OLLI MUSTONEN Piano Recital / 22nd Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

OLLI MUSTONEN Piano Recital

22^nd Singapore 
International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (26 June 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 June 2015 with the title "Bizarre but rewarding fare".

It would appear that concert-goers are still scared by the name of Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953), which might explain how a near full-house that greeted Imogen Cooper's recital of Chopin, Schumann and Schubert on Thursday had almost halved by the time of Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen's recital on Friday evening. What he offered was unprecedented in Singapore: an all-Prokofiev programme comprising five of the 20^th century Russian composer's nine piano sonatas.

To the less initiated, Prokofiev equates with loudness, percussiveness, abrasiveness and dissonance. Mustonen was to partly dispel that notion, but did not always help his cause by the affectation and mannerisms in his playing. He used very little sustaining pedal, prefering a dry and tinny sound as if to accentuate the music's acerbic qualities, and then placing accents, often hammered out like a dentist's drill, in spots where one would least expect them.

Add these to his playing with the aid of scores, the finicky tendency of his right hand to quiver and quake just before descending on the keyboard, and his sitting on a stool that had been raised to its highest limit and further placed on a wooden board (like a Glenn Gould in reverse). All these were recipe for a potential artistic disaster. Despite the I-do-as-I-please stance which occupy piano narcissists like Ivo Pogorelich, Lang Lang and Tzimon Barto, he kept the audience spellbound and enthused, which was no mean task.

The first half opened with Fifth Sonata in its earlier version (with a quieter ending), which was mostly congenial in a neoclassical way, but with a brittle central movement played with so much staccato as if he was daintily skipping through a floor of broken glass. The monumental Eighth Sonata that followed, arguably the greatest work of the set, came close to a travesty.

Those who grew up with Sviatoslav Richter or Emil Gilels' classic recordings would have found Mustonen's version a caricature of the masterpiece, sickly and grotesque. The first movement's bittersweet lyricism was run roughshod but its development was undeniably thrilling. The second movement's gavotte was soggy rather than crisp and the athletic finale becoming a breathlessly incoherent race to the finish line. At least he was not boring.

The second half began with two single-movement sonatas that played for under eight minutes each. The First Sonata, a student work, was lathered with so much romanticism and rubato that it began to sound like Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov. The penchant for exaggeration was even worse in the popular Third Sonata which despite its compactness was strangely shapeless. Young pianists who play like this will be ejected in the first round of any competition, anywhere.

As if reserving his best for the last, the Seventh Sonata – Prokofiev's most popular - was a total triumph. The work is already so over-the-top, and indestructible like a Soviet T-34 tank, that any overstatement would scarcely be possible. Here all the excesses Mustonen could muster just aided its inexorable narrative.

Its impression of a war juggernaut was totally apt, and the tolling bells of the slow movement a memorial to total war and utter desolation.  The notorious precipitous finale was taken a breakneck speed and he did not let up for a single moment until its romping bitter end. 

The tumultuous applause was totally deserved, and two Prokofiev miniatures as encores – the harp-like Prelude (Op.12 No.7) and the March from The Love For Three Oranges -  completed a bizarre but surprisingly rewarding evening's fare.   

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, June 2015)

DVORAK Complete Symphonies & Concertos

Czech Philharmonic

Jiri Belohlavek, Conductor

Decca 478 6757 (6 CDs) / *****

It was not until the late 1950s that it was known that the celebrated Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) had composed nine symphonies. Early recordings of the “New World” Symphony were designated as Symphony No.5 in E minor, rather than No.9 as we know it today. This box-set places the early symphonies in context with his famous later ones and the well-trodden concertos. The first two symphonies, composed in 1865, are ambitious works playing well over 45 minutes, mostly influenced by Schumann. The Third Symphony (1873), the only one in three movements, looks towards Wagner's progressive style, and he began to develop his own distinctive voice in the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies (1874 & 1875) with Czech nationalism as a driving force.

The last four symphonies are regularly performed in concert and stand the test of posterity. The Czech Philharmonic under Jiri Belohlavek invests an equal quantum of dedication to all nine of them. They possess the spirit of the music literally in their veins, playing with passion and authority that makes a chronologically guided listen to the cycle a pleasurable experience. Five of the discs play for over 80 minutes, and the first three symphonies are coupled with the Cello Concerto (with Alisa Weilerstein), Violin Concerto (Frank Peter Zimmerman) and Piano Concerto (Garrick Ohlsson). These too are very fine performances, which confirm Dvorak as one of the great symphonists of the 19^th century

RESPIGHI / HINDEMITH / SCHMITT

Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic

Sascha Goetzel, Conductor

Onyx Classics 4048 / *****

The Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1999, establishing itself to be Turkey's premier symphony orchestra. In 2014, it was invited to perform at the BBC Proms (together with orchestras from Singapore, China, South Korea and Australia) in celebration of the globalisation of the Western orchestra. Like the Singapore Symphony, it has positioned itself as an “West meets East” ensemble that specialises in repertoire that bridges the cross-cultural divide. This debut recording does just that, programmed with the theme of “Oriental femme fatales”. None of the composers were genuine ethno-musicologists, thus their music was largely based on their own exotic interpretations of Middle or Far Eastern culture and aesthetics.  

Ottorino Respighi's 4-movement Suite from the his ballet Belkis, Queen of Sheba is hewn from the same opulent canvas as his Roman Trilogy, with the addition of Arabian drums for that extra element of exoticism. Paul Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber works chinoiserie and fugal exuberance into its second movement, inspired by the Chinese princess Turandot. Florent Schmitt's symphonic poem The Tragedy of Salome is the longest work here, more French impressionism and Oscar Wilde than anything truly Palestinian. The performances are exciting and vividly recorded in this audio spectacular, even if authenticism is in short supply.  

MARCO POLO: THE TRILOGY / The Philharmonic Winds / Review

MARCO POLO: THE TRILOGY

The Philharmonic Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (21 June 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 June 2015 with the title "Philharmonic tells Marco Polo story vividly in music".

For The Philharmonic Winds' 15^th anniversary gala concert, Singapore's busiest wind orchestra made its mark with the World Premiere of Spanish composer-conductor Luis Serrano Alarcon's Marco Polo: The Trilogy. This is a symphonic masterpiece of programme music in three parts, which like the Venetian explorer-adventurer that inspired it, bridged the divide between the West and the East.

Given the massive task at hand, each part was conducted by a different conductor, personalities who have been closely associated with the orchestra over the years. Its Music Director Leonard Tan directed the opening third The Silk Road, which was also the most exotic. The narrative opened loudly and dissonantly in Genoa of 1298, where Polo was imprisoned and had related his travels to amanuensis Rusticello.

Alarcon does not tarry, and the journey through Asia Minor and Central Asia introduced instruments like the flute-like shvi, oboe-like duduk, and Irfan Rais in the tar, a Middle-Eastern strummed lute. A fast sinuous Armenian dance and a merchant's plaint soon gave way to the drugged spell of the “hashashins”, the world's first assassins (who were high on hashish), with harmonics created by the circular stroking of Tibetan prayer bowls.

A stampede of Mongolian cavalry by percussion in crescendo heralded a greeting by the gourd-like blown hulusi as Polo arrived at the Yellow River, and ushered into ancