Short spins: Jazz, Asian classics, classical

Jazz

RHAPSODY IN GERSHWIN

Ted Rosenthal Trio

Playscape recordings

In his liner notes, pianist/arranger Ted Rosenthal self-deprecatingly calls his arrangements of composer George Gershwin's music "derangements".

Purists might balk at his temerity at tackling Rhapsody In Blue, Gershwin's first light classical masterpiece, in a trio format. But supported ably by bassist Martin Wind and drummer Tim Horner, Rosenthal turns it into a bravura first track that gives the signature clarinet opening line to the piano, then meanders through a range of jazz styles, from almost too prettily twee ragtime-esque trills to curiously catchy Latin rhythms.

By the end of the 17-minute, 10-second piece, you will either hate it or be won over by his chutzpah. I belong to the latter category. Gershwin's music is so much a part of the American pop canon by now it is a pleasure to hear a musician reconstructing it with so much curiosity.

And Rosenthal, a 1988 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano winner, has the chops to do it well. Listen to his slightly staggered chords in his introduction to Let's Call The Whole Thing Off, which attempts to introduce Monk's signature asymmetry into one of the most squarely sweet American pop trifles, and pay attention to the dropped notes in I Loves You, Porgy, which enrich the melancholic introspection of the song.

A real pleasure of an album.

By Ong Sor Fern

Asian classics

TAN DUN CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA

Orchestral Theatre/ Symphonic Poem Hong Kong Philharmonic/ Tan Dun

Naxos 8.570608

Although Chinese composer Tan Dun is universally known for his martial arts film scores (2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), he remains a serious symphonist, one who successfully marries the disparate worlds of Chinese music, theatre and culture with Western aesthetics.

His Concerto For Orchestra (2012) was derived from his Four Secret Roads Of Marco Polo commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic. Here, he imagines the geographical, musical and spiritual journey taken by the Venetian adventurer explorer as he confronts the exotic East before arriving in the Forbidden City of Kublai Khan.

The Asian-ness of his soundscapes is implied in its instrumental timbres and rhythms rather than the use of actual themes. Orchestral Theatre (1990) was one of his earliest successes, a dramatic and atonal work that relives the shamanistic rituals in his native Hunan.

The Symphonic Poem On Three Notes (2012) is a fantasy on the notes A-B natural-C (La-Si-Do), which sounds like the name of its dedicatee Placido Domingo, a gift for his 70th birthday. Listen to this most accessible work first and then move onto the picaresque scenes of the Concerto before ending with the more abstract and mystical musings in Orchestral Theatre.

Tan's mastery of orchestral textures is enthralling and exhaustive in its use of tonal colours and occasional vocal effects, and the invigorating performances he brings out from the Hong Kong Philharmonic are exemplary.

By Chang Tou Liang

Classical

VADYM KHOLODENKO

Gold Medallist, 14th Van Cliburn

International Piano Competition Harmonia Mundi 907605

In June last year, the Ukraine-born and Moscow-trained pianist Vadym Kholodenko was awarded 1st Prize in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

This live recording of selected preliminary and semi-final round performances demonstrates why his triumph was wholly deserving.

Although his version of Igor Stravinsky's Three Movements From Petrushka was neither the fastest nor most accurate account in the competition, it came across as the most convincing because of the canny sense of pacing and choreographic grace. Instead of the all-too-common mad rush that passes for virtuosity, his magisterial control and narrative sweep made for a most gripping conception of the ballet's earthy energy and neuroticism.

His audacity in programming 11 of Franz Liszt's Twelve Transcendental Etudes was matched by his execution.

The requisites of power, heft and endurance in Mazeppa, Wilde Jagd and Etude No. 10 (Allegro Agitato Molto) co-exist happily with the sensitivity and finesse in Feux Follets, Paysage and the rapturous Harmonies Du Soir. An earlier studio recording of Ricordanza was inserted to complete the set. This is what it takes to be a pianistic world-beater.

By Chang Tou Liang

This article was published on June 12 in The Straits Times.

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