David Tong

03/07/2005
Bob Crimeen
Sunday Herald Sun (Australia)

From the time he could barely peek across the closed lid of a concert grand, Macao-born Melbournian David Tong has seemed destined for greatness. Any unresolved judgment on that prophesy is swept aside by the bravura playing on this recording, Tong's first, for the Melbourne-based Melba label. From the agitated first notes of Rakhmaninov's (curiously, the spelling adapted for this disk) Sonata No. 2 in B minor, every musical mood of this program of contrasts is conveyed by the soloist with consummate craftsmanship. There is great power in the Rakhmaninov outer movements, in the Chopin, which Tong invests with forthright masculinity and urgent drive, and the Liszt. But listen, in total silence, to the central Non allegro - Lento section of the Rakhmaninov sonata to be no less awed by the sensitivity and reflective pauses of Tong's interpretation.