Margaret Leng Tan

Woman who plays a toy piano and other childhood instruments, treating them as legitimate things. Not as interesting as it sounds.

Information: Margaret Leng Tan
Suggested first purchase: The Art of the Toy Piano


The Art of the Toy Piano (1997) -- It sounds like a great idea, and it might be: to play important pieces of music on a toy piano. But although she's good, sometimes her performance makes the little instrument sound more like noise than music. I realize that playing on a toy piano isn't going to sound like playing on a grand piano, but she should realize that too. Therefore, simplicity sometimes is best, as opposed to the trillions of notes she tries to pile in (sometimes in what only sounds like off-time and tempo). This is one of those cases of the audience being convinced of something being good and interesting just because it's quaint, different, and clever. Perhaps someone else should try. (However, to be fair, sometimes it works for her, like her arrangement of Philip Glass's "Modern Love Waltz" or Beethoven's "Moonlight" sonata.) C


Copyright (c) Feb 2004 by Rusty Likes Music