DARK STORIES - THE DEBUT RECITAL / PRODIGIOUS: TROUT QUINTET & FOUR SEASONS / Jessie M. Piano Recital / re:Sound Collective / Review

DARK STORIES – 

THE DEBUT RECITAL 

Jessie M. Piano Recital 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Tuesday (19 March 2024) 

PRODIGIOUS: 

THE TROUT & FOUR SEASONS 

re:Sound Collective 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Wednesday (20 March 2024) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 March 2024 with the title "Young Singapore talents rule at two recitals".

Fact: there are more young musical virtuosos in Singapore now than any other time in history. Two consecutive concerts at Victoria Concert Hall were all the proof one needed. 

Jessie M. sounds like one of the Spice Girls, but is the stage name of 17-year-old Jessie Meng YiRuiXue, Singapore’s latest and youngest Young Steinway Artist. Winner of multiple age-group piano competitions, her debut recital showed what the fuss was about. 

In two Transcendental Etudes by Franz Liszt, she demonstrated an astonishing adroitness coupled with nuanced responses to technically demanding music. Fast, furious octaves and outsized chords in Wilde Jagd (Wild Hunt), and stampeding runs of Mazeppa seemed like child’s play. Poetry and lyricism were never in short supply, evident in the “simple” measures of Liszt’s Consolation No.2 and melancholic Russian song of Mily Balakirev’s highly-filigreed transcription of Mikhail Glinka’s The Lark. 

Two modern American composers provided more display of her versatility. William Bolcom’s ragtime novelties showcased graceful insouciance in Last Rag and terminal velocity in The Serpent’s Kiss, the latter including foot stomps, knuckles rapping on the piano’s fallboard, tongue-clicking and even a spot of whistling. For two of Lowell Liebermann’s Gargoyles, she delighted in haunting music-box effects and relentless percussiveness. 

Best of all was M’s hair-raising account of Maurice Ravel’s La Valse, an intoxicating celebration of the Viennese waltz built upon seemingly unending waves of vertiginous whirling. Here was high stakes risk-taking with a true sense of danger courted at every turn. Cataclysm being averted, there could only be final triumph, which the encore of Jack Fina’s Bumble Boogie – in her own edition with multitudes of added notes – duly confirmed. 

Jessie M. with her parents, teacher
Winnie Tay and Steinway Gallery's Celine Goh

@Joelcaptures / re:Sound

Some 16 years older but still young is Berlin-based Shaun Choo who joined members of the Concordia Quartet – violinist Edward Tan, violist Martin Peh, cellist Lin Juan – with bassist Julian Li in a sparkling performance of Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major, popularly known as the Trout Quintet. 

@Joelcaptures / re:Sound

This is Hausmusik, music for domestic consumption, usually shared by close friends over hearty meals and imbibed spirits. The camaraderie developed by the players all through its five movements was infectious, best exemplified in the fourth movement’s variations on the song Die Forelle (The Trout, hence its nickname). It was just fun to see the ever-busy Choo slaving away on the keyboard while his string partners took turns to luxuriate in the melody. 

All this congeniality scarcely prepared one for Antonio Vivaldi’s perennial favourite The Four Seasons performed by re:Sound featuring mere children as soloists. One wondered whether child labour laws applied when youngsters do adults’ work with equal authority and conviction. 

Spring was the domain of Yuto Lim (12 years old), whose confident demeanour suggested he was the boss, but he blended perfectly with leader Yang Shuxiang and Kim Kyu Ri’s violins for the birdcalls. Sophia Fang (11) was a little self-conscious in the opening of Summer, but once the Allegro got underway, she became a total natural. Helming the music’s portrayal of a pelting rainstorm, she mastered arguably the most demanding season of all. 

@Joelcaptures / re:Sound

Autumn saw the most mature soloist in Jacob Cheng (15), who physically towered over the others. His was the most personal of performances, showing individuality but worked very well with cellist Lin. The most diminutive performer was Mark Chia (11), who gave the edgiest performance of all in Winter, contrasting an icy chill with the warmth of a fireplace. 

@Joelcaptures / re:Sound

Shut your eyes, and one imagined both concerts being helmed by performing adults. That mere babes accomplished the same was just a frightening thought.

@Joelcaptures / re:Sound

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL 2022 / Review

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL

PIANO FESTIVAL 2022

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday to Sunday (10-12 June 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 June 2022 with the title "Piano festival makes grand return".

