QUE SERA SERA / re:mix / Review

QUE SERA SERA
re:mix
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (27 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 November 2011 with the title "Melodic mix of memories".

Five years is about the age a child begins to remember the melodies he or she has heard, sung or played by a parent, or via any other media. Childhood memories and yearning for simpler times are the premise of the 5th anniversary concert of the string ensemble re:mix, that untiring purveyor of musical nostalgia.

The supreme irony is that much of its music is played by people who were born long after the original music first came out. They were essentially playing their parents’ music. As for their children, and there were many noisy toddlers in the matinee, numbers like the titular Que Sera Sera (from Hitchcock’s 1965 movie The Man Who Knew Too Much) or any of the Beatles songs, The Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby, belong in the realm of classical music.

It was nonetheless a fascinating experience to relive hoary old chestnuts distilled and re-jigged in new wineskins. Recent Cultural Medallion winner Kelly Tang (left) is a master of transcription, and his re-look at Yin Kerong’s Xiao Bai Chuan (Little White Boat) rolled back the years with pleasure.

Further arrangements by younger colleagues Wong Kah Chun and Chen Zhangyi gave new life to Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me and Chris Babida’s Xin Bu Liao Qing (New Everlasting Love) respectively, the former sung with some longing by the Singapore Lyric Opera Children’s Choir. Yet the sheer cleverness of the arrangements sometimes put the string players to a test in which they did not always emerge with flying colours.

The latter song sounded over-stretched and under-rehearsed, while the remixed Eleanor Rigby by Chen, packed in Yesterday, Hey Jude and pizzicatos in the manner of the Blues from Ravel’s Violin Sonata. Too much of a good thing, one might say. There was no denying leader Foo Say Ming’s (left) virtuosity in Vieuxtemps’s Souvenir d’Amerique, where the emergence of Yankee Doodle brought out smiles and laughs from the audience.

The theme of primary school blues replaced zoological species in a specially modified version of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of The Animals. Narrator Rosmarie Somaiah’s very witty script entitled Something’s Happening At School is worth several reruns, as was the playing of the twin sisters Low Shao Ying and Low Shao Suan (above) on piano.

The movement Pianists saw pianists and violinists swap places, and cue total mayhem. If that reminded one of school recess periods, this conception would have succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. Happy fifth birthday, re:mix, and may you always retain that inner child in yourselves.

THE LISZT CONCERTOS / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

THE LISZT CONCERTOS
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (26 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 November 2011 with the title "Attacking with force and fury".

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s tribute to the Franz Liszt bicentenary came late in the year, but it could not have been better timed with the visit of British virtuoso Stephen Hough. To witness both of the Hungarian-born phenom’s piano concertos in the same evening was a luxury, but with Hough at the helm, it was added pleasure.

Make no mistake, the concert was conducted by the young Singaporean maestro Darrell Ang, but it was Hough who dictated the proceedings in the First Piano Concerto in E flat major. From the outset, the work was taken by the scruff of the neck, from which there was no let off. Rarely has the opening octaves and cadenza been attacked with such force and fury.

Forget the few wrong notes in the fray, these were swept away by the oncoming tsunami of sound. There was some respite in the short nocturne-like second movement, but then it was action stations and adrenaline on overdrive all the way to the final bar. Credit also goes to percussionist Mark Suter for his all-important contribution on the humble triangle; timing it to perfection is far more difficult than one imagines.

The Second Piano Concerto in A major, the greater work of the two, provided more semblance of sanity. Not only is the piano better integrated with the orchestra, its unfolding narrative showed Hough to be more than flashy fingers. His overall finesse and magisterial control were a joy to behold, and there is no finer moment than that wonderful passage when he sensitively accompanied cellist Ng Pei Sian’s lovely solo.

After the fire and brimstone topped off with outrageous octave glissandi, there was even time for an encore. Hough’s own transcription of Dvorak’s Songs My Mother Taught Me, was touchingly dedicated to SSO’s former principal violist, the Czech-born Jiri Heger (left), who retires after 32 years of faithful service.

