Melvyn Tan
The ABN AMRO Vital Tour: Piano
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.
The majority of his time is now devoted to the modern piano. 2006/7 saw appearances in a wide repertoire ranging from Mozart to Messiaen across Europe including France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Melvyn celebrated his 50th birthday in 2006, 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.
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 and 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; City of London; Spitalfields; Bath; Oxford and Beijing. Orchestras with which he has worked include the BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, 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, and Melbourne Symphony. He recently made his directorial début in Italy touring Mozart concerti with the Orchestra Filharmonica Marchigiana and 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 partners in repertoire ranging from Bach to Shostakovich have included cellist Steven Isserlis, violinist Christian Altenberger, the Škampa Quartet and fellow pianists, Ronald Brautigam and Andreas Staier.
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 Mund 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.