A TRIBUTE TO WALTER HAASS. MASTER PIANO TECHNICIAN

 

A TRIBUTE TO WALTER HAASS 

MASTER PIANO TECHNICIAN 

It is with shock and sadness that we learn of the sudden passing of WALTER HAASS on Sunday (15 December 2024), the Australian-German piano technician whose long and treasured association with the Singapore International Piano Festival (SIPF) and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) can never be over-estimated. 

In 30 years of the hallowed piano festival (1994-2024), there have been four artistic directors, three concert venues, multiple Steinway concert grands, over a hundred pianists, but only one dedicated piano technician. That was Walter Haass, the maestro behind the keys, who made all the pianos sound the way the pianists intended them to, and to our ears what perfect pianos ought to sound like. 

Walter Haass with the four SIPF directors:
Lim Yan (2019-present), Pianomaniac (2004-2008),
Goh Yew Lin (1994-2003, 2009)
& Lionel Choi (2010-2018)

Walter was born in post-War Stuttgart (then West Germany) in 1952, was himself a pianist who received training in Germany and France in the crafting of pianos and the secrets of making the instruments sing. He and his family emigrated to Western Australia in the 1980s, becoming an important personality and permanent fixture in the Australian and Asian piano music scene. 

Walter flanked by Thomas Hecht
and Noriko Ogawa (SIPF 2005)

He was first invited to work on the Steinways at the Singapore International Piano Festival in 1995, the festival’s second edition, after which he never left his station. There was simply no reason to. Other than the pandemic year of 2020 when the festival was suspended, he was the omnipresent uniting figure at every festival. 

Outside of the festival, Walter was invited back to Singapore to work for pianists with special and specific requests in their recitals. I was proud to highlight his sterling work in my Straits Times and Bachtrack reviews of recitals by Arcadi Volodos (2005) and most recently Helene Grimaud in October this year, when he had to condition two Steinways for the same recital. At both these concerts, the pianos had a wonderful resonant sonority which led me to think, “Walter must be back in town!” And that was the last time I saw him, thanking him in person, and taking for granted he would be back here again in 2025. Alas... 

Walter with Koh Jia Hwei,
Lim Yan & Dennis Lee (SIPF 2005).
Who knew Lim Yan would become
festival director some 14 years later? 

Walter was quiet and humble in personality, but fiercely proud of his work. After each recital, he would gently ask me in his deep baritone voice, “Did you like the sound?” How does one answer that question except in the affirmative? The truth was that he varied the voicing of each piano based on each pianist’s preferences, and so every evening, the piano sounded a little different, as different as the pianists themselves. Whether he worked for a big name (Argerich, Demidenko, Anderszewski et al) or a debuting young pianist (in the Young Virtuoso Recital Series), he accorded them the same care and professionalism. Very often, he would offer praise and encouragement to a young talent and share with me his approval. 

Walter meets his "twin",
Hungarian pianist Jeno Jando (SIPF 2008)
Both were born in 1952.

I was introduced to Walter by festival founders Goh Yew Lin and Tisa Ng (then SSO General Manager) in the early years of his tenure, and then it all clicked from there. By the time I was named festival director (for the years 2004-2008), we had become friends. He was a regular at post-recital makan sessions, where he let his hair down and shared all sorts of interesting stories about his profession and life in general. 

Dinner at No Signboard (SIPF 2008),
with Jennifer Micallaf, Glen Inanga, Jeno Jando,
young virtuosos Lee Pei Ming & Albert Lin.

One particular memorable anecdote involved a very famous late Czech pianist who also fancied himself as a piano technician. He would carry his own toolbox and tinker around with the piano pre-concert, much to Walter’s private consternation. One day his toolbox was reported missing, but the concert went on anyway. By all accounts, it was a successful concert, after which Walter emerged from the wings with the very toolbox. Returning it to the owner with a look of relief, he exclaimed “Oh, I’ve found it!” Needless to say, there was a knowing wink when he recounted that story. 

