ESCENAS DE LA MEMORIA / MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano / Review

 

ESCENAS DE LA MEMORIA

MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano

Alm Records 7291 / TT: 58’07”

Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya relives her youthful years of French schooling at the Paris Conservatory with this delightful recital of popular French and Spanish repertoire.

She opens with Francis Poulenc, whose piano works ought to be more familiar. His chanson Le chemins d’amour (The Paths of Love), one of his most memorable tunes, does not actually exist as a piano solo. However the piano accompaniment to the song is sufficiently detailed to stand on its own. One imagines this melodie to be sung by the Edith Piaf, whose equally sultry homage appears as Improvisation No.15, a beguiling number in the same spirit. What follows is Poulenc’s most extended piano work, Le Soirees de Nazelles (The Evenings of Nazelles), comprising 10 short movements with Couperinesque titles.

Poulenc is a master of mood and nuance, which shifts as the wind blows. Gorgeous fleeting melodies sit cheek by jowl with vigorous gestures, and one is kept guessing as to what comes next. Miyuki’s reading is an all-encompassing one, its myriad intricacies falling well within her hands, while the cheeky anarchic spirit tinged with a certain innocence is well captured. It is certainly comparable with the famous recordings by Pascal Roge and Gabriel Tacchino.

Debussy is represented by the wistful Girl with the Flaxen Hair from Preludes Book 1. This is well compensated by the two best-known movements from Deodat de Severac’s from En Vacances (On Holiday), Valse Romantique and An Old Music Box. These miniatures are so deliciously rendered that one longs to hear the entire set.

The Iberian-Hispanic segment of the recital is shorter but no less enjoyable. Catalan great Federico Mompou’s Cancion y Danza No.6 is the most regularly-heard of his 13 song and dance tandems, contrasting lyrical melancholy with carefree gaiety. 

Enrique Granados’ Andaluza (Spanish Dance No.5) is very well-known, its guitar-like strumming rhythms are indelibly captured. In Escenas Romanticas (Romantic Scenes), Washimiya performs three of six movements including an atmospheric Mazurka, a very brief and rustic Allegretto, and Andantino spianato con exaltacion poetica, the last a Chopinesque nocturne distinguished by fine legato playing as its title absolutely suggests.

The recital closes with two of Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona’s most famous pieces, Andaluza and Malaguena, perhaps better known in their orchestral or band guises. Washimiya has the full measure of its Latino exuberance on the keyboard. This excellently-produced album is an hour very well spent.  

This recording may be purchased here:

Miyuki Washimiya【Escenas de la memòria】 (kojimarokuon.com)

CD Review: PIANO RECITAL by MIYUKI WASHIMIYA

MIYUKI WASHIMIYA Piano Recital

Alm Records 9235 / TT: 51’20”

 

Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya has become a familiar name in Singapore concert circles with her regular solo and chamber music recitals presented by the Kris Foundation. Her latest CD, a live recording from Inagi Municipal iPlaza Hall during the height of the pandemic in May 2021, is a pleasant and eclectic mix of mostly popular Romantic repertoire.

 

She opens with a selection of four Mendelssohn Songs Without Words, including the familiar Spring Song (Op.62 No.6) and a Venetian Gondolier’s Song (Op.19 No.6), displaying lovely cantabile  singing lines. This group is completed by the “hunting song” (Op.19 No.3), a lively galloping romp. Washimiya has a strong feeling for Chopin, his Nocturne in B flat minor (Op.9 No.1) crafted with svelte smoothness and rubato that is not overdone. Raising the roof on the early Romantic segment is Valse (Op.64 No.1) of “Minute Waltz” infamy, brilliantly (and logically) completed by the Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op.66), both being in the same key of D flat major.

 

Also very satisfying is the Latino segment heralded by Alberto Ginastera’s Three Argentinian Dances. Separating the coruscating and rambunctious outer movements is the yearning Danza de la moza donosa (Dance of the Young Maiden), with Washimiya being every bit the equal of Argerich. Ernesto Lecuona’s Mazurka Glissando is exactly as its title describes, a charming diversion that does not take itself too seriously, as is Isaac Albeniz’s unpretentious Pavana-Capricho (Op.12). The famous Tango (Op.165 No.2) in its original form is simply underrated, as Washimiya amply illustrates without Godowskian tamperings. In the spectacular category is Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo and Brazilian jazz legend Cesar Camargo Mariano’s Cristal, a flashy encore in moto perpetuo.

 

Closing this interestingly varied recital is Kazaburo Hirai’s Fantasy on Sakura-Sakura, a short set of variations on Japan’s most ubiquitous folksong, and Nino Rota’s very pleasant Plein Soleil as arranged by Washimiya herself. Applause after groups of works has been included, but the audience is otherwise very quiet and unobstrusive. A short but very enjoyable disc.

 

This CD may be purchased here:

Washimiya Miyuki - Piano Recital - Japan CD - CDs Vinyl Japan Store 

SOUVENIRS DE FETE / SEIKA ISHIDA PLAYS MOZART / Review

SOUVENIRS DE FETE

Miyuki Washimiya, Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (29 November 2022)

 

SEIKA ISHIDA PLAYS MOZART

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Wednesday (30 November 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 December 2022 with the title "Japanese pianists Miyuki Washimiya and Seika Ishida in fine form."

 

In an interview, internationally renowned Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa once gave reasons why there were so many women pianists in Japan. Japanese society dictated that men went into stable and profitable professions like medicine, law, engineering and civil service, while women were encouraged to pursue music and fine arts. She also suggested that should the women not make their careers, marriage was still an option.

 

Two very fine lady Japanese pianists were heard on consecutive evenings last week. Keyboard veteran Miyuki Washimiya has regularly appeared here in concerts presented by Kris Foundation, both as soloist and in collaboration with young local musicians. The Paris-trained pianist opened her recital with Mozart’s Sonata in F major (K.280), displaying crispness of articulation and a fluid technique to bring out the music’s lyricism.

Photo: Kris Foundation

 

The major work was Francis Poulenc’s Les Soirees de Nazelles (The Evenings Of Nazelles), rarely played because of virtuosic demands and myriad intricacies in moods and dynamics. Its eight variations, each with fanciful French titles, were vignettes of close personal friends. Quirky, humourous but ultimately congenial, these found a sympathetic interpreter in Washimiya’s resolute yet sensitive fingers.

 

Young Singaporean composer Lim Kang Ning’s two piano pieces were also revealed as miniature masterpieces. The highly-spirited Flower Visages was coloured by Chinese influences, contrasted with A Japanese Poem - receiving its world premiere - which was more formal, subtler and possessing darker shades. Both works repay further listening.

Photo: Kris Foundation

 

Rhythmic works by three Latino composers - Alberto Ginastera’s wildly exuberant Three Argentinian Dances, Federico Mompou’s gentler Song & Dance No.6, and the sweeping chords and glissandi of Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance - completed Washimiya’s recital on a high. Her encores of Sakura-Sakura and Poulenc’s Homage To Edith Piaf were also very well received.

 

Miyuki Washimiya with
Kris Tan and Lim Kang Ning.

Photo: Jack Yam / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

From the younger generation is Seika Ishida, who performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor (K.466) with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under former Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Litton. This was a performance that had everything; the sturm und drang (storm and stress) of outer movements salved by the central Romanza’s tenderness and beauty. Even this had its fair share of upheaval, with tension at its heart finely balanced on a knife-edge.

Photo: Jack Yam / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

 

SSO’s was an ever-discreet partner to Ishida’s every line and phrase, allowing her freedom to flex every muscle and fibre of musicality. Cadenzas were delivered with big-boned sonorities, and if one felt the first two movements a tad restrained, no apologies were made going for broke in the finale, turning urgency into joie de vivre. Her encore was also special, a Chopin-influenced little gem that is Russian composer Anatol Liadov’s Prelude in D flat major (Op.57 No.1).

 

Photo: Jack Yam / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

 

Equally splendid was the rest of the programme, beginning with short-lived American composer Charles Griffes’s Poem, featuring SSO principal flautist Jin Ta as soloist. Tired of hearing Debussy’s Prelude To The Afternoon Of The Faun? This was the perfect antidote, with an even more fleshed-out solo part. Its dreamy languor backed with lush orchestral colour, and solos from French horn, trumpet and viola, made this an ideal overture.   

Photo: Jack Yam / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

 

Closing the memorable evening was Tchaikovsky’s Suite No.3 in G major, a rarity compared with his symphonies. Although light-weight in character, its four movements had a balletic feel which made it impossible to dislike. Strings were in fine form for the opening Elegie and melancholic Waltz, while chirpy woodwinds simply ruled in the whimsical Scherzo.

Concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich
gets the plaudits from conductor Andrew Litton.

 

Most substantial was the finale’s Theme and Variations, eventful as it was inventive. SSO former concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich had a plum solo, worthy of the best minutes in Swan Lake, delivered with stunning aplomb. Concluding with a most rousing of polonaises (the Polish dance of nobility), both conductor Litton and the orchestra had the audience roaring for more.  

 

QUAND JE DORS / JEONG AE REE Vocal Recital with MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano / Review

QUAND JE DORS

JEONG AE REE, Soprano

MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (11 April 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 April 2014 with the title "Alluring Jeong captivates in six languages".

The Korean soprano Jeong Ae Ree is arguably the most in-demand voice teacher in Singapore today. Her students and opera company New Opera Singapore have increasingly been distinguishing themselves in competitions and productions in recent years. As a performer, she commands the stage with a physical presence and vocal allure that is hard to resist.

Despite possessing a petite built, she projects herself well and exudes an intimacy that is wholly appropriate, even desirable, in the field of art songs. This 80 minute recital saw her singing in six different languages. Opening with the well-known Irish song Tis The Last Rose of Summer, Jeong weaved a seamless web of beauty in its immortal melody. Even if one was not always able to follow the words, projected surtitles in English were a great help.

French was next in the titular Quand de dors (When You Sleep), one of Franz Liszt’s most famous chansons. Allied with his equally lyrical settings of Petrarch sonnets, this languorous nocturne on the poet’s love for Laura was to find a most sensual outlet in this performance.

German was represented by Franz Schubert’s extended lied Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock). Guest Japanese clarinettist Aya Sugimoto made the most of its virtuoso obbligato part, her effusive outpourings – first ruminative and later joyous – was echoed by Jeong in this lovely interplay of three seemingly disparate voices.

Manuel de Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs was a whistle-stop tour of songs and dances from different regions of Iberia, one which allowed Jeong the greatest freedom to express a full gamut of moods and emotions. From lullaby to lament, subdued to dramatic, the piquant and fiery colours of the land were fully explored.

Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya, concert presenter Kris Foundation’s resident pianist, provided sensitive accompaniment in a partnership of equals. She too garnered the spotlight in two solos by Debussy, the brief and sanguine Girl with the Flaxen Hair, and closing with a big splash of sonorous chords in L’Isle Joyeuse (The Happy Island).

Two Korean songs saw Jeong basking back in her homeland. Both Hyun Je Myung’s Lady in Spring and Na Un Young’s Moon Night were Western-influenced in idiom, the former resembling Schubert’s Heidenröslein while the latter had echoes in Stephen Foster’s Beautiful Dreamer. The two Chinese songs – the familiar Molihua (Jasmines) and the affirmative Na Jiu Shi Wo (That Is Me) - could claim more authenticity.

The second song was unaccompanied, and despite a microsecond lapse in concentration, greeted with the loudest applause. Her encore, a tipsy drinking song from Offenbach’s La Perichole, had the audience in stitches. The captivating reach of Jeong’s voice and personality was always going to be a winner.

The three performers receive their accolades
with concert presenter Kris Tan.

From L to R: Ng Pei Sian, Chan Wei Shing, Jeong Ae Ree,
Kris Tan, Miyuki Washimiya & Aya Sugimoto.

All photos by courtesy of Chrisppics+

JED HUANG Flute Recital with MIYUKI WASHIMIYA / Review

REGRETS & RESOLUTIONS

JED HUANG Flute Recital

with MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (25 August 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 August 2012 with the title "Flautist Jed Huang shines".

Violin, piano and vocal recitals by debutante musicians are becoming more common now but concerts featuring solo woodwind instruments are still rarities. So thanks go to the Kris Foundation for presenting talented young flautist Jed Huang Jia Jia, recent recipient of the FJ Benjamin-SSO Bursary and student of the prestigious Ecole Normale in Paris. 

His recital was a demanding one, but this stylish performer maintained a cool front throughout. Opening with just the slower first half of Franz Doppler’s Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy, his attention to finer points, colouring each slur and grace-note with thoughtful detail and much feeling, showed him to be both sensitive and meticulous. This continued into Saint-Saens’s Romance which luxuriated in a smooth seamless cantabile.

