Piano & Fortepiano  Born in Singapore and resident in the UK since 1978, Melvyn Tan began his studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School, where his teachers included Vlado Perlemuter, Nadia Boulanger and Marcel Ciampi. At the Royal College of Music he studied both piano and harpsichord and intrigued by the sound of early keyboards, soon focused his attention on the fortepiano. Melvyn Tan rapidly built a formidable international reputation for his performances on the fortepiano and his exclusive contract with EMI Classics produced a series of groundbreaking recordings, including the complete Beethoven Sonatas and Concertos.
2007/8 sees appearances in a wide repertoire ranging from Mozart to Messiaen across Europe and Australasia. Last year Melvyn celebrated his 50th birthday, an occasion marked by concerto appearances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a recital at Wigmore Hall, collaborations with cellist Steven Isserlis, violist Tabea Zimmerman and pianist Ronald Brautigam, and a major international recital series including the complete Mozart Sonata cycle. In early 2008 Melvyn will tour Australia with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He has given complete cycles of the Beethoven Sonatas, Debussy and Chopin Preludes, in New York, Tokyo and London, and has performed at leading concert halls around the world, including: the Barbican; the Wigmore Hall, London; New York’s Lincoln Centre and Frick Collection; Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris; Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus; Salzburg’s Mozarteum; Die Glocke in Bremen and the Philharmonie in Cologne. Festival appearances include: Salzburg (summer festival and the Mozartwoche); Mondsee; Cheltenham; Bad Kissingen, La Roque d’Anthéron, City of London; Spitalfields; Bath; Oxford and Beijing. In addition to Roger Norrington his concerto partners have included conductors Bruno Weil, Leonard Slatkin, Frans Brüggen, Nicholas McGegan, Herbert Soudant, Libor Pešek, Marin Alsop, Emmanuel Krivine and Jaap van Zweden. Orchestras with which he has worked include the BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Stuttgart Radio, Netherlands Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, Budapest Concert Orchestra, Salzburg’s Camerata and Mozarteum Orchestras, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Symphony, New World Symphony, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Melbourne Symphony and Australian Chamber Orchestra. He recently toured France with Emmanuel Krivine and the Chambre Philharmonique de Paris. Chamber music and Lieder recitals hold an important place in Melvyn’s repertoire, and his regular partners in repertoire ranging from Bach to Shostakovich include cellist Steven Isserlis, violinist Christian Altenberger, the Škampa Quartet and fellow pianists, Ronald Brautigam and Andreas Staier. His Lieder recitals partners have included Anne-Sofie von Otter, Arleen Auger, Angelika Kirchschlager, Wolfgang Holzmaier and Olaf Bär with whom he performed Berg and Schoenberg at the Wigmore Hall. He recently made his directorial début in Italy touring Mozart concerti with the Orchestra Filharmonica Marchigiana and began a collaboration with the London Chamber Orchestra directing Beethoven and Mozart. In the 2009/10 season he returns to the Royal Festival Hall to perform with the LPO and in 2010 will mark Chopin’s 200th birthday with a series of performances both on modern piano and fortepiano. In addition to the complete Beethoven Concertos, Sonatas and Schubert Impromptus, Melvyn Tan’s recordings for EMI Classics include discs of Mozart concertos and Weber’s Konzertstück with the London Classical Players and Sir Roger Norrington. Further recordings of Mozart concertos are on Harmonia Mundi (Philharmonia Baroque and Nicholas McGegan) and Virgin Classics, this time with Tan’s own group, the New Mozart Ensemble. For RCA Victor, he has recorded the complete Mendelssohn cello works with Steven Isserlis, and for Deutsche Gramophon, a Haydn/Mozart album and a disc of French and German Lieder with Anne-Sofie von Otter. His radio recordings for the BBC are numerous and the corporation released a BBC Music Magazine cover disc recording of Nocturnes by Chopin, Debussy and Field and a live Wigmore Hall recording of the Dvorák Piano Quintet with the Škampa Quartet. Melvyn’s most recent recording – a complete CD set of Debussy’s Préludes – received critical acclaim when it was released by Deux-Elles in May 2005. Status: November 2007 |
