One of the most exciting young pianists in the country, Hong Kong-born Esmond Choi has given some memorable performances of contemporary music in recent times.

 

Esmond participated in the 2022 PianoLab festival, giving an insightful performance of George Crumb’s Eine Kleine Mitternachtmusik, and he performed Crumb’s Metamorphoses Book I on 21 February, and Metamorphoses Book II on 24 February this year, together with music by composers as diverse as JS Bach, Olivier Messiaen, Franz Liszt and Galina Ustvolskaya.

 

Active in a variety of musical fields, Esmond is a member of the Novus ensemble, the organist for St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church and he has collaborated with numerous ensembles, including the Elder Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra and the Elder Music Lab. He is undertaking postgraduate studies at the Elder Conservatorium of Music.

Esmond was interviewed prior to his upcoming performance of American composer Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 1 on 26 October. His remarks demonstrate his approach to his music and his willingness to undertake the most detailed research in preparing for his performances.

 

You frequently feature significant twentieth century composers such as George Crumb, Olivier Messiaen and even Galina Ustvolskaya in your piano recitals, composers whose music is rarely performed these days. What is your approach to programming your recitals? Are there other modernist or experimental composers who interest you?

 

Esmond Choi: I always use my piano teacher, Lucinda Collins’s method for programming. I would program a work I want to play and a challenge piece slightly out of my comfort zone for structure. In addition, I approach programming with a concept or a narrative/story. Like the fringe show I did earlier this year, I have featured the complete cycle of Crumb’s Metamorphoses in two separate concerts. The program is based on my emotional response to the passing of Crumb. That program carries a concept of change/metamorphosis and has a narrative of processing an unpleasant event. In addition, I always try to reinvent myself and my perspective on music and my surroundings environment.

 

I am in San Francisco, attending an experimental music festival called The Other Minds 28. And I could not believe what I had heard and experienced. At the moment, I am interested in the music of Annea Lockwood, Trimpin, and Jan Martin Smørdal. They all featured in this year’s festival. Outside of that, I am starting to be interested in the Australian music scene, such as the music of John Polglase, Luke Altman, and Nicolas Vines. Stockhausen, Aldo Clementi, Christopher Cerrone, and many more are outside Australia.

 

Your 18 September performance for Recitals Australia featured the music of John Cage, Charles Ives, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Maurice Ravel and Philip Glass, a diverse selection representing a range of musical languages that, together, created a quietly meditative atmosphere. What was the theme for the recital?

 

EC: The theme was daydreaming, but the word procrastination is more accurate and interesting. Sometimes we put incredible effort into delaying our main task. We have done things like reading, doom scrolling. I even heard some people do baking or cleaning the house just to avoid the main task! So, I wanted to try to program the effect of procrastination by “daydreaming”.

 

You are planning a recital of the music of American modernist composer Charles Ives (1874 – 1954), whose experimentation and innovative approach were highly influential. What pieces will you be performing and how will you approach the performance?

 

EC: I will be performing Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 1. Ives began composing this work in 1902 and completed it between 1909 and 1910. The sonata has an interesting history. Instead of writing a book, Ives only provided a description of the work:

 

 “What is it all about?” – Dan. S. asks. Mostly about the outdoor life in Conn. villages in the ‘80s and ‘90s – impressions, remembrances, & reflections of country farmers in Conn. Farmland.

“Fred’s Daddy got so excited that he shouted when Fred hit a home run & the school won the baseball game. But Aunt Sarah was always humming Where is my Wandering Boy, after Fred an’ John left for a job in Bridgeport. There was usually a sadness—but not at the Barn Dances, with their jigs, foot jumping, & reels mostly on winter nights.

“In the summer times, the hymns were sung outdoors. Folks sang (as Old Black Joe) & the Bethel Band (quickstep street marches) & the people like[d to say] things as they wanted to say, and to do things as they wanted to, in their own way — and many old times… there were feelings, and of spiritual fervency!”

During the composition stage, Ives treated this work as a side project. Yet, later in life, he had a special attachment to this work. In Mrs. Ives' words, “He always liked to play it — even now he does sometimes and says it has 'a kind of tendency often to cheer him up with a shadow thought of the old day.’” (from Memos)

 

I was fortunate to visit the composer’s studio at the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City. His original studio was in Redding, Connecticut. However, the house was sold. The Academy took on the challenge of moving the studio from Redding to New York City. Not only did they move the studio, but they also made an effort to place everything in its original position, as Ives left it. On Ives's upright piano, he had multiple copies of the first piano sonata.

 

I have been studying this work intensively for a year and a half. The concert will have an introduction about Ives and a summary of the work that will guide the listeners in understanding the sonata better. And there might be some audience participation (no promises, just an idea!).

