AN EVENING WITH TCHAIKOVSKY + CONTINUUM / Noah Zhou with Last Minute Artist Orchestra + Nicholas Ho / Review

 

AN EVENING WITH TCHAIKOVSKY

NOAH ZHOU with

Last Minute Artist Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (24 October 2026)

CONTINUUM

NICHOLAS HO Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (24 October 2026)

Last weekend has been a bonanza for lovers of piano music. Attending performances of Lou Harrison’s Piano Concerto (Albert Tiu, 22 October), Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Piano Duet and Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals (Pascal Roge & Elena Font, 23 Oct), Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 (Noah Zhou, 24 Oct) and solo recitals by Nicholas Ho (24 Oct), Vincent Ong and Hayato Sumino (both 25 Oct) would have been keyboard overkill, but did anybody care?

When you have two enticing piano concerts on the same evening, what do you do? My solution was to attend both. It was fortuitous that one began at 7 pm at Victoria Concert Hall and the other at 8 pm at Esplanade Recital Studio. So it was a case of attending the first half of the first, and then taking a short stroll across Elizabeth Walk for the second half of the second.

Photo: LMAO

The all-Tchaikovsky evening (presented by Bespoke Arts) by the Last Minute Artist Orchestra (LMAO) led by young conductor Amanda Kye Tan opened ambitiously with the 1812 Overture (Op.49). The quartet of cellos and violas acquitted themselves very well for the opening hymn, and very soon it was battle stations. The voltage built up was expertly harnessed, with La Marseillaise and the Tsar’s Hymn in direct confrontation and it became genuinely exciting. 

Photos: LMAO

A pity that the cannons (operated by a little boy with a lap-top) at its climax was underwhelming by being too soft, but the chimes of tubular bells were excellent for the final victorious showdown. A very bright start for the concert.

Photos: LMAO

It got even better when British-Chinese pianist Noah Zhou, laureate of the 2019 Rachmaninov International Piano Competition (Moscow) took on the evergreen First Piano Concerto in B flat minor (Op.23). This warhorse has been eclipsed by Rachmaninov’s Third and Prokofiev’s Second in recent years, but still packs a powerful punch when delivered by the right hands. Zhou brought out its big chords with an outsized sonority, and even if the opening cadenza was slapdash with the ascending arpeggios, he was completely in his element and soon fully in control. If there were an adjective to describe the performance, it would be Horowitzian, the many octave fusillades conquered with brilliant and volcanic aplomb.

Photo: LMAO

The orchestra supported him to the hilt and was often playing catch-up. It wasn’t the cleanest but it was helluva exciting from start to end. Zhou kept one completely engaged. The big cadenza at the end of the first movement was gripping and the audience applauded. Who could blame them? 

Photo: LMAO

Lightness was a premium in the central slow movement, but somehow the ensemble breezed through to the finale’s wild cossack dance, which Zhou commanded like Marshall Kutuzov in a breathless sweep which brought out cheers at its tumultuous close. His encores of Tchaikovsky’s Chant Elegiaque (Op.72 No.14) and Horowitz’s rewriting of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.15 or Rakoczy March were no less epic. The C.Bechstein grand specially wheeled out for this concert more than survived the onslaught.  Noah Zhou is a major talent who fully deserves the accolades he gets.

Photo: LMAO

Singaporean pianist Nicholas Ho’s recital included original works, Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor and Scriabin’s Sonate-Fantasy No.2 in G sharp minor (Op.19), but I only got to catch the second half of his programme. He certainly has the fingers for Chopin’s Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor (Op.39) but much of its impact was lost by over-pedaling, not helped by Esplanade Recital Studio’s over-reverberant acoustics. It was much better for the Nocturne in E flat major (Op.55 No.2) where the “wetness” was more appropriate.

The recital’s piece de resistance had to be Prokofiev’s Sonata No.6 in A major (Op.82), the most violent of his War Trilogy. Ho had its full measure, the pummeling violence of the opening movement’s chords and those clusters delivered col pugno (with the fist). The implicit humour of the “scherzo” second movement and droll slow waltz of the third were well judged, and then came the “death” tarantella of the finale, where he drew all his reserves for an imperious finish. There was over-pedaling again, and while one wished for a more detached view of the notes, there was no denying the final impact delivered. Bravo!