Without Beethoven, there would be no Liszt or Wagner. That was the thematic thread of the concert which began with Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No.2. It shares the same themes as the far better known and definitive Overture No.3, but made for fascinating listening with its thrilling build-up to the climatic offstage trumpet solo.

Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Venusberg Music closed the concert on a high, with conductor Ang’s direction emphasising on lightness and movement rather than solemn penitence. The concert’s muted ending more than made up for the revelry and wildness that came before.

THE TALES OF LOVE AND DEATH / Singapore Lyric Opera / Review

THE TALES OF LOVE AND DEATH

Singapore Lyric Opera

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (25 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 November 2011 with the title "Love, death and sympathy for a courtesan".

The combo of love and death, inseparable as Siamese twins, was the subject of the Singapore Lyric Opera’s annual gala, but there was to be no Tristan or Isolde. Given that the tradition of performing Wagner is close to non-existent here, the tried and tested Puccini verismo operas were among the unsurprising offerings.

Why not, as the music has popular appeal and there are no shortage of good singers in this repertoire. The usual stars who have graced SLO’s productions returned, and all three were in superb voice and form. The ageless soprano Nancy Yuen (left) was the chief protagonist with bleeding chunks from her signature roles in Tosca and La Bohème.

Nobody here does dying consumptive divas better, except in this case Floria Tosca leaps to her demise rather than wastes away. Her duet Mario, Mario, Mario (Tosca) with Korean tenor Lee Jae Wook (left) simmered and then sizzled, aglow with the anticipation of a late night tryst. The famous sequence in La Bohème which begins with Rodolfo’s Che gelida manina and closing with O soave fanciulla also sported the chemistry which has made this pairing a very special one. So far no deaths.

It was in the final moments of Massenet’s Thaïs, with Korean baritone Song Kee Chang (left), that the tears flowed. Who could not have sympathy for a courtesan turned nun who succumbs, predictably but beautifully, to the strains of the familiar Meditation. For once, that most overplayed of melodies is heard in its proper context.

As a preview to next February’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, highlights were performed, including Yuen and Song in the tender duet La ci darem la mano. Meanwhile Lee, as the roving Don, flirted with a lady in the audience in the Window Serenade by way of a rose, and then polished off the Drinking Song.

The SLO Ladies and Children’s Chorus made credible short appearances in Bizet’s Carmen and Verdi’s Macbeth, while the SLO Orchestra conducted by recently conferred Young Artist Award winner Joshua Tan Kangming (left) played rather many minutes of orchestral excerpts. While Puccini’s youthful Symphonic Prelude came off half-baked, there was no denying the passion in the Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut.

The sole encore was, of course, the Brindisi from Verdi’s La Traviata, which had all three soloists toasting the audience. One would have hoped for more singing in the two hour long concert, but it was the quality rather than quantity that truly mattered.

I-SIS TRIO performs at College of Family Physicians Singapore 40th Anniversary Dinner

The I-Sis Trio, Singapore's premier harp ensemble, performed at the 40th anniversary dinner of the College of Family Physicians Singapore on 27 November 2011 at the Grand Ballroom of the Singapore Hyatt. They enchanted and enthralled an audience of Singapore's fraternity of family physicians with a selection of works from their latest album.

They performed a short programme of works which included pieces which they had specially commissioned as well as their own arrangements of popular classics tangos.

Two young girls hope to emulate their talented older sisters when they grow up!

The I-Sis Trio were a refreshing change from the boring old string quartets.

PianoManiac happened to attend the event (far away from his reviewing duties), but could not escape the strong hold of good music and charming ladies. They say good music is the best medicine for the jaded soul.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2011)

MARTHA ARGERICH AND FRIENDS
Live from Lugano 2010
EMI Classics 708362 (3CDs) / ****1/2

The Martha Argerich Project of the annual Lugano Festival brings together the world’s top young musicians in a feast of chamber music, inspired by the sheer presence and personality of the Argentine piano legend herself. Every edition throws up a panoply of works, familiar and obscure. Argerich appears only in the first two discs, but her effect is electric, not least in Chopin’s First Piano Concerto – a signature favourite of hers – with the Orchestra Svizzera Italiana conducted by Jacek Kaspszyk. She also joins some-time partner Stephen Kovacevich in Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos & Percussion in a fiery performance, reliving the good old days of their famed collaboration.

