NANYANG PIANO ACADEMY Opening Gala Concert / Review

NANYANG PIANO ACADEMY

Opening Gala Concert

Lee Foundation Theatre,

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Thursday (17 January 2019)

The first ever edition of the 3-day long Nanyang Piano Academy opened with a gala concert featuring members of its faculty, which included pedagogues from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) and visiting professors from several renowned music education institutions. It was a mini piano festival wrapped up within a two-hour long recital.

The recital opened with Singapore’s own Shaun Choo, now pursuing his Masters degree at the Salzburg Mozarteum, in Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor. A more confident and convincing performance would be hard to fine, with each of its very short variations carved out with lapidary care and finesse.

Next was a duo with NAFA Head of Piano Studies Lena Ching and her former student, the Juilliard-trained Nellie Seng in Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor. This has to be the greatest of hausmusik ever conceived, a work of utmost beauty yet imbued with a sense of dramatic seriousness. It was a good performance from the duo, however one wished for more a gemütlich feel in their reading, which pursued many notes with a grim determination albeit punctuated by moments of levity.

Nigel Clayton from London’s Royal College of Music closed the first half with Debussy’s Estampes and a selection from the George Gershwin Songbook. He was the only pianist to give a short preamble before the works, which was well-appreciated by the audience of young people and their parents. The contrasts in Pagodes, La Soiree dans Grenade and Jardins sous la pluie, representing the Far East, Spain and France were also well-brought out.

There was to be no improvisations in the Gershwin shorts, crafted like preludes, but Clayton took some liberties with repetitions, especially of melodies that were too nice to be heard just once. The clearly enthused audience was hit for six: I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise, The Man I Love, Fascinatin’ Rhythm, Someone Loves Me, Do Do Do and I Got Rhythm.  

The longest work of the evening was Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, almost half-an-hour in duration, performed by Claudius Tanski, a German professor from the Salzburg Mozarteum. Clearly he has a firm grasp of its epic scope and architecture, knowing exactly where the music inexorably leads, and the wherewithal to conquer its multitudes of octaves and chords. Any performance of this behemoth runs the risk of being overwrought, and there were some brief lapses, from which he recovered well to complete the arduous journey.

The final solo came from Shaun Choo, where he let it rip in Chopin’s First Ballade. This was a most accomplished performance, and an individual one which benefited from his extrovert personality. Clearly a showman, he also did a bit of acting leading up to the evening’s communal encore, Albert Lavignac’s showboating Galop Marche for 8 hands, where he was joined by Lena Ching, Nellie Seng and Nicholas Ong making a brief cameo. It was a harmless bit of fluff, vulgar and filled with horseplay. Whoever said that serious classical pianists should not have a bit of fun? 

THE TROUT / NAFA Music Faculty / Review

THE TROUT

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Music Faculty

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (12 January 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 January 2017 with the title "Chamber music with lots of heart".

Chamber music is the most pleasurable activity for musicians and listeners alike. Originating from works written for royal court musicians, this later evolved into hausmusik (house music), played by members of 19^th century middle-class households for their own entertainment. A collegial spirit exists in chamber music performance, hopefully allied by excellent techniques and refined tastes.

There were strong doses of all that in this concert featuring faculty of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Music Department. It opened with 20^th century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's Trio D'Anches for woodwinds, written during the dark years of the Second World War. Far from being a sombre work, oboist Joost Flach, clarinettist Tang Xiao Ping and bassoonist Aw Yong Tian gave a lively and ebullient reading.

There were dissonances aplenty, and a spicy brand of humour ran through its ten minutes. The fast outer movements were tautly delivered with pin-point cues and accents, contrasted with a slow and doleful central movement, housing a canon where the oboe carried its tune. A dance-like finale with a witty end completed a fine reading.

Further contrasts came in the four-movement Horn Trio by Johannes Brahms, a well-known but not often performed work here. Its paucity is due to a lack of willing French horn players and a strenuously acrobatic piano part. Thankfully hornist Marc-Antoine Robillard was a total natural. Shaping the instrument's singing lines and possessing accurate intonation are often taken for granted.

Pianist Nicholas Ong's role was jumping through musical hoops, especially in the fast 2^nd and 4^th movements, accomplished with no little confidence. Violinist Foo Say Ming completed the threesome, which galloped through the “hunting-call” finale with a fearless panache. Anything slower would have been lead-footed, so their natural impulses were to go for broke. This was very well received by a noisy audience which had far too many fidgety children for its own good.

Too many children behaving poorly and treating
Lee Foundation Theatre like their private playground.
Their parents should be sent for re-education.
Photo taken during the intermission.

Foo was joined in the second half by violist Janice Tsai, cellist Lin Juan, bassist Wang Xu and pianist Lena Ching for Franz Schubert's popular Piano Quintet in A major, nicknamed the Trout Quintet. The performance was by no means note-perfect, but it possessed that pre-requisite of chamber music: lots of heart.

A smart and brisk pace rightly dictated the 1^st movement, helmed by Ching's incisive playing that was anything but mechanical. There were lots of moments to heave a breath and savour the scents, and Ching was always alert to her partner's notes and nuances. The alternating fast and slow movements were contrasted to good effect; the 2^nd movement's congenial indolence found a foil in the punchy rhythms of the 3^rd and 5^th movements.

The work's heart was the 4^th movement, based on Schubert's lied Die Forelle (The Trout, hence the concert's title), which unfolded beautifully with each variation. Here the heart throbbed, and the warmth of camaraderie filled the hall with a glowing presence. That was, simply, the true essence of chamber music.   

GLORIA! / NAFA Orchestra & Chorus / Review

GLORIA!

NAFA Orchestra & Chorus

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday (19 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 April 2016 with the title "A moving evening of Poulenc".

