Master.wong

Born in Singapore in 1986, and currently based in Japan, Wong’s career has from the outset seen him darting back and forth between Asia and Europe. His connection with Germany goes especially deep, beginning in Bamberg at the Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition, where he won first prize in 2016. His first full-time conducting role was just 40 miles away, at the Nuremberg Symphony, serving as their Chief Conductor from 2018 to 2022. Back on his home continent, since 2021 Wong has been closely associated with the Japan Philharmonic, initially as Principal Guest Conductor, becoming their Chief Conductor this year. (Earlier this summer, Wong was also appointed Principal Conductor of The Hallé in Manchester, beginning in autumn 2024.)

The Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak needs no introduction. After having dazzled the opera stage and the discographic world both in duets and solo, she has devoted the whole of her new recording to Mozart.

Inspired by the foggy San Francisco Bay, Long String Instrument master Ellen Fullman and cellist Theresa Wong unfurl elliptical tonal changes and anxiously resonant dissonance that feels like being stranded at the end of the earth.

Popularity seems to rest as much on chance as on merit, for it is difficult to understand why the Turandot Suite has never become a popular repertory piece. It has all the qualities of melodic appeal (its fifth movement quotes Greensleeves), resourceful invention and brilliant orchestral colour that should ensure its popularity. The two Studies, the Sarabande and Cortège, written in preparation for his opera, Doktor Faust, remain the composer’s masterpiece, highly searching and imaginative music that can claim to be profound, as, indeed, can the Berceuse élégiaque. Both performances and recording are very good, and this disc serves as an admirable and inexpensive introduction to a fascinating and underrated master.

Named after the Japanese word for chameleon, Susan Wong’s twelfth album Kamereon highlights the Hong Kong-born singer’s unerring ability to bring a fresh, new complexion to a wide range of songs taken from different musical genres. Aided by her producer, the Osaka-born saxophonist Hisatsugu Suzuki, and his band, Wong has created a stylish jazz album brimming with her trademark soulful vocals drizzled over syncopated grooves.