REVIEWS under re-construction

Australian String Quartet with Iila Konovalov (violin) and Kristian Chong (Piano)
CHAUSSON Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet -

The Age, Australia, Clive O'Connell
Melbourne 17th March 2008

...After interval, the quartet took a suporting role in Chausson's Concert Op.21, which put the talents of the two guests
under a searching spotlight. Violinist Ilya Konovalov, concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic,
produced a vibrato rich sound, setting the pace for his colleagues.

Taking discreet honours was pianist Kristian Chong, who in this Chausson showed a true chamber
musician at work, supporting the violin soloist willingly, meshing with the ASQ's well-honed communal
timbre.

The Advertiser - - Adelaide Festival 12th March 2008

Distinguished visitors Iila Konovalov, Concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Australian
multiple prize-winning pianist Kristian Chong joined the Australian String Quartet for Concert in D major for
piano, violin and string quartet by Chausson. There were many opportunities to enjoy the expertise of the
soloists, notably in the third and fourth movements, and to admire the sympathy and discretion with which the
ASQ played its essential but less demonstrative, supporting role.

Popular in its time, and perhaps dated, this rarely aired piece gave a truly Festival touch to the ASQ's concert.

Flinders Quartet + 1

Schumann Piano Quintet, 20th November 2007, Iwaki Auditorium, Melbourne
The Age, Australia - Clive O'Connell

A Guest with the Flinders Quartet, pianist Kristian Chong melded into the ensemble with excellent musical tact, collaborating in the first movement of the Schumann E Flat Quintet with an attractive restraint that allowed the strings every opportunity to make their contributions to the work’s sound world. Even in the pacy scherzo, where the piano is a whirlwind of action, Chong kept to his dynamic marker without hogging centre field.

Not that the reading enjoyed success due to Chong alone. The Flinders’ upper lines – violinists Erica Kennedy and Matthew Tomkins – spoke clearly and expressively above the work’s heavy bass, notably in the problematic finale, which oscillates between emphatic statements and lyrical decoration.
But the players reached a very high level of achievement in the quintet’s slow-march movement where the lilting C major and aggressive F minor interludes were handled with a confidence and empathy rarely achieved in live performance conditions.

BRITTEN Piano Concerto, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Adelaide Advertiser, August 06

This concert of relatively unfamiliar music had a number of ingredients that made it a success. The music was
colourful and varied. Britten's Piano Concerto has drama, humour, virtuosity and even a touch of the bizarre.
Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony upends symphonic conventions in an original fashion, while making brilliant use of the orchestra.

Conductor Arvo Volmer had a firm grip on the music and inspired his players to an admirable level of performance.
In the Britten concerto we were fortunate to have pianist Kristian Chong as soloist. Brimming with confidence
and a technique to match, he made a convincing case for this piece as a brilliant, if unconventional, concerto.

Almost symphonic in form and scope, it places considerable demands on the player. Britten was apparently
enamoured with the glissando, which he uses with unparalleled frequency, with the consequent danger
of the pianist rubbing his knuckles raw. Chong's performance was polished, very musical and he left no
blood on the keys.

Unusually, the performance was followed by an encore for piano and orchestra by Britten,
with obligatory glissandi.

Solo Recital,
Fairfield Hall, London, June 2005

Croydon Advertiser, Howard Thomas

Dorothy Grimstead is for many of us, reme mbered as a highly respected name in Croydon's musical life.
There can be absolutely no doubt that Kristian Chong is an astonishing pianist whose playing would have
thrilled her and made her pleased to have his name associated with her prize, for he recently won the
Dorothy Grimstead Memorial Award for the most outstanding returning postgraduate student (to
the Royal Academy of Music).

Two substantial items occupied today's programme. The first was Shostakovich's Prelude and
Fugue No.24 in D minor, on which Chong captivated us right from the majestic opening. The other piece
was really thirteen pieces, Rachmaninoff's second, dazzling set of Preludes, Op.32, of which the
tenth was the composer's own favourite. With total commitment, Chong fluently sailed through
these complex works with ever a deft touch and, most impressively from memory yet
apparently without blemish. Every hurdle was taken in his stride. This was playing with finesse and
strength in the best proportions.

