LANXESS SNYO CLASSIC: MUSICAL VIRTUOSOS / Singapore National Youth Orchestra / Review

LANXESS SNYO CLASSIC 2014

Singapore National Youth Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (27 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 November 2014 with the title "British cellist's impressive debut here".

Concerts by the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO) used to be low-profile and minimally-publicised affairs until the involvement and sponsorship of Lanxess, the German chemical company. This partnership has resulted in several internationally renowned soloists performing with the orchestra, including Italian flautist Andrea Griminelli and Canadian violinist Lara St John. The latest concert of all-French repertoire saw the Singapore debut of British cellist Natalie Clein, winner of the 1994 BBC Young Young Musician of the Year Competition.

Anyone who has heard her stunning CD recording of Camille Saint-Saëns’s two cello concertos will attest that she is even more impressive in live performance. Cutting a svelte figure in a green floral gown, her glamourous appearance was almost a distraction until she actually sat down and performed.   

In Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto in A minor, the tone she coaxed from her 1777 ‘Simpson’ Guadagnini was rich and full-bodied, immediately putting her mark on the single-movement work performed without breaks. The virtuosic and fast hairpin turns encountered at the beginning and close of the concerto were met with lightning reflexes, requisite of this showpiece, a testament to her finely-honed technique. Even in the quieter bits, her playing was always transcendent and unfailingly beautiful.  

Serving like a substantial encore was Fauré’s Elegie, a concert favourite which far from being a funereal dirge, was another opportunity for Clein and her cello to demonstrate long-breathed lyrical qualities. In both concertante works, the SNYO led by SSO Associate Conductor Jason Lai was sensitive and attentive to the fine shifts in dynamics, keeping up with the constant activity in the concerto and allowing the soloist to sing unabated.

On its own, the young orchestra distinguished itself, opening the concert with Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, an excellent showpiece that highlighted fine solo playing from the woodwinds, particularly Simon Lee’s cor anglais. and ensemble strings which raced to a terrific crescendo before closing on a rousing high.

In the second half, twelve short movements from Bizet’s evergreen opera Carmen, neatly packaged in two orchestral suites, was a popular choice. The opening Prelude was serious, intoning the cruel hand of Fate. There was a rustle of recognition in the audience at the Toreador’s March and sultry Habanera. The absence of voices was never an issue, because the solo and ensemble playing was always close to excellent.

The soothing Intermezzo, which starred flute, clarinet and harp provided lingering moments to cherish, so beautiful was the playing. Kudos also go to the pair of trumpeters who confidently blazed their way in Escamillo’s Aria  and the Military March. Conductor Lai finally led his charges into the wild, vertiginous gypsy world of the Bohemian Dance, which began steadily but got increasingly frenzied all the way to its raucous conclusion. A shout of “Ole!” would have been the natural response to such playing of immediacy and high spirits.

Once again, the Singapore National Youth Orchestra proved its mettle in the heat of concert, and that can only bode well for the growing orchestral scene here.

POSTCARDS & MEMORIES / STEVEN SPOONER Piano Recital / Review

MEMORIES & POSTCARDS

STEVEN SPOONER Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (26 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 November 2014

The piano is an instrument with enormous range, possessing the capabilities of an orchestra to exploit every colour, mood and nuance of musical expression. Compositions for piano are thus like canvasses on which every variety of paint and pastel is applied by a composer to his own fancy. This recital by American pianist Steven Spooner was a masterclass on how a piano can conjure up images of landscapes and portraiture for the ears like a palette and paintbrush can for the eyes.

Claude Debussy wrote out his 24 Preludes before appending evocative French titles to each, inspired by some literary quote or scenery (hence the reference to postcards here). With deft use of pedalling and a variegated touch, watching and listening to the First Book of twelve Preludes unfold in Spooner’s hands was pleasure itself.

Even in the simple group of sustained chords in the opening Dancers of Delphi, gentle echoes resounded just long enough before the next notes appeared. There was none of the muddiness associated with amateur musings, but the bell-like clarity when pedals unlock secrets to a piano’s soul.