 

After the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was gratifying to see full audiences return to Victoria Concert Hall for the Singapore International Piano Festival. The 2020 edition had been cancelled, while last year’s festival featured only locally-based pianists, watched by only 50 people per recital. The virus has not been fully vanquished, as Japanese-Canadian pianist Kyoko Hashimoto had to cancel at the eleventh hour having contracted the infection.

 

The three-evening festival, with a common thread of “Vienna”, was opened by hometown favourite Shaun Choo. A student of universities in Salzburg and Berlin, his pianism is informed by the grand “Last Romantic” tradition espoused by the likes of the great Cuban-American Jorge Bolet and Ukraine-born Shura Cherkassky. His readings of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata and Chopin’s Fourth Ballade (both in F minor), were free and unencumbered by the metronome, yet displaying an aristocratic mien.

 

Showcasing an outsized but never clangorous sonority, the mighty Bach-Busoni Chaconne resounded as if sculpted from a solid block of marble. In three Schubert-Liszt song transcriptions, he delighted in bringing out the music’s inner voices while keeping the singing line unbroken. In dance music, rhythm was never sacrificed for filigreed detail. This was evident in the insouciance of the Kreisler-Rachmaninoff Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow), while Schulz-Evler’s fiendishly difficult Arabesques On Johann Strauss’ Beautiful Blue Danube dazzled as he cheekily slipped in bits of Chopin’s Minute Waltz and Paganini’s La Campanella.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

 

Choo’s prowess as composer-improviser came to the fore in his own Tango, a teenaged indulgence, and two delicious encores celebrating the ragtime and sentimental ballad forms. Bringing down the house, all of these were heartily cheered.  

 

The Argentinian virtuoso Ingrid Fliter is sometimes remembered as the pianist who finished second to Li Yundi at the 2000 Chopin International Piano Competition. However, critical circles have long regarded her as the superior artist, and not merely a Chopin specialist. Her Singapore debut was a coup of creative programming and beautiful tone production.

 

Fliter’s juxtaposition of Haydn’s E minor Sonata (Hob.XVI:34) with Beethoven’s “Hunt” Sonata in E flat major (Op.31 No.3) was a metamorphosis from austerity to jollity. The transition from the unseemly light-heartedness of Haydn’s finale to Beethoven’s tonal ambiguities and implicit humour was seamless. Surprises abound (later spoofed in works by Schumann and Saint-Saens), culminating in a wild tarantella dance, the furious chase bestowing the sonata its nickname.  

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

 

The second half saw a meditative Scarlatti Sonata in C sharp minor prelude Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, which opened in the exact same key. Mastery in extremes of tempos and dynamics distinguished her magisterial performance, made even more alluring with the inclusion of five “posthumous” variations, the two most sublime ones appearing after the work’s showstopping final etude. That the set closed in a beatific quiet instead of grandstanding bravura was the intention, and credit goes to the awestruck audience for heeding Fliter’s cues by not erupting prematurely.   

 

British pianist Leon McCawley’s recital returned to the classical world of Vienna, represented by Haydn’s masterly Variations in F minor and Mozart’s rarely heard Sonata in F major (K.533/494). There is a shared sobriety in the Haydn and Mozart’s slow central movement, brought out with a gravitas that was both touching and moving. In the Mozart fast movements, clarity and illumination were the rule, and the music could not have been more tastefully rendered.

 

Then there was Schubert’s final Sonata in B flat major (D.960), a work of heavenly length, where McCawley’s sense of proportion and architecture was peerless. Playing the exposition repeat of its first movement’s ensured that its warmth and lyricism was doubly enjoyed. An overwhelming sense of mortality possessed the haunting slow movement, as if the composer knew he would be dead within a matter of months. This, balanced by the apparent gaiety of the last two movements, gave this magnificently judged performance a human perspective that has become all too rare.

 

Three evenings of piano music, by three very different pianists, showed what interpretation was all about. And there was never a dull moment to be had.  

To show how popular the pianists were,
there was a long line for autographs
and photographs every evening.

