrated his 80th birthday in Hong Kong. The American only plays works for the left hand these days, and his offering was Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.4 in B flat major (Op.53). His approach was one of feathery lightness, the piano part consisting for most part of single notes, balanced by a light orchestration (by Prokofiev’s standards). The accents were well placed, giving the music contour and shape. Its original dedicatee Ludwig Wittgenstein had rejected this work out of hand, but that’s most probably because he can’t match Graffman’s nimbleness and vision.

There was arch-lyricism (which Rachmaninov would have approved) in the slow movement, which unfolded like a set of variations, and rhythmic vibrancy ruled in the 3rd movement despite some messiness in the initial entry of the brass. The little finale (barely 2 minutes long) – light and ebullient - served as a delightful “encore”.

The second concerto fell to Frenchman Pascal Rogé, whose recording of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G major (and its left hand companion) garnered the Gramophone Award in the late 1970s. The opening solos from the piccolo and trumpet were as good as hoped for, and the black silk pyjama-clad Rogé (looking every bit like Hugh Hefner) eased into his role perfectly. While I could have wished for a little more sensuality in some passages, Rogé is a complete natural in this music, revelling in its shimmering textures and rhythmic exuberance. Curiously, for all of Rogé’s multiple visits to Singapore, he has yet to play this marvellous concerto.

The slow movement’s nocturne-like waltz was delivered dreamlike, with a steady but not plodding pace. Also distinguishing themselves were orchestral solos from the flute, oboe and most importantly, cor anglais. The mad-cap finale made for a champagne-popping close that brought chorus of cheer from the audience. Their reward was Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No.5 (a respite from Rogé’s usual Je te veux), which sounded almost improvised on the spot.

The third performance of the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto within six days came from Cristina Ortiz, which was in many ways the best of the lot. Having lived with this music for decades, Ortiz feels that some licence is permissible - a little rubato here, and some added accents there, all of which added to the character of the music. Never mind the few missed notes in the slow second movement – which might have proved deleterious in a competitor’s case – it was just one of those things, easily shrugged off at the spur of the moment. While winner Jin Sang Lee’s was a textbook perfect look at a warhorse, Ortiz was a lifetime’s survey of what is great about this music. One can never get enough of such music, and such performances.

Vladimir Ashkenazy, who has made no less than three recordings of this masterpiece, proved to be the perfect maestro – keeping every thing on a tight rein, yet allowing the music to breathe. If there were some perfect moments, I would go for the hushed strings towards the end of the slow movement, and the excitable central scherzando section in the finale. Sublime beauty with genuine adrenaline rushes – all these make for great Rachmaninov performances.

Encore time: Ortiz declared that it could not be anything else but Villa-Lobos, in this case the A Lenda do Caboclo (The Legend of Caboclo), beautiful harmonies and that irresistible Brazilian lilt. Just perfect!

The Third Hong Kong International Piano Competition has been timed for 15 October – 2 November 2011, so watch this space!