Ho’s encores were also excellent, a transcription of Rachmaninov’s Z’des Khorosho (How Fair This Spot or Where Beauty Dwells), likely by Earl Wild, and the coruscating doom of Prokofiev’s Suggestion Diabolique (Op.4 No.4), glissandi and all. His own Rachmaninov-influenced Serenade played for his wife when he popped the question was the icing on the cake. Two gripping concerts with the piano were not too much to ask for!

A PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS: AN EVENING WITH RAVEL on 26 April 2025

 

AN EVENING WITH RAVEL 

If you love piano music, here is a super piano recital not to miss, showcasing the complete piano works of French composer MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937). No less than 22 pianists in Singapore – young virtuosos as well as concert veterans – will take part in this 150th anniversary commemoration of Ravel’s birth. This marathon event takes place at Victoria Concert Hall on Saturday 26 April 2025, starting at 7 pm (Please note the earlier timing!) 

Although Ravel was no piano virtuoso,
he wrote some of the greatest piano music ever.

Ravel’s virtuosic showpieces, like Gaspard de la nuit and Valses nobles et sentimentales, sit alongside his Impressionist scores – Jeux d’eau and Miroirs – and neoclassical favourites, such as the Sonatine, Pavane for the Dead Infanta and La tombeau de Couperin. Here is also a rare chance to hear his miniatures and excerpts from the ballets Mother Goose and Daphnis and Chloe as well. Two of Singapore’s well-known piano pedagogues Rena Cheung and Nicholas Ong also unite for a grand performance of La Valse. 

All the pianists (in alphabetical order): Isabelle Agethen, Libby Chan, Rena Cheung, Max Choo, Elizabeth Michelle Heryawan, Nicholas Ho, Samuel King, Dorotheus Koh, Lukas Franklin Lai, Enzio Lim, Lim Wei Xuan, Liu Xiao Miao, Ng Xin Yee, Nguyen Phuc Bao Tien, Luther Ong, Nicholas Ong, Ong Weng Yee, Michelle Purnomo, Kevina Tenggara, Teo Wei Syuen, Rebekah Too & Kseniia Vokhmianina 

Saturday, 26 April 2025 

Victoria Concert Hall, 7 pm 

Tickets available at: 

https://www.eventbrite.sg/e/an-evening-with-ravel-tickets-1207461272169 

Now watch these great videos: 

Ivo Pogorelich 

playing Gaspard de la nuit: 

Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire 

playing La Valse:

INVICTUS / Art Song Recital by Shaun Lee & Nicholas Ho

INVICTUS Art Song Recital

SHAUN LEE, Tenor

NICHOLAS HO, Piano

Baroque House, 29 Rowell Road

Sunday (8 October 2023)

Baroque House is a pre-war shophouse located in the heart of Little India. Located on 29 Rowell Road, it has become a cosy and informal space for arts events and private dining. Its insalubrious location just a stone's throw away from Singapore's seediest red-light district seems just like the right place for serious and good art to flourish. Bohemian chic? Its entrance even has a neon sign (by Sonia B.Ong) that challenges one to ponder the idea that art and grim reality could sit comfortably side by side.

The performing space is on its second floor, overlooking residences which have yet to be gentrified. A bright red Baldwin baby grand piano, in good tune, rests invitingly in a space that sits about 25-30 people. There is no ceiling, and one gets to peer at the roof, one side decorated with an old stucco relief and the other bare brick. The sound can get quite resonant especially with the reverberation from Shaun Lee's stentorian tenor voice.

The 30-minute art song recital was a classic case of quality rather than quantity, as he and pianist Nicholas Ho made every minute count. The matinee opened with five songs by Ho, settings of words by James Joyce. His music is lyrical in the best tradition of Romantic songwriters, and have highly detailed piano parts which only a virtuoso pianist can conceive of. Shaun's voice thus had to transcend the pianist's multitudes of notes, and he did so admirably.

Ho's songs were a summation of the Romantic art song tradition, from Schubert and Schumann to present day composers like the late Ned Rorem. These were amply reflected by the choice of the other songs on the programme, including Samuel Barber's The Daisies, Richard Strauss' Zueignung, Wagner's Schmerzen (from Wesendonck Lieder) and Rachmaninov's Zdes Khorosho (How Fair This Spot).

