NOW WATCH THIS AMAZING PIANO VIDEO! TWO GREAT SINGAPOREAN PIANISTS PERFORM STRAVINSKY'S THE RITE OF SPRING!

Witness two of Singapore's greatest pianists perform. Melvyn Tan and Churen Li represent two different generations of Singaporean pianism. Melvyn left Singapore as a pre-teen to study in UK (Menuhin School and Royal College of Music) during the 1960s, while Churen was entirely home-grown, having completed her undergraduate years at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and further degrees at Yale and Cambridge. 

In their first collaboration together, one could scarcely tell their age-gap (about 40 years) but just appreciate two great musical minds at work, in this ground-breaking performance of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring on two pianos. 

One can only wonder what it was like witnessing Stravinsky and Debussy playing this music in a reading at Satie's home back in 1912. The performance on 27 October 2023 at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, part of the Performers(') Present Symposium would come close to it, or perhaps even better that.

ENJOY!

(4) Melvyn Tan x Churen Li: Dances & Dreams – Rite of Spring｜ YST Performers(') Present 2023 - YouTube

CHOPIN'S ETUDES & PRELUDES BY LOUIS LORTIE / CONCORDIA QUARTET WITH MELVYN TAN / Review

CHOPIN’S ETUDES & PRELUDES

LOUIS LORTIE Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (10 March 2023)

 

CONCORDIA QUARTET

WITH MELVYN TAN

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (11 March 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 March 2023 withe the title "Bravura displays from pianists Louis Lortie, Melvyn Tan".

Two internationally-acclaimed veteran pianists, well-known for many splendid recordings on compact disc, performed on consecutive evenings at Victoria Concert Hall over the weekend. The first was Canadian pianist Louis Lortie, presented by Altenburg Arts, making his Singapore debut with an all-Chopin recital. Completists would be more than satisfied experiencing all of Chopin’s 24 Etudes (in two books) and 24 Preludes in a single sitting.

 

A task of Herculian proportions, the transcendental technical difficulties in the Etudes and ever-shifting moods of the Preludes required both endurance and sheer stamina. Lortie had all of these, and more. It takes the bravest souls and stoutest hearts to launch headlong into the arpeggio thickets that is the C major study (Op.10 No.1), and then negotiate rapid slithering chromaticisms of the A minor number (Op.10 No.2).

 

Both pieces strike fear by their mere mention, but for Lortie, the fun had just begun. Chopin’s Etudes are the ultimate marriage of digital dexterity and lyrical poetry, not didactic exercises but tonal masterpieces. The slower numbers in E major and E flat minor (from Op.10) and C sharp minor (Op.25 No.7), also known as “Cello” for its mellow low voice, became true songs without words.

 

Ultimately, feats of dare-devilry, such as roulades of thirds in G sharp minor (Op.25 No.6), stampeding octaves of the B minor (Op.25 No.10), the blizzard that enveloped the A minor (Op.25 No.11) or “Winter Wind”, was what thrilled the audience most and left mouths agape. The Preludes (Op.28), an enticing mix of simple and complex pieces, was another odyssey of discovery, completing the recital with stunning aplomb. Lortie’s encore of Chopin’s hauntingly beautiful Nocturne in D flat major (Op.27 No.2) showed that not everything had to be blistering or thunderous to be memorable.      

 

The second pianist was Singapore’s very own Melvyn Tan, now a British citizen, who performed Austrian Erich Korngold’s Piano Quintet in E major (1921) with the homegrown Concordia Quartet. His very engaging preamble about the child-prodigy composer and his highly lucrative film music career was only topped by the performance, which exuded heart-on-sleeve passion from every pore.

Photo: Malcolm Ng

 

Neo-Romantic in spirit, the music fused Viennese decadence with Hollywood opulence. Dissonant and occasionally pungent harmonies never lapsed into outright atonality, while a melodic thread was always sustained through its absorbing half-hour. While violinists Edward Tan and Kim Kyu Ri, violist Martin Peh and cellist Lin Juan worked in close tandem with Tan, there was little doubt that the pianist ran the show.

Photo: Malcolm Ng

 

His highly detailed part dovetailed solo passages with stretches where piano became so intertwined with  strings as to be indivisible. Even when huge chords and octaves were demanded, and duly delivered, Tan and the quartet were in one mind throughout. The central movement, a set of variations on an earlier song, provided the work’s most sensuous moments while the playful finale romped home with irrepressible elan. Putting a twist to an oft-quoted jibe concerning Korngold, this performance was more gold than corn.   

