FRENCH PIANO SERIES / Piano Island Festival / Review

FRENCH PIANO SERIES

Piano Island Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday to Wednesday 

(9-12 October 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 October 2022 with the title "Crowd-pleasing pianists thrill audiences at trio of French piano recitals."

 

The Piano Island Festival is an independently run piano festival founded by Singaporean pianist and entrepreneur Wang Congyu which has had four editions since 2018, alternating between Singapore and Reunion Island. As a prelude to its fifth edition in December (to be held in Kuala Lumpur), a three-recital mini-festival involving French and French-schooled pianists provided an exciting foretaste of things to come.

 

Opening on Sunday evening was veteran French pianist Jean-Marc Luisada in a recital entitled Ce Soir Au Cinema (Tonight At The Cinema). Dedicated to his late parents who instilled in him a love for movies, the programme was a tribute to piano music used on the silver screen as directed by John Huston, Ingmar Bergman, Luchino Visconti and Woody Allen among others.

 

Luisada proved to be a raconteur par excellence with his preambles, and a master of piano colour and nuance. The Mozart Fantasy in D minor that opened was unabashed with outsized sonorities rather than the coy variety often encountered, and few expected the passion and angst coaxed from Brahms’ Three Intermezzi (Op.117) and the lugubrious Variations in D minor (Op.18b).

 

Finding climactic highs in Chopin’s wistful Mazurka in A minor (Op.17 No.4), he also blazed through the familiar Second Scherzo (Op.31) with caution thrown to the winds. In Alexandre Tharaud’s piano transcription of Mahler’s Adagietto (from the Fifth Symphony), the dynamic range was raised to the roof and Gershwin’s evergreen Rhapsody in Blue was a no-holds-barred affair not for the faint-hearted. Four generous encores of Joplin, Cosma, Chopin and Mozart kept the audience buzzing till late.      

 

Two of Luisada’s former students at the Ecole Normale in Paris completed the series. Homecoming pianist Wang Congyu’s recital revealed that he was no clone of Luisada but one with fiercely independent views. Chopin featured prominently, and his free-spirited approach may alarm purists such as taking liberties with rubato, pedalling and finding inner voices where there may be none.

 

Still it takes a thoughtful soul to link the Bach-Cortot Arioso (from Concerto BWV.1056) with Chopin’s Nocturne (Op.32 No.2), both in A flat major, or have the rapturous Nocturne (Op.48 No.1) lead into the First Ballade (Op.23), which find a common palette in C minor. His Three Mazurkas (Op.59) breathed genuine nostalgia and the familiar Nocturne (Op.9 No.2) was dressed with fine filigree in a rarely-played alternative version.

 

Although his Liszt Rigoletto Paraphrase or Chopin Waltz (Op.34 No.1) could be slapdash at times, there was no denying the wealth of rich, sonorous detail unleashed in two of American piano legend Earl Wild’s song transcriptions. Rachmaninov’s Vocalise and Gershwin’s Embraceable You were made to sound totally compelling.  

 

Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino, also known as Cateen in his Youtube videos, is already a media darling. His recital confirmed that a serious artist could also be seriously entertaining. Chopin’s Scherzo No.1 (Op.20) and Heroic Polonaise (Op.53) were idiomatic and straight as might be expected from a serious contender in last year’s Chopin International Piano Competition. Yet the suite of waltzes built around Chopin’s Waltz Op.18, including Alexis Weissenberg’s April In Paris and Cateen’s own Big Cat Waltz just oozed bluesy insouciance and Gallic charm.  

 

Liszt’s music dominated the second half, but coloured with Sumino’s jazz-inflected musings. The popular Liebestraum No.3 began like a gospel hymn but took a turn at the Blue Note Club. The late and spare Nuages Gris (Grey Clouds) provided a semblance of sobriety but it served as prelude to the most devilish performance of the Saint-Saens-Liszt Danse Macabre thought possible, just the right recipe for Halloween.

 

Finally in the famous Hungarian Rhapsody No.2, Sumino took on the fearsome improvisatory challenge of its cadenza ad libitum, conjuring up a mesmerising piece of wizardry that had the cheering audience eating out of his hands. Three encores later, a phenomenon of fan adulation from the 19^th century was being relived, one we now know as Lisztomania.    