That this young Singaporean's early song cycle could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the greats of vocal writing is a testament to his artistic vision and assimilative abilities. The recital closed with Ho's Invictus (words by William Earnest Henley), a song influenced by Rachmaninov's big chords and heroic gestures, well realised in its final lines, "I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul".  

American pianist Tedd Joselson and
celebrity surgeon Susan Lim also attended.

The small audience, including luminaries from Singapore's high society, clearly enjoyed this musical offering, and one looks forward to more such events in this exciting and edgy venue.

More about the Baroque House:

BAROQUE HOUSE - Home (baroquehaus.com)

 

CON FUOCO / NICHOLAS HO Piano Recital / Review

CON FUOCO

NICHOLAS HO Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday (31 January 2023)

 

There was a time when Singapore’s best young pianists chose to stay abroad, where educational and performance opportunities were plentiful. There was simply no market for professional musicians to thrive and survive in Singapore, then deemed a “cultural desert”. All that has changed, with the milieu favourable for pianists like Shane Thio, Lim Yan and Nicholas Loh to return and enrich our musical scene. Add the name of hotshot pianist Nicholas Ho to that list of returning talents.

   

Ho, whose teachers included Ong Lip Tat and Tedd Joselson in Singapore, Edward Auer and Ran Dank in USA, is completing his Doctorate in Cincinnati, Ohio. His latest recital displayed a rather different kind of pianist, one with unusually wide tastes, and also a composer of compelling gifts. The recital opened  conventionally with Joseph Haydn’s Sonata in E minor (Hob.XVI:34), imbued with a nervous energy in the opening Presto, contrasted by a thoughtful Adagio. Completing this short masterpiece was a Rondo which flitted from minor to major keys, with Nicholas fully bringing out its good (and innocentemente) humour.  

 

Transcriptions of Vladimir Horowitz have become wildly popular but Nicholas chose instead to perform four original pieces, all early works. The Waltz in F minor has an elegant and swarthy charm, contrasted with the more familiar Danse Excentrique (or Moment Exotique, which Horowitz recorded), almost a second cousin to Debussy’s Golliwogg Cakewalk and General Lavine – Excentrique (probably where its title came from). Some of the harmonies are ravishing. Much less well-known are his Etude-Fantaisie (the influence of Rachmaninov’s Moment Musicaux Op.16 No.2 is obvious) and Fragment Douloreux, which was certainly not a fragment. This was more a Scriabinesque poeme of the late years where dissonances and volatile outbreaks of violence abound. Nicholas performed all these in a manner born.

 

Closing the first half was likely the first public performance of Yehenara, a tone poem for piano by Singaporean musical-meister Dick Lee. The title is the Manchu name of the infamous Empress Dowager Cixi, whose tumultuous reign and court intrigues spelt the end of China’s Ching dynasty. Bell sounds and an idee fixe of seven notes dominated the music, which worked its way like a procession in passacaglia form. Harmonies were lush and darkly hued, atmospherically brought out by Nicholas, the essence of its 12-or-so minutes would find its way into Lee’s musical Forbidden City.

 

The piece de resistance of the concert was the world premiere of Nicholas Ho’s own 12 Etudes in its revised edition. These have been influenced by Liszt’s (or Alkan’s) transcendental technique but are closer in idiom to Debussy, Ligeti and Marc-Andre Hamelin’s famous dozens. Each etude was dedicated to Nicholas’ teachers and exploits different facets of a pianist’s technical armamentarium.

Can you spot a Star Trek motif
in the left hand?

 

Rapid rhythms possess most of the pieces but feathery lightness and playing of utter sensuousness were also in evidence. One etude (for composition teacher Tan Chan Boon, the only Singaporean) was conceived for left hand alone, and another for both hands an octave apart (a salute to Chopin’s Sonata No.2 and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.2). There was a set of variations on the B-A-C-H motif, and two with fugal conclusions. There was never a dull moment in these 50 minutes, which Nicholas ripped through completely from memory, before closing with an imposing Prelude and Fugue a la Hamelin. And did one notice a Star Trek motif inserted within the Prelude, before the piece launched itself into the stratosphere, infinity and beyond?

 

Returning to Earth, Nicholas performed two encores, the Sarabande from J.S.Bach’s Partita No.1 and his own transcription for left hand of Queen’s Love Of My Life. Leopold Godowsky would have been mightily proud.

