Back to those wonderful days in Singapore

I have told some of my friend about my experience when I was in the 3rd IPF (Indonesia Piano Festival) last July, but it seems that I need to tell you completely the story...


IPF itself was more like a summer music camp than to a festival, so it means they had some program of educative tuitions inside. This year's tutors were no other than the great Mr. Iswargia (aka Sir Lendi) and Mr. Johannes. They have also been invited last two years in the 1st IPF, but by then we also had another Japanese tutor, and she was Miwako Fukushi. Unfortunately for this time, she couldn't come for some reasons....


Simple yet educative, that is what I can really tell about the 3rd IPF. When I was inside, I finally fathomed that music requires my soul, that way I can convey effectively what the composer announced in a composition. Chopin, for example, was - and is - famous for his 24 etudes. Each of his etudes are unique, no two are alike; Each was predominantly composed to solve a single problematic keyboard technic. (Compare to those boring Hanon etudes, almost ALL ARE THE SAME!!! HUACKK...). But it is important to know that Chopin Etudes are more than just finger exercises, but they also include the very idiomatic and philosophy ideas of Chopin himself, just like another form of composition beside etudes; ballades, rondos, sonatas, etc. For example, Chopin wrote the 'Revolutionary' Etude (Op.10 no. 12) in great anguish when Poland - his home country - was invaded by the Russian. Schools were burned, bridges were brought down, many were killed, soldiers fell, women were ravished; he poured all this painful thought into his music. (Just to tell you, his tears dropped as rainfall when he wrote it).


In that sense, I can't play this etude like I am playing a boring finger exercise, but I need to bring out all Chopin's anguish so the audience understands what kind of agony the Russian brought to Poland. That requires my soul to do so.




Revolutionary Etude by Stanioslav Bunin
Feel the wrath of the Russian, and just listen to the music, don't look at the performer.. haha


Ahh... enough for the theorial stuff...



The theme of this summer camp was 'IPF on Tour', because this time the whole party of IPF went to Singapore. The first two days of the 3rd IPF were spent studying in UPH, and in the evening of the second day, we performed a concert at Usmar Ismail Hall. That was a nice concert, and I played Dante Sonata. My playing was not very good, lots of slipped notes and mis-interpretations made it even worse. But, it's over, and I can do nothing. And at the end of the concert, Mr. Johannes said to me,"There are at least twenty features of your music playing that still need improvement. Keep working." I was a little bit upset, but I have to step forward.



For those 2 days we slept in the dormitory at the D - building of UPH. My roommate was a nice Suroboyo pianist, named Aloysius Albert Oenaryo (AAk :)

Albert , trying to grab my camera...

This is.... you know.... performing at Usmar Ismail Hall

This is Usmar Ismail Hall, quite big, right? But wait till you see NUS' hall

Singapore: We finally flew to the faithful land of Singapore (haha... too caricatured). The night before we flew there I was so busy packing my stuffs which messed the whole room, and the activities took me until 01.00 am. I was so exhausted the next day in the airport, yet I still persisted not to fall asleep. Instead, I wasted those boring waiting hour in the airport by playing card (cap sa).

Who's gonna win this time?!

What a nice reminiscence it was when I arrived in the Lion Country, because the last time I hit my feet at Singapore's soil was when I was a 9-years-old innocent boy. The first place we went was the 'Hang Out Hotel', our residence for the next 7 days. The hotel was rather small; It was 7-floored, and it got some good refreshment place inside. In general, it was quite good, except for the silly security system. Huh..

Hang-out hotel

After lunch we went to a music school which was situated in a plaza (what?!!). We were not there to study; We were there to hire some pianos for practising. The practise rooms were actually very small (ouch), and the quality of the pianos were no better than the room. Aarrgghh.....

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The educative features of the 3rd IPF was presented mostly when they set a schedule in which we could attend the Singapore International Piano Festival. Many celebrated pianist were invited to perform at Victoria Concert Hall, namely amongst them the most recorded performer, Jeno Jando, and many others. This was actually the first international festival I have ever attended, by means it carved a deep impression in my memory.

The Festival ran from July 2nd to July 6th, in which the concert started from 8.00 pm every day. Different artist each day showed up on the stage of Victoria Concert Hall, but their programmes crossed at one similarity: the theme of the festival. It was a unique theme after all: "Bach to the Future - 300 years of piano masterpieces". So, in every programme the artists seemed to have prepared at least one of Bach's compositions.
Let's take a look at my review at each artist's performance. (I give comments only to particular songs which I feel I can give sufficient remarks.)