Rarities make this box-set a keeper as well. Where else would one get performances of piano quintets by Enrique Granados, Erich Korngold or Alfred Schnittke? The last is a particularly acerbic work that closes the collection on a pall of depression. But that is offset by sparkling works for multiple pianos by Chopin (Rondo Op.73), Brahms (Schumann Variations Op 23) and the scintillating Gershwin-Grainger (Porgy & Bess Fantasy). The pick of the crop are Liszt’s Les Preludes on two pianos (with Argerich and Daniel Rivera) and the three-piano transcription for three pianos by Carlo Maria Griguoli of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (Griguoli, Giorgia Tomassi and Alessandro Stella). Enjoy!

GRAZYNA BACEWICZ
Piano Quintets / Piano Sonata No.2
KRYSTIAN ZIMERMAN, Piano et al
Deutsche Grammophon 477 8332 / ****1/2

Only a pianist of Krystian Zimerman’s stature could have persuaded Deutsche Grammophon to devote an entire release to Polish music not composed by Chopin or Szymanowski. Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969) was without doubt Poland’s greatest woman composer. More of her music, obscured from the West because of her relatively early death behind the “iron curtain”, is being heard today. Perhaps the least unfamiliar is her Second Piano Sonata (1953), a virtuoso vehicle that possesses a fluent but turbulent lyricism, brilliantly realised by Zimerman. The finale is a coruscating toccata that will make it a concert hall favourite.

The two piano quintets are classically conceived despite the modern idioms employed. Tonality is retained, but with dissonance that goes beyond the pungent chromaticism of Szymanowski. The First Quintet (1952) is perhaps more memorable than the compact and ascetic Second Quintet (1965), largely due to the use of the oberek, a mazurka-like dance that goes back to before Chopin’s time. Bacewicz is a distinctive and original voice, and repeated listening will reveal a similar appeal enjoyed by established icons like Bartok, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Zimerman and his compatriots on strings invest their heart and soul in this musically rewarding outing.

CLARENCE LEE Piano Recital

CLARENCE LEE Piano Recital
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Thursday (24 November 2011)

What a pleasure it is to finish a long day of work with good music, especially when it comes from a young talent who is also a passionate musician. Young pianist Clarence Lee is a final year student at the Conservatory, whose studies was disrupted by that most unavoidable of trials that comes with being a Singaporean male - 2 years of National Service (or is it National Servitude?). Thankfully his hands are intact, but more importantly that priceless inner muse that leads to instinctual music-making is gloriously preserved.

His well-conceived programme began with a tiny Scarlatti Sonata in F minor (K.466), that dovetailed neatly with Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata (Op.57), also in the same key. The former was illuminated with clarity and a rounded legato that brought out its tender bittersweet quality, contrasted with the latter's boom and bluster. The more mature musician in Lee avoided the bangy and splashy tendencies of his younger years, and went for instead for the heart of the music by projecting well and bringing volume to bear only at the right moments. Even in the coruscating finale, might and power was reserved - rightly so - for the final page. Before that, he went velocity and lightness instead, which made for a refreshing change from those all-too-loud versions that pass for passionate hearts.

The best performance fell to Liszt's transcription of Wagner's Isoldes Liebestod. Always careful to maintain the seamless soprano line, Lee never forsook beauty for the pursuit of virtuosity. The build up to the shuddering climax was perfectly judged, a truly heartrending journey before the tumultuous meltdown of crashing chords, and eternal rest.