His characterisations of each successive number were gripping and varied according to the inherent moods. There is an astonishing sequence which began with the swirling tarantella rhythm of The Hills of Anacapri, followed by bleakness and desolation in Footsteps in the Snow before erupting into the storm of What The West Wind Saw, Debussy’s most violent piece bar none.

And before one could catch a breath, the utter simplicity of Girl with the Flaxen Hair descended like angel dust. What contrasts provided by the crashing chords in The Engulfed Cathedral and the book’s close with the impishness of Puck’s Dance and dixieland swagger of Minstrels, were all captured with much vividness.

The second half began with four popular but diverse Schubert songs transcribed by Franz Liszt. The art of the transcriber is akin to that of an alchemist, where something like base metal is turned into gold. Not that any of Schubert’s lieder is lead, but with Liszt’s Midas touch, miracles do occur.

Voice and piano become unity in the frequent crossing of hands of Wohin? (Whither) and lovely echoing effects in Ständchen (Serenade). Ferocious repeated octaves define The Erl King, and Spooner’s blistering account was worth the while just to watch him sweat. 

Like the pianists of the fabled Golden Age, Spooner was prey to composition and transcription himself. Three of his virtuoso etudes brought down the house. The first was a toccata à la Martha Argerich, all of flying fingers and hot-blooded Latino passion. The second and longest was My Funny Valentine in the ruminative bluesy manner of Keith Jarrett, while the last a speculation on how Vladimir Horowitz might have interpreted We Are The Champions by Queen.

Late old Volodya might disagree but there was no doubt that Spooner’s two encores were Horowitz classics, Chopin’s A flat major Waltz (Op.69 No.1), appropriately entitled L’Adieu (Farewell) and the delectable Scarlatti Sonata in D minor. By the applause and accolades he received, the pianist had done his idol proud.

All photos by the kind permission of Musique Loft.

DICHTERLIEBE & HERMIT SONGS / New Opera Singapore / Review

DICHTERLIEBE & HERMIT SONGS

New Opera Singapore

The Chamber @ The Arts House

Tuesday (25 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 November 2014 with the title "Promising lieder from young group".

Lieder and art song have a very small following among local audiences, so miniscule that attendances are often discouraging to performers and presenters, who can never hope to recoup costs of mounting recitals. Nevertheless, groups like The Sing Song Club and New Opera Singapore persevere, if only to give its singers the chance to perform this repertoire, and hope that some people do listen.

Only 32 souls were present to witness this recital of two song cycles performed by ten young singers of New Opera Singapore, six of whom were making their debuts. Despite being young, they acquitted themselves well in this serious art form, even suggesting that some would go on to have real singing careers.

The audience was asked the rhetorical question, “What is love?”, a prelude to Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love). With words in German by Heinrich Heine, its 16 songs were shared by four men, beginning with tenor Isaac Ho (above) in the opening Im wunderschönen Monat Mai (In The Marvellous Month Of May). The debutant impressed in this and three other songs with his clear, ringing tone and ardent demeanour, providing the ideal setting for the season to fall in love.

Tenor Shaun Lee, a lawyer by training, has advanced his craft in leaps and bounds over the months, registering fine performances in four songs, including The Rose, The Lily, The Dove, the Sun and Ich grolle nicht (I Complain Not), with the kind of passion and projection that will fill concert halls. American tenor Sam Garcia, a university exchange student, exhibited a wide range of emotions, not least earnestness in Wenn ich in deine Augen seh (When I Gaze Into Your Eyes) and playful humour in Ein jungling liebt ein Mädchen (A Lad Loves A Girl).

Baritone Lim Jing Jie, presently serving national service, used his deep, gravelly voice to good effect in Im Rhein (In the Rhine) and Am leuchtenden sommermorgen (On a Gleaming Summer Morn), another artist who has matured with time. Pianist Lim Yan was more than mere accompanist, and as the final song Die Alten Bösen Lieder (The Old and Evil Songs) proved, his part extended long after tenor Garcia had sung his last note.

Six women shared duties in Three Songs Op.45 and Hermit Songs by American Samuel Barber, songs of a spiritual and other-worldly nature which provided a different kind of challenge. Subtlety was a virtue which soprano Laura Lim possessed, but she could do with greater heft and characterisation in the Op.45 songs written for the great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

The five other sopranos had Leontyne Price’s act to emulate in the ten Hermit Songs, based on an ancient Irish writings. Rachel Ong (above) shook off nerves to deliver At St.Patrick’s Purgatory and St Ita’s Vision with good control in high registers, not an easy task. Rachel Lim displayed crystal clear diction in Church Bell at Night and the jazzy The Monk and his Cat. Moira Loh, already a veteran of many productions, was at her expressive best in The Heavenly Banquet and the brief but enigmatic Promiscuity.

Gwen Chua who sang The Crucifixion will build on confidence with time, but her passion in Sea Snatch was never in doubt. Finally Rebecca Li, the team’s most experienced singer, brought the cycle to an ecstatic but reflective close in The Praises of God and The Desire for Hermitage. Translations and surtitles for all the songs were screened, a good aid for audience appreciation, and all ten singers donned Asian ethnic costumes, which made it a feast for the eyes as well. 

Photographs by the kind permission of New Opera Singapore.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2014)

SCRIABIN Solo Piano Works

MARIA LETTBERG, Piano

Capriccio 49586 (8CDs + DVD) / ****1/2

It is always interesting to track the development and progress of a composer from youth to maturity through his works. It is possible in the case of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) who wrote piano works all his life, starting as a Chopin devotee before becoming a self-proclaimed messianic figure whose music became increasingly mystical and mysterious, embracing the occult and taking on psychedelic dimensions. Latvia-born Swedish pianist Maria Lettberg performs his complete solo works with opus numbers in chronological order, and one is able to follow Scriabin’s trajectory on a number of fronts: via his 10 Sonatas, 84 Préludes, 24 Études, dances (Mazurkas and Waltzes), and various pieces enigmatically titled as Poémes.

It is a fascinating journey from wide-eyed innocence to ecstatic and even carnal self-indulgences. The listener is drawn into his heady sound world and can even detect when the metamorphoses take place, thanks to Lettberg’s consistently sensitive and intuitive performances. There is a bonus DVD entitled The Mysterium Project, where excerpts from Scriabin’s sonatas have a son et lumiere show as a backdrop. Scriabin was afflicted with synaesthesia, where the perception of sound is accompanied by coloured visions. His later music, which puts this mixed blessing into action, is utterly unique, once heard never forgotten.

BRAHMS / SIBELIUS Violin Concertos

GINETTE NEVEU, Violin

The Philharmonia / Issay Dobrowen & Walter Susskind

EMI Classics 476830 2 / *****

The Paris-born violinist Ginette Neveu (1919-1949), a contemporary of Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern, would have become the world’s greatest violinist had she not perished in an air crash in the Atlantic at the young age of only 30. At 16, she had already won the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Warsaw, pipping the likes of the mature David Oistrakh. Without sounding sexist, Neveu played like a man. On blind listening, one is astonished by her sinewy tone, a fiery temperament that neither minces the notes nor stints on sensitivity. In short, she was an all-round musician and artist, regardless of gender.

Interestingly, the album’s programme notes by Tully Potter record that both the Brahms and Sibelius concertos were championed and popularised by women violinists. These were Neveu’s calling cards too. Her view of the Brahms (recorded in 1946) has a forthrightness that is refreshing, an eloquence that takes into account both the music’s resolute and tender pages. Even more trenchant is her gritty take on the Sibelius (1945), which has a frightening intensity, one that grips the listener whole from start to finish and does not let off. The finale is taken at a slower pace than most modern recordings, which better reveals her steely control. Why do people swear by these post-War monaural documents? Listen to the re-mastered recordings, and be suitably awe-struck.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE / Kerim Vergazov et al / Review

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Kerim Vergazov (Piano) & Friends

Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (21 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 November 2014 with the title "A romp with the Russians".