The rest of the first half belonged to Schubert. First, pianist Washimiya polished off the lyrical G Flat Major Impromptu with song-like finesse, and the rustic Moment Musicaux No.3 with a twinkle and smile. Just light-hearted diversions before Schubert’s major work for flute, Introduction and Variations on Tröckne Blumen. Running over 20 minutes, both flautist and pianist were put to the test and made to work overtime.

There was a longish prelude, where Huang’s rounded and full-bodied tone impressed, and the simple theme of the lied from the song cycle Die Schöne Mullerin was heard. The seven variations that followed got increasingly more complex and virtuosic, but the duo never flinched as the notes piled up relentlessly. The performance, resolute but never feeling laboured, came close to the evening’s tour de force.  

The second half began with an agreeable Mozart Rondo and Chinese flautist-composer Tan Mizi’s Flute and Drums By Sunset for solo flute. The latter called for the flautist to gently tap on the keys of his instrument, which produced a softly pitched percussive timbre. The soliloquy itself was highly evocative of scenes from Chinese paintings, and Huang played as if owned the piece. This sympathy is not surprisingly as the 1980 work was dedicated to his father Huang Shao Jiang, former Principle Flautist of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. 

The final item of the concert was a satisfying reading of Cesar Franck’s Sonata In A Major, originally written for the violin. Given its sheer mellifluousness, flautists have assumed it as one of their own. Both musicians were well matched, and given the complexity of the piano part, Washimiya was ever so mindful not to overwhelm her partner especially in the rapturous second movement. Huang encountered some difficulties in the hymn-like canon of a finale, but recovered well to close with aplomb.

The encore, popular Chinese melody Colourful Clouds Chasing The Moon, was icing on the cake. Jed Huang, a highly perceptive musical soul, is a name for the future.   

SUMMER ROSES / See Ian Ike Violin Recital / Review

SUMMER ROSES

SEE IAN IKE Violin Recital

with MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (18 August 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 August 2012 with the title "Effortless artistry in debut solo recital".

Another summer, another young Singaporean violinist returns to give an impressive debut recital. This time, it is the turn of See Ian Ike, who studied privately with violinists Sylvia Khoo and Qian Zhou, and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and was recently appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

See is, however, no stranger to the musical scene having won numerous local awards, performed in outreach concerts with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, besides giving a splendid performance of Bruch’s First Violin Concerto with the Orchestra of the Music Makers in 2010. This was his first public solo recital, and what a splash it made.

The unaccompanied violin music of Bach provided an unequivocal survey of his artistry. The Preludium of the Third Partita, normally a treacherous study of prestidigitation, sounded almost effortless in his hands. It was not just the facility of execution that was unquestionable, but his crystal-clear projection allied with perfect intonation. The movements that followed were fluent and joyfully wrought, fully cognizant of their origins as period dances.  

He has an unfussy view of the magnificent Chaconne from the Second Partita, its short variations unfolding majestically as his conception of the movement’s architecture gained stature with every phrase and gesture. That he allows the music to speak for itself was a plus, and his elucidation of its wonders a revelation.  

Two further sonatas partnered by the marvellous Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya completed the picture. First it was Brahms’s autumnal Second Sonata, its song-like subjects flowing with a mellifluousness and musicality that was hard to resist. See’s violin soared above the dense piano textures, and bantered playfully with the piano in the contrasting section of the middle movement.   

Washimiya was every bit an equal partner in this venture, the plethora of colours she yielded was dazzling, and matched by See in every turn. This was even more apparent in Ravel’s Sonata in G major, where the fiendishly tricky play of polytonality could have wreaked havoc, but both held their nerve and a bit more. The Blues movement had genuine swagger, with violin pizzicatos simulating the plucked banjo, and knowing slurs and insinuating slides adding to the music’s sultry exoticism.

The pep and energy in the finale’s perpetual motion provided a thrilling conclusion while bringing down a well-filled house. The encore, It Ain’t Necessarily So from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess by way of Heifetz, was a real tease. The Kris Foundation, which supports young talent by presenting this evening’s treats, has backed another sure winner.   

EXHIBITION OF PICTURES / MIYUKI WASHIMIYA Piano Recital / Review

EXHIBITION OF PICTURES

MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (21 July 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 July 2012 with the title "Vivid brushstrokes on the piano".

