• Chiyan Wong at Breinton

    Chiyan Wong at Breinton

  • Chiyan Wong at Breinton

    Chiyan Wong at Breinton

  • Chiyan Wong at Breinton

    Chiyan Wong at Breinton

  • Chiyan Wong at Breinton

    Chiyan Wong at Breinton

  • Chiyan Wong at Breinton

    Chiyan Wong at Breinton

  • Members enjoying the lunchtime food and drink after Chiyan Wong's recital at Breinton

    Members enjoying the lunchtime food and drink after Chiyan Wong's recital at Breinton

  • Early summer at Breinton for Chiyan Wong's lunchtime recital

    Early summer at Breinton for Chiyan Wong's lunchtime recital

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7

Chiyan Wong’s programme of Mozart, Busoni and Chopin was built on the motifs of magic and mystery. It explored and pursued an astonishing range of sounds, and his performance had mysterious elements which kept the audience wondering how they were possibly produced. Here we were presented an inspirational, stimulating and thought provoking demonstration of sound-making.  A wide range of volumes and textures were presented, but among of all them, my favourites were the softest sounds that you’d ever heard, as if they had been preciously wrapped in gossamer tissue. The intimate venue meant that no sound escaped our ears; it must be a daunting exercise for some musicians, performing in a small venue, but it did not hinder Chiyan from building the world of his musical ideas. 

In Mozart Fantasy in C minor, Chiyan offered a contrast of moods, dynamism and subtleness, shadow and light, and seriousness and sweetness. 

Straight into Busoni’s Nach Mozart; Adagio – based upon ‘Song of the Two Armed Men’ from the Magic Flute, in the same C minor as in the preceding piece.  The solemn, ritualistic choral mood was recreated.

It was followed by the same composer’s reworking of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Gigue. Though a complicated rhythmical exercise, Chiyan created a clear melody line that sang and danced.  

Chiyan played Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 with tempi slightly slower than what I was used to. However, it certainly gave the impression of more carefree approach in rhythmic and expressive acceleration. As we heard in the previous pieces, his phrases and sounds were well thought out and excellently articulated.  This is the second time this Sonata has been performed at Breinton, I wonder when and who will perform it next – I look forward to the occasion!

 

Chiyan Wong has been astonishing audiences with not just the sincerity and sheer authority of his playing, but is also fêted by critics and colleagues as a pianist who is, in the words of British pianist Stephen Hough, "exciting, original and thoughtful". Recognised by the Dutch newspaper Trouw as “possessing remarkable sophistication in his piano playing” at the age of 15 and by Korean pianist Kun-Woo Paik for having a rare “sincerity as a person which he applies to his music-making”, Wong made his Asian debut at the Hong Kong Arts Festival in March 2010. In the same year he made his debut in France at the International Music Festival in Dinard at the invitation of Paik. He was invited twice to perform for the Liszt Society of London in 2010 and 2011. In the 2010-2011 season, he gave a 15-concert recital tour in Germany. He was invited to return to Hong Kong in December 2011 to give a Liszt recital sponsored by the Radio Television Hong Kong Corporation as part of the city's celebration of the composer's bicentenary, which was broadcast live.

In this matinée recital, Chiyan presents a programme built upon the motifs of magic and mystery, and explores how composers interacted with the past. Busoni takes motifs from Mozart, who in turn took inspiration from the old Lutheran hymnal, the Erfurt Enchiridion, which made its way into the Chorus of the Two Armed Men in Die Zauberflöte. Mozart’s own Fantasy is a ‘forum’ of musical ideas and moods, and Busoni’s reworking of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Gigue K. 574, incorporates the Fandango from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro as a middle section. The program concludes with Chopin’s probing Third Piano Sonata, which reveals Chopin in his late style, drawing on the harmonic subtleties of earlier composers.

  • Mozart:  Fantasy in C minor, K. 475 
  • Busoni:  An die Jugend No. 3 – Giga, Bolero e Variazione (nach Mozart) BV 254/3
  • Busoni:  Nach Mozart; Adagio (“Zwei geharnischten Männer” (die Zauberflöte) from Sieben kurze Stücke zur Pflege des polyphonen Spiels, BV A 3
  • Chopin:  Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58