He closed with Rachmaninov's Second Sonata (Op.36) in the 1931 revised "economical" version, which still does not disguise the thinness of its musical material. Nevertheless, Lee embraced it with a wealth of sound, bringing to bear its inherent tragedy and clangourous bells. He went for the jugular, which entailed certain risks - missed notes and lapses - avoidable but almost inevitable at this blistering pace. Yet there were moments of true poetry, such as in the central movement that shone out from within the thickets of notes. The cadenza was not perfect but brought out with scintillating panache, and the reserves of adrenaline were unleashed for the gushing finale. Despite a certain rawness, one cannot but have praise and admiration for this guts and glory reading.

How many young Singaporeans can play like this? Not many. I look forward to hearing more of Clarence Lee, perhaps in Mozart and Schubert. With these composers, more musical qualities will be discerned.

SHANGHAI QUARTET / Review

SHANGHAI QUARTET
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Monday (21 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 November 2011 with the title "Fab four from Shanghai".

It was a great pleasure to be reacquainted with the Shanghai Quartet at the Conservatory, in a concert which cemented its reputation among the world’s elite chamber groups. Now in its 28th year since its founding by students at the Shanghai Conservatory, the chemistry between individual members remains awe-inspiring.

Its performance of Mozart’s “Hunt” String Quartet in B flat major (K.458) was a model of incisive precision and togetherness. The approach on the opening movement, which reminded early listeners of a hunting horn, also had lightness and a sense of perfect control. The sound projection in arguably Singapore’s best hall for chamber music came close to perfection, with each instrument’s timbre clearly delineated in both solo and ensemble playing.

Even better was Smetana’s autobiographical First String Quartet in E minor, which carried the title “From My Life”. Li Honggang’s emphatic viola solo breathed an air of defiance, answered by his partners’ passionate outbursts. Not one for faint hearts, the quartet played as if their lives depended on it, reliving the composer’s confessions, trials and tribulations without fear or apology.

They revelled in the folksy dance moments, which alternated with sterner minutes, no better illustrated by cellist Nicholas Tzavaras’s soulful lament in the slow movement. The busyness of the finale was rendered more poignant with first violinist Li Weigang’s piercing shriek, the abrupt musical representation of tinnitus and the composer’s deafness. That the work ended on a muted and subdued note, stated with much stoicism, was a sobering statement on the transience of life itself.

The pleasure of sonority was doubled when violist Zhang Manchin and cellist Qin Li-Wei, both conservatory faculty members, joined in for Brahms’s First String Sextet in B flat major (Op.18). There cannot be too much of a good thing here, as all six musicians blended beautifully through its four movements, beginning with seriousness and closing with good cheer.

The overall excellence may be summed up in the second movement’s Theme and Variations, where together they sounded resolute in unity, and within seconds melting away for each solo thread to be discerned with stunning clarity. The camaraderie displayed was infectious, and this is the reason why recordings cannot replace the immediacy and spirit of live performance.

The Shanghai Quartet and friends take a bow. By the way, the second violinist of the quartet was Jiang Yi-Wen.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE / Review

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Saturday (19 November 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 November 2011 with the title "Goodies from Russia".

Musicians from Eastern Europe have over the decades contributed significantly to the diversity of Singapore’s musical scene. The names of Feri Krempl, Pavel Prantl, Martina Maixnerova, Jiri Heger and Alexander Souptel immediately come to mind. It was however the fall of the Soviet Union which made the biggest impact, bringing this evening’s five Russian speaking virtuosos to our shores.

The delightfully varied programme had the intimacy of a private salon, despite being attended by a house filled to overflowing. The first half was a showcase for Tatarstani flautist Evgueni Brokmiller and Kazakh harpist Gulnara Mashurova, both musicians of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Their performance of Jean Michel Damase’s Variations on Early One Morning began with childlike simplicity before revelling in a flight of fantasy, where mildly spiced dissonances added to its attractiveness.

Earlier, Brokmiller had impressively opened the concert with Zybin’s flashy Allegro and later brought out the piquant melodies of Dutilleux’s Sonatine, while Mashurova lent a touch of boldness and finery to Fauré’s classic Impromptu. The biggest cheers went to soprano Natalia Kumkova from St Petersburg, a private singing teacher, whose vocal projection and mastery of coloratura held the greatest resonance.