 

Your performance of Ives’s work forms part of your postgraduate research at the Elder Conservatorium, University of Adelaide. Can you outline your research project and how you see the nature of Charles Ives’s music?

 

EC: Before I initiated my Masters’ degree, I wanted to challenge myself by playing an extensive work. And Ives has always been one of my favourite composers to listen to. So, I decided to try to investigate Ives’s ideas and aesthetic influence. Long story short, Ives was interested in the American Transcendental Movement. More notably, the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. This fondness became clear towards the end of his life. In Ives’s Memos, he mentioned Emerson being “as great as Jupiter”. And this appreciation can be heard from the first movement of the Concord sonata (Piano Sonata No. 2).

 

I read a fair amount of Emerson’s essays and Thoreau’s Walden. I fell in love with Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance. This gave me the idea of asking myself Who I am and what it means to be in this creative discipline.

 

I chose the first piano sonata rather than the second piano sonata because not many people played the first. This includes John Kirkpatrick (essentially Ives’s right-hand man for Ives’s piano music). The first piano sonata has not been researched as well.

 

How much room for interpretation is there in the music of Ives?

 

EC: Interpreting Ives’s music is a complex and never-ending topic. When I was studying with one of the champions of Ives’s music, Steve Drury, he said, “For me, Ives is the first composer who writes in open form.” To put it in a simple explanation, the performer will become a co-composer. The work will become unique for each performer and each performance. This concept is notable in the works John Cage and Earl Brown.

 

He never said anything about how to approach his music. The most “scientific evidence” on this is some correspondences between Ives, musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky and Kirkpartrick. Slonimsky and Kirkpatrick both asked how to approach or interpret his works. And Ives simply replied, “do what you think is best.”

 

Second, when I was having a look at the manuscript for first movement, I noticed there are a lot of added pencil markings in his ink copy, and throughout Ives’s life, he always revises his works. So, his music is always constantly evolving.

 

Third, in this work and his second sonata, there is not much information on the score for the performer to interpret the character of the work. In the first sonata, there are moments of just musical notes and no expressive or dynamic markings.

 

So, is there a true interpretation of Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 1? In my argument, no. The best we performers can do is to embrace the present, embrace who we are.

 

What of the psychological or emotional state of the audience and the triggering of a transcendental experience?

 

EC: This is a difficult question to answer. Like the idea of interpretation, emotion is complex to discuss. I would say almost impossible. There is no right or wrong. Some people enjoy the music of J.S. Bach. I am certainly one of them. However, I know some of my friends dislike Bach’s music. I did ask why. They respond, “I don’t find it interesting.” Which is fair enough. When I ask about people’s reactions to a work of art, I never expect an extended, detailed response. Sometimes, the reaction is simple. This answer can be applied to many elements of life, like food, religion, politics, cars, and planes. Anything you can think of. Each individual will have unique experiences and opinions about everything. And this includes Ives. Even the composer himself plays differently each time. Or even completely rearranges the piece itself. Fortunately, we have some recordings of Ives playing the piano towards the end of his life. In the recordings of They are There, Ives practically recomposed the entire song.

 

In terms of a transcendental experience, I would approach it with an ambiguous response. There is no right way to listen to music. And there is no right way to experience transcendence. All I can say to the listeners is, in the words of Emerson. “Trust Thyself.” We must not alter our ideas and reactions towards a work of art just because people tell us to. If that is the case, art will become uninteresting. I believe it is much more fun to have a range of responses. Some will think that Ives is a bad composer. Some will think this will be a mind-opening experience. I can only guide and assist the listeners through this monumental sonata.

 

You are a composer in your own right. What is your approach to composition? Are you planning performances of your work or developing new works?

 

EC: It is 12:30 a.m. in San Francisco. I just came back from the last concert of The Other Minds Festival 28. I met many unique and exciting musicians and artists. When they ask me if I am a composer? I always answered, “Well…I just put dots on the page. So, not really…” and all of them responded, saying, “Well, if you write music, then you are a composer!” To answer your first part of the question (which is more of a statement; I want to give an amusing response), I don’t think I’m a composer. I just put dots on the page! My approach to composition is primarily based on improvisation, credited mainly to Josh van Konkelenberg [of State Opera of South Australia]. He introduced and taught me about improvisation and how to incorporate it into composition. Without his teaching, I would not be able to express the sound world that is in my mind. I have just started drafting some new material for a new work… this will probably be the largest by far. But that’s all I can say.

 

Chris Reid

 

Esmond Choi will perform Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 1 at 3.30pm on 26 October in the North Adelaide Baptist Church Hall. Tickets available from Recitals Australia.