Every once in a while, the small but important community of Russian professional musicians in Singapore bands together to give a concert at the Conservatory. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, these musicians planted their roots here, playing in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and teaching in the Conservatory, or both. Attended by a large and enthusiastic audience, it was a way of showing their appreciation to their adopted home. 

St Petersburg native Kerim Vergazov was the busy pianist, playing every minute of the concert with a stern demeanour belying much sensitivity and musicianship. Flautist Evgueni Brokmiller opened both halves of the concert with two showpieces, beginning with the Allegro Concertante No.2 by Vladimir Tsybin, hailed as the “father of the Russian flute school”.

This and Georges Enesco’s Cantabile et Presto, which graced the second half, were not particularly Slavic in character, instead more redolent of the French style. Nevertheless, it gave Brokmiller much scope to showcasing his silvery and mellifluous tone, and nimbleness in negotiating the music’s fast and virtuosic turns.

Soprano Natalia Kumkova had a lion’s share of the programme in a fine selection of art songs. In Liszt’s Pace non trovo (I Find No Peace), a setting of Petrarch’s Sonnet No.104, a rich and wide vocal range was immediately established, even if her sung Italian was not particularly discernible. She was far more at home in five of Rachmaninov’s romances, which were a joy from start to end.

In these, she poured out her heart with the typical wistfulness and melancholy found in songs like The Answer, Lilacs and A Dream. Has there been a more eloquent expression of contentment than Zdes Khorasho (How Beautiful it is Here or How Fair This Spot) from this usually dour composer? Kumkova and her husband Vergazov truly brought out the essence of being Russian.

The spot previously occupied by violinist Alexander Souptel was now filled by his successor as Concertmaster of the SSO, Igor Yuzefovich, who was just appointed to the post this year. While some might miss “old” Sasha’s winking and wily gypsy imitations, “young” Igor impressed with his lofty but understated authority in Tchaikovsky’s Melodie from Souvenir d’un lieu cher and the infectiously lilting Valse-Scherzo.

Gershwin figured in the second half, first with Kumkova in Summertime from Porgy and Bess and the tribute to the Viennese waltz called By Strauss. Yuzefovich also returned in Igor Frolov’s Concert Fantasy on Porgy and Bess, a medley of hit songs modelled on Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy. Having spent his formative years in America, he took to numbers like I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’ and It Ain’t Necessarily So like a native and with the greatest ease.

Bassist Guennadi Mouzyka joined the flock of five for Astor Piazzolla’s Fugatta, with each instrument taking on a voice as contrapuntal exercise. The Argentine’s most famous tango, Libertango, in Mouzyka’s own arrangement, which included ad libbing from Kumkova, closed the formal programme on a high note.

And there was more, with some late night Russian romances with the dulcet-toned Kumkova as the house lights dimmed to darkness. Down The Long Road, better known in English as Those Were The Days, got the audience clapping along and Ochi Tchorniye (Dark Eyes) sent them home with a song in their hearts. 

VALERY GERGIEV WITH LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA / Review

VALERY GERGIEV WITH

LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (19 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 November 2014 with the title "Fine performance, cool response".

Not since 2010 when the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performed here has a pair of orchestral concerts at the Esplanade been so keenly anticipated. Tickets were sold out in advance, and even the gallery seats behind the orchestra had its full share of takers at $200 apiece. The London Symphony Orchestra, which last performed here in 2004, did not offer any Elgar or Vaughan Williams but all-Russian repertoire on two evenings, conducted by its Russian Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s Festive Overture was a most apt curtain-raiser, allowing the orchestra to flex its virtuoso biceps from the outset without any hint of irony. The rousing brass fanfare was followed by a series of impressive solo runs from the woodwinds, establishing the tenor of the work, which flourished on its fast paced and high octane delivery.

With its credentials laid on a plate, the orchestra then partnered the high-flying young Russian pianist Denis Matsuev, controversial 1^st prize winner of the 1998 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, in Rachmaninov’s ever-popular Second Piano Concerto. He is a pianist with talent and technique to burn, but one intent to make the listener hear every single note he nails on the keyboard.