Vladimir Vavilov’s Ave Maria, widely misattributed to Giulio Caccini, was given the due respect and gentility of the baroque aria antiche. It was in Mozart’s Alleluia (from Exsultate, Jubilate) and Henry Bishop’s Lo! Here The Gentle Lark where she unleashed the full gamut of dazzling devices. In all three songs, she was ably accompanied by a student string quartet, led by young Uzbek violinist Adelya Nartadjeva.

Double bassist Guennadi Mouzyka, the Principal from SSO, gave his ungainly instrument the sweetest of voices, bearing the soul in Lensky’s Aria from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and providing counter-melodies to Kumkova in Bottesini’s Tutto il mondo serra. The latter song sounds familiar because it is a vocal arrangement of Chopin’s Étude in C sharp minor.

The very popular Kumkova closed the formal programme with two haunting romances by Rachmaninov, Sing Not, O Lovely One (Op.4 No.4, based on a Georgian song) and the wordless Vocalise, partnered by her busy pianist husband Kerim Vergazov. As generous encores, the audience was transported to a Moscow cabaret where all five performers took their turns in a potpourri of Russian oldies but goodies. Moscow Nights, Dark Eyes… it was almost as good as being there yourself.

THE ARTS AWARDS 2011 / Exclusive from The Istana

The annual Arts Awards ceremony took place at the Istana this evening, with two members of the musical fraternity being honoured. The 2011 Cultural Medallion in music went to composer, lecturer and administrator Kelly Tang Yap Ming, and the Young Artist Award in music was conferred on conductor Joshua Tan Kang Ming.

Joshua Tan, Kelly Tang and Singapore's No.1 jazzman Jeremy Monteiro.

Kelly Tang is the first composer of the newer generation (born in the 1960s) to win the Cultural Medallion. An extremely versatile composer and musician, he is at home with the serious classics, jazz, film, popular music besides being adept as a mridangam player. In 2010, he composed two piano concertos, one in the atonal idiom (premiered by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra) and the other a jazz concerto (premiered by Jeremy Monteiro and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.) He is also the newly appointed Dean of Performing Arts of the School of the Arts.

Joshua Tan Kang Ming is presently the Resident Conductor of the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts. He has conducted the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (the 2011 President's Young Performers Concert) and the Singapore Lyric Opera's 2011 production of Bizet's Carmen. He is also winner of several international conducting competitions.

Joining the fray is the 2003 Young Artist Award recipient Zechariah Goh Toh Chai (extreme left) and a certain gatecrashing music reviewer.

Chinese orchestra conductor Major Tay Soon Huat, soprano Yee Ee Ping (left), and Tan Wie Pin of the Ministry of Education.

Dr Kelly Tang's family

Joshua Tan and his wife Yolanda.

2004 Young Artist Award winner violinist Chan Yoong Han with the Maestro.

We came here for the food too!

For the record, the other Cultural Medallion winners were: Yusnor Ef (Music), Atin Amat (Theatre) and Lim Yew Kuan (Visual Arts). The other Young Artist Award winners were: Troy Chin (Literary Arts), Lim Woan Wen (Theatre), Nawaz Mohammad Mirajkar (Music), Peter Sau (Theatre) and Ang Song Ming (Visual Arts).

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2011)

CASALS Encores
ALBAN GERHARDT, Cello
CECILE LICAD, Piano
Hyperion 67831 / *****

This is a lovely collection of short cello pieces – mostly transcriptions – played as encores by the great Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973). Besides being the first cellist to popularise and record all six of J.S.Bach’s Cello Suites, he had a wide and catholic taste in repertoire, as reflected in the 20 tracks. Spanish music was close to his heart; the unaccompanied Song Of The Birds, a traditional Catalan Christmas carol was his favourite encore. Here it sounds positively poignant and soulful, as is the equally evocative Andalusian lullaby Nana, from Manuel de Falla’s suite of Popular Spanish Songs, contrasted with the rhythmic lilt of Granados Andaluza.

