Lee Cheong, Piano - Piano at Ten, 3 August
Lee Cheong, holds a Masters in Music from the acclaimed Royal Northern College of Music, UK, (2011) which followed her Honours degree in Music Performance from the Sydney Conservatorium (2011). She has held numerous scholarships and has studied with, among others, Piers Lane and Amulf von Amim (Salzburg). She is also a qualified music teacher and currently teaches both at the Sydney Conservatorium and St Aloysius College. As well as successful performances in Australia in competitions and eisteddfods, while living in the UK Lee Cheong had the opportunity to give many recitals.
The programme she has chosen includes Beethoven’s “7 Variations on God Save the Queen” - a serendipitous link to James Dong’s performance of Paganini’s variations on the same anthem. The programme will also include:
Chopin: Mazurkas Op. 41
Beethoven: '7 Variations on God Save the Queen'
Mozart: Rondo in A minor
Albeniz: 'Evocacion' and 'El Albaicin'
Ravel : 'Valses nobles et sentimentales'
Date: Saturday, 3rd August, 2013 10:00am
Venue: Soldiers’ Memorial Hall, Bundanoon
The Artist: Ms Lee Cheong, piano
The Program:
1. L. van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Seven Variations on 'God Save the King' WoO 78 (1802 - 1803)
2. Frédéric Chopin (1810 -1849)
Mazurkas Op. 41, No. 1, 2 & 3 (1838-1839)
3. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
'Valses nobles et sentimentales'. (1911)
4. W.A. Mozart (1756-1791):
Rondo in A Minor, K 511 (1787)
5. Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)
“El Albaicín” B-flat minor - B-flat major from Iberia Book 3, No. 1
6. (Encore) George Gershwin (): Prelude No. 1. Allegro ben ritmato & con rubato
Reviewer: Neil Mitchell
From the Programme Notes :
“In 2009, Australian pianist, Lee Cheong graduated with honours from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Since that date, she has furthered her studies by completing a Masters in Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK.
Lee combines a busy recital schedule with teaching duties at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is in high demand both as a soloist and an associate artist.
Lee has recently returned from the UK where she regularly performed, to universal acclaim, as both soloist and ensemble musician in recitals in London, Manchester, Lincoln, Chorlton and Wakefield.”
Reviewer’s comments:
The concert was held before a large audience (ca. 129 persons) on a windy but sunny day. The audience was warm. As noted by Mrs Cassin, who introduced the concert, “Today’s musical programme includes some of musical history’s greatest composers - we shall hear some of their less familiar works.” The performer had great stage presence and carefully introduced each piece to the audience.
As to the programme, some comments are made:
Chopin wrote 69 mazurkas over the course of his rather short life as a composer. He must have liked them.
The items by Ravel and Albéniz can be assigned to Impressionism. This places interpretative demands on the performer. The waltzes by M. Ravel are presented as set of 8 of which the last refers back to each of the preceding ones. The first is deliberately spiky and dissonant, adding an element of Modernism to the Impressionist palette.
1.Modéré – très franc
2.Assez lent – avec une expression intense
3.Modéré
4.Assez animé
5.Presque lent – dans un sentiment intime
6.Assez vif
7.Moins vif
8.Epilogue: lent
The piece by Albéniz is from Iberia, probably his magnum opus. “El Albaicín” is a tone poem that includes guitar-like effects and references to gypsy melodies setting a demanding task for the soloist, not least because of the required dynamic range and the flexible hands that are needed to play it.
Mozart’s Rondo for Piano in A minor is – for Mozart – a brooding, introverted work that enables considerable artistic exploration. Ms Cheong remarked that it anticipates Chopin, a presumed reference to the piece’s lightness and air of simplicity. The rondo form repeatedly brings back the principal melody in a slightly varied form.
Beethoven’s Variations belong to his “early period” but nonetheless bear the master’s indelible mark. The Variations cannot be described as significant in his output but they do deserve to be heard.
General Comments: The artist was well-prepared, more than equal to the demands of the program and she played without musical scores. It must be emphasised that the artist underplayed her virtuosic ability, preferring to give a poetic and considered performance of each piece, no matter how short. This is reminiscent of the early twentieth century virtuosi who strove to record short pieces to their best advantage, treating each as a gem to be brightly cut and presented to its best advantage. The same artist could play three mazurkas by Chopin with exquisite reserve yet could give easily the liveliest performance of Gershwin’s first prelude that this reviewer has ever heard. It can be added that Ms Cheong made an effort to present Beethoven’s variations with the maximal degree of colour. Overall, this was a fine concert of the best international standard by a sensitive and poetic musician.