 

ENCORES:

 

JEAN-MARC LUISADA (9 October)

Scott Joplin Solace

Vladimir Cosma 

Promenade Sentimentale from Diva

Chopin Grand Valse Brillante Op.18

Mozart Movement from Le Petit Riens 

 

WANG CONGYU (11 October)

Chopin Nocturne Op.9 No.2 (Jan Ekier edition)

Chopin Waltz in D flat major, Op.64 No.1 

"Petit chien” (Minute Waltz)

Gershwin-Wild Embraceable You

 

HAYATO SUMINO (12 October)

Cateen I Got Rhythm Variations

Chopin Etude Op.25 No.11 “Winter Wind”

Cateen Ah! Vous dirai-je Maman Variations

PIANO ISLAND FESTIVAL 2019

PIANO ISLAND FESTIVAL 2019

PHILIPPE CASSARD Piano Recital

POOM PROMMACHART Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday & Wednesday (2 & 3 July 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 July 2019 with the title "Soul-stirring kaleidoscope of colours and contrasts".

The Piano Island Festival, founded by local pianist-entrepreneur Wang Congyu and inaugurated in 2018, is now in its third edition. Alternating between Singapore and Reunion (French overseas territory in the Indian Ocean), the festival includes an international competition, lectures, masterclasses and public recitals by an international cast of pianists.

Esplanade Recital Hall was host to four recitals, with evening sessions helmed by Philippe Cassard (France) and Poom Prommachart (Thailand). Cassard will be remembered for performing the complete solo piano works of Claude Debussy in four recitals at this same venue in 2003, providing relief and solace during the SARS epidemic.

On this occasion, he distilled the French composer’s prolific output to just seven works in a single half, all inspired by the watery realm. Exhibiting an enormous range of tonal variety, the musical equivalent of impressionist brush-strokes was applied to pieces like Reflets dans l’eau (Reflections on the Water), Ondine, Poissons d’or (Goldfishes) and La cathedrale engloutie (The Engulfed Cathedral).

Cassard showed this was not a matter of just stepping on the sustaining pedal and splashing nebulous globs of sound, but a skilful manipulation of colourings and contrasts. The transition from Brouillards (Mists), with gently shifting wafts to the vigorous pitter-patter of Jardins sous la pluie (Gardens in the Rain) was startling in effect. With no half measures given, the wine-fuelled revelry in L’isle joyeuse (The Happy Island) was one of full-blown intoxication.  

Likewise, Cassard’s view of Schubert’s penultimate Sonata in A major (D.959) was not one of quaint Biedermeier charm or drawing room naivete. It was the blood and guts view of one living in his final year, with all the requisite angst and vulnerability, and certainly not for the faint of heart.

Still in his late 20s, Poom Prommachart is Thailand’s most accomplished and decorated young pianist. His recital was another study of stark contrasts, now applied to the piano sonata genre. There cannot be more vastly different works than Beethoven’s late Sonata No.30 in E major (Op.109) and contemporary Australian composer Carl Vine’s First Sonata, composed in 1990.

Both works benefited with his variegated touch and laser-like precision, the Beethoven coming into his own as a Romantic, full of fire and fervour. Vine’s violent flailings had the feel of modern ballet, exquisitely choreographed like a new version of The Rite Of Spring.

After three short pieces by Khachaturian and Scriabin came the piece de resistance, the rarely heard Sonata-Ballade by Russian composer Nikolai Medtner, a contemporary of Rachmaninov.  Conceived as a single extended movement and playing over 20 sprawling minutes, Poom’s excellent elucidation of the themes and its discursive byways represented a glorious treatise of the sonata form itself. Hoping to proselytise on behalf of this almost forgotten Romantic, this imperious reading could not but find him many new friends.      

Poom with the Thai ambassador to Singapore
and M.R. Malinee Chakrabandhu, great-great-grand-daughter
of King Rama IV of Thailand. 

Encores:

Philippe Cassard performed
DEBUSSY Clair de lune from Suite Bergamasque
SCHUBERT Impromptu in E flat major, Op.90 No.2

Poom Prommachart performed
CHOPIN Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op.Posth

INTERNATIONAL PIANO ISLAND FESTIVAL / Review

INTERNATIONAL PIANO 

ISLAND FESTIVAL 2018

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

Tuesday & Thursday 

(9 & 11 January 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 January 2018 with the title "Delicious sounds at new piano festival".

In the 25^th year of the well-established Singapore International Piano Festival (due later in June), a new international piano festival has emerged. Founded by Singaporean pianist Wang Congyu, the week-long event included a competition for youngsters, masterclasses, lectures and piano recitals by members of its international faculty.

