Asian Pianist Recital Young Virtuoso Series: Abigail Sin

ASIAN PIANISTS RECITAL SERIES

ABIGAIL SIN

SINGAPORE CONFERENCE HALL

5 MAY 2013

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 May 2013 under the title "Child Prodigy's Mature Performance"

Since her debut recital as a nine-year-old in 2001, Singapore pianist Abigail Sin, now 21, has gone on to win a slew of accolades and is now studying for her graduate diploma at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

In the first concert of The Asian Pianists series, she showed that while the prodigious talent remains, the youthful exuberance is slowly being replaced with mature artistry.

Johann Sebastian Bach's Capriccio on The Departure of A Beloved Brother was the composer's only surviving instrumental programmatic music, music that attempts to render an extra-musical narrative.

Sin's pristine fingerwork infused elegance into the opening madrigal-like Arioso and each ornament was gracefully executed. Her liberal use of rubato occassionally made the slower movements sound overtly fussy, but each contrapuntal voice remained delicately sculpted and phrased.

The chromatic colours she brought out in the chaccone-like Adagissimo third movement were breathtaking and the galloping rhythms of the fugal imitation of Postillon's Air were delivered with aplomb.

Less convincing was her performance of Chopin's Second Piano Sonata in B-flat minor. As evident by the work's appearance on the programme of two other recitals in the past month, that of Kenneth Hamilton and Jinho Kim's, its popularity has not been lost over the years.

The Singapore Conference Hall's notoriously unforgiving accoustics has claimed many a victims, and it was under these conditions that Sin struggled with clarity and projection.

The opening movement lacked rhythmic gravitas and at times sounded rushed rather than being a driving force. The unrelenting octaves in the Scherzo were full of panache but the lack of pedalling or gradation in dynamics turned the whirlwind finale into an intricate exercise in unison.

The saving grace of the performance was in the contemplative moments in the slower sections where she sang artfully, especially in the Funeral March third movement.

The second half of the recital showed the pianist at her best. Her keen sensitivity to the pianistic and harmonic idiom of Si Fallor, Sum (2008) by Singaporean composer Emily Koh made her reading cogent. The tricky running notes and leaping chords were tackled with ease, and the Zen-like , Asian-influenced melodies were masterful in their meditative nature.

Her musical intelligence, sense of structure and delicacy, and her attention to subtlety of structure were most pronounced in Ravel's Sonatine and Charles Griffes' Piano Sonata (1918).

While her crisp and eager articulation in the Sonatine missed some of the music's delicacy, her reading of the work was full of verve. Her textural conception was scintillating, which contrasted with her sardonic response to Ravel's wit and humor, and the trills in the surging accompaniment in the final movement were an absolute joy.

American composer Griffes' Piano Sonata (1918) set the stage for Sin's stunning performance. The way she lapped up the work's incongruous beauty made the listener forget for a moment that this was a rather episodic and dissonant piece.

Her shimmering colours evoked a surreal atmosphere in the second movement, serving as a perfect send-off for the frenzied finale with its avalanche of notes that span the entire keyboard.

Technical efficiency has never been an issue for Sin and she showed that she had lost none of that ability. Her two encores, from Chopin's Prelude Op. 28, ensured that the audience returned home with a semblance of sanity and serenity.

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