HUNGARIAN PIANO QUINTETS / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Faculty & Students / Review

 

HUNGARIAN PIANO QUINTETS

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory 

Faculty & Students

Conservatory Concert Hall

Wednesday (18 March 2026)

It is no longer a secret. Yong Siew Toh Conservatory is the best place in Singapore to enjoy chamber music. T’ang Quartet, Red Dot Baroque, Lorong Boys and the Singapore Chamber Music Festival are resident here and its faculty (many of whom are chamber music veterans) and students are fully involved in chamber music making. Not to mention the many visiting chamber groups – Takacs, Hagen, Juilliard, Brodsky, Jerusalem, Miro and Verona Quartets, Calefax et cetera.

This evening of piano quintets is likely to have included two Singapore premieres, unless Take 5 (Lim Yan and company) had earlier gotten their hands to them. At any rate, pianist Albert Tiu (Head of Piano), violinists Qian Zhou (Head of Strings) and Chien Hsin (3rd year student), violist Zou Zhang (alumnus) and cellist Wang Zihao (alumnus) performed two rarities, two very demanding piano quintets by two great Hungarian composers. Both Tiu and Qian took turns to introduce the works and their nostalgic qualities, especially harking back to their late Romantic roots.

The Second Piano Quintet in E flat minor (Op.26) of Ernő Dohnanyi (1877-1960), composed in 1914, is less often heard than his earlier C major quintet. It opened in dark and mysterious hues with piano tremolos, then revealing an idiom influenced by Brahms. The throes of passion and intensity generated, with tension alternating with moments of playfulness defined this music. The five players sunk their teeth in and never let off.

The central Intermezzo relived the dance music of old Vienna, a gemutlichkeit later celebrated by the likes of Kreisler and Korngold. A fast scherzo-like section flew with Mendelssohnian lightness, also containing the witty writing to be found in Dohnanyi’s famous Variations on a Nursery Theme and moments that could have influenced John Williams’ Harry Potter music. The weighty finale opened with a fugue from the strings, contrasted by a chorale theme on piano. The warmth of sonority radiated through Straussian harmonies, then darkened as earlier themes returned (in the Lisztian cyclical manner referred to by Tiu) before closing quietly.

The only Piano Quintet (Sz.23), in C major, by Bela Bartok (1881-1945) is an early work that even predates the Dohnanyi. Composed in 1903-04, its sprawling four movements that play for over 40 minutes recalled the aspirations of Brahms’ own piano quintet. That was the only similarity, a superficial one, as Bartok’s was by far a more jolly and extrovert piece, quite unlike the folk-inspired barbarism of later and more representative works. Sheer opulence is hardly something attributable to Bartok, and this uncharacteristic masterpiece was cut from the same silky linen as his Rhapsody Op.1 (Sz.26) for piano and orchestra, an update on Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, also from 1904.

The ensuing Vivace had similarities with the earlier Dohnanyi Intermezzo, an old world dance with the quality of a burlesque, except its whimsicality was a little more vigourous. The Adagio was harmonically the most adventurous, its chromaticism yielding an elegiac movement in C minor with genuine Slavic pathos. More Straussian harmonies were heard, and this continued attacca into the Vivace finale, where the first movement theme returned, but now transformed into a joyous polka-like dance. Now ensconced in Hary Janos (Kodaly’s comedic opera) territory, humour ruled with several false endings before closing abruptly in high spirits. 

The loud and vociferous applause more than provided encouragement for further chamber concerts of this kind to return. So watch this space.

A bravissimo to all the performers.

To access concert events at the 

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, 

check out this webpage: 

YST Conservatory

ELISO VIRSALADZE & FRIENDS CHAMBER RECITAL / Review

 

ELISO VIRSALADZE & 

FRIENDS CHAMBER RECITAL 

Conservatory Concert Hall 

Thursday (13 March 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 March 2025 with the title "Grand dame of Russian piano school Eliso Virsaladze leads cohesive chamber recital".

If one were a conservatory student, imagine what a honour it is to perform at a masterclass by some of classical music’s most venerated artists. An even greater privilege is to actually to perform in concert with someone like Georgian pianist Eliso Virsaladze, whom at 82 is the Grand Dame of the Russian piano school. 