An all-French programme was the culmination of an academic year's work for the School of Music at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Conducted by British conductor Nicholas Cleobury, presently Head of Opera at Brisbane's Queensland Conservatorium, there was a striking synergy and symmetry that united all three works in the concert.

Beginning with Maurice Ravel's ballet Mother Goose, the young orchestra crafted a very strong narrative thread through its movements (each retelling a tale from Charles Perrault's collection) and intervening intermezzos. The playing was sensitive and evocative, with excellent solos from woodwinds, particularly oboe, flutes and piccolo which conjured an imaginatively fabled atmosphere.

Strings were well disciplined and homogeneous in texture. The opening of The Fairy's Garden was beautifully played, and concertmaster Guo Xingchen's violin solos confident and impressive. In the pentatonic paradise that was Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas, harp, celesta and assorted percussion helped paint an indelible portrait of the Orient, filled with dizzying gamelan sonorities.

That was the vital link to the next work, Francis Poulenc's popular Concerto for Two Pianos, where he used keyboards to simulate the tintinnabuli and clangour of the gamelan orchestra. Soloists Lena Ching and Nicholas Ong, both of the piano faculty, navigated their tricky and intricate parts with razor-sharp reflexes and witty aplomb.

Its aromatic blend of orientalism, neoclassicism (the slow movement was pure Mozartean charm) and popular dancehall tunes wafted with the pungently intoxicating and hypnotic qualities of incense, a true riot for the senses. There was even a curious episode for two pianos and solo cello playing a melody in harmonics. Was this Poulenc's salute to the Javanese spiked fiddle?

After the frolicsome finale which closed with a brilliant show of pianistic hi-jinks, the second half comprised just Poulenc's Gloria for soprano, choir and orchestra. One of the most appealing and often-performed 20^th century choral works, it revealed diametrically opposite aspects of the composer – the sacred and profane, from saint and sinner.

The opening Gloria In Excelsis Deo, executed by excellent brass and percussion with righteous grandeur and pomp, also had an air of flippancy. The 86-strong chorus, meticulously drilled by Lim Yau, responded with corporate drollery, soon breaking out into an enthusiastic and sincerely felt Laudamus Te which made the proceedings all the more light and cheerful.

Cheerful would be an unusual adjective for a sacred work, but Poulenc did not hide behind feigned piety and supplication. Central to his exposition was Indonesian soprano Isyana Sarasvati, NAFA alumnus and now a media sensation of sorts, whose sweet yet unwavering delivery of Dominus Deus was an epitome of purity and poignancy.

The chorus' unison proclamation of Qui Sedes Ad Dexteram Patris was strong and fervent, setting into motion a truly moving finale. How often does one hear a Miserere Nobis (Have Mercy) sound this joyous? Sarasvati's sonorous Amen was a ringing declaration from high, an affirmation of answered prayers to which both chorus and orchestra concluded on a serene and sublime high.  

Chopin Celebration Concert / NAFA Piano Faculty / Review

CHOPIN CELEBRATION CONCERT 

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts 

Tuesday (26 January 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 January 2010.

The first concert in commemoration of Frederic Chopin’s bicentenary this year was delivered by piano faculty members of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Featuring seven pianists in nine works, there was fair polish (pardon the pun) and bounteous poetry, even if the passion quotient came up somewhat short.

The main draw was the four Ballades, exquisite tone poems and arguably Chopin’s finest essays. Performed in sequence, they amount to a substantial “fourth” sonata. The two most familiar, No.1 in G minor (Op.23) and No.4 in F minor (Op.52), received tasteful and unmannered accounts from Rena Phua and Benjamin Loh respectively. All went singingly until the tempestuous and treacherous codas, where both struggled and teetered on the edge of calamity and collapse.

Phua returned to better vibes in the less hazardous Ballade No.3 in A flat major (Op.47), which built up to a fine climax without hitting further speed bumps. It was left to the Montenegrin Boris Kraljevic to highlight the stark contrasts in Ballade No. 2 in F major (Op.38), alternating between a serene Siciliano rhythm and outright violence. His Slavic temperament to go for broke was a definite plus.

The recital’s first half showcased Chopin’s shorter but no less heartfelt pieces. The dark and meditative Nocturnes combined smooth bel canto lines with seething disquiet. These were apparent in Lena Ching’s reading of the C sharp minor Nocturne (Op.27 No.1), which was intimate although operating on a smallish sound palette. A pity that the auditorium’s air conditioning also displayed some Chopin-like behaviour by unpredictably droning noisily during the quiet passages. 

Lim Tshui Fang’s view of the C minor Nocturne (Op.48 No.1) lacked power and projection, while Ernest Lim’s Impromptu No.3 (Op.51) was a tad too deliberate. Both seemed to opt for safety first over fearless audacity. The lovely Berceuse (Op.57), with its unwavering left hand accompaniment and right hand ornaments, however found a sympathetic guide in Kraljevic.

The best all-round performance came from Ng Chong Lim, who invested a special alchemy to the Three Mazurkas (Op.59). Elegant and well articulated, these dance miniatures pulsated with life, with every detail lovingly brought out. Melancholy, exultation and agitation, all encapsulated within 9 vital minutes, were quintessential Chopin, sine qua non.

The NAFA piano faculty (from L): Kraljevic,

Phua, Ng, T.F.Lim, E.Lim, Ching & Loh.

If I may be permitted to play schoolmaster and grade the performances as if it were a term paper, here are the "grades" (not published in The Straits Times):

Op.27 No.1: B+

Op.48 No.1: C+

Op.51: C+

Op.57: B+

Op.59: A

Op.23: B- (C for coda)

Op.38: B+

Op.47: B+

Op.52: B (C for coda)

Do I get an apple for my efforts?