There could not have been a more varied programme than Thursday night's offering by young Portuguese pianist Vasco Dantas. Opening with Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes Of Childhood) and closing with Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, this was a recital of contrasts, from arch simplicity to a vivid play of exotic and sometimes disturbing visions. 

He possesses the technique and endurance to master the sprawl of these canvasses, the imagination and palette to colour and characterise each of the 28 short pieces within. In between, Liszt-student Vianna da Motta's delightfully rustic Portuguese Scenes and the fearsome Guido Agosti transcription of three movements from Stravinsky's The Firebird provided further delicious piques for the ears.

A standing ovation from the audience was a just result. Tagged on like encores were Gershwin's Three Preludes, teasing with rhythm and blues, and Dantas' own improvisation on the hit song I Got Rhythm with motifs from Jingle Bells cheekily inserted.

Earlier in the evening, Michael Bulychev-Okser (Russia/USA) held a lecture-recital that centred on the art of transciption. The Bach-Busoni chorale prelude Ich Ruft Zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ, Glinka-Balakirev The Lark and Kreisler-Rachmaninov Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow) were familiar enough, but it was his selection of rarities that stood out.

Eduard Schütt's transcription of Brahms' Wiegenlied (Lullaby) was a showpiece guaranteed to keep babies (and audiences) awake. The lilt of Tirindelli-Liszt Mazurka No.2 was simply disarming while the Arensky-Siloti At The Fountain shimmered brilliantly through the underlying melancholy. Two Earl Wild etudes on Gershwin songs (Someone Like You and The Man I Love) and Rachmaninov's coruscating Floods Of Spring sealed a totally enjoyable virtuoso showcase.  

Held on Tuesday evening was a four-hands recital by locally-based husband-and-wife duo of Nicholas Ong (Malaysia) and Kim Bo Kyung (South Korea). Debussy's graceful 4-movement Petite Suite conjured visions of the Belle Epoque, from the gentle lilt of En Bateau (Sailing) to the final Ballet's exuberance. These paradigms of gentility were soon trumped by the waltzing tritones and dancing skeletons of Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, a witty celebration of things that go bump in the night.

On his own, Ong gave a scintillating reading of Schumann's Allegro in B major (Op.8), a rarity in recitals simply because it is so difficult to play. The duo resumed in the second half with Six Morceaux (Op.11) of Rachmaninov, varied short works that included a barcarolle, scherzo, waltz, romance, Russian song and Tsarist anthem. The interactive tension, delicate interplay and impeccable musicianship displayed are reasons why live performance will always be more exciting than any reproduced recording.

There will be competition performances and recitals till the closing evening on Monday. 

Photographs from PIANO ISLAND FESTIVAL: OPENING CONCERT

INTERNATIONAL 
PIANO ISLAND FESTIVAL 2018
Opening Concert, Steinway Gallery
Monday (8 January 2017)

There is a new international piano festival in town. Named the International Piano Island Festival, it is the brainchild of young Singaporean and Paris-trained pianist Wang Congyu. The festival alternates between Singapore and the Reunion Islands where Wang and his wife Julie reside and run a music school. This festival includes a piano competition for young musicians, a series of masterclasses, private lessons, lectures and concerts by an international panel of pianists.

Please find more information at its dedicated website:

www.pianoislandfestival.com

and its detailed calendar of events:

https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/af746e_f920949b063b40049ee5f981a1114f1d.pdf   

Below are photographs of the festival's opening event, a short recital by members of its faculty, held at Steinway Gallery Singapore at ION Orchard.

Wang Congyu opens the Festival.

Well-known Singaporean piano pedagogue
Benjamin Loh played with great sensitivity
Leonard Bernstein's Touches.

The duo of Nicholas Ong (Malaysia)
and Kim Bo Kyung (South Korea) charmed with
En Bateau from Debussy's Petite Suite.

Michael Bulychev-Okser (Russia/USA)
offered the Humoresque from
Rachmaninov's Morceaux de Salon Op.10 

Elena Nestorenko (Russia/Germany)
gave a sneak peak to her all-Chopin recital
on 12 January with the Fantaisie-Impromptu.

Aimo Pagin (France) was most expressive
in Liszt's Petrarch Sonetto No.104. 

The festival team is introduced.

Here are the faculty members,
now joined by Eliane Reyes (Belgium)
who had just arrived from Changi Airport.

The kid needs piano instruction now!

WANG CONGYU Piano Recital / Review

WANG CONGYU Piano Recital

Alliance Francaise

Sunday (15 November 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 November 2015 with the title "Charming recital of French music".