 

The quartet’s unusually adventurous programme also included an intensely incisive yet sensitive reading of Prokofiev’s First String Quartet, likely to be the Singapore premiere. Its acerbic strains were balanced by the folksy sentimentality of Two Waltzes by Dvorak, making for an enthralling evening enjoyed by all who attended.  

A CHAMBER CONCERT NOT TO MISS: CONCORDIA QUARTET WITH MELVYN TAN on 11 March 2023

HERE IS A 

CHAMBER CONCERT 

NOT TO MISS!

British Singaporean pianist MELVYN TAN returns to perform with CONCORDIA QUARTET in a unique concert presented by re:Sound Collective. Although Tan has been renowned for his work on the fortepiano, his explorations on modern piano have taken him to fresh new repertoire, and a rare performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Piano Quintet. This is an exciting late-Romantic work with exotic harmonies and enchanting melodies, all wrapped up in a web of instrumental virtuosity.

The Concordia Quartet completes this programme of rarities with Prokofiev's First String Quartet (likely to be a Singapore premiere) and lighter delights of Dvorak's Two Waltzes.  

The full programme:

PROKOFIEV String Quartet No.1

DVORAK Two Waltzes

KORNGOLD Piano Quintet

Saturday, 11 March

8.15 pm, Victoria Concert Hall

Tickets available at SISTIC:

Concordia Quartet with Melvyn Tan [G] | SISTIC

MELVYN TAN GALA CONCERT / Review

MELVYN TAN GALA CONCERT

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (27 December 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 December 2017 with the title "Pianist Melvyn Tan lights the way for series of concerts".

Singapore-born British pianist Melvyn Tan was the first performer of the Aureus Great Artist Series, an ambitious line-up of concerts organised by Aureus Academy, Singapore fastest growing private music education institution. His recital, entitled Dances and Mirrors, was a well-conceived programme built around the music of Maurice Ravel.

The short first half featured waltzes, opening with Weber's Invitation To The Dance. Its slow and courtly introduction depicts a gentleman politely addressing a lady, and her gracious acceptance, before leading to the ballroom floor. The entreaties were however broken by a bawling toddler who had to be carried out of the hall.

Unperturbed, Tan leapt brilliantly into the waltz proper, one that pulsed and heaved as one breathed. Far from being metronomic, Tan's dance delighted in liberal rubato, deliberately slowing down before gathering speed once more, giving the music both life and lilt. The over-arching climax and false ending had the audience applauding prematurely, before a return to the earlier pleasantries.

The eight short waltzes of Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales came next, modelled on Schubert's similarly titled groups of dances. A plethora of dynamic contrasts were brought out, highlighting many facets of these sparkling polished gems. Boisterous yet coy, brusque yet tender, Tan found them all and never once did he miss out on the vital and unceasing rhythm.

The longer second half saw the five impressionistic pieces of Ravel's Miroirs (Mirrors) separated into four suites. Within each group, works by Liszt and Scarlatti were imaginatively selected to mirror Ravel for a show of converging inspirations and diverging outcomes.

Some masochistic impulse must have possessed Tan to begin with Liszt's Feux Follets (Will-o'-the-wisp), arguable the keyboard repertoire's most merciless finger-twister. Although he came through relatively unscathed, the account came across as effortful. More comfortable he was with the flittering and flickering denizens of Ravel's Noctuelles, an evocative portrait of night moths, and the resounding echoes of Oiseaux Tristes, which sounded magical.

The watery realm was explored next in Liszt's Les jeux d'eau à la Villa d'Este, a gushy play of spouting fountains. There was a brief lapse of focus midway, but benediction was found at its spiritual close and the ensuing roar of waves in Ravel's Une barque sur l'ocean.

The third suite was the most unrelenting, with two Scarlatti sonatas simulating outsized sonorities of military parades (with drums and trumpets aplenty) and flamenco guitar. The nightmare of repeated notes in the D minor Sonata (K.141) was then mirrored in Ravel's Alborada del gracioso, the unfettered morning dance of a court jester. Here, the highly animated and demonstrative Tan became the jester himself.