Nicholas Ho joins Tan Chan Boon
and Robert Casteels as composers
who have written the most imposing
works of Singapore piano literature.

ANOTHER PIANO RECITAL NOT TO MISS: CON FUOCO by NICHOLAS HO on 31 January 2023

Here is another piano recital not to be missed, by homegrown Singaporean pianist NICHOLAS HO, known for his transcendental keyboard virtuosity. He was a student of Ong Lip Tat, Tedd Joselson, Edward Auer and Rank Dank, and has specialised in performing works of technical demands, including his original piano music.

The programme:

HAYDN Sonata in E minor

VLADIMIR HOROWITZ Four Pieces:

Waltz in F minor

Danse Excentrique 

Etude-fantaisie in E flat major

Fragment Douloureux

DICK LEE Yehenara

NICHOLAS HO 12 Etudes (World Premiere)

Tuesday, 31 January 2023

Victoria Concert Hall, 8 pm

You can purchase tickets here:

Nicholas Ho presents CON FUOCO [G] | SISTIC

ILLUMINE: PIANO MUSIC OF CARTER, HO & RACHMANINOFF / Review

   

ILLUMINE

Music of CARTER, HO & RACHMANINOFF

NICHOLAS HO, Piano

Arabesque Z6940 / TT: 59’22”

 

Some years ago, I wrote about a teenage pianist in Singapore whose “obsession with speed and volume clouded any semblance of nuance or clarity”, and who brought to Rachmaninov’s music a “surfeit of feral instincts and emotional excess”. I however sensed a musical soul beneath all the raw edges and youthful exuberance and hoped that, “May he, with patience and introspection, rediscover that muse”.

 

That pianist was Nicholas Ho, who presently pursues doctoral studies at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His teachers have included Ong Lip Tat, Tan Chan Boon, Tedd Joselson, Edward Auer and Ran Dank. Having made his New York City and Chicago solo debuts, this recording on the American Arabesque label (which released Garrick Ohlsson’s complete Chopin cycle more than two decades ago) marks a coming of age. His unusual programming of sonatas by Elliott Carter and Sergei Rachmaninoff with his original music make for compelling listening.

 

The recital which plays for exactly an hour opens with late American avant-gardist Elliott Carter’s Piano Sonata (1945/6). An early work in two movements, its harmonic language is gratifyingly tonal, and is distinguished by complex and infectious rhythms which allude to modern dance movements. Ho handles these with clarity and suitable aplomb. Australian composer Carl Vine’s very popular First Sonata (1990), also cast in two movements and similar in idiom, is supposedly inspired by Carter’s Sonata. There is thus no reason why the Carter should not achieve similar success, and rank along Barber, Copland and Griffes among the great 20^th century American sonatas.  

 

Ho’s own Inner States of Mind (Op.3), a suite in five movements, dovetails neatly between the two sonatas. Tonal and neo-Romantic in spirit, the movements are eclectic by assimilating diverse 20^th century styles, such as impressionism in What If?, a simulation of the Chinese guzheng (plucked zither) in Rainbows, Bartokian dissonances in Étude: Mirror Image and gospel pop in Vantage Point. The  fourth movement, Benediction, is a modern look at the ancient hymn Veni, Veni, Emanuel.  

 

For Rachmaninoff’s Sonata No.2 in B flat minor (Op.36), Ho crafts his own version combining both the 1913 and 1931 editions quite similar to Vladimir Horowitz’s highly effective conflation. This is a mellow yet smouldering and passionate reading, a far cry from the untamed fire and brimstone of his teenage self. He has learnt that restraint and focus is key in many crucial moments, a requisite before leading to full-blown climaxes, where the pay-off becomes all the more satisfying. This is an hour well-spent with one of Singapore’s top young pianistic talents. 

You can hear Nicholas Ho on these digital platforms:

https://open.spotify.com/album/7ySSLasWe9VSLjzNYZw8b7?si=8uaJHvioRwal5TVD5m23Cw

https://music.apple.com/us/album/illumine/1531787629

FAR, FAR, AWAY / REVERIE / Reviews

FAR, FAR, AWAY

Jeremy Chiew, Viola

Adrian Poon, Tenor

& Shane Thio, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday 26 September 2021

 

REVERIE: NICHOLAS HO IN CONCERT

Nicholas Ho, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday 28 September 2021

 

Concert life has begun to take shape again in Singapore, with multiple concerts in different venues springing up quite unexpectedly and often unannounced. Most are solo recitals or chamber concerts, which avoid over-crowding on stage, attended by size-restricted and socially distanced audiences.