Walter was also a good listener,
as Dennis Lee spins a story
of his own (SIPF 2005)

I also remember Walter for his generosity. Knowing that I was a fellow pianophile, he made copies of Steinway Piano’s annual commemorative CD which he happily presented to me. To a down-and-out piano teacher and former Steinway employee, he readily gave a substantial loan taken from his salaried work in Singapore. True to form, he never asked for the money back (while the teacher made himself scarce). Even after my tenure as festival director, I was a guest of his in Perth, where he and his wife Marie treated my family to a hearty steak dinner. 

Guests of the Haasses,
at Inglewood Hotel, Mount Lawley (2015).

All of us piano-lovers will sorely miss Walter - his professionalism, his friendship, his kindness, and his generosity – and not necessarily in that order. His kind will never come again.

TENGKU IRFAN IN RECITAL / Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

TENGKU IRFAN IN RECITAL

Singapore International Piano Festival 2023

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (9 June 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 June 2023 with the title "A genius recital by Malaysian pianist Tengku Irfan".

 

The cancellation of Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner’s recital on Thursday due to illness meant that young Malaysian pianist Tengku Irfan opened this year’s Singapore International Piano Festival. Hailed as Malaysia’s Mozart, the former prodigy who also composes and conducts is the latest Malaysia-born pianist to perform in the festival since the late-lamented Dennis Lee in 2005.

 

His recital opened with Beethoven’s Sonata No.22 in F major (Op.54), a short-winded work in two movements. His crispness of articulation and mastery of pedalling ensured that the minuet-like first movement possessed sonority without sounding cut and dried. The ensuing finale’s perpetual motion was a tour de force of propulsive momentum which did not let off till the final bar.  

 

Gabriel Faure’s Theme and Variations (Op.73), a rarity, had a welcome airing. Its apparent austerity belied sheer craftsmanship and inventiveness involved, unfolding convincingly in Irfan’s faultless fingers before closing serenely in the major key. This underrated masterpiece might someday become as popular as Schumann’s Etudes Symphoniques or Mendelssohn’s Variations Serieuses.

 

Closing the first half was the Asian premiere of Tota Pulchra Es (Latin for You Are Completely Beautiful) by New York-based Singaporean composer Koh Cheng Jin who is also Irfan’s wife. It began with an eruption of violence, the atonal music later transcending to a realm of inner peace, with lyrical centres which channelled spirituality through Messiaen-like chords.  

 

The recital’s most substantial and familiar work was Schumann’s Fantasy in C major (Op.17), three movements reliving the restless and sublime inspiration of Beethoven. Its Romantic sweep was well captured in splashy chords and swirling arpeggios, with tumultuous swells quelled by the quotation from Beethoven’s song cycle An die Ferne Geliebte (To The Distant Beloved) at the close of the first movement.

 

In Irfan’s sharply contoured reading, the striding second movement was not so much an all-conquering heroic march but troubled journey beset with the trials and tribulations of love. As if to reinforce that notion, he even had a minor lapse but closed triumphantly with its fearsome octave leaps well vanquished.   

 

The valedictory closing movement brought on expected emotional highs and the added surprise of Schumann’s original ending, reprising the earlier Beethoven quotation albeit with altered harmonies. A genuine case of deja vu, the past being revisited but with not quite the same outcome.

 

Closing the unusually eclectic recital was Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Rudepoema (Savage Poems), 18 minutes of musical intoxication once described as “The Rite Of Spring Meets Brazilian Jungle”. Irfan was at his imperious best, imbuing the brashly dissonant essay with brawn and brain, where the lacerating and the lyrical sit cheek-by-jowl at the same table.

 

A pleasing symmetry was provided in the encore, his own transcription of Ausklang, the final segment from Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony. Its reprise of earlier themes echoed Schumann’s own nod to Beethoven, and the final outcome being solace, also reflected in Koh’s music. This programme may be summed up in one word, genius.

Tengku Irfan with the missus,
Singapore composer Koh Cheng Jin.

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

STEPHEN KOVACEVICH Piano Recital / 24th Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

STEPHEN KOVACEVICH Piano Recital

24^th Singapore International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (4 June 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 June 2017 with the title "Memorable recital after 31 years".

The theme “Fantasies and Memories” at this year's edition of the Singapore International Piano Festival was particularly apt when it came to summating its final recital, given by the legendary American pianist Stephen Kovacevich. Listeners of older generations will remember a dashing Stephen Bishop, who made recordings with the likes of Jacqueline du Pré and Martha Argerich.