 

For the record, the encores performed by the pianists were:

 

SHAUN CHOO (10 June 2022)

Shaun Choo Rondo Fashionisto

Shaun Choo Together Forever

Chaminade Automne (Op.35 No.2)

 

INGRID FLITER (11 June 2022)

Chopin Nocturne in D flat major (Op.27 No.2)

Chopin Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2)

Chopin Waltz in D flat major (Op.64 No.1)

 

LEON MCCAWLEY (12 June 2022)

Mendelssohn Song Without Words Op.30 No.1

Grieg Little Bird from Lyric Pieces (Op.43 No.4)

Schumann-Liszt Widmung

A longer review of Ingrid Fliter's piano recital (11 June 2022) has been published in Bachtrack:

Ingrid Fliter's creative programming and beautiful tone inspires awe in Singapore debut | Bachtrack

NANYANG PIANO ACADEMY Opening Gala Concert / Review

NANYANG PIANO ACADEMY

Opening Gala Concert

Lee Foundation Theatre,

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Thursday (17 January 2019)

The first ever edition of the 3-day long Nanyang Piano Academy opened with a gala concert featuring members of its faculty, which included pedagogues from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) and visiting professors from several renowned music education institutions. It was a mini piano festival wrapped up within a two-hour long recital.

The recital opened with Singapore’s own Shaun Choo, now pursuing his Masters degree at the Salzburg Mozarteum, in Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor. A more confident and convincing performance would be hard to fine, with each of its very short variations carved out with lapidary care and finesse.

Next was a duo with NAFA Head of Piano Studies Lena Ching and her former student, the Juilliard-trained Nellie Seng in Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor. This has to be the greatest of hausmusik ever conceived, a work of utmost beauty yet imbued with a sense of dramatic seriousness. It was a good performance from the duo, however one wished for more a gemütlich feel in their reading, which pursued many notes with a grim determination albeit punctuated by moments of levity.

Nigel Clayton from London’s Royal College of Music closed the first half with Debussy’s Estampes and a selection from the George Gershwin Songbook. He was the only pianist to give a short preamble before the works, which was well-appreciated by the audience of young people and their parents. The contrasts in Pagodes, La Soiree dans Grenade and Jardins sous la pluie, representing the Far East, Spain and France were also well-brought out.

There was to be no improvisations in the Gershwin shorts, crafted like preludes, but Clayton took some liberties with repetitions, especially of melodies that were too nice to be heard just once. The clearly enthused audience was hit for six: I’ll Build A Stairway To Paradise, The Man I Love, Fascinatin’ Rhythm, Someone Loves Me, Do Do Do and I Got Rhythm.  

The longest work of the evening was Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, almost half-an-hour in duration, performed by Claudius Tanski, a German professor from the Salzburg Mozarteum. Clearly he has a firm grasp of its epic scope and architecture, knowing exactly where the music inexorably leads, and the wherewithal to conquer its multitudes of octaves and chords. Any performance of this behemoth runs the risk of being overwrought, and there were some brief lapses, from which he recovered well to complete the arduous journey.

The final solo came from Shaun Choo, where he let it rip in Chopin’s First Ballade. This was a most accomplished performance, and an individual one which benefited from his extrovert personality. Clearly a showman, he also did a bit of acting leading up to the evening’s communal encore, Albert Lavignac’s showboating Galop Marche for 8 hands, where he was joined by Lena Ching, Nellie Seng and Nicholas Ong making a brief cameo. It was a harmless bit of fluff, vulgar and filled with horseplay. Whoever said that serious classical pianists should not have a bit of fun? 

CD Review (The Straits Times, May 2018)

CHOPIN The Complete Preludes

SHAUN CHOO, Piano

MusicShaun / *****

With this self-produced and self-recorded album, young pianist Shaun Choo became only the second Singaporean (after Azariah Tan) to record an all-Chopin disc. First prize-winner of the Asia-Pacific International Chopin Competition in Daegu, South Korea in 2012, his programme closely follows that of the debut Deutsche Grammophon album of Seong-Jin Cho, 1^st prize-winner of the 2015 Chopin International Piano Competition.

The main work is the complete set of 24 Préludes (Op.28). Having mastered it during his teenaged years, Choo finds a wealth of nuances and kaleidoscopic responses in this seemingly disparate set of miniatures. There is also a narrative sweep that is all-absorbing and impossible to put down. Instead of the Funeral March Sonata in Cho's recording, Choo has the scintillating Grande Valse Brillante in E flat major (Op.18), which combines elegance with exuberance.

