Reviews

"See Siang Wong is a pianist who has build up a reputation with personal interpretations. (...) The "Swiss Piano" Album is documenting the richness of different approaches to contemporary piano music and showcases how sensual, witty and exhilarating this can be. All involved composers are Swiss, which leads to a local inventory of musical creation."
(NZZ, December 2010)

"Anyone who thinks in connection with China and piano only of Lang Lang, should listen to the CD "Swiss Piano", which has been recorded by See Siang Wong (...). As on this album you can listen to a piece of Mathias Steinauer called "kurzkurz@ Live at Carnegie", which is referring several times to the star pianist. The title word "kurzkurz" (German for “shortshort”) is a nonsense back-formation in oblique and satirical reference to the name of China’s celebrated “piano super-star“ Lang Lang which in German translates into “longlong”, who is compared here to a Chinese brand-name merchandise. Its dribbling and ringing tones offers far more than just a parody, and with good seven minutes it makes one of the longest works which are compiled on this CD, on which See Siang Wong is presenting us an unusual and exciting not-encyclopedic cross-section of the new Swiss piano repertoire. Sound experiments alternates with the traditional use of keyboard and pedal, the highest virtuosity take turns with theatrical gestures in the works that Daniel Fueter, Gérard Zinsstag Alfred Zimmerlin, Jürg Wyttenbach and others have written for Wong."
(Tages-Anzeiger, December 2010)

"The idea to make contemporary Swiss composers to write piano pieces, should not have nationalistic flavour. Jürg Wyttenbach wrote this for the first time in 40 years again for the piano, almost 30 other composers are also contributing new pieces. (...) The first CD of the project now gathers nearly a dozen new compositions from the "old master"Jürg Wyttenbach up to the ironic "shortshort@Carnegie Hall" by Mathias Steinauer, where even the antics of the extraverted Chinese colleague Lang Lang have been integrated. There are no popular tunes to attract traditional audiences, nonetheless the disc matches Wong's goal, to seduce the listener."
(Basler Zeitung, January 2011)

"Even though pianist See Siang Wong says of himself that he is a romantic, he is keen to play contemporary music (...) For the CD "Swiss Piano" (...), nine composers have now dedicated new pieces for Wong, which are all recorded here for the first time. Youngest member is Laurent Mettraux, born in 1970, whose 'Engraved Traces in the sand "are meditations on Buddhist texts. The oldest is Jürg Wyttenbach, who was born in 1935 and composed a piece for "his" instrument for the first time again in forty years. The spectrum spands from the expressive searching movements in Felix Baumann's "I and I" to the abstract reduced form language in Alfred Zimmerlin's "Piano Piece 11". An inspiring album, which is designed with great clarity, and one wishes it would overcome the caste of specialists by outreach and disclosure."
(Der Landbote, December 2010)

"See Siang Wong has already won international praise for his recordings of works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Schumann. But this artist, who makes his home in Zurich, has always had a great passion for contemporary music as well. Thus in 2008 he commissioned several notable Swiss composers to write solo pieces for him (a neglected genre nowadays). Swiss Piano highlights half of this project (a 2nd volume will be released later). The music presented surprises due to its diversity. It comprises ethereal lyricism, percussive sarcasm, intellectual experiments or sparkling virtuosity. Contemporary Swiss composers seem to have a vibrant relationship with solo piano music indeed!"
(Swiss Info, January 2011)

"See Siang Wong has been repeatedly emerged as an Ambassador of the Swiss Piano Music. On his latest CD entitled "Swiss Piano" he now has compiled an impressive anthology of new works by Jürg Wyttenbach, Gérard Zinsstag, Daniel Fueter, Alfred Zimmerlin, Martin Neukom, Mathias Steinauer, Felix Baumann, and Thomas Laurent Mettraux Läubli. And yes, a commonality between the scores can hardly be stated, the spectrum is simply too broad."
(Swiss Music Journal, January 2011)

"Perhaps it is true that only a foreigner can remain "objective" towards local music. And that it will not let him feel inmediately this "discomfort in the small state "(Karl Schmid), which unleashes in a "discourse within the confines" (Paul Nixon), against the provincialism of Swiss art. In any case the pianist See Siang Wong, since the time he lives and works in Switzerland, engages himself with Swiss Piano Music. Yes, more than that. He takes Swiss composers to compose new works for piano, which is most praiseworthy: first, because the piano as an instrument does not appear to be in vogue currently, and secondly, because even Jürg Wyttenbach, who has not composed more than 40 years for the piano, could not resist the uncompromising request of See Siang Wong in the end. The fruits of this commitment, namely all to him dedicated piano works of Swiss composers, See Siang Wong has gathered on his latest CD, an exciting and varied anthology of contemporary Swiss Art of Musical Composition: Avant-garde vs. traditional, witty works (as Mathias Steinauer parody about Lang Lang is) vs. serious pieces. And everything is in good hands with See Siang Wong, played sensitively with his nimble fingers: remarkable in every respect."
(Music and Drama, June 2011)

"(...) For his project "Swiss Piano" See Siang Wong has commisioned new works from nine composers, each coming from a diifferent generation, like Jürg Wyttenbach, born in 1935 or Thomas Läubli, born in 1977. Of course, the piano music on this album does not feature a national "Swiss" sound or a common musical language. The CD offers rather an insight into the piano music of today and the different issues, that composers today are investigating and are dealing with. While the young masters often have a humorous, easy-going access to the piano, with allusions to Lang Lang and to the comics of Winsor McCay, the piano for the older generation (like Zinsstag or Wyttenbach) is set into more laboratory and experimental fields, which reflects primarily in sound and resonance characteristics of the piano. Zinsstag has written a series of sound studies based on harmonics, while Wyttenbach chose the sonic shortcomings of the instrument as a starting point for his acoustic explorations. But in the end the very great thing about this CD is unanimously the pianist himself, who not only initiated the project Swiss piano, but plays the works with outstanding technique and great understanding."
(dissonance 115, September 2011)