They may also remember when Stephen Bishop Kovacevich performed a most memorable piano recital in Victoria Concert Hall at the 1986 Singapore Arts Festival. The first work in this evening's recital was to be the same, Bach's Partita No.4 in D major. It would however be a fantasy to imagine that the 31 intervening years and a more recent stroke had not taken its toll.

For Kovacevich looked every bit of his 76 years, including a gingerly gait and Gouldian (extremely low) positioning of the piano stool so as to be as near the keyboard as possible. His short preambles before each piece were also barely audible. But when he opened with the Partita's Prelude, a rejuvenation of sorts took place, yielding some of the most lucid and sublime Bach-playing thought possible.

The aria-like Allemande and slow Sarabande were beautifully voiced, while the faster dance steps in the Courante and Menuet kicked on with life. This was capped by a most fluent fugal finale in the Gigue where his mercurial fingers never seemed to tire.

Things were less certain in Schubert's Sonata in A major (D.959), where there was a tendency to rush, slurring phrases, and smudging textures through an over-liberal use of the sustaining pedal. His incessant wheezing, intakes and outtakes of breath were distracting at first, but soon became part of the auditory landscape.

Admirable still were his scaling of the work's peaks and troughs, such as the 2^nd movement's stormy central interlude (some of Schubert's most violent music), the dogged maintenance of pulse and forward motion through to its lyrical end.

Four short Brahms pieces also showed variable form, frustrating so. The Ballade (Op.10 No.4) was taken too fast to make any sense of, but there was requisite passion and mincing delicacy for the Capriccio (Op.116 No.7) and Intermezzo (Op.76 No.3). The gentle dissonances of Intermezzo (Op.119 No.1) were to be a mirror for the first but that impression had been earlier lost in transit. 

The final work was Beethoven's penultimate Sonata in A flat major (Op.110). There was again much beauty in his shaping of voices, notably in the opening movement and moodily introspective Adagio. By now, one would not have expected complete accuracy in the 2^nd movement's country dance or the finale's fugue and inverted fugue, which had their hairy moments.

Survive he did, and the appreciative applause brought out a sublime encore in the A flat major Musical Moment by Schubert. That piece of symmetry would yet be another abiding memory of a great artist. 

WONG CHIYAN Piano Recital / 24th Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

WONG CHIYAN Piano Recital

24^th Singapore International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (2 June 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 June 2017 with the title "Spine-tingling pianistic mayhem".

The young Hong Kong-born pianist Wong Chiyan is a fast-rising name in the over-populated circus of 20-somethings vying to be the piano world's “next big thing”. His route is not by winning international piano competitions, which are frankly dime-a-dozen now, but by the scholarship and specialisation of certain composers. In his case, Franz Liszt and Ferruccio Busoni have been targets of interest.

In a very well-crafted programme, he used Mozart as a start-point, before branching into the transcendental pianism of Chopin, Liszt and Busoni. Almost Romantic in character, the Fantasy in C minor (K.475) is Mozart's most modern-sounding piano work, and it resonated like late Liszt in Wong's hands. Heavy octaves, stark chords and amplification of dissonances rid the already austere work of any sentimentality, thus paving the way for his dissertation.

One wished that Chopin's popular Third Sonata in B minor (Op.58) were not tarred with the same brush. Taking an epic view and emphasising architecture over lyricism, his very nimble fingers easily conquered the masses of notes, but at the cost of the music's soft centre and inner warmth.

When the nocturne-like slow movement began to sound like a sermon, one wondered if Chopin was being disrespected. Worse came when some imbecile's digital watch alarm went off unchecked for almost a minute, signalling eight o'clock and all was not well. Wong carried on and at least got off without sounding as ponderous as Lang Lang's infamous recording.

The second half was most interesting, beginning with Italian pianist-composer Busoni's transmogrifications of Mozart's music. If the name of Busoni be appended to anyone else's, expect thick layers of countrapuntal dressing applied with shovels. Nach Mozart (After Mozart) and Giga, Bolero e Variazione were witty takes on short operatic excerpts and a little piano piece, performed with no little delicacy and charm.