Posing like a Russian rival to Lang Lang, the opening chords were taken at a lugubrious pace, the objective of which was unknown as its plodding was immediately undone by the orchestra in the tutti exposition of the main theme. Technically, Matsuev was faultless but what he chose to do with the music was often questionable, such as racing through the slow movement like a grand prix driver late for supper.

When the music needed to breathe, ruminate and reflect, there was just that constant and needless urge to showboat. At least the big melody of the finale had its moments to luxuriate – not once but twice – but that was just the foreplay to more of that “wham, bam, thank you, m’am”. The closing cadenza leading to the most thrilling part of the work was a blinding blur, and the crashing cascade of chords to close was calculated for maximal applause.

There were two encores, Anatol Lyadov’s Musical Snuffbox, which sparkled like a diamond in Matsuev’s fingers, and the Grigory Ginzburg transcription of Grieg’s In The Hall Of The Mountain King from Peer Gynt, where the temptation to crucify the piano became simply too irresistible.

Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony thus came as a relief in the concert’s second half. His late and penultimate work, composed after years of exile from Russia, has yet to match the popularity of the Second Symphony. An over-arching sense of nostalgia and regret makes it the most Russian of his three symphonies. Under Gergiev’s direction, one could feel its brooding and attempts to assuage the palpable pain with melody on its outset.

Finally, the playing had become less harried and hurried, with the orchestra truly imbibing its Slavic essence, and “stewing in Russian juices”, as one long-dead critic has been oft-quoted. It never felt draggy through its forty minutes, and there were many moments of genuine warmth and excitement, chief of which was in the central movement’s vehement march-like episode.

Concertmaster Roman Simovic’s violin became an object of beauty as the slow movement closed while clarinet, cor anglais and flute solos all shone. A more nuanced and moving performance would be hard to find, but due to the finale’s short-winded and all-too-abrupt end, the applause was less than vociferous. The curtain calls were brief and the encore of Prokofiev’s March from The Love For Three Oranges greeted more politely than lustily.

What, no standing ovation for LSO?

It was strange to note that the Singapore Symphony Orchestra received a standing ovation at the BBC Proms in London in September, while hardly a soul stirred to rise for the London Symphony Orchestra in Singapore. Was the closing work too subtle, the audience too reticent, too measly or too discerning? One can only hope that the all-Prokofiev programme in the second evening is more warmly received.  

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2014)

SAINT-SAENS Cello Concertos

NATALIE CLEIN, Cello

BBC Scottish Symphony / Andrew Manze

Hyperion 68002 / *****

The French composer Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921) has been often accused of over-prodigiousness, conservatism and style over substance, but this cannot apply to his two cello concertos, where he weds poetry and virtuosity to near perfection. Both works play under 20 minutes; everything that is needed to be said is sung with slickness and brevity. Cello Concerto No.1 in A minor (composed in 1872) is by far the better known, with its fiery rhetoric and showiness accomplished in a single movement. Cello Concerto No.2 in D minor (1902) is seldom heard because of its immense technical difficulties required of the cellist.

British cellist Natalie Clein, a former BBC Young Musician of the Year, crafts a gorgeous tone above all the surface glitz and display. This disc, part of Hyperion’s Romantic Cello Concertos series, is a first choice for listeners who want to hear both concertos in succession. Clein is joined by German violinist Antje Weithaas in The Muse and the Poet (1910), a lovely double concerto in all but name. Here both instruments resonate as one sublime whole. Two encores, Allegro Appassionato and The Swan from Carnival of the Animals, enhance the desirability of this winning album.

