THE PIANOMANIA AWARDS: BEST & WORST CONCERTS FOR 2014

BEST & WORST CLASSICAL CONCERTS OF 2014

Here are the Pianomania Awards for 2014, which follows the Three Best and One Worst listings published in The Sunday Times on 28 December 2014. The national daily decided to take a rest from these listings in 2013, which is why I started the Pianomania Awards for this blog. Since ST requested for my input this year, I was more than happy to oblige...

BEST

POSTURES

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall / 4 July 2014

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra was to make history in its BBC Proms debut on 2 September at London’s Royal Albert Hall, but Singaporean audiences had a sneak preview of the ambitious programme some two months earlier. They witnessed the World Premiere of Postures, the newly commissioned piano concerto by Pulitzer-Prize winning Chinese-American composer Zhou Long with Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger in its pugilistic solo role. The SSO directed by Shui Lan also gave blistering accounts of Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture and Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, worthy of a Proms standing ovation.

DIE FLEDERMAUS

New Opera Singapore

Victoria Theatre / 28 & 29 July 2014

For a very young local opera company just into its third year, New Opera Singapore led by Korea-born soprano Jeong Ae Ree has impressed greatly with its casting of young Singaporean vocal talent in edgy productions often updated with modern scenarios and Asian flavours. Johann Strauss the Younger’s operetta Die Fledermaus was a totally enjoyable affair, bubbling like champagne, with irrepressible sopranos Teng Xiang Ting and Rebecca Li sharing the lead role of Rosalinde. But who would have imagined Channel 8 comedienne Patricia Mok stealing the show as prison-attendant Frosch?   

TANG TEE KHOON

Esplanade Recital Studio 
19 March & 24 September 2014

ALAN CHOO

The Arts House / 10 August 2014

YANG SHUXIANG

Esplanade Recital Studio / 23 August 2014

From the "Golden Generation" of Singaporean violinists born in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, a lot has been expected but the dividends paid out have been nothing short of spectacular. All three have blossomed in different ways. Tang, who plays on the National Arts Council’s 1750 Guadagnini violin, has a chamber series of her own featuring top European talents. Choo specialises in baroque violin, while thriving on the modern version. Yang’s flamboyant, do-or-die style makes heads turn while always being true to the spirit of the music. 

BEST DEBUT

NIKOLAI SONG
Esplanade Recital Studio / 18 December 2014

He's only 12 years old, but the Russian-Korean flautist Nikolai Song (Winner of the Amadeus Prize in the Symphony 92.4FM Young Talents Project in 2013) performs like a seasoned veteran. Displaying an astounding maturity belying his youth, his recital programme of music by Debussy, Costa, Handel, Taffanel, Taktakishvili and Doppler would have made a player double his age blush, and then turn green with envy.

WORST

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

Marina Bay Sands / 11 November 2014

Take a world class orchestra and superstar conductor but put them in a venue totally unsuited for classical music, the result will still be a disaster. This was the unkind fate that awaited the Israel Philharmonic’s debut, led by its music director for life Zubin Mehta. The amplified sound that came through the speakers was overbearing and distorted, picking up extraneous noises, thus nullifying the orchestra’s good work in music by Bach, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. This concert may be summed up in four words: Terrific orchestra, terrible acoustics.