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?