Closing the recital were the pealing tones of Liszt's Bells Of Geneva and Ravel's The Valley Of Bells, which made for a sublime and quiet ending. Instead of playing an encore, Tan gave way for two of his youngest students, Aaron Oh and Asher Khoo, who impressed on four hands with the evening's final dance - a Johann Strauss polka. 

MENDELSSOHN PIANO CONCERTO 1. BRAHMS SYMPHONIES / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

MENDELSSOHN PIANO CONCERTO 1

BRAHMS SYMPHONIES

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (28 July 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 31 July 2017 with the title "Roaring brass gives way to whisper".

German Romantic music was on the cards at last Friday's Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert conducted by music director Shui Lan. The evening opened with Richard Strauss' tone poem Tod und Verklarung (Death and Transfiguration). Beginning quietly, one could hear and feel the slow heaving pulse and heavy breath of a dying man portrayed in the music.

From the depths of despair came his last ditch struggle, that final and desperate grabbing of straws of an ebbing life. Music that could so indelibly depict such a scene was a speciality of Strauss, and how the orchestra responded – from the thread started by solo oboe, passed to solo flute before arriving at Concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich's violin. The build-up to a climax of throbbing health was thrilling, even if ultimately illusory.

The brass roared and strings quivered, but it all soon passed as crescendo gave way to a terminal diminuendo. The realisation that death was merely a portal to an uknown beyond was keenly grasped in Shui's taut but not unyielding direction. That similar narrative would also transpire in Brahms' Third Symphony, but early Romantic Felix Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto in G minor provided the interlude that came in between.

Thrust into the solo spotlight was Singapore's eternally young pianist Melvyn Tan. Not content to be the light comic relief, his arch-virtuoso role threw in chords, octaves and flying notes galore. His long arms flayed and flapped as the seemingly beleaguered piano held the mighty orchestra at bay for much of the outer movements.

It was in the slow central movement where sheer poetry reigned, and the piano's song floated above soft strings as opposing forces were kept in reserve albeit for few precious minutes. Heralded by an awakened brass fanfare, the finale's wild hunt was on, and Tan's energetic leaping through hoops of fire made for a sonorous spectacle.

Beaming ever so widely, his encore was the only non-Teutonic music on offer. Debussy's Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain) from Estampes was a piquant Gallic palate-cleanser after so much sauerkraut.

Johannes Brahms' Third Symphony in F major is often considered the Cinderella of his four symphonies. However a best case was made possible with its Schumannesque opening, imposingly stated but not overblown. This and much that ensued were sympathetically voiced, with excellent brass in the first movement climax and an every-steady woodwind chorale for the beginning of the second movement. 

The performance came into its own in the sublime third movement, when the cellos sang in its quasi-tragic plaint, and capped by Han Chang Chou's fine French horn solo near its end. The finale scaled the heights of passion and much like the Strauss work that began the concert, worked its way to a quiet close. When a symphony ends in a whisper, certain victory appears to have been lost, but the applause which came after a decent period of silence proved that the effort was clearly appreciated.

CD Review (The Straits Times, November 2016)

MASTER & PUPIL

MELVYN TAN, Piano

Onyx Classics 4156 / *****

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was the teacher of Carl Czerny (1791-1857), who in turn taught Franz Liszt (1811-1886). This illustrious relationship of masters and pupils that spanned three generations is celebrated in the 60^th birthday programme of Singapore-born British pianist Melvyn Tan. He has mentored a number of young pianists himself, with his work at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. 

Beethoven, who had set the Romantic era in music on fire, is represented by his late music, the brief but highly expressive Six Bagatelles (Op.126) and Sonata No.30 in E major (Op.109).

The latter closes with a sublime set of variations, and this form is perpetuated in a far more florid manner in Czerny's Variations On A Theme By Rode (La Ricordanza), the decorative trend being in vogue with the early Romantics. Czerny's Funeral March, written upon Beethoven's death, is a tribute to his master's famous funeral marches from the Sonata in A flat major (Op.26) and Eroica Symphony. 

Liszt's Sonata in B minor, from the lofty heights of Romanticism, completes this generous 80-minute programme. While eschewing the blood and guts of a Argerich or Horowitz, Tan's breezy and totally musical account is neither short of passion nor dramatics, and offers a refreshing alternative to the barnstorming ones, 

MELVYN TAN 60TH ANNIVERSARY PIANO RECITAL / Review

60TH BIRTHDAY PIANO RECITAL

MELVYN TAN, Piano

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Tuesday (25 October 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 October 2016 with the title "A spellbinding birthday party".

