See Siang Wong – Beethoven Trilogy 3: Unheard (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:58 minutes | 1,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Red Seal
Pianist See Siang Wong completes his Beethoven trilogy with “Unheard”. The third album features unfinished, previously unheard works by Beethoven. In his sketchbooks, which he always carried with him, Beethoven jotted down ideas and musical experiments that he often never realised and which have survived today as fragments in libraries and private collections all over the world. “Unheard” brings together reconstructions and rarities based on such sketches. They show Beethoven’s incredible wealth of ideas and his creative power.
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See Siang Wong, Gemeaux Quartett – Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 (Chamber Music Versions) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:12:10 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Red Seal
Chopin and Beethoven: the piano concertos as chamber music. Since the invention of the piano by Bartolomeo Christofori, composers such as Mozart and Haydn have explored and cherished the new tones and dynamic possibilities that the instrument offers. At the beginning of the 19th century, the piano grew increasingly popular and more and more were built and sold. Publishing houses saw an opportunity: they began arranging numerous popular works for piano so amateur musicians could also play them at home. But there was another reason for adapting existing arrangements. Performances of symphonic works were less frequent than today because either suitable musicians or money was lacking. Artists were dependent on patrons; they couldn’t, or didn’t want to, stump up the money themselves. As a result, it was necessary to create smaller versions of large scores so that these works could still be played.
This is probably the case, for example, with Chopin’s piano concerto. Many sources claim that chamber music versions were clearly used for the concerto. Chopin himself wrote that he would often rehearse concertos with smaller chamber music versions, the exact number of musicians remaining open. On September 18, 1830, he wrote to his childhood friend Titus Wojciechowski: “Last Wednesday I rehearsed my concerto with the quartet. But I wasn’t totally happy with it. […] As to how it turns out with an orchestra, I’ll let you know next week because I’m going to hold a rehearsal on Wednesday. I’ll rehearse it again with the quartet tomorrow.” Some sources also mention an arrangement for a quintet. However, recent research has shown that the term “quartet” was used to refer not only to the traditional line-up of two violins, a viola and a cello, but also as a general term for smaller groups such as chamber orchestras or ensembles that could fit into a parlour.
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See Siang Wong – Beethoven Trilogy 2: Childhood (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:09 minutes | 1,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Red Seal
Pianist see Siang Wong, the” painter of subtle sound ” (Neue Z”urcher Zeitung), continues his Beethoven trilogy. The second album “Childhood” presents several works of Beethoven’s youth, some of which are unknown to the general public: see Siang Wong chose for “Childhood” the three compelling “Kurf”urstensonaten”, the lively piano Concerto WoO 4 in E Flat Major by fourteen-year-old Beethoven, the energetic Rondo WoO 6 and The Piano Sonata WoO 51 in two movements.
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See Siang Wong – Beethoven Trilogy 1: Fantasia (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:00 minutes | 891 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Red Seal
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung described the Swiss pianist See Siang Wong as a” subtle sound painter”. For the Beethoven anniversary year, he presents an interesting Album with mostly lesser-known works by Beethoven: The Piano Sonata No. 13 in E flat major “Quasi una fantasia”, the fantasy in G Minor op. 77, both for piano solo. Next to it is the fantasy in C minor for piano, choir and Orchestra Op. 80, which he has recorded with the Wiener Singverein and the ORF radio-Symphonieorchester Wien under the direction of Leo Hussain. Beethoven freely shapes his fantasy Sonatas and renounces the conventional Sonata construction. The individual sentences are interlaced and follow each other without interruption. The movements are in a fantasy-like harmony and are a premonition of later piano sonatas, which no longer consist of individual movements, but form a unified structure.
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See Siang Wong – Mozart: Minore – Piano Concertos No. 20 & 24, Adagio K. 540 (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:41 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © RCA Red Seal
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung described the Swiss pianist See Siang Wong as a “subtle sound painter”. For his atmospheric album “Minore – Piano Concertos No. 20 & No. 24, Adagio K. 540” he has chosen very special works by Mozart. They are the only works composed in minor keys, thus differing greatly from Mozart’s major works and shaping the intense character of the album. See Siang Wong says of them, “Mozart’s minor works are touching in their depth and individuality. It seems that here Mozart went into himself even more than usual while composing.” Wong recorded the album with the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz under the direction of conductor Philipp von Steinaecker. As one of the first symphonic piano concertos, Piano Concerto No. 20, K. 466, occupies a particularly high place in W. A. Mozart’s (1756-1791) oeuvre. In addition to the large-scale orchestra, the almost vocal piano part is in the foreground. It was premiered with great success in Vienna in 1785, just one day after its completion, with Mozart himself taking the solo part. In the following year, Mozart wrote the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, parallel to the “Marriage of Figaro,” musically in stark contrast to it. It was already highly praised at the time of its composition. Beethoven, for example, is said to have said of it, “Be quiet, listen to what Mozart accomplishes here, it’s brilliant, this piano concerto in C minor, extraordinarily simple.” The album concludes with the atmospheric Adagio No. 540, a solo piece for piano and particularly poignant with its tritone intervals and pulsating heartbeat of sixteenth notes.
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