Perfect realisations

Mei Yi Foo at Steinway Hall, reviewed by BILL NEWMAN

It is very strange how all the outstanding events in Musical London come during the same period! Perhaps it was due to the approach of the Festive Season?

Mei Yi Foo, who hails from Seremban in Malaysia, is no stranger to the London scene -- St John's Smith Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St James' Piccadilly, Fairfield Halls -- while her début recital took place at the Wigmore Hall in 1998, followed three years later by her appearance in the Wallace Collection International Recital Series. Hong Kong, the Americas and Finland also know her playing well, but perhaps the collector's autograph item was her invitation to perform Schubert's Trout Quintet in front of HRH The Prince of Wales at Highgrove.

Yonty Solomon, her teacher (the others are Laszlo Simon, Cristina Ortiz and Christopher Elton, in a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music) was at Steinway Hall on 26 November 2004 for her latest appearance. I had a fine reflection of him looking at the shiny end elevation woodwork of the Concert Grand she played on, just right of the high treble range.

Bach's French Suite No 2, its six contrasting dance movements testing fineness of touch and clarity of turns and trills that suppport the legato singing lines, boldness of contrasting motifs, and above all, fluid mastery of rhythms and textural style, evinced total attention to and mastery of subject matter.

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