RUSSIAN COLOURS / Tang Tee Khoon & Sam Haywood / Review



RUSSIAN COLOURS

TANG TEE KHOON, Violin

SAM HAYWOOD, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (19 March 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 March 2014

Some items of historical significance may be classified as national treasures. One such treasure is a 1750 J.B.Guadagnini violin, purchased by an institutional benefactor and donated to the National Arts Council. Its exclusive use has been designated for Singaporean violinists making their mark in the international scene. Having previously toured the world with Siow Lee Chin, it now rests in the deserving hands of 30-year-old Tang Tee Khoon.

Tang is a living treasure of sorts herself. Having won the grand prize for all-round best musician at the 1993 National Music Competition at the age of 9, she has gone on to fulfil the vast potential predicted of her, as a chamber musician of the highest order. Her latest concert, one centred on Russian music, also showed she has matured beyond raw prodigious talent to something truly transcendent.

Despite her petite and slender built, she exuded a big and brawny tone on the violin, one capable of cutting through plangent piano textures and capaciously filling the hall. In Prokofiev’s Second Violin Sonata, she alternated between its bittersweet reminiscences and mercurial dervishes, so expertly and confidently without as much as breaking into a sweat.

Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher (Memory of a Beloved Place), three pieces which progress from serious melancholy to salon lightness, she brought out the requisite shades and nuances truly defined by the concert’s title, Russian Colours. Through these, an unfailingly singing tone happily co-existed with an iron-clad technique and razor-keen responses.

British pianist Sam Haywood was much more than mere accompanist, a partner in true music-making whose crisp and clearly-defined fingering enhanced the entire aesthetic experience of chamber music. 

His solo segment offered two pleasant but short Preludes by Julius Isserlis, the Russian-Jewish grandfather of the renowned cellist Steven Isserlis (both seen left), which hail from the Slavic sound world of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. In the latter’s Preludes in G minor and B flat major (from Op.23), the same ones performed by Lang Lang in a solo recital seven years ago, Haywood showed himself to be a far more sensitive and superior musician.    

The concert closed with the duo indulging in the fantasy world of Stravinsky’s Divertimento, adapted from his ballet The Fairy’s Kiss after Hans Christian Andersen, which itself is a tribute to Tchaikovsky’s dance treats. Elements of the Russian’s neoclassical style mixed with Romantic lushness and modernistic gestures defined its four connected sections which flowed very pleasingly.

This was in large part due to the duo’s gift of musical storytelling, highlighting the music’s emotions peaks and troughs, while filling in the details with strong characterisations. The many virtuosic turns which pepper the score seemed like child’s play, thrilling and astonishing the listeners.

However one just wished that the audience did not behave like some 18^th century mob, clapping inappropriately between pauses and short breathers, thus disrupting the music’s natural flow. Their sincere enthusiasm was rewarded with another Russian gem, more heart-on-sleeve emoting in Rachmaninov’s ethereally beautiful Vocalise.  



Violin Recital by Tang Tee Khoon / Review

TANG TEE KHOON Violin Recital
with Sholto Kynoch, Piano
Victoria Concert Hall
Thursday (13 August 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 August 2009.

A violin is merely a box with strings, one that projects sounds when scratched with a bow. It is the performer who breathes life into a musical instrument and gives it a soul. The National Arts Council’s 1750 J.B.Guadagnini violin could not have found a more deserving recipient in 25-year-old Tang Tee Khoon, former child-prodigy and winner of the 1999 National Violin Competition, who gets to travel with and play it for the next two years.

From the opening solo of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata (Op.47), there was an unmistakable sense of someone who knows what she wants to say in the music and the dogged will to pursue it. Purity of tone and impeccable intonation aside, it was her robust and gloves-off attack on passionate Middle-period Beethoven that was most awe-inspiring.

With such colours nailed firmly to the mast, she matched blow for blow with the excellent British pianist Sholto Kynoch (left) in this exciting music. There was little or no fear that she might be drowned out by the denser keyboard textures. In the long-breathed Theme and Variations of the second movement, there was also sensitivity and care for detail that impressed, before the irrepressible headlong plunge into the finale’s exultant tarantella.

In the Brahms Second Sonata in A major (Op.100) that began the recital, it was a more relaxed and song-like countenance that took over in this mellow but no less demanding work. Here the persuasive art of give-and-take between violin and pianist marked the métier of experienced chamber musicians. The melodies flowed unabated, as if in light gossamer–sprinkled dreams.

Belgian arch-virtuoso Eugene Ysaye’s unaccompanied Sixth Sonata (dedicated to Manuel Quiroga) served as the de facto encore. With all the stops pulled, this fiend of a showstopper displayed everything the instrument had to offer in terms of its sonic capabilities and range of dynamics. From whisper to full-throated roar, Tang delivered with great confidence and stunning aplomb.

There is little doubt that in Tang and the nation’s Guadagnini, a close to perfect match is being forged. It will pay rewardingly to closely follow our two national treasures.

Tang Tee Khoon wins use of National Arts Council's 1750 Guadagnini Violin

25-year-old Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon

wins exclusive use of NAC's 1750 J.B.Guadagnini violin

previously played by Siow Lee Chin.

(The Straits Times, 18 June 2009)

Well done, Tee Khoon! All the best!
(Please click to enlarge)