It was with a heavy heart that young Singaporean pianist Wang Congyu, who spent the best years of his musical education in Paris, began his recital of the music of French composer Francis Poulenc (1899-1963). A minute of silence was observed in memory of victims of Friday evening's Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris. With the audience still standing, he performed Arioso, Alfred Cortot's transcription of the slow movement from J.S.Bach's Keyboard Concerto in F minor (BWV.1056). 

Clearly affected by the horrific turn of events, his pulse of the touching piece was unsteady, and this continued into Poulenc's popular Trois Mouvements Perpetuels. The perpetual motion of its title proved to be deceptively difficult to sustain, and the odd bit of rubato did not seem appropriate in this context.

It got better for the Trois Novellettes and Trois Intermezzi, works of more varied character. Wang provided the gentlest of touches for the Steinway grand wheeled in specially for this concert, and his liberal use of the sustaining pedal smoothed over the more angular edges. A little more incisiveness and élan would have helped, but still, he is incapable of any ugly sound.

Poulenc's piano music is light and airy, often accused of being frivolous and prone to fripperies, but is never dull. How Wang navigated through the 15 Improvisations, the longest work in the recital, was a testament to his music “story-telling” abilities. Every short piece is highly characterised in form, sentiment and mood, and here his variegated approach to each proved to be decisive.

The Seventh Improvisation achieved a high point in capturing Poulenc's carefree and melancolic personality. The Homage to Schubert (No.12) was a delightful German dance in three-quarter time, while No.13 and No.15, the latter a homage to chanteuse Edith Piaf, were showcases of lyrical writing which Wang revelled in.

The 5-minute-long Melancolie was Poulenc's longest single movement, yet within it was a microcosm of his seemingly contradictory personas, befitting his reputation of being a “rascal and saint”. The programme, which follows Wang's debut CD recording entitled Charme, closed with an arrangement of the chanson Les Chemins D'Amour (The Paths Of Love), which was shaped beautifully.

Wang generously performed three encores, the first being American pianist Earl Wild's Homage to Poulenc, in effect a J.S.Bach sarabande dressed up in Poulenc's perfumed harmonies. This was followed by an alternative version of Chopin's Nocturne in E flat major (Op.9 No.2), which has more difficult and filigreed right hand ornamentations, and Debussy's First Arabesque. This recital summed up in a word: charming.       

Je suis Parisienne
Wang Congyu with Singaporean musicians
who had studied in Paris, composer Tan Chan Boon
and duo-pianists Low Shao Ying & Shao Suan. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2015)

CHARME

POULENC Piano Music

WANG CONGYU, Piano

KNS Classical 040 / ****1/2

The piano music of Frenchman Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) comes from a bygone era, filled with the song-like charm of the Belle Epoque and influenced by popular trends of the day in Gay Paree. His persona was both rascal and saint, displaying seemingly contradictory facets of his personal life: a bon vivant with a deep inner spirituality informed by his Roman Catholic faith. This album brings together his most popular works for piano; the popular and witty Trois Mouvements Perpetuels, with the quintessential characteristics which are further delved in his Three Novelettes and Three Intermezzos.

The 15 Improvisations are delectable shavings from the master's work desk, which include a waltz in homage to Schubert and a heartfelt homage to songstress Edith Piaf. Poulenc's genuine gift of melody comes across most sympathetically in Melancolie, which at 5 minutes is his longest piano piece, and the chanson Les Chemins De L'Amour (The Paths Of Love). The latter was never notated but improvised from the song itself. Young Singaporean pianist Wang Congyu studied in Paris with Gabriel Tacchino, the composer's only formal student. His playing is elegant and refined, an excellent introduction to Poulenc's uniquely personal sound world.

BOOK IT:

WANG CONGYU Piano Recital

AGF Auditorium, Alliance Francaise

Sunday (15 November 2015), 7.30 pm

Tickets at $28 available at:

admin@steinway.com.sg  or Tel: 6838-0525

BIZJAK PIANO DUO

Stuttgart Philharmonic / Radoslaw Szulc

Onyx Classics 4148 / *****

The exciting Serbian duo of Lidija and Sanja Bizjak make their first concerto recording with two 20^th century double piano concertos that look to the past for inspiration. Think of J.S.Bach's concertos for two keyboards updated to the present, and the Concerto For Two Pianos (1943) by Bohemian composer Bohuslav Martinu comes into view. Its busy play of counterpoint in the fast outer movements, fuelled by his upbeat and kinetic style, makes this a jolly listen. 