Book It:

NATALIE CLEIN performs

Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No.1

with Singapore National Youth Orchestra

conducted by Jason Lai

27 November 2014 / Esplanade Concert Hall at 7.30 pm

Tickets available at SISTIC

SCHUMANN Piano Works

VLADIMIR HOROWITZ, Piano

Sony Classical 88697719262 / *****

Nobody understands piano music of the Romantic era better than Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989). That assertion is no idle fantasy, as which pianist dead or alive could claim equal ownership to the works of Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Rachmaninov and Scriabin? This all-Schumann disc, of works recorded between 1962 and 1969, finds the Ukraine-born legend at his most genial yet volatile. Such are the extremes to be encountered in the German Romantic composer’s music. The pianist as poet shines through in Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) Op.15, including that gem called Träumerei (Dreaming), and the short single-movement Arabeske Op.18 and Blumenstück (Flower Piece) Op.19. The simplicity evinced is just disarming.

For sheer dramatics, the 1965 Carnegie Hall live performance of the Fantasy in C major (Op.17) has it all – flubbed notes, ecstatic climaxes and full-blooded pianism, all captured in the heat of his comeback recital. The Variations on a Theme by Clara Wieck from the Third Sonata Op.14 is a microcosm of his finest qualities, but reserve the last listen for Horowitz’s jaw-dropping account of the Toccata in C major Op.7. Nobody has played it faster without sacrificing musicality and the spirit of spontaneity. This disc is a “must listen” for students of Romantic piano-playing.  

STRAVINSKY'S THE SOLDIER'S TALE / Produced & Conducted by Adrian Tan / Review

STRAVINSKY’S THE SOLDIER’S TALE

Adrian Tan, Producer & Conductor et al

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (15 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 November 2014 with the title "Catchy music makes great Tale".

It was the First World War that caused a paradigm shift in the scope of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s compositions. The large orchestra in The Rite of Spring (1913) had shrunken to just seven musicians for his melodrama The Soldier’s Tale (1918), based on the Faustian tale by Swiss writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz.

In an all-new production commissioned, directed and conducted by local conductor Adrian Tan, the emphasis was on music and movement, with the story told by choreographer-cum-narrator Timothy Colemen and three dancers from the Singapore Dance Theatre. The script by Michael Flanders and Kitty Black was heavily edited and adapted to keep the action flowing and taut.

In stark contrast to the opulence and dissonance of The Rite, Stravinsky had turned to jazz and popular dance music in this score, along the path to his neoclassical phase. Textures were lightened, with musical language kept plain and direct for the work’s discrete but continuous movements. It was in this milieu that the musicians, which included clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trumpet, double mass, percussion, headed by Loh Jun Hong’s violin, shined.

His was a virtuoso role that encapsulated the soul of the Soldier, whom despite his conscience and resistance eventually succumbs to the entreaties of the Devil, represented by Iskandar Rashid’s percussion. Along the way, the music included marches, a pastorale, tango, waltz and ragtime, all rendered in the inimitable and catchy manner of the Russian composer.

The dancers were excellent throughout, with Stefaan Morrow’s Soldier, more athletic than martial in his khaki fatigues, as chief protagonist. Opposite him, Nazer Salgado’s Devil was slickness personified, his whiter-than-white showman’s outfit concealing all sorts of dark secrets. Beatrice Castaneda’s Princess was a smaller part, delivered with grace and some playfulness.

As with such stories, there is a cautionary tale: One cannot alter the past. One happiness is all you will get. Man can never be satisfied, and that is when the Devil invariably gains his foothold. Conductor Tan’s conception of interdisciplinary collaboration was a success in all counts, all’s the pity that it was witnessed by a modest-sized audience.

With minimal publicity and held on the same evening as a Singapore Symphony Orchestra gala concert and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there was always a risk of being crowded out.

  

EROICA! / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

EROICA!

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (14 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 November 2014 with the title "Heroic rendition of Beethoven's Eroica".

A large audience attended the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra’s first concert at the newly renovated Victoria Concert Hall. Although some concerns had been raised about fine-tuning the auditorium’s acoustics, these were answered in no small way by the quality of the performances by the young orchestra.

Overhead reflecting panels were removed for this concert, allowing the sound to rise above the stage, resulting in the projection to the stalls being rather less in-your-face. The first long- held note of Beethoven’s Egmont Overture was stunning, and the ensuing chords a promise of a grand show ahead.

