A FEW WORDS WITH
SINGAPOREAN PIANIST MAY PHANG
The name of MAY PHANG may not be as familiar with music lovers in Singapore as she ought to be. As a rising piano virtuoso pursuing overseas studies during the 1990s, she performed Tchaikovky’s First Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and was invited to give a solo recital at the Singapore Arts Festival as part of its Homecoming Series.
Now based in Indiana, USA where she is Professor of Piano at DePauw University, she has just released a CD recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. This is a musical landmark, as she is the first Singaporean pianist to record this milestone of the keyboard repertoire.
Pianomania's review of the CD may be found here:
pianomania: BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations / May Phang / CD Review (pianofortephilia.blogspot.com)
Pianomania has a few words with this interesting artist, who not only masters the classics but also has a keen interest in rarities and byways of the piano repertoire.
2020 was an extraordinary year, not just because of the Covid pandemic but it marked the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Was your latest CD recording, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations issued on the Centaur record label, inspired by that premise?
It happened that way by coincidence. Covid just came on top of that.
Anton Diabelli (1781-1858), better known as a publisher of music, lives on because of Beethoven’s cunning composition. The subject was a quite trivial, even silly waltz, was it not?
Most sources do say that the waltz is banal, but as explained in my CD liner notes, I somehow find it quite interesting. Waltzes by nature are not meant to be profound, and this very short one packs a punch in so many ways. There are so many possibilities to faithfully realize what’s indicated in the score, yet the effects could be quite diverse. The same cannot be said of many other themes in the piano variation literature!
A work from Beethoven’s “late period”, he employed an encyclopaedic knowledge of keyboard technique and expression to craft a vast array of moods and emotions in these variations. Do you have any favourite variations or sequences, ones which specially resound with you?
There are many, for very different reasons. Some you love for the musical expression, some for their witty brevity, their brilliance of construction, their unusual qualities, the technical and other challenges they pose. Ultimately, I think it is how nothing is what it at first appears to be. For example, what may sound simple may not be so. There are layers to be uncovered. That is what I love about the entire work.
Comedy and wit abound in some of these, including the deliberate quote from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni in Var.22, or more subtly by closing the monumental work with a seemingly anti-climactic minuet following the mighty fugue. What does Beethoven’s idea of humour mean to you?
The sturm und drang part of Beethoven is often emphasised, and his most famous compositions - the Fifth Symphony, the Moonlight and Pathetique Sonatas - further espouse that. I do not believe Beethoven to be the curmudgeon he appeared to be. Humour exists in many forms – plain funny, amusing, comedic, witty, sarcastic, allegorical, tongue-in-cheek, parodic, paradoxical, innocent, or child-like. Sometimes, it also coexists with despair and disappointment, perhaps as a disguise or foil. Humour is multi-dimensional, the more so the greater the adversities a person has had to experience in life. That is what Beethoven’s use of humour in this work means to me.
You also have some original artwork on the cover of the CD booklet. Tell us more.
I did create the artwork and designed the entire cover, but it was not a painting per se, but a digital manipulation. Since you show an interest, it is an image of the Hafner Haus in Mödling, outside Vienna, where Beethoven resided in the summers of 1818 and 1819, and composed the Diabelli Variations. I knew that Beethoven lived upstairs, but that is why I can only be downstairs. As close as I can get without disturbing him.
Your earlier CD recording, Travels Through Time (released in 2013) is notable for its catholic choice of repertoire. It included Wagner and Stephen Foster transcriptions, and works by Golden-Age pianists Ossip Gabrilowitsch and Misha Levitzki. Your hunger for rarities and the off-beat is truly admirable. What fuels your interest in music’s less well-trodden paths?
The piano repertoire, already enormous, continues to expand, with new music being written, and older, lesser known pieces being unearthed or re-discovered. What drives me is more the compunction to want to explore and experience as much of the piano repertoire as possible, rather than having any specific plan of going down less-trodden paths, or trying to be novel in some way.
What are your some future plans in the spheres of performance and recording?
I wish I had the resources to perform and record more frequently. I am very excited about launching my very first concert series this year “Travels with May Phang”. I also enjoy working with composers and plan to collaborate more and commission in the near future.
May Phang’s Centaur recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations is available online at:
Physical album at Arkiv Music:
https://www.arkivmusic.com/products/beethoven-diabelli-variations-phang-863786
Digital album download at: iTunes and Amazon
Online streaming at: Spotify and Apple Music