It is hard to believe that Singapore-born pianist Melvyn Tan has just turned 60. The Peter Pan of the piano still sports a boyish smile, and carries an air of giddy excitement when he is near a keyboard, as if preparing for a busy show-and-tell session. His long flailing arms are a given as he steadies himself to perform.

This concert followed closely his London Wigmore Hall recital on 13 October (his actual birthday) and a most recent CD recording Master & Pupil, which showcased the music of Beethoven, Czerny and Liszt. Beginning with Beethoven's Six Bagatelles (Op.126), which may be seen as disparate short fragments that did not become part of a sonata, he brought out a wealth of colour and varied responses.

One might take issue with his generous use of the sustaining pedal, which caused some smudging of textures, but that approach to sound thrusted Beethoven's late period Sonata No.30 in E major (Op.109) unequivocally into the Romantic era. Its first two movements, brief and cogent, carried on from the bagatelles with a show of wistfulness and fist-shaking dramatics respectively.

The gem that was the 3^rd movement's Theme And Variations then unfolded beautifully. Its hymn-like theme was projected with crystal-like clarity, and the ensuing variations lovingly tended to. The trills in the last of these led into the theme's reprise, a welcome homecoming with the warmth that greets the best of long-lost friends.

Instead of playing Czerny, British composer Jonathan Dove's Catching Fire, specially written for Tan, received its Singapore premiere. A captivating showpiece of some 15 minutes, slower sections of bell-like sonorities (and occasional birdsong) alternated with fast toccata-like episodes which sparked, sparkled and got increasing incandescent as the work progressed.

Along the way, there were aural references to minimalism, gamelan and even boogie-woogie. It was a long journey that took Tan from his earlier fortepiano days of Mozart and Schubert to Messiaen, John Cage and this work. How he revelled in its terminal velocity and unbridled freedom of expression. Whoever said 21^st century music had to be atonal or boring, or both?

The second half was devoted to Franz Liszt's monumental Sonata in B minor, a work of utmost concentration that played on the metamorphosis of four themes. Too often it is mercilessly hammered out or over-intellectualised. Tan's version was neither of these, a highly personal account which took certain liberties in phrasing and pauses for breath.

His fingers and entire musculature was equal to its outsized physical demands. Although there were some missed notes, he was too well into the music to be actually bothered, instead drawing his listeners in for a spellbinding ride. What a journey it was, from stentorian chords, luminescent chorales to stampeding octaves and finally silence. This performance was not about digital virtuosity, but more a lifetime's experience encapsulated within an absorbing half-hour.

Prolonged applause was rewarded with two familiar encores, Liszt's Un Sospiro and Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu. Celebrating pianism does not get as heady as this.  

HOMECOMING II / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

HOMECOMING II

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (4 June 2016)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 6 June 2016 with the title "Happy stirring of East and West".

There were four World Premieres at this concert that also featured the debuts of T'ang Quartet and pianist Melvyn Tan with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. Conducted by Music Director Yeh Tsung, there was a theme of nature and musical impressionism running through its programme.

The concert began with Phang Kok Jun's arrangement of Ho Chee Kong's Garden Veils, a serene evocation of Singapore's self-professed reputation as the “Garden City”. The mellow song of cellos opened, soon replaced by erhus accompanied by the gentlest of pizzicatos. The voice of nature soon bloomed, showing that Chinese huqins and Western strings could happily co-exist in a musical ecosphere. A short and retiring guanzi solo at its close was also a nice atmospheric touch.

The T'ang Quartet, comprising violinists Ng Yu Ying and Ang Chek Meng, violist Lionel Tan and cellist Leslie Tan, performed in two concertante works. Zhu Lin's Pastorale in Five Episodes scored for string quartet, winds and percussion was a fantasy built upon Jimbo's Lullaby from Debussy's Children's Corner Suite. Why not, since that pentatonic melody was laden with myriad possibilities.

The quartet presented the theme and its fragments, colourfully traversing a farmyard scene, festive dance and funeral procession before closing quietly with dizi and marimba in support. Here was a toy elephant's cradle song transformed into a gentle reverie for suckling piglets.

Totally contrasting in timbral sonorities was Gao Wei Jie's Fantastic Landscape of Rainforest for string quartet, plucked strings and percussion. More austere and dissonant, the idiom was pointillist and modernistic, with Bartokian ostinatos providing the driving impetus. There were moments for repose when Leslie Tan's cello sang unabated, before an abrupt and animated end.  

