A L B E R T L I N
P I A N I S T | M U S I C R E V I E W E R
Alliance Française de Singapour 60th Anniversary Concert
Alliance Française Theatre
17 April 2009
By Chang Tou Liang
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Pianist Lin had the most notes to play, first in two food-inspired pieces from Rossini’s Sins of Old Age. Whoever thought that Dry Figs could sound this scintillating or that mere Almonds could conjure up such an insouciant waltz? The Italian opera-composer once boasted that he could set a laundry list to music, and nearly proved it here.
The concert’s tour de force was Lin’s mighty traversal of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition. Although not note-perfect, the way each piece was thoughtfully inflected and evocatively characterised revealed a keen mind and mature artist at work. The troubadour’s song in The Old Castle was beautifully coloured, while the pathetic quality of Schmuyle (the second of the two Russian Jews) was brilliantly captured.
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