The programme is completed by the brooding Nocturne in C minor (Op.48 No.1) and the very familiar “Heroic” Polonaise in A flat major (Op.53), performed with passion and polish. Presently a postgraduate student at the Salzburg Mozarteum, Choo is a compelling home-grown artist destined for even bigger things.

This disc is available at amazon.com and online/streaming platforms like Spotify and Deezer.       

Photographs from SHAUN CHOO'S Lecture-Recital at NAFA

One of Singapore's finest young pianists, Shaun Choo, returned to give a lecture-recital at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts on Tuesday 30 January 2018. He is a student of the Salzburg Mozarteum where he had been schooling since the age of 14. Upon completing his national service some years ago, he resumed his studies and pursued a worldwide concert career. He was last here as a jury member of the 1st Nanyang International Music Competition in July 2017.  

He now performs with a maturity and staggering confidence when previously, his audiences were impressed by his youth and poise. In a recital that included the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major, Chopin's Fourth Ballade and Debussy's L'Isle Joyeuse, he made everything sound so simple, and so natural, with the ease that comes with breathing. 

Also unafraid to flex his virtuoso musculature, he completed his recital with Kapustin's Toccatina (from Etudes Op.40) and added as an encore, an original ragtime composition of his own. It was simply a jaw-dropping display of outsized musicianship. Attended by many students, there is much they can learn from this brightest of rising piano stars. 

Working his way to a dramatic finish.

Shaun's short lecture was on the subject of
Competancy vs Competition.

Singaporean Soldier Wins Asia-Pacific International Chopin Piano Competition in Daegu, South Korea

SINGAPOREAN SOLDIER WINS  

ASIA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL 

CHOPIN PIANO COMPETITION 

IN DAEGU, SOUTH KOREA

It is well known that many young Singaporean men find it an obstacle to pursue a professional musical career because their musical studies are inevitably disrupted by compulsory military national service which takes up two years of their formative lives. That is not to mention life as an NSman (or reservist) for 13 years post-National Service, if they happen to be medics, signallers or holding vocations unrelated to the Music and Drama Company.

Because of this, some Singaporean musicians, notably pianist Melvyn Tan, had defaulted on National Service in order to pursue an uninterrupted musical careers overseas. (He was later arrested when he returned to Singapore in 2005 to visit his ageing parents, and had to pay a fine in addition.) 

However in October this year, Shaun Choo, a 21-year-old Singaporean soldier serving his national service as an Administrative Support Assistant (Rank of Corporal) in the Signals Headquarters of the Singapore Armed Forces, won 1^st prize at the 2nd Asia-Pacific International Chopin Piano Competition in Daegu, South Korea.

Shaun Choo disrupted his studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum (where he studied with the late eminent pedagogue Karl-Heinz Kämmerling) to perform national service in 2011. After completing Basic Military Training, he found time to practise the piano and accumulated sufficient leave in order to participate in Chopin Competition in Korea. He even had enough leave to complete a concert tour in Poland after his win. 

Choo is grateful to his army unit and its officers for supporting his dream to perform the piano. He is a good example of how true artistry is compatible with military duties, and what one can achieve when you put your mind to it despite the seemingly overwhelming odds. 

SHAUN CHOO pays tribute to great piano pedagogue KARL-HEINZ KÄMMERLING

On 14 June 2012, the worldwide piano fraternity mourned the passing of one of the piano's greatest pedagogues of our time. Over the decades, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling has mentored and guided some of the world's most respected and exciting pianists. Young Singaporean Shaun Choo holds the distinction of being the first Singaporean admitted into the famed Salzburg Mozarteum and Kämmerling's only Singaporean student. Presently serving National Service, Shaun Choo pays tribute to his mentor and Maestro.

“Tribute to Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling”

By Shaun Choo, 30-06-12

No amount of words can do justice to the man whose demise has left a hole in the hearts of all his students, friends, and fellow music lovers around the world. As his pupil for 5 years, Prof Karl-Heinz Kämmerling had guided and opened new realms into my understanding of classical music and had played a huge role in moulding me to what I have become today. Being the only privileged Singaporean to have the honor of working with him so extensively, I feel compelled to share my personal experiences of this esteemed Maestro.