Also heard for the first time was John Sharpley's Stirrings: Scenes from a Rainforest, a suite of six short and varied movements. His exploitation of tonal colour was a treat, whether the subject was a tropical squall, the awakening of dawn or raging fire. In Song of the Rainforest, Li Baoshun's gaohu was the soulful protagonist while Huang Gui Fang's sanxian delightfully lit up the somewhat tipsy Dance of Oneness including Some Rice Wine. In the final Canopy Dreams, birdsong from winds and percussion provided a mysterious close that recalled Messiaen's spirituality.

Melvyn Tan rounded up the concert as soloist in Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. His nimble fingers served the trickily syncopated piano part well, fluid and limpid in turn, and crisp and percussive when needed. This version with Chinese instruments however proved problematic as the very specific sound which the Frenchman had sought was subverted at every turn. And it did not help when the opening crack of the whip (by snapping two pieces of wood together) arrived fractionally late.

Rubato was served up in spades for the Mozartian slow movement, a liberty which could pass in a live concert, but the sheng as surrogate for cor anglais was straining credibility a little too far. The Presto finale proved a mess for a number of solo winds who found hard to keep up, an uncharacteristic blip in an otherwise technically impressive concert. Tan performed two solo encores, Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu and Liszt's Un Sospiro, which garnered the most enthusiastic applause.  

WEBERN & SCHUMANN / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

WEBERN & SCHUMANN

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Conservatory Concert Hall

Saturday (14 March 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 March 2015 with the title "Webern, Schumann cast in new light".

The Austro-Germanic coupling of music by Anton Webern and Robert Schumann continued for a second evening with a concert by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Jason Lai. Early in Webern's output were his larger orchestral works, which were opulently orchestrated besides being his least forbidding.

His Passacaglia Op.1 carried off from the final movement of Brahms' Fourth Symphony, which had been written in the form of a passacaglia. The theme comprised just eight notes, crisply played by pizzicato strings. What ensued was a continuous set of very short variations on this 8-note ground bass, which got increasingly complex as the work progressed. What conductor Lai got out from his young players was clarity and precision, which became more admirable as the textures got increasingly dense. The underlying pulse never flagged and there were excellent violin solos from concertmaster Hong Mengqi, summing up the overall high level of playing.

The orchestra was joined by five members of the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées for the Schumann works, beginning with examplary partnership for Singapore-born British pianist Melvyn Tan in Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor. The piano was placed forward of the orchestra, instead of alongside it, and this definitely enhanced its projection. There was no chance of Tan being submerged by orchestral forces.

Here was no run-of-the-mill reading as Tan chose to heighten the tension of his solos by varying accents and phrasing, bringing out more bristling and even unexpectedly prickly aspects of the classic. Purists may be scandalised as they have yet to encounter Schumann in such rude state of health, but there was no denying its vitality, which emerged in the treacherously tricky finale as pure joy. Witnessing Tan's elan in his final act as Artist-in-Residence at the Conservatory was a jubilant culmination of sorts. Clearly ecstatic at the audience's reception, he played two lovely encores, Schubert's filigreed Impromptu in A flat major (Op.90 No.4) and Schumann's Träumerei.        

The second half opened with Webern's transcription of the Ricercata from J.S.Bach's A Musical Offering. Once again, the orchestra displayed a keen understanding of its counterpoint with clearly defined lines brought out vividly. Woodwinds and brass distinguished themselves in this piquantly orchestrated number, a showcase of Webern's klangfarben or tonal colour.

French horns also had a field day in Schumann's Third Symphony, also known as the Rhenish, but that was only part of the story. Conductor Lai's taut and tidy account did not stint on the music's grandeur, which can sound overblown and stodgy under less inspired minds. The opening chord was out of the first bar pf Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, and the first two movements were distinguished with broad striding sweeps. Emboldened, the slow movement's lofty edifice, the composer's vision of Cologne Cathedral, was illuminated with glorious sunshine.

The finale began with a gentle amble, and soon built up a head of steam as the forces rallied to a glowing end. Schumann has been maligned as an orchestrator, but his art was a direct extension of Beethoven's and he clearly knew what he wanted to achieve. This performance delivered his intentions on a silver platter, and made nonsense of those prejudices. More power to the young orchestra for being persuasive myth-busters.