Chong has attracted a great deal of favourable and justified attention in his native Australia and you can
bet that his is a name of which we shall be heading a great deal more.

Sevenoaks Symphony Orchestra, 27th November 2005
Sevenoaks Playhouse, England
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
John Hendry

'...The Sevenoaks Symphony Orchestra must have some good contacts in the business for them to regularly
find young soloists of real distinction as they have over many seasons now. Sunday afternoon was a case in
point. The young Australian pianist Kristian Chong gave a thrilling and confident account of Rachmaninov’s
Paganini variations, his athletic pianism and mature musicality bringing to life the colours, gorgeous tunes
and cascades of notes in this score. The SSO were with him all the way, interjecting the tricky little
phrases that need to sound effortless but must be perfectly timed and voiced not to deflect from the piano’s role...'



CHONG'S FINGERS ON THE PULSE - 27 Sept 05 - Recital, Adelaide Australia 25 Sept 05

Adelaide Advertiser, Raymond Chapman Smith

In 2002, pianist Kristian Chong was South Australia's Emerging Artist of the Year. The former
student of Noreen Stokes and Stefan Ammer is now based in London where his distinctive
artistry is earning many accolades. For Jurlique's excellent concert series, Kristian Chong presented
a richly concentrated, enthralling program that balanced very potent virtuosity and technical elan
with the restraint and intense focus of a considerable musical intelligence. With a technique like
Chong's, it is not too surprising that he relishes the digital demands of music by great
composer-performers.

His powerfully sustained reading of Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue BWV 903 was an
intriguing reminder of Bach's own vaunting, youthful virtuosity – especially in close
proximity to a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody in which Chong
found much wit and not a little gravitas.

The second part of this recital was devoted to a rare, complete performance of Sergei
Rachmaninov's Thirteen Preludes op 32. The man Stravinsky dubbed "the six-foot scowl"
never quite had the reach for large-scale forms but in these marvellously sonorous
miniatures he often projected a sense of epic Romantic grandeur to which Chong gave
eloquent voice.

This young player has the artistry to thrill big audiences and fill much larger venues.

YOUNG AUSTRALIAN PIANIST ENTHRALS LOCAL AUDIENCE -
Harare - Zimbabwe, Recital 14-July 05

Concert-goers in Harare were richly rewarded for using precious fuel to attend the recital at the Harry Margolis
Hall last night of  Kristian Chong, a superbly talented youngster now based in London where he is able to benefit
from the tutelage of  some of Britain’s top piano teachers. Just thirty, this artiste is mature beyond his
years, possessing death-defying virtuosity and a full command  of the dynamic range of the modern
concert grand. His choice of programme was unusual in that the first half was rather short, leaving
room for the tour de force in the second half of the  Rachmaninov Preludes Op.32.

 The opening Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue, followed by Bach’s famous Chromatic Fantasia and
Fugue lent a note of austerity and classical elegance which then blossomed into full-blown romanticism
for the remainder of the programme.  Unaccustomed to the Shostakovich, I was not prepared for the
huge unfolding of the fugue after the rather quiet and unassuming beginning but Mr. Chong’s control of
the keyboard was evident throughout. With the Bach Chromatic Fantasie and Fugue, the fugue was
masterfully played with meticulous attention to the baroque mood, he clearly has a strong sense of
the dramatic, and this came to fruition in the Liszt rhapsody, a gloriously schmaltzy and excessively
note-ridden arrangement of Hungarian folk music, one of many for which Liszt is famous. 

The Rachmaninov Preludes rounding off this hugely demanding recital really showed Chong at his
effortless best.  His technical prowess never faltered, and the audience was spellbound by the
pyrotechnics that characterized the evening.  He is a modest and very gifted musician and has
already made a name for himself round the globe, winning prestigious awards while still in his teens
and attracting praise wherever he has performed.

RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 1