MCO Foundation Great Performances Series 2013: Claudia Yang

Pianist Claudia Yang

Featuring:

Claudia Yang, piano

Programme:

Frédéric Chopin

     Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23

     Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38

     Ballade No. 3 in A flat major, Op. 47

     Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52

Sergei Rachmaninoff Preludes, Op. 23

Malaysian pianist Claudia Yang had her first visit to Manila a few years ago had her performing for a private audience. Unfortunately, I wasn’t part of that audience. Thankfully, the MCO Foundation, Ayala Museum and artist Zheng Liping now made it all possible for me and the rest of the public to finally see Claudia Yang perform in concert at the Ayala Museum as part of the MCO Foundation Great Performance Series 2013.

For this concert, Claudia prepared a very interesting repertoire which consisted of works by only two composers: Frédéric Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The four Chopin ballades comprised the first half of the concert while Rachmaninoff’s Preludes, Op. 23 made up the second half.

Chopin’s ballades were a creative leap in the genre. Longer compared to his earlier single movement pieces mazurkas and waltzes, the ballades were more free, liberated and expressive as they did not conform to any preconceived classical structure. The ballades, driven by a dramatic narrative and littered with very lyrical melodies, also are considered some of the most technically challenging pieces in the piano repertoire. And for Claudia to play all four during the first half of her concert was definitely not an easy task. But she handled these pieces well although her interpretation in some of the pieces was different from how I would play them. But despite this, it still gave me great pleasure hearing a different take on popular pieces such as the ballades by Chopin.

I particularly liked how she tackled the coda of the Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23. I really felt the contrasts between the two subjects during her rendition of Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38. An optimism that cannot be quashed was what I got from her Ballade No. 3 in A flat major, Op. 47. I had to say though that I got nervous when she encountered some tough moments during Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 which I think truly showed Chopin’s craftsmanship and poetry.

For the second half, Claudia first explained to the audience that she would be performing Rachaminoff’s Preludes, Op. 23 without any pauses, meaning that she would play all ten preludes in one go. During her performance, there were brief annotations that were projected on two screens. These short notes gave some audience members an idea as to the nature and mood of the piece especially if they had some difficulty in grasping and understanding what they were hearing. But I had no problem with these preludes especially the No. 4 in D major Andante cantabile which is my favorite from the set.

After finishing the pieces, a very jolly and cheerful Claudia appreciated the audience’s generous applause. I think that this led her to do two encores, one of which was the third movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27,  No. 2 Moonlight Sonata while the second was a mashup of Jasmine Flower, a popular Chinese folk song, with Giacomo Puccini’s Nessun Dorma from Turandot. These two encores really showed Claudia’s bubbly personality.

I wish that I could’ve seen more of Claudia when she conducted a piano masterclass at the Ayala Museum the day after. But it was an extremely busy week for me and I didn’t have the time to drop by. Still, I was glad that I was able to catch her concert. Special thanks to MCO Foundation, the Ayala Museum and most especially to Zheng Liping for making this all possible.