That was the fortunate lot of four string students selected to play in two piano quintets alongside Virsaladze and members of faculty. The concert began with Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major (Op.44), when violinist Zou Meng and his twin brother violist Zou Zhang were joined by violinist Qian Zhou (Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s head of strings) and cellist Jamshid Saidikarimov (Singapore Symphony Orchestra musician). 

Photo: Ong Shu Chen

Straight off in the opening bars, the five players established a cohesiveness that would endure through the work’s half hour. Virsaladze took the lead, her clarity of articulation projected well from the Fazioli grand piano with its lid on half-stick. This was never a case of overwhelming the strings but working closely in tandem as equals. 

The passion of Romanticism shone through in the first movement’s development as well as the slow movement’s stormy central section where the tempo and temperature were upped. Even the Scherzo’s play of ascending and descending scales were made to sound fun rather than the tedium of exercises. 

It was the finale’s busy counterpoint, reliving the grand fugue a la Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, which sealed this impressive performance. A wrong step would have spelt disaster but the performers had a gripping chokehold on the proceedings which drove to a glorious close. 

The second half had a more expansive work in Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor (Op.34), where Virsaladze was partnered with violinists Ng Yu Ying and Ang Chek Meng (founding members of T’ang Quartet), and students - violist Huang Yi and cellist Cao Huiying. 

Conceived like a four-movement symphony, the transparent unison opening belied an inner tension that gradually built up as the first movement progressed. As with the previous quintet, this group also harnessed an energy that sustained itself through the music’s plentiful upheavals. 

Respite came in the slow second movement, where a congenial conversational tone between piano and strings provided an oasis of calm. Cao’s cello pizzicatos then picked up the pulse for the Scherzo’s inexorable march, where an obstinately repetitive (hence the term ostinato) rhythm predominated, with an excitement level ratcheted to the edge of one’s seat. 

The work’s most dissonant moments were in the finale’s opening, almost painful in intensity, but as the smoke cleared, an obvious pattern was emerging. This gradual revelation of its memorable main theme would later be repeated in Brahms’ First Symphony in years to come, but the five players were now clearly living the moment. 

Virsaladze’s frequent glances to her younger colleagues ensured everyone was on the same bar together, and together they completed this masterpiece with stunning unity. Such concerts are what excellent chamber music-making - creativity in a single mind - is all about.

SINGAPORE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024: AOI TRIO. NING AN & FRIENDS / Review

SINGAPORE CHAMBER 

MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024: 

AOI TRIO 

NING AN & FRIENDS 

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall 

Saturday & Tuesday 

(27 & 30 January 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 February 2024 with the title "Chamber Music Festival's successful return with Aoi Trio and pianist Ning An".

After a hiatus of about twenty years, the Singapore Chamber Music Festival has returned with a flourish. The week-long event, organised by re:Sound Collective, included music workshops and coaching sessions involving 28 local and overseas chamber groups and four evening concerts. 

The first evening showcased the youthful Aoi Trio from Japan, winner of the 2018 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany. Its varied programme traversed the history of the piano trio genre, with pianist Kosuke Akimoto, violinist Kyoko Ogawa and cellist Yu Ito putting the shine on Mozart’s Piano Trio No.1 in B flat major (K.254). 

The piano’s dominance is evident in such an early example of the form, with violin providing decorative touches and cello merely simple accompaniment. Despite this imbalance, the performance was one of aural beauty and aesthetic balance. 

Trio (2013) by Japanese contemporary composer Toshio Hosokawa (born 1955) could not have been more different, with its espousal of Zen minimalism. Quiet long-held notes, static near-silences, prolonged trills and eerily-sliding glissandi all contributed to the music’s elusive mystique. There was a gradual stirring to breach the void but its twelve minutes closed on an uneasy calm. 

The evening’s highlight was Dvorak’s Piano Trio No.3 in F minor (Op.65) where the trio’s strengths – perfect intonation, ensemble cohesion, concentration and passion – came to the fore in four movements playing for almost forty minutes. By now, all three instruments were equal partners, the music’s Brahmsian gravity balanced by a folksy Slavonic rusticity. The trio’s Mendelssohn encore delighted like a song without words. 

The second concert formally introduced American-Chinese pianist Ning An as Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s latest faculty member. The new associate professor opened his showcase with three late works by Chopin. The Berceuse (Op.57) highlighted right hand filigree over the left hand’s unchanging bass, while the Barcarolle (Op.60) delighted in a seamless cantabile, this being a Venetian gondolier’s love song. The melancholic Mazurka in F minor (Op.68 No.4) was Chopin’s last composition, performed as a tribute to his teacher, the late American pianist-pedagogue Russell Sherman. 