Its companion is the equally engaging Concerto For Two Pianos (1932) by Frenchman Francis Poulenc, where Mozart's sensibilities, Javanese gamelan and Gallic charm become equals in an inimitably quirky manner.

The fillers without orchestral backing are just as apt. Stravinsky's Sonata For Two Pianos (1943) is neoclassical in its conception with a droll theme and variations second movement as its centrepiece. Shostakovich's single-movement Concertino (1954), composed for his teenaged son, combines mock-seriousness and genuine gaiety, looking forward to his guilelessly melodious Second Piano Concerto. 

This seemingly unusual programme by the Bizjak sisters is a total charmer. Their digital brilliance is blessed with a lightness of touch and a generous dose of wit and humour. Its unmitigated success is a given.    

SOLO

NICHOLAS MCCARTHY, Piano left hand

Warner Classics 0825646052400 / ****1/2

The 26-year-old Briton Nicholas McCarthy was born without a right hand, but in 2012 became the first one-handed pianist to graduate from London's Royal College of Music. His debut solo recording of left hand piano music begins unpromisingly with typically vacuous fare from Ludovico Einaudi and clunky operatic transcriptions where a seamless cantabile is found wanting.

However there is an astonishing sequence of tracks that seals the deal: Frederic Meinder's transcription of Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Count Geza Zichy's transcription of Liszt's Third Liebesträume and two contrasting Chopin-Godowsky Études (Op.10 No.3 and Op.25 No.12), the latter given a thunderous reading that proves his credentials.

Then come three Scriabin pieces, the famous D flat major Nocturne (Op.9 No.2) and two Études (the fearsome Op.8 No.12 with the melancholic Op.2 No.1). Probably the greatest left hand solo work is Felix Blumenfeld's A flat major Étude, which gets a glorious performance it deserves. To wind down, two Gershwin songs (The Man I Love and Summertime) and Nigel Hess' Nocturne, specially commissioned by McCarthy provides some lighter listening. 

Judging by the simplistic entry level programme notes by the pianist himself, this album was clearly aimed at beginners, but seasoned pianophiles need not shy away. 

House Concert by the Singapore Mahler Society

I am not  a member of the Mahler Society of Singapore, but occasionally do get invited to the Society's events and house concerts by the young artists who perform. Its been almost two years since I last attended one of these highly informal and enjoyable gatherings of music lovers to hear some of Singapore's most talented young musicians. There is hardly any Mahler ever performed or discussed, especially in the absence of the Society's President Tan Chan Boon, but there is always good music!

First to perform on this Saturday evening (22 September 2012) was violinist Lee Shi Mei, who won 2nd prize in the National Violin Competition in 2007. She has since studied in Massachusetts and returned as a free-lancer with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Displaying a very smooth and silky tone, she performed Gershwin's Summertime and I Got Rhtythm, the main theme from John William's Schindler's List, Gossec's Gavotte in D, Schumann's Träumerei, Massenet's Meditation from Thaïs and Elgar's Salut d'amour. Accompanying her was pianist Cynthia Tan.

The first pianist to perform was Wayne Teo, who has just returned from Paris where he studied with Olivier Cazal. He performed with conviction Bach's Italian Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Dumka for starters. 

Young pianist Wang Congyu is a regular at Mahler Society events. He has also returned from Paris, having being tutored by Gabriel Tacchino and Eric Heidsieck amongst others. In celebration of Claude Debussy's 150th Anniversary, he performed 5 Préludes (Danses du Delphes, Le fille aux cheveux de lin, La Danse du Puck, Ondine and Feux d'artifice), the Étude pour les octaves and the First Arabesque. He has matured greatly since I last heard him play here.

Wayne Teo returned with three very different pieces, Takemitsu's Rain Tree Sketch II, Rachmaninov's Étude-tableaux Op.39 No.1 and something by Debussy (which escapes my mind for now). 

In preparation for his recital in the Reunion islands, Wang Congyu performed Chopin's first two Ballades before taking a breather.  

Jeffrey Zhang, a former student of Congyu's, then performed Mozart's Sonata in D major (K.575), Brahms's barnstorming Scherzo in E flat minor Op.4 and Debussy's Reflets dans l'eau. 

Congyu returned to finish with the Third and Fourth Ballades of Chopin.

As an encore, he added Chopin's Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante!

An exhausting evening this certainly was, but I suspect that these young pianists can continue playing till tomorrow morning!