KRISTIAN CHONG - PIANIST
Chamber offerings persuasive and moving
The Age, Australia, Clive O'Connell, June 17th 2009
Fresh from his hard work at Saturday's Piano Landmarks concert, where he gave above and beyond
his allotted tasks, Kristian Chong dominated a persuasive performance of the Shostakovich
Piano Quintet, setting up a considerable authority from the opening prelude onwards.Roger Young and Alison Rayner
combined with hard-edged grace at the top of the string mix,Brigden brought her certainty to the middle level
and Rachel Atkinson produced a plangent cello voice in theintermezzo. Of the morning's offerings,
this proved the most moving, with a precision that rarely faltered.
Piano Landmarks - Melbourne 2009,
Fantasies, Variations and Impromptus, Melba Hall, June 13
The Age: Clive O'Connell, June 16th 2009
AFTER a three-year break, Piano Landmarks has revived, bequeathed by Stephen McIntyre to
Stefan Cassomenos, who assembled an imposing body of colleagues to present an inventive
program ranging from Bach to contemporary Australian.
Two of those scheduled to play were ill - Caroline Almonte and Ian Holtham - but half of the four
programs were reshuffled. Almonte's reading of the Goldberg Variations was replaced by Aura Go in the
Mozart C minor Fantasy, and the day's star, Kristian Chong, offered a determined Bach Chromatic
Fantasy and Fugue alongside his performance of Rachmaninov's Corelli Variations: not letter-perfect
, but close to it and idiomatically ideal.
Nearly all the content of both recitals I heard comprised groups of variations with pianistic talent
spread on thickly. Along with Go and Chong in the opening event, Benjamin Martin gave a fluent and
unusually romantic account of both the Webern and Copland Variations sets, the former controlled and
dynamically elegant. As usual, Michael Kieran Harvey took an aggressive stance with the F minor Variations by Haydn,
complete with warm-up flourish and improbable cadenza, before stunning us with Elliott Gyger's
Compass Variations, an exercise that moved into almost aurally painful territory.
A more considered level of aggression followed with McIntyre's account of Beethoven's Diabelli
Variations, a gruff masterwork that suffers more than most of the composer's last works from inattention.
As anticipated, this proved to be a memorable interpretation, uncompromising in its rhythmic
insistence, alternating ferocity and humour with striking vigour.
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 theDorothy 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 wasreally 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 youcan bet that his is a name of which we shall be heading a great deal more.
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 nowbased 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.
RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 1 Herald Sun (Australia)
17th October 2000, Melbourne Town Hall,
conductor: Marco Zuccarini
'Kristian Chong is the brightest star in the heady firmanent of young pianists emerging
from Melbourne (Australia) today... His performance of Rachmaninoff's 1st concerto
was done with such simplicity and depth of tone that highlighted Rachmaninoff's
prodigious melodic gift....The deafening applause that erupted as the last bravura
chord was struck was testament indeed to the huge pianistic
career Chong will most certainly enjoy. '
REVIEWS
Australian String Quartet with IIya 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, Stephen Whittington
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.
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...'
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 modernconcert grand. His choice of programme was unusual in that the first half was rather short, leavingroom 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 romanticismfor the remainder of the programme. Unaccustomed to the Shostakovich, I was not prepared for thehuge 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.
