Concert review: Nicholas Ho’s barnstorming performance fills cosy venue

Odyssey: Nicholas Ho plays Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Nicholas Ho

Black Earth Recital Studio Aug 11

The composer-keyboardist has existed since before the time of German Johann Sebastian Bach. But improvements in piano technology since the early 19th century and the evolution of the etude from a repetitive home exercise to a piece fit for the concert stage gave rise to a new breed of composer-pianists – the virtuosos, who wrote technically transcendent works that paint with a palette of sound.

A doctorate-holder from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Nicholas Ho composes in this tradition, identifying foremost as a pianist, then a composer. His recital Odyssey was designed around this theme, comprising Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Fantasia In D Minor K.397 and Franz Liszt’s Piano Sonata In B Minor in the first half.

Meanwhile, the second half featured a selection of nine thrillingly virtuosic etudes by Frederic Chopin, Sergei Rachmaninov and Ho himself.

With a 2.75m full-length grand piano in an acoustically untreated, small, second-storey shophouse, I had wondered how this concert, with its repertoire, would fare. The shophouse venue meant performer and audience were not spared from surrounding external noise from traffic and construction.

Ho took these in his stride, exhibiting a steely focus as his brooding rendition of Mozart’s Fantasia gave way to a structurally coherent interpretation of Liszt’s towering Sonata.

Although Ho displayed dazzling technique, his bravura and need for speed, coupled with the highly resonant acoustics, contributed to a barnstorming unsubtle performance, especially in the second half.

Ho’s three – of twelve – Opus 11 etudes were musically and technically substantial when played alongside the masters’. Op. 11 No. 1 Odyssey had the technical idioms of Liszt and chromatic harmonies of Alexander Scriabin, which were directly mirrored in Chopin’s Op. 10 No. 6 Lament etude.

Op. 11 No. 9 Metamorphoses was an impressionistic blur set in the Theme and Variations form on Bach’s initials (B-flat, A, C, B). It showcased vignettes of different characters, with few tender moments swallowed up by bigger and thicker textures. This was followed by Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude and Rachmaninov’s Etude-Tableau In E-flat Minor, Op. 39 No. 5 – both of which were rushed out almost impatiently, forgoing detail and clarity for speed.

A rare delicate moment took place in the prelude from Ho’s Op. 11 No. 12 Ignis (fire), before the complex fugue brought back his unremittingly big sound. And he acknowledged the audience’s encouraging applause with an encore of Rachmaninov’s Etude-Tableau In B Minor, Op. 39 No. 4.

Despite the abundance of piano pyrotechnics on display, perhaps a smaller piano, a bigger venue or a more varied programme would have resulted in a more satisfying concert experience.