Wed, 2 Jul 08, 8pm
JENÖ JANDÓ (Hungary)
BACH: Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue, BWV 903 PIANOFEST PREMIERE
BACH: Italian Concerto, BWV 971
BARTÓK: Suite, Op.14 PIANOFEST PREMIERE
KODALY: Dances of Marosszek SINGAPORE PREMIERE
LISZT: Sonata in B minor

This guy didn't seem as pro as many have remarked. (Well, the only thing that makes him a distinct performer is the tremendous amount of recordings he has made.) His Bach sucks, his Liszt also sucks, his Kodaly (hmm...) quite good. However, his Bartok was......... fantastic!!! That seems natural since he was the student of Georgy Sanders, the student of Bartok himself. It's a pity that he didn't choose his programme wisely, why chose Liszt when you got your nerves on Bartok?!!

Thu, 3 Jul 08, 8pm
JENNIFER MICALLEF & GLEN INANGA (UK)
BACH-REGER: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 SINGAPORE PREMIERE
BEETHOVEN: Grosse Fuge in B-flat major, Op. 133 SINGAPORE PREMIERE
MOZART-BUSONI: Duettino Concertante (after Piano Concerto No. 19)SINGAPORE PREMIERE
HOLLOWAY: Gilded Goldbergs (Selections) SINGAPORE PREMIERE
MARTINU: Fantasy SINGAPORE PREMIERE
STRAVINSKY: Three Dances from Petrushka SINGAPORE PREMIERE

The two performers were Duo pianist - two pianists who play piano together, whether it is four-hand, or two pianos. These two were absolutely talented, both of them were virtuoso. I liked their performance, especially for their Duettino Concertante and the Petrushka. Their technic was also horrifying; jumping octaves, perfect executions, and great leaps of notes. The two payed very harmoniously - I could hear one great maestro is playing, not two. Bravo.

Fri, 4 Jul 08, 8pm
KIM SUNG-HOON (Korea)
BACH:
Partita No. 6 in E minor, BWV 830 PIANOFEST PREMIERE
SCRIABIN:
Sonata No. 5, Op. 53 "Poem of Ecstasy" PIANOFEST PREMIERE
BRAHMS:
Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5

Yeah, this was yet another miracle of this festival. Kim Sung Hoon has won many international-scaled competitions, and this issue was proven true by his great performance that night. But something funny about his performance: when it came to expressive melodies, he started to sing and looked upward (without taking a glance at the keyboard). I wondered how he managed to do so without making mistakes, and I said to my friends that he put a mirror at the ceiling of the stage so he wouldn't have many slipped notes, haha. Still a great performance throughout.

Sat, 5 Jul 08, 8pm
CHRISTOPHER TAYLOR (USA)
BACH:
Goldberg Variations, BWV 988
RZEWSKI:
The People United Will Never Be Defeated! SINGAPORE PREMIERE

Yeah, this was my favorite guess pianist for the entire festival. His ability to put the audience at the fantastical world he wished was very nice. The critics in USA acclaim him as 'one of the most brilliant pianist at the horizon these day'. Unfortunately for me, I fell asleep when he played Rzewski. You might wonder why Christopher played only two pieces, but to tell you the truth each song consists of more than 30 variations!! There were so many clashed dischord in rzewsky, so I kinda felt sleepy then. hihi. However I persisted not to sleep when he played Bach, because Goldberg Variations was one of the greatest masterpieces of Bach. I was astounded when he was playing goldberg, and I can't keep my eyes off him. It was one of the best Bach performance I have ever seen; each note was as crystal clear, each phrase was forged smoothly. I can't hold my mouth to shout 'Bravo' at the end of the performance....

Sun, 6 Jul 08, 8pm
KONSTANTIN SCHERBAKOV (Russia)
BACH-GODOWSKY
Violin Sonata in B minor, BWV 1002 SINGAPORE PREMIERE
SHOSTAKOVICH
Preludes and Fugues Op. 87 (Selections) SINGAPORE PREMIERE
BEETHOVEN-LISZT
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. "Choral"

We were late for the concert, and we missed 'Shostakovich'. (Scherbakov switched Bach with Shostakovich.) However, I didn't really like the whole performance, because the songs were all transcribed. It was a pity because Scherbakov was a worldclass pianist, but he chose such a programme. I can say no more...

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The festival taught me one lesson about the importance of adequate technic. It is useless when you got musicality as you lack sufficient 'tools' to depict it. Thanks to Mr. Lendi for reminding me about these stuff.

We also went for masterclasses in NAFA and NUS. We got lessons from Mr. Benyamin Loh (Nafa) as well as with Mr. Thomas Hecht and Mr. Albert Tiu (both NUS). We got many valuable lessons from them, and having time with them working on repertoires was exhilarating.

By the end of this IPF we also performed at NUS Orchestra Hall. This time all the participant showed major improvement in their performance, including me. (Again, I played Dante Sonata.) Bravo to all the participants.

Yes, to acknowledge you, the NUS Conservatory was very big. Just take a look at these photos.

Very big right??

Here ends the story of the 3rd IPF. It's not very good writing i guess, so don't hesitate to leave any comments.