The title of the concert said it all, forwarding the idea that pictures or visual images could be eloquently expressed by way of sound bites and aural impressions. There were 25 separate pieces in this solo recital by Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya, now a regular visitor to Singapore, invited to perform in a series of concerts by the Kris Foundation.

Yet there was a thematic cohesion in the manner these were presented, in groups of three before culminating in Mussorgsky’s eponymous masterpiece, Pictures at an Exhibition. The recital opened with three Debussy Preludes, displaying Washimiya’s crystalline bell-like clarity amid a slew of shimmering textures.

The Japanese have a way with the French aesthete that is uncanny, whether swirling to the tarantella rhythm of The Hills of Anacapri, summoning the waves beneath The Engulfed Cathedral or simulating the quirky jives of Afro-American Minstrels. In these her pedalling was exemplary, fully exploiting the reverberant acoustics of the recital studio without ever sounding harsh.

In the three popular Liszt pieces, full-blooded Romantic emotions were held in check, so the ardour of Liebesträume No.3 and Consolation No.3 did not overflow as some might have liked. A few dropped notes resulted in La Campanella in being a little cautious, but the tintinnabulation of her trills was genuinely exciting as she rallied to a thunderous close.

The best performances came in the two Preludes and Etude by Ukrainian jazzman Nikolai Kapustin. Washimiya’s infectious sense of rhythm, incisive and unerring, coupled with note perfection at dizzying speeds swept the board. Where did she learn to play the jazzy blues like that?

The Mussorgsky Pictures were treated to an honest-to-goodness account rather than an out-and-out grandstanding one. Scrupulous to detail and the score, there was no need to shock and awe as each of Viktor Hartmann’s portraits steadily came to life. There was a troubadour’s lovesick yearning in The Old Castle, delicate traipsing in the Ballet of Unhatched Chicks, stark irony in the Two Russian Jews, all vividly characterised. Even the fiendish repeated notes of Limoges Marketplace held no terrors for her assured fingers. 

When the clangourous bells of The Great Gate of Kiev had finally silenced, encores were demanded. Washimiya offered two further gems: Kapustin’s Eleventh Prelude and Debussy’s most famous prelude, Girl with the Flaxen Hair. If one did not already get the drift, her message writ large was “small is beautiful”.

A CULTURAL ODYSSEY / Alan Choo & Miyuki Washimiya Recital / Review

A CULTURAL ODYSSEY
Alan Choo, Violin with
Miyuki Washimiya, Piano
Esplanade Recital Studio
Saturday (27 August 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 August 2011 with the title "Superb pairing of youth and maturity".

The unusual title of this recital has little to do with the programme but rather to a first time collaboration between a young Singaporean violinist and an experienced Japanese pianist, presented by the locally based Kris Foundation. This apparent disparity mattered little as the duo opened with a lucid account of Mozart’s Sonata in G major (K.301).

Even if it was designated as a sonata for piano with violin, this was a meeting of equals, Alan Choo’s limpid cantabile with Miyuki Washimaya’s precise and sensitive articulations. The initial congenial tone turned passionate for Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata (left), the major work in the concert, when both dug in for a gripping performance that lacked nothing in fire and fury.

Choo’s unaccompanied solo was arresting, and Washimiya’s reply a full bodied statement of intent, setting the tone for an invigorating journey. Play on colour and nuances characterised the central movement’s Theme and Variations, before the finale’s whirlwind tarantella – executed with brilliant panache – swept the board.

There were solos from both artists, beginning with Choo in Heinrich Biber’s Passacaglia in G minor (left), built upon just four notes (G-F-E flat-D) played over 65 times. In the personable young man’s preamble, he assured the audience that it would not be boring, and the result was a kaleidoscopic display of total technical assurance.

Washimiya contrasted compatriot Toru Takemitsu’s atonal Piano Distance (left), its seemingly random chords and blotches, with the heady rhythms and coruscating glissandi of Ravel’s La Valse. Her magisterial control of the latter’s insistent pulse, clashing harmonies and symphonic textures was simply breathtaking.

The duo returned for Ernest Bloch’s Baal Shem Suite (left), three movements celebrating scenes of Hassidic life and rituals. There is a lot to admire in Choo’s grasp of the idiom and enormous emotional range expressed on the 1850 Postiglione violin, from the sorrow of Nigun to unfettered rejoicing in Simchas Torah.