I first got to know Prof Kämmerling during the summer of 2005. I was 15 then and had just attained my Diploma a year before and was looking to pursue my music studies abroad. My teacher in Singapore – Ms. Lena Ching – had suggested Europe as it is the heart of Classical arts culture, and home to countless legendary musicians over the centuries. I took several masterclasses, one of which was Prof Kämmerling's which was held at the Salzburg Mozarteum. It might have been merely a two-week course, but by the end of it, he left me with such a deep impression that I immediately expressed interest to enter his class. I was thrilled when he accepted me. Shortly after, I was enrolled in the Mozarteum under the “Young Talented Musicians Programme”.

Prof Kämmerling was a great musician in more ways than one. His substantial experience and knowledge of the arts – a result from more than 60 years of dedicating his life to music – distinguished him from the many teachers out there. Though we could not get lessons from him on a weekly basis (he simultaneously taught at three Universities in Austria, Germany and Croatia and was constantly sought after for masterclasses and as a juror in international competitions), his critical, methodical and superior teaching style more than compensated for anything else. Looking back, his occasional absence had taught me to be independent and self-reliant. Moreover, with his guidance and advice, I gradually built confidence in my own judgment.

Professor Kämmerling had a reputation as a strict and demanding teacher, but it stemmed from his care for his students; like a stern parent having constant high expectations from their children. Amusingly, wrong notes did not overly concern him, nor was he impressed by sheer technical virtuosity alone; both aspects were far from sufficient in making good music. It was the way one spoke through the music that mattered. This was accomplished with the mind as much as with the heart. “Your mind filters your emotions, converts them to signals which are then relayed to your servants, your hands, who in turn carry out the order” he used to say.

With his unquenchable thirst for musical knowledge and respect for each student's individualism, I often enjoyed good arguments and debates with him. He was always ready to listen to my opinions so as to better see things from my perspective. Rather than driving me along a linear path, he often compared records of as many different interpretations and analysed various editions during class to expose me to the infinite possibilities that exist out there. To him, ignorance was bad, and negligence, worse.

Prof Kämmerling was exuberant and youthful for someone in his eighties. He could climb flights of stairs or lift a grand piano's lid with ease, going often for swims and occasionally, even dancing with us! He possessed a keen sense of humor, and we had much laughter during our time together. Though bilingual, German being his mother tongue and English being his second language, he often blundered in the latter, with comical results. Once, when trying to translate a phrase “Du musst die tasten fuelen”, he ended up misinterpreting “tasten”, which is German for “key”, into “taste”, consequently saying “you must feel the taste”!

Though he has left this world, he had lived a full, eventful, and illustrious life doing the one thing he cherished most. He accomplished many things and because of him, 23 of his students hold professorships in renowned universities across the globe, with countless others establishing themselves as fully-fledged concert pianists. His legacy will live on through us, and I shall continue to do my best to make him proud.

Note: Kämmerling’s students over the years have included Bernd Goetzke, Lars Vogt, Wolfgang Manz, Herbert Schuch, Alice Sara Ott, Severin von Eckardstein, Ragna Schirmer, Eckart Heiligers, Lisa Smirnova, Yu Kosuge, Alexej Gorlatch, Da Sol Kim, Claire Huangci and Gerhard Vielhaber, just to name a few.

A SOIRÉE WITH BRYCE MORRISON / Part 2

16-year-old Zhao Yang Ming Tian from China

thrilled with Granados' Allegro de Concierto.

Shaun Choo, 3rd prize winner 

Piano Artist category,

in the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, was easily

the highlight of the evening.

Azariah Tan, 1st Prize winner 

Piano Senior category 2009,

performed the Rondo from 

Chopin's Piano Concerto No.1.

A 13-year-old student of Yao Xiaoyun

charmed with the Chinese classic,

Silver Clouds Chasing The Moon.

Clement Huang, owner of 

Bukit Batok's only Fazioli,

performed Chopin's Nocturne Op.55 No.2

Closing the evening on a high was Nicholas Loh,

who performed an Étude by Nikolai Kapustin.

Bryce Morrison with prominent 

Singaporean pedagogue

Benjamin Loh (extreme R) and 

his students: Aileen Gozali, 

Zhao Yang Ming Tian & Jonathan Chua.

Bryce Morrison with 

Clement Huang, Nicholas Loh,

a NAFA student, Azariah Tan, 

Yao Xiaoyun, Low Shao Suan & 

Low Shao Ying (from L)