 

Despite rising numbers of Covid cases and fatalities in Singapore, concert venues are still relatively safe havens, having recorded zero outbreaks from concerts all year round. Going to markets, food centres and shopping malls are far riskier propositions. Over the past week, I was treated to two excellent recitals, the variety of repertoire is staggering, representing the wealth of musical talent which exists within our modest island state.

 

First up was an hour-long vocal-cum-viola recital curated by the combined brains of Sing Song Club and Viva Viola. Both are among Singapore’s best kept secrets, thus the maximum capacity of 50 audience members was not close to being breached. This was also a concert of rarities, such that even Brahms’ two Op.91 songs with viola were not included. Instead, it opened with Benjamin Britten’s realisation of Bach’s Kommt, Seelen, dieser Tag (Come, Celebrate This Morn) with tenor Adrian Poon in his genteel best accompanied by pianist Shane Thio.

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

This freshness continued into Frank Bridge’s Far, Far From Each Other, with viola obbligato part provided by Jeremy Chiew, arguably Singapore’s most active proselytiser of viola repertoire. This was both hauntingly sad and beautiful, perfectly complementing Bridge’s Two Pieces for viola and piano, contrasts provided by the reflective Pensiero and self-explanatory Allegro Appassionato which closed the set on a rapturous high.

 

The programming with pairs of works for voice and viola was excellently thought out. Whoever dreamt of coupling Arthur Honegger’s rather substantial three-movement Viola Sonata and short Psalm No.138 deserves a prize. The Sonata traversed from a highly chromatic and dissonant opening to something far more agreeable before finishing with a Franckian flourish. Simply a journey from utter bleakness to life-affirming sunshine, with the brief sung psalm (I will praise you Lord, with all my heart) in French as the sweet icing on the cake.

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

Has anybody has heard of Benjamin Dale (1885-1943)? The English composer was a contemporary of York Bowen and composed in a similar tuneful neo-Romantic style. Come Away, Death is a soothing salve in the best English pastoral tradition, with the obbligato viola part adding to its poignancy. The Romance from Dale’s Viola Suite in D minor Op.2 (1906) is far more ambitious than its title suggests, sounding more like a rhapsodic tone poem. The tenderness of its first pages gave way to a more lively central episode before ending with the same deeply felt emotions as it began.   

 

To close the evening in a pleasingly symmetrical manner, Jeremy polished off the Courante from J.S.Bach’s Cello Suite No.4. Striking three lotteries with a single ticket, lovers of unjustly neglected rarities, fine singing and viola playing have been well-served.

 

The young pianist Nicholas Ho has progressed from a self-conscious teenaged hotshot to a bona fide virtuoso with uncommon talents, as evident in his latest recital. Its title Reverie only applied to the first piece, Chopin’s Nocturne in C minor (Op.48 No.1), which was dark and smouldering, exploring the mysterious and tempestuous nature of night.

 

He amply brought out its brooding qualities, before launching headlong into Schumann’s Fantasie in C major (Op.17), with its full flush of hot-blooded romanticism worn heart-on-sleeve. He is unafraid to relive the early Romantic excesses to greatest advantage, yet also wallow in moments of tenderness and vulnerability, as in the quote of Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte near the end of the first movement. The second movement’s imperious march took no prisoners, and even if there were a couple of slips at its treacherous final two pages, these came at the extreme heat of the moment. One would not have it any other way. A pianist’s maturity is revealed in the slow Beethovenian final movement, and he did so by teasing out inner voices, plumbing the depths and building up to impressive climaxes. A more satisfying performance would be hard to find.

 

For the recital’s second half, one can only quote Monty Python, “And for something completely different”. Dutch minimalist Jacob ter Veldhuis’ Body of Your Dreams has cult status for its hilarious spoof on 20^th century American vanity and consumerism. Ho essentially accompanies a looped soundtrack (played on boombox) of the Abdominiser infomercial, with quotes like “that cellulite and flabbiness... how can you beat it?”, “oh wow, that’s incredible!”, “3000 muscle contractions” and “and its so easy!” peppering the score like obsessive earworms. Once heard, it cannot be unheard. This performance centred on the piano part in the expense of the soundtrack, a pity since the actual punchlines were in its words.