An was joined by the conservatory’s head of piano Albert Tiu in Rachmaninov’s Suite No.2 (Op.17), arguably the most popular work in the two-piano repertory. Both pianists were well matched in virtuosity and temperament, launching fearlessly into the imperious chord-laden opening Alla Marcia, then taking flight in the vertiginous Waltz. The slow Romance oozed sensuality as it built to a steamy climax, while gloves came off thrillingly for the final Tarantella. 

While the duo featured closely knitted ensemble, rightly considered chamber music, chamber music of the more conventional kind returned with An helming the piano part of Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat major (Op.47). Partnered by fellow teaching colleagues Qian Zhou (violin), Zhang Manchin (viola) and Qin Li-Wei (cello), the foursome gave a tautly cohesive perfomance that did not stint on poetry and lyricism. 

While the opening movement made big Beethovenian statements, the fast and impish second movement was a study in fast yet accurate playing. One will be hard put to find a more ravishing melody than in the slow movement, first heard on Qin’s cello before being shared by the rest. This was a true musical love-in, a loving respite before the finale’s busy contrapuntal lines closed on an energised high. 

Cheered on by an enthused audience, the quartet was joined by Tiu in his quintet arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s tango La Muerte del Angel (The Death of Angel). The surprisingly upbeat encore, despite its sombre title, was clearly enjoyed by all in attendance.

CHAMBER OF HEROES / KOICHIRO HARADA & FRIENDS / Review

CHAMBER OF HEROES

T’ang Quartet

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday (29 August 2023)

 

KOICHIRO HARADA & FRIENDS

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Thursday (31 August 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 September 2023 with the title "T'ang Quartet and Koichiro Harada played two gripping chamber music programmes". 

 

It is good to see T’ang Quartet, Singapore’s longest standing professional chamber group, going back to basics. Founding violinists Ng Yu Ying and Ang Chek Meng with new members violist Dandan Wang and cellist Jamshid Saydikarimov have settled nicely as a cohesive outfit, evidenced by this serious and non-gimmicky programme.

 

Haydn was the “father of the string quartet”, yet his Quartet in C major (Op.20 No.2) is not so familiar. The foursome brought out its congeniality, displaying taut ensemble work yet with ample room to breathe. The composer’s originality came in its Adagio slow movement, unusually titled Capriccio. Its caprice had to do with unexpected tonal austerity and stark unison passages, handled with keen intent, later switching modes for the much lighter minuet and concluding fugal finale.     

 

The concert’s major work was Beethoven’s Quartet in E flat major Op.74, nicknamed "Harp" because of series of pizzicatos, resembling those of the plucked instrument. Although belonging to his "middle period", there were hints of the German's ethereal late style. The slow movement's long-breathed solo line was memorably helmed by violinist Ng, later contrasted by the scherzo's tempestuous raves and finale's breezy theme and variations.  

 

Wedged in between both classical heroes was the Singapore premiere of contemporary American composer Caroline Shaw’s Plan & Elevation: The Grounds Of Dumbarton Oaks (2016) in five short movements. Inspired by the historical estate in Washington D.C., each movement was named after different aspects of its renowned garden, premised upon a simple motif, over which layers of sound were added. The quartet brought from the quasi-minimalist music a nervous edge which regularly egressed into rarefied beauty. This concert showed that old and new music could be equally engaging when astutely juxtaposed.

 

The feast of chamber music continued with a piano quintet concert at the Conservatory led by Japanese violinist Koichiro Harada, founding member of the legendary Tokyo String Quartet and this semester’s visiting Ong Teng Cheong Professor of Music. He was partnered by faculty members Qian Zhou (violin) Zhang Manchin (viola), Qin Li-Wei (cello) and Ning An (piano) in two great contrasting works of the medium.

 

Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major (Op.44), set in classical four-movement form, is famous for its expressive beauty. The German’s effulgent romanticism overflowed from the outset, with Harada as de facto leader and unifying force keeping all five players together. The ensemble was water-tight throughout, resolute in the opening movement’s expansive themes, while weathering storms of mood and tempo changes in the central movements.  

 

It was the finale’s tour de force of counterpoint, where multiple lines could easily get tangled, which impressed the most. The valedictory fugue was so adroitly handled that it seemed scarcely possible at that high speed. Hearing is believing, with the quintet concluding in a triumphant romp.     