Esteemed Hungarian guest conductor Gábor Tákacs-Nagy then upped the ante, guiding his charges through a performance that truly befitted the heroism of its subject, the 16^th century  Dutch nobleman who defied Spanish overlords and paid with his life. With each punched out phrase and stentorian gesture, held together with utmost cohesiveness, the players learnt much about vehemence and resistance.

Even when the orchestra was not under the spotlight, it distinguished by supporting pianist Wang Qiying to the hilt in Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto. This was a work from the Russian’s teenaged years, but substantially revised in 1917 to include much complicated and occasionally dissonant writing of his later period. Wang, winner of the Conservatory’s concerto competition, rose up to all the work’s thorny challenges with aplomb.

Her beguiling strength in big octaves, chordal passages and razor-sharp reflexes in the faster outer movements were equal to the singing of bittersweet and flowing melody, qualities that made Rachmaninov so beloved among listeners. In short, this was a reading that captured the fin de siècle spirit of Romanticism’s dying embers. 

Leaving the best for the last, Beethoven’s Third Symphony, also known as the Eroica, showed how an orchestra of students can be galvanised into heroics they did not know they possessed a week before. From the first note to the last, this was a performance conceived with mission and conviction, revealing a tautness that belied its inordinate length.

The opening was urgently driven but did not feel hurried, while the slow movement’s funeral march was a stepwise build-up from quiet brooding to a grandstanding procession. The journey was a breathtaking one, with no let-up in the Scherzo where a trio of French horns stole the show with its carousing choruses.

This led without a breather into the finale’s variations on a quirky dance theme from Beethoven’s ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. Here is the usually gruff German at his gayest, with humour and frolicking shining through. The hectic tempos of before had now transformed into the gush of ecstasy. Long and loud cheers greeted its conclusion, for the young ensemble had given a concert that even professional orchestras will be proud of. 

A CELEBRATION OF KEYBOARDS / MERVYN LEE Piano Recital / Review

A CELEBRATION OF KEYBOARDS

MERVYN LEE Piano Recital

Yong  Siew Toh Conservatory 

Orchestral Hall

Tursday (13 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 November 2014

It is always fascinating to follow the progress of child prodigy musicians, because few if any actually realise their enormous early potentials in adult years. Many fizzle out and lose interest along the way, or are lost to competing professions and preoccupations.

Sixteen-year-old pianist Mervyn Lee, who at 10 was the youngest ever soloist to perform at the President’s Young Performers Concert in 2009, looks to be making good progress. A student of both Yio Chu Kang Secondary School and the Young Artist Programme at the Conservatory, he also pursues early music performance, musicology and composes.

In an 80-minute long recital that reflected the broad palette of his interests, he performed first on a Carey Beebe harpsichord. Music by 16^th and 17^th century masters Johann Froberger and Jan Sweelinck usually resides in the domain of baroque specialists, but Lee displayed a natural flair and sensitive touch. In the former’s Toccata in G major, certain liberties taken with tempos and exactness in fugal passages found a happy medium, while a robust humour inhabited the latter’s pastoral variations on More Palatino.

He was next heard on a modern Bösendorfer grand piano in Muzio Clementi’s Sonata in F minor (Op.13 No.6). He coaxed a mellow, velvety sonority in its dark-hued pages, yet was able to command an orchestral intensity when called for. There were stark dissonances and surprising modulations in the slow movement, but it was ultimately lyricism that held one’s attention. The Presto finale was merely an illusion, aided by undercurrents of unease which Lee brought out well.

A Steinway grand was wheeled out for the rest of the concert. While he was technically accurate in Chopin’s Polonaise in E flat minor (Op.26 No.2), further gravitas could be sought in its pages of smouldering disquiet. In Edward MacDowell’s Etude subtitled Schattentanz (Shadow Dance), the elfin lightness and mercurial flittering were marvellously captured.

When one expected a degree of brutality in Bartok’s Romanian Dance No.1, Lee achieved his musical goals without hammering or brute force, much like how the composer played himself. The solo segment closed with Charles Griffes’s Scherzo from Three Fantasy Pieces, where his variegated touch in this dreamy impressionist soundscape impressed.

