With the hotbed of musical talent coming out of China (at about the same rate the knock-off LVs roll off the production lines in Shenzhen), yet another prodigy wins an international competition and is catapulted into a career most can only dream of ( Read more... )

Admittedly, the Liszt bicentennial celebrations are makedly more muted and subdued, when compared to the same for Chopin last year. That said, this week spared nothing in the line-up of not one, but two recitals dedicated to his legacy ( Read more... )

I subscribed blind, so it was a big sigh of relief when I turned to the programme book to see it staring back at me. Yet another Liszt Piano Sonata for the archives, this one from an all-Liszt recital by Kenneth Hamilton, who from the programme notes has been playing recitals in Singapore so many times one has lost count. Not that one has attended ( Read more... )

If I felt guilty oogling and perving at the post-pubescent boy on public display, who was showing the crowds just what he could do with his hands to turn them into quivering anticipation, I didn't even bother to disguise it. Ephebophilia. There's a word for you. Go look it up.

Benjamin Grosvenor is all of 17 going on 18, and already has a legion ( Read more... )

I had bought my usual front row seats, but for a lark, decided to schooch two seats to the right, only to realise it was a miscalculated judgment and now my view of the piano had just barely missed the keyboard ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

This colossal magnum opus of Liszt's output for the solo piano repertoire stands alone in the demands it places on the pianist as both music-maker and music-lover are taken on a non-stop roller-coaster ride lasting half an hour, traversing the gamut of emotions and feelings.

In the hands of Liszt specialist, Jenö Jandó, the Sonata in B minor in ( Read more... )