The combo of familiar (Saint-Saëns’ The Swan, Elgar’s Salut d’Amour and Fauré’s Apres un Reve) and less trodden territory (Lassen, Sgambati and Popper) is an illuminating one, and there is nothing that isn’t worth listening to again. German cellist Alban Gerhardt coaxes a warm burnished tone from his Gofriller cello, always keenly attuned to the nuances of the music. The sensitive Philippines-born pianist Cecile Licad, in her Hyperion debut, sounds like the perfect accompanist for this truly enjoyable anthology.

EVER MORE CRAZY MUSICAL LOOKALIKES

This is what happens when you go a few nights without attending a concert. You get bored and a little crazy, and then you start surfing the web for amusement, and you find some classical musicians who remind of someone else. So here goes for another whacky instalment of musical lookalikes...

Someone referred to Sir Georg Solti as the "screaming skull" when he rehearses orchestras, so that is quite appropriate that Captain America's nemesis The Red Skull takes his place alongside one of music's greats.

Classical music's first couple, Gramophone Award winning Sir Simon Rattle and his mate Magdelena Kozena, as played by The Duchess of Alba and Oscar winning Meryl Streep.

Conductor Helmuth Rilling and Formula One supremo
Bernie Ecclestone.

Founder of modern Vietnam Ho Chi Minh and founder conductor of the Bach Collegium Japan Masaaki Suzuki. The VC and the BC in perfect harmony.

Give or take 20 years, the British organist, music lecturer and Gramophone critic Marc Rochester (and my colleague with The Straits Times) bears a certain resemblance to the late great East German conductor Kurt Sanderling.

It is said that Romanians originally came from India, so it isn't too far fetched to suggest that conductors Sergiu Celibidache and Singapore's pioneering maestro Paul Abisheganaden are somehow related.

Pretty Women: Julia Roberts and Helene Grimaud. One loves Richard Gere and the other loves wolves.

A young Ronald Stevenson, great Scottish composer-pianist, looking like the great cartoon magician Mandrake.

I've always thought that George the loser from Seinfeld (played by Jason Alexander) was a splitting image of the love-forlorn composer of Lieder Franz Schubert. Both were particularly bad with women.

For those familiar with the Singapore and Taiwan musical scene, I thought that the teenage pianistic prodigy Tsai Min Hao could be the kid brother of the conductor Wang Ya-Hui.

YET MORE CRAZY MUSICAL LOOKALIKES

This is getting quite addictive, so I've come up with more crazy and totally ridiculous lookalikes of classical musicans who we love and adore...

Did anyone notice the similarity between Gustavo Dudamel, Musical Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of The Tipping Point, Outliers and What the Dude Saw?

This after seeing James Bond's Casino Royale - Russian conductor-pianist Mikhail Pletnev bears a strange resemblance to Scandinavian actor Mads Mikkelsen who played Le Chiffre.

Women power from Southeast Asia: Filipino pianist Cecile Licad and beleaguered new Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

The bee-hive of Dame Fanny Waterman, founder and Director of the Leeds International Piano Competition, and a popular cartoon character from the comics of Malaysian cartoonist Lat.

Just do it! Nigerian-British pianist Glen Inanga is also an athelete, as is American basketball great Michael Jordan.

Also from Southest Asia, rising Singaporean conductor Adrian Tan and Thai artist-architect Chalermchai Kositpipat, creator of the surrealistic Wat Rong Khun (White Temple) of Chiang Rai.

Singaporean pianist Lim Yan looks like one of those young Shaolin Temple monks if he can be persuaded to don saffron robes.

This is a naughty one. Singaporean cellist Loke Hoe Kit shares a similar fashion sense with Sascha Baron Cohen's Brüno. (This is all the more curious as his teacher Nathaniel Rosen was a splitting image of Sascha Baron Cohen's Borat!)