Early Halloween with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor's recital

It was 12 days before Oct 31, but Halloween came early with British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor's solo recital, which had more than a touch of the morbid and macabre.

- Chang Tou Liang

The stage was drenched in blood-red lighting as he opened with Frederic Chopin’s Second Sonata In B Flat Minor (Op. 35), popularly known as his Funeral March Sonata. German composer Robert Schumann called it “four of Chopin’s wildest children under the same roof”, and he was not far off the mark.

The opening movement’s outpouring of raw emotion was given its full measure by Grosvenor. And even if he did not include four bars of the Grave introduction in the exposition repeat, it mattered little.

Before the dust could settle, the Scherzo blazed forth with such vehement intent that the famous Funeral March could have been the only rightful outcome.