Chinese-Malaysian Pianist Cheong Yew Choong Makes Bangkok Debut

Accompanied by Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the University of West Virginia, Chinese-Malaysian pianist Cheong Yew Choong, (picture left). who was born in Kuala Lumpur, played a very satisfying debut recital at Bangkok’s Goethe Institute on February 4, 2010. With his opening selections of three Scarlatti sonatas, Choong established himself as a cerebral pianist able to cleanly articulate the rapid and tricky passages of these difficult baroque works. In the Chopin Barcarolle which followed, Choong’s emotionally detached approach was less successful; a little less care and some abandon would have added greatly to an otherwise enjoyable performance.

Congratulations to Choong for departing from the mainstream repertory to introduce his small, but attentive, audience to two works from two unknown contemporary South American composers, Tania Leen and Miguel del Aguila. The percussive and exciting “Conga” from Aguila is well worth additional listening.

The final half of the program was devoted to Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B minor. While Choong clearly feels this music, his accomplished technique was not quite up to the demands of sustaining this long and difficult piece, and matters were not helped by the fact that Choong did not have a concert grand to perform on. Still, it was beautifully played. Cheong Yew Choong is now on the music faculty of USCI University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Should he decide to return to Bangkok, he can count on me to be in the audience.