Anna Geniushene plays with youthful virtuousity; S’porean Tze Toh is alchemist of musical ideas

Beginnings & Brilliance

Anna Geniushene Piano RecitalVictoria Concert HallJune 14, 5pm

Tze TohEsplanade Black RoomJune 20, 8pm

Russian pianist Anna Geniushene, silver medallist at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, was presented by Altenburg Arts in a recital which focused on the early works of Fryderyk Chopin and Johannes Brahms.

Chopin was 14 when he composed his Opus 1 Rondo in C minor. Influenced by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carl Maria von Weber and bel canto opera, the music can sound impossibly florid, but Geniushene brought out lyrical lines with a singing tone. For her, it was not just a showpiece but something more.

Her views of Three Mazurkas (Op. 50) and Three Waltzes (Op. 34) saw generous use of rubato and extremes of dynamics. These contrasts gave the Ballade No. 2 in F major (Op. 38) an added edge of vehemence, while the rarely-heard Tarantella (Op. 43) bounded with rumbling athleticism.

Alfred Cortot’s lovely transcription of Brahms’ Wiegenlied (Lullaby, Op. 49 No. 4) separated two of the German romantic’s most dramatic piano works. The Scherzo in E flat major (Op. 4) bristled with rough and ready humour, while the First Sonata in C major (Op. 1) from the 20-year-old was a tour de force of youthful exuberance and virtuosity.

Its big opening chords referenced Beethoven’s monumental Hammerklavier Sonata, a reflection of young Brahms’ ambitions. The slow movement saw Geniushene evince genuine poetry before the final two movements swept the board with full-blooded passion. The Steinway grand more than withstood the pummelling, and this was where Geniushene directed her first of many bows.

While every note of Geniushene’s recital was scripted to the last detail, homegrown jazz pianist Tze Toh’s recital of orginal works was almost entirely improvised. Umwelten is the German word for environment, from the title of Baltic German biologist Jakob Johann von Uexkull’s book A Foray Into The Worlds Of Animals And Humans.

This was his inspiration, with compositions likened to simple organisms which react to their environment and grow. In that respect, Anemone started with a modified Alberti bass (as heard in Mozart’s sonatas) over which simple minimalist variations were grafted on.

In Machines That Fly, after Leonardo da Vinci, tempo, volume and momentum were upped, reaching a feverish climax before closing quietly. Time was a work that felt timeless, a sequence of chords giving way to a Michel Legrand-like melody, which was allowed to drift in whatever direction Toh fancied and ending without actually resolving.

The regenerative ability of starfish was explored in A Star Is Reborn, where Carnatic scales heard in Indian ragas were exploited to quite magical effect. Sentio was described as a contemporary take on the ancient passacaglia where the right hand performed embellishments over a constant bass on the left hand. In truth, there was little separating Toh from J. S. Bach or Handel.

Here With Me reveled in Dave Grusin-like chords often heard in gospel music, totally in line with its description as a musical prayer. 12 Dimensions On Strings In Theory was given an impromptu premiere, a journey through twelve major and minor keys, where dodecaphony as practised by Arnold Schoenberg had never sounded so inviting.

75 minutes passed ever so quickly that Toh never got to perform all 12 works he had programmed, but he closed on a happy and upbeat note with Symphony (from Wanderers), where the dictum was to play as freely as possible. Toh is not just a jazz pianist, but an alchemist of musical ideas.

To hear more of the pianist as composer, transcriber and improviser, be sure to catch the six recitals of the 32nd Singapore International Piano Festival at Victoria Concert Hall and The Arts House from July 2 to 5.