More familiar fare closed the concert, with the Saint-Saens warhorse Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso providing the fireworks. Again, Choo’s lovely tone smoothened the syncopated lilt of its slow opening before unleashing the works for a thrilling send-off. With an excess of talent to burn, this could very well be the debut recital of the year.

A Cultural Odyssey was presented by the Kris Foundation.

WASSY FANTASIA: Piano Recital by MIYUKI WASHIMIYA / Review

WASSY FANTASIA

MIYUKI WASHIMIYA Piano Recital 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Tuesday (17 November 2009)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 20 November 2009.

Stranger things have happened, but it took a French-trained Japanese pianist to pull off the belated World Premiere of Singaporean composer Tan Chan Boon’s (pictured below) Magnum Opus for the piano, Reminiscence. Originally commissioned for the Young Virtuoso Recital of the 2008 Singapore International Piano Festival, the 24-minute work in four linked movements was deemed unplayable by the pianist and dropped.

Contrapuntally dense and awkward for ten fingers it certainly was, but unplayable? Miyuki Washimiya eloquently brought out the multi-layered textures of the strolling introduction, with its passing resemblance to the African-American spiritual Deep River, and surmounted the three ensuing fugues with great lucidity. Hers was not merely a reading, but a solid interpretation revealing many fine details, sculpted with the pristine care of a lapidary.

Making little concessions for the listener, this was “Charles Ives meets Busoni in Singapore”, a thorny devil of a masterpiece which could easily be hailed as Tan’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica, a major landmark in the Singaporean piano repertory.

The rest of Washimiya’s programme was far more audience-friendly, beginning with Mozart’s popular Sonata in A major (K.331). The opening Theme And Variations could have been inflected with a greater degree of dynamic variety, but the Minuet and familiar Turkish Rondo romped home with aplomb. 

Her Chopin set was nicely shaped, reliable rather than revelatory, but the left hand octaves in the "Heroic" Polonaise (Op.53) were remarkable for sheer stamina and power. The first half closed with two Rachmaninov Préludes; the G minor number (Op.23 No.5) was aristocratic and well-judged – putting Lang Lang’s self-serving performance from 2007 to shame – while its counterpart in C sharp minor (Op.3 No.2) pealed with genuine Slavic clangour. 

Washimiya’s true sympathies lay in Latino music, displaying much flair and sensitivity in three dances – including the indestructible Malaguena - by Cuban Ernesto Lecuona, and her encores of Granados’ Andaluza and Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance well and truly brought down the house.

In between these, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue rocked with the swagger of a jazzman, even if the excisions she made in the score left out some of the juiciest bits. Given the wide-ranging selections over two hours, there was little to complain but much to celebrate.

This piano recital was sponsored by Kris Tan and Lim Liang Chuan in celebration of their 21st wedding anniversary.

TAN CHAN BOON's Reminiscence

Tan Chan Boon's Reminiscence is perhaps the single most ambitious solo piano work by a Singaporean composer. It was commissioned for the Young Virtuoso Recital at the Singapore International Piano Festival 2008. Completed on 20 March 2008, the pianist who was to give its World Premiere on 5 July 2008 dropped it from the recital programme, citing its complexities and "unpianistic qualities". It was replaced by a much simpler work, Liszt's La Leggierezza.

The work begins with a Reminiscence theme (or "walking theme"), which was the big melody heard in Tan's Cherish (a symphonic poem commissioned for the 2008 Singapore Arts Festival, and premiered by the Singapore Festival Orchestra conducted by Chan Tze Law). Reminiscence was thus the logical sequel to Cherish. There are three fugues which follow; the Reminiscence theme appears at the end of each, and this also closes the work. Quotes from Tan's Fourth Symphony (yet to be premiered) also appear in the score.

Reminiscence was premiered by Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya on 17 November 2009. Scans of the score below (in Tan's beautiful handwriting, as he does not use Sibelius) are by permission of the composer.

The opening page of Reminiscence (Hui Yi),

with its "Walking theme",

a melody which resembles Deep River.

The First Fugue is the longest and

most complex of the three fugues,

and was originally a stand-alone solo piece.

The tempo picks up somewhat for the Second Fugue.

The Third Fugue is an inversion

of the Reminiscence or "Walking theme". As with his other compositions,

Tan Chan Boon signs off with his

"Alpine" signature on the final page.

In 18 pages and playing for 24 minutes, is this the greatest piano work composed by a Singaporean?