Busoni's Second Sonatina was a wholly originally work but with a Mozartian inspiration, which Wong eloquently elaborated to the audience. This most dissonant and violent work, looking forward to a Schoenbergian future, was despatched with fearless aplomb and uncompromising authority.

The concert closed with the Singaporean premiere of the Busoni-Wong edition of Liszt's Reminiscences de Don Juan, a fantasy on popular melodies from Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. What could one expect from this quadruple transcription (Mozart-Liszt-Busoni-Wong) other than total pianistic mayhem?

Wong's no-holds-barred approach was totally appropriate, rendering the dead Commendatore's stentorian curse a truly malevolent edge that was jaw-dropping and spine-tingling. In quick succession came the duet La ci darem la mano and ensuing variations, raising the temperature to a hellish fever pitch. Wong snipped off a variation or two, tightened the overall sprawl, added further decorative devices of his own, and the final outcome brought down the house.

Wong's encore was quietly sublime for a change, the noble Andante from Book One of Busoni's Indianische Tagebuch (Indian Diary). Here are how legends are made.

Wong Chiyan with SIPF Director Lionel Choi.

SHAI WOSNER Piano Recital / 23rd Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

SHAI WOSNER Piano Recital

23^rd Singapore International Piano Festival

Friday (24 June 2016)

Victoria Concert Hall

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 June 2016 with the title "Impromptu pieces impress with depth and drama".

An “impromptu” is described as an action performed at the spur of the moment, without prior thought or anticipation. In classical music, the art of the impromptu or improvisation is hardly exhibited these days, except in rare cases of artists performing original cadenzas in a concerto. Even that is hardly spontaneous, as the said “impromptus” are usually much rehearsed and often scored.

The first half of Israeli pianist Shai Wosner's recital was devoted to the genre of impromptus. Beginning with Dvorak's Impromptu in D minor, its folk-like and salon charm benefited from his tonal warmth and velvety touch. Its central section had surprisingly piquant harmonies, paving the way for Gershwin's insouciant Impromptu In Two Keys, the American composer's playful experiment with bitonality.

Then came the two composers who defined the impromptu as a genre piece. Chopin's First Impromptu was set in perpetual motion with impeccable articulation, contrasted with the freer approach of the Second Impromptu, which began like a nocturne, then morphed into an imperious march before engaging in flourishes of right hand filigree. Here the feeling of “impromptu” became more palpable.

Schubert's set of Four Impromptus (D.935) are masterpieces, for which Wosner lavished a labour of love and fine detail. Never far from the composer's world of Lieder, the music radiated lyricism yet delved in the darker vistas of his tragically short life. This was no better illustrated in the opening F minor Impromptu, coloured with high drama and moments of innocence.

The popular A flat major Impromptu's chorale-like opening was beautifully voiced, and the Theme & Variations of the B flat major Impromptu displayed the full gamut of his musicality. A mastery of scales, fast rhythms and staccato playing also shone through in the Hungarian-styled final Impromptu in F minor.

The second half opened with Chopin's Tarantella (Op.43) in a workmanlike reading which seemed an incongruously random choice at the time. This was soon forgotten as soon as Schubert's Sonata in C minor (D.958), the evening's main work, got underway.

Its declamatory chords spoke volumes of angst and tribulation, one voiced with unflinching intensity. The contrasts between light and shade, soft and loud became amplified under his highly personal and intense glare. The playing was emphatic, phrasing often intentionally abrupt, but it never descended to banging or shouting.    

The aural oasis offered by the slow movement in A flat major, the sonata's spiritual heart, offered the recital's finest moments. Beginning like the Impromptu in the same key, its traversed a course of emotional pinnacles and depths that was breathtaking. A nervous and agitated Minuet movement soon gave way to the vertiginous finale in tarantella rhythm, which concluded on an exciting high.

As if to highlight a joyful symmetry of programming, Wosner's encores included Schubert's lilting Hungarian Melody in B minor and an original improvisation. In the manner of Schubert's German Dances, here was a true impromptu to complete the evening's fine fare.

Shai Wosner with SIPF Director
Lionel Choi and piano technician Walter Haass.