The second half was devoted to Mendelssohn’s Second Piano Concerto in D minor. Although less popular and far less-performed than the First Piano Concerto, its more lyrical bent suited the teenager better. Instead of treating it like a virtuoso showpiece, his approach was that of ultimate chamber music.

One could sense how in tune and sync Lee was with his accompanist Teh Jiexiang on second piano, and the two blended seamlessly. The prestidigitation in the outer movements seemed to serve one purpose: that is to support arch-like the glorious slow movement. Here, where the volume lightened and the notes stood still albeit for a few minutes, Lee found the work’s song-like heart and soul. That is what striving to become a true musician and artist is all about.    

THE ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA / Review

THE ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands

Tuesday (11 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 November 2014 with the title "Terrific orchestra, terrible acoustics".

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s debut concert in Singapore was a late addition to its East Asian tour, and because of the unavailability of Esplanade Concert Hall, had to be held in the MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands. There are good reasons why symphony orchestra concerts are not held at this cavernous venue far better suited for Broadway musicals and pop concerts. This otherwise historic event may be summarised in four words: terrific orchestra, terrible acoustics.

But first, the audience stood to attention for the opening works conducted by the IPO’s Music Director for life, Zubin Mehta. Zubir Said’s Majulah Singapura in Phoon Yew Tien’s arrangement was followed by Hatikvah (The Hope), the national anthem of Israel. Contrasts could not be greater, Singapore’s extroverted major-key march with Israel’s melancholic minor-key plaint. Both were greeted with heartfelt applause.  

Vivaldi’s popular Concerto for Four Violins in B minor featured four of the orchestra’s lady violinists as soloists. Electrical amplification was apparent from the outset, and while all four were evenly highlighted, it was curious to hear one player ornamenting her part far more than the others. A case of one-upwomanship was beginning to upset the balance.

By the time Mozart’s Symphony No.36, nicknamed the Linz (after the Austrian city), came on, the artificial boosting of certain sections of the orchestra started to play havoc on the ears. This was no fault of the players or the conductor who strived to give an honest and committed account. Instead of hearing a homogeneous sound, amplified woodwind and brass with added reverberation emanated from the giant speakers on either side of the stage.

Depending where one sat in the hall, the perspective of sound was glaringly off centre, and this got worse when the orchestra played louder. As much as one tried to enjoy the playing, the unfortunate distortions were both trying and distracting. The audience also did not help by clapping in between movements, and conductor Mehta had to raise his hand to stop premature applause in order for the finale to begin. This alone raised ripples of laughter, rather than outright embarrassment.   

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony is an ideal showcase for touring orchestras, and in terms of sheer passion and virtuosity, the IPO did not disappoint. The sense of cohesion, tightness of ensemble, and the 78-year-old conductor’s magisterial approach to tempos and dynamics all contributed to a stirring performance. In the slow movement, the principal French horn’s solo was a thing of lingering beauty. The 3^rd movement lilted with rare grace before the finale’s hell-for-leather development section and grand apotheosis.

All this had, of course, to be filtered through the morass of unnatural sonority, which included extraneous noises of microphones being accidentally knocked and other indignities. At least the audience saw fit the orchestra’s valour in this field of battle to be accorded an instant standing ovation. Their reward was an encore, the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, with its gorgeous string playing.

At a post-concert reception, conductor Mehta thanked his hosts and expressed the hope of IPO returning to play in a “better hall”. Although the event to commemorate SG50 was well-meaning, this humiliation of sorts was a corollary to the state of the pitch in the Sports Hub, another big question mark as to whether we know the true meaning of being “world class”.

To add insult to injury, concert programmes were sold at a ridiculously inflated price of $30. Classical concerts in Marina Bay Sands should not be like shopping for mobile phones in Sim Lim Square, where one is likely to be short-changed.   

Conductor Zubin Mehta at the post-concert reception,
with Israel's ambassador to Singapore
H.E.Yael Rubinstein fondly looking on.