11 November 2026 · 8pm · Victoria Concert Hall
Calling all Cristofori students — here’s a concert worth putting in your diary. German pianist Julius Asal is making his very first visit to Singapore, and we’re excited to have our students in the room for it.
Praised by the legendary pianist Menahem Pressler for his “uniquely beautiful sound and special sonority,” Asal is one of the most talked-about young pianists working today. In 2023, Deutsche Grammophon — the most storied name in classical recording — signed him as an exclusive artist; he’s since been named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and Classic FM’s Rising Star. He’s played some of the world’s great stages, from Wigmore Hall and the Musikverein Vienna to Suntory Hall Tokyo, and in 2025 stepped in on short notice for Evgeny Kissin to perform Scriabin’s Piano Concerto with the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna — the kind of moment that makes a career. His Deutsche Grammophon debut album, Scriabin–Scarlatti, has already passed 25 million streams.
About the Programme: “Last Words”
Asal’s Singapore programme, titled “Last Words,” will be built around music composers wrote at the end of something — the end of a life, a story, or what words alone can say. It will be a rich programme to sit with as a student, because each piece approaches “ending” so differently.
The evening will open with Schumann’s Ghost Variations, the very last piece he completed before his breakdown in 1854 — hushed, fragile music that feels like a private goodbye rather than a grand statement. Next will come Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111, his final piano sonata: just two movements, moving from a stormy opening struggle to an Arietta that dissolves slowly into trills and stillness. It will be well worth listening for how Beethoven uses space and silence here — there’s a lot to learn from how little he needs to say by the end.
Singapore will get its first hearing of Lera Auerbach’s Love Letters of Emma Hauck, a piece written especially for Asal and premiered by him this past March. It is inspired by real letters from a woman who wrote the same two words to her husband, over and over, for years — and Auerbach’s music turns that repetition into something searching and unresolved, a compelling case study in how a single musical idea can carry an entire piece. The evening will close with a suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, mixing Prokofiev’s own piano transcriptions with new ones by Asal himself — a great one for anyone curious about how orchestral music gets reimagined for solo piano, and a bold, theatrical way to end the night.
Whether you’ve been playing for two years or twenty, this is a rare chance to hear a world-class artist’s technique and interpretation up close, and to walk away with new repertoire on your radar.
Event Details
Julius Asal, piano — “Last Words” Tuesday, 11 November 2026, 8pm Victoria Concert Hall, Singapore
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, 1 September 2026, via Ticketmaster.SG.
This recital is brought to you by True Music Singapore and Bechstein Music World, both part of the Cristofori Music Group, as part of True Music Singapore’s 2026 European Sound Piano Concert series.
Follow True Music Singapore on Facebook and Instagram, and Bechstein Music World on Facebook and Instagram for updates.
We hope to see many of our Cristofori students in the audience! This is exactly the kind of concert that can shape, and open new horizons in how you think about music.