Koichiro Harada is an inspiring leader.

  

Franco-Belgian composer Cesar Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor is a formidable work that takes no prisoners. Lasting almost 40 minutes, all three movements brooded with frightening intensity. Over a drone from lower strings in its opening, Harada’s violin came like an impassioned high-pitched groan. All through the piece, he carried important melodic lines, like some pleading soul in search for a voice of reason.

 

A robust opposing force was the mighty piano from An, recently appointed Associate Professor in piano studies, whose part waxed and waned between pure lyricism and raw-knuckled brawn. This tug-of-war between strings and piano, engaged over the work’s recurring motifs, was so absorbing as to render time illusory. Not for faint hearts, the finale’s harrowing close of sheer vehemence brought an uneasy mix of ecstasy and relief. The loud cheers said it all. That was what gripping chamber music on two evenings was supposed to do.    

PIANO TRIOS / Qian Zhou, Qin Li-Wei & Albert Tiu / Review

PIANO TRIOS

Qian Zhou (Violin),

Qin Li-Wei (Cello) 

& Albert Tiu (Piano)

Conservatory Concert Hall

Thursday (27 October 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 November 2022 with the title "Loud ovation for million-dollar trio".

 

Over seventy years ago, a piano trio comprising violinist Jascha Heifetz, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and pianist Arthur Rubinstein, all immigrants to USA and stars in their own right, was hailed as the “Million Dollar Trio”. That group was short-lived because of personality clashes between violinist and pianist. Singapore is fortunate to have its own million dollar trio, resident at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, which has proven to be far more enduring.

 

Violinist Qian Zhou, cellist Qin Li-Wei and pianist Albert Tiu, conservatory professors and local musical celebrities, have been performing together for more than ten years. Their well-attended concert of three Russian piano trios further sealed the threesome as the land’s premier trio.

 

Performing in reverse chronological order, the evening opened with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No.1 in C minor (Op.8) from 1923. An early student effort which straddled past and present musical traditions, its morose mood was typical of Romantic-era Slavic pathos while chromatic themes strained limits of tonality. Over Tiu’s piano chords, Qin’s cello plaint was the opening voice, later joined by Qian’s equally pleading violin entry. Together they were a tightly-knit unit that traversed with aplomb the music’s peaks and troughs.

It was Qin who had the peachiest melody of all, in a glimmering fantasy-like episode, with fairy tale lightness that seemed to forget the travails before. The best case possible was made for a promising work that signalled Shostakovich’s future greatness, looking ahead to his groundbreaking First Symphony of 1924-25.

 

Photo: Ong Shu Chen

In common with the Shostakovich, Sergei Rachmaninov’s Trio Elegiaque No.1 in G minor (1892) was also a teenaged work cast in a single movement. The young man was in the thrall of mentor Tchaikovsky, his influence evident in the music’s brooding melancholy. Although it was Tiu’s piano chords which introduced the main theme, it was again Qin whose opening statement is best remembered.

 

Avid interplay between cello and piano would later come to fruition in the far better-known Cello Sonata, also in the same key. Lyrical at every turn, the melodic interest also carried by Qian’s violin had a parallel with Rachmaninov’s art-songs or romances. This passionate performance was the perfect prelude to the concert’s main event, Tchaikovsky’s sprawling Piano Trio in A minor (Op.50) of 1882.

 

Playing for almost 45 minutes, this was a fitting memorial to the pianist Nikolai Rubinstein who had earlier disparaged Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Almost identical in mood and demeanour as the earlier Rachmaninov, the mournful strains of its opening movement (Pezzo Elegiaco or Elegiac Piece) were intense yet moving, and guess who had the plum of the tunes again?

 

Despite its longeurs and repetitiveness, the work was tautly held together in large part by Tiu’s indefatigable pianism. Unlike the panned piano concerto, there was simply no respite for him. The second movement’s Theme and Variations, by contrast, had a salon quality, delighting with variations which took the form of a music box dance, waltz, mazurka and a massive fugue to boot.

 

And when there seemed no end to the revelry, the opening solemnity returned, symbolic of a life cut short at its prime. Seldom has a work that finished on a quiet received such a loud and long ovation. The added treat from the trio was an encore in Ukrainian violin student Georgii Moroz’s delightful arrangement of Elgar’s Salut D’Amour, which had the audience in a rapture.