 

To close the recital was the World Premiere of the first six of Nicholas Ho’s Twelve Etudes Op.11, composed during the troubled months of the Covid pandemic. Each of these finger-twisters were dedicated to his mentors and teachers, including Tedd Joselson, Tan Chan Boon, Edward Auer and others. To say that a transcendental technique is required to perform these is itself an understatement. The first, written for Joselson, reminds one of the Chopin first etude (Op.10 No.1) with its firm tonal centres established by left hand pedal points. The second, for Tan, was written for left hand alone, but exceeds the difficulty of both Scriabin and Corigliano’s south paw wonders.

 

Nicholas’ playing is mercurial yet emphatic, exhibiting a light touch in running-flying passages, and applying necessary force in chordal segments when called far. The colours on his palette seem almost infinite. Having enjoyed these six etudes with score in hand, I can proudly proclaim that Singapore has found a set of piano etudes worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Debussy, Ligeti and Marc-André Hamelin. Handphones off, a genius!

 

TEDD JOSELSON'S GOLDEN JUBILEE / Review

TEDD JOSELSON'S GOLDEN JUBILEE

with ROBERT CASTEELS, Conductor

Reuben Manasseh Meyer Concert Hall

Sunday (2 July 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 July 2017 with the title "Outstanding piano concertos".

The occasion was sold as the 50^th anniversary of American pianist Tedd Joselson's concert debut, but this concert was more like an offshoot of the annual piano concerto festival organised by young Singaporean pianist Leslie Theseira. Three piano concertos were performed by Joselson and two of his former students, almost constituting a concise history of the form. They were accompanied by the ADDO Chamber Orchestra conducted by Robert Casteels.

The baroque era was represented by J.S.Bach's Keyboard Concerto in A major (BWV.1055), created at the infancy of the genre. Originally conceived for harpsichord, Theseira crafted a gentle, mincing timbre, which sounded initially like part of the orchestra (strings only) but soon developed a voice of its own. Not yet a vehicle of virtuosity, the concerto sounded pretty, with simple ornamentation and general understatement as its highlights.

The World Premiere of Robert Casteels' Piano Concerto came next, impressively articulated by Nicholas Ho. Casteels explained this was based on a much earlier solo piece, orchestrated and completed within just three days. Its gestation was more like three decades, with the free use of atonality and angry dissonances more commonly encountered in the 1980s.

Playing for some 15 minutes, both piano and orchestra (strings and winds) probed and ruminated over a plethora of thematic ideas, with the ostensible aim of finding its home key of E flat major. Eventful, inventive and quasi-improvisatory, there were alternating moments of serenity and violence, several false dawns and vocalisations of that elusive E flat by orchestral members.

The end finally came with an emphatic and abrupt succession of E flat major chords, closing with the pianist plucking an E flat string in the innards of the piano. Beethoven's Emperor this is not, but a worthy addition to the small canon of Singaporean piano concertos.

Tedd Joselson, now a Singapore permanent resident, closed the concerto segment with Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23 in A major (K.488), a work he first performed as a teenager with the English Chamber Orchestra. Concerto performances by Joselson are a rarity these days, but this outing was a treat because he still possesses that wherewithal and authority to pull it off.

Confidence, fine control and sensitivity marked the first movement, culminating with Mozart's own cadenza. Although the orchestra sounded thin in parts, it supported the endeavour well. Joselson's solo sicilienne which opened the slow movement was a thing of beauty, and this continued dream-like through its entire course.

The exultant finale literally caught fire in Joselson's mercurial fingers, and the outcome was a thrilling adrenaline-filled affair. His was an unfaltering, no-holds-barred view, leaving one with no doubt of an undimmed prowess and artistry.

After the concertos, there was solo recitals by four of Joselson's students which continued into the early evening. There was a lot of music, but as posterity goes, it was Casteels' premiere and Joselson's Mozart that stood out.  

Leslie Theseira and Nicholas Ho presented a
"birthday" ditty in honour of their teacher Tedd Joselson.