Introduction
The pilgrimage to Victoria Concert Hall four days every year for the piano festival is a hallowed one for Singapore's small pianophile community. It's a chance for us to meet up, talk with fellow fans, even play a tune or two at Raffles Piano before concerts, or during the interval, critique a pianist or two and experience the thrill that only a great piano recital can provide.

Night 1 : The London Piano Duo - Nettle and Markham

If piano recitals are few and far between, piano duos are even more so. Last year, we had the duo of Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung; this year the "London Piano Duo" of Nettle and Markham made their mark on the Singapore International Piano Festival.

It was largely a successful concert, starting off with Max Bruch's rarely heard Fantasy, a short work that features his gorgeous melodies and craftsmanship, but not before the pianists played a little game of switch-about with their stools. The two Steinways were placed in the usual manner, with the right one shorn of its lid. From the outset what was clear was that the two were in complete harmony with each other, living up to their reputation as one of the foremost piano duos. Even the most difficult passages were in complete synchrony, precision itself. The lyrical, aria-like Adagio ma non troppo lento, was also played briskly, but not without feeling.

Schumann's four canonic studies (1,2,5 and 6) from Op. 56, often heard in piano duo recitals, featured more of this calculated freedom, with clear textures from both pianists, featuring some lovely lilting playing in the first – Nicht zu schnell, and Mit innigem Ausdruck (with inner expression) that I found rather short of fantasy.

It was a recurring theme that would haunt the two main items of the evening – Liszt's Concerto Pathetique, receiving its premiere performance in Singapore, and Rachmaninoff's second suite.

The Liszt, astonishing in its resemblance to his B-minor Sonata and his second piano concerto, is one his true pot-boilers. The duo must be congratulated on their mastery of the most insanely difficult passages, with some impassioned playing in the Allegro agitato assai, but despite being cogently argued, it made less of an impression than it should, with a curiously compressed dynamic range.

Similarly, while the Rachmaninoff was extremely polished, with not a note or chord out of place, shouldn't there have been more swagger in the introductory march, more elan in the waltz? Also, why the switch about in parts in the Romance? Nevertheless, it was a tour de force in true ensemble playing, with no attempt to upstage the other between the two.

It was left to their transcription of scenes from Bernstein's West Story Story to bring the evening to a rousing finish. Their tastefully adapted Tonight, Tonight (exquisitely played) and America (manic fun) showed a more playful side of the duo that the audience responded to.

While their performances were musicianly, I would have loved to have heard them let down their hair more, especially in the Liszt and Rachmaninoff.

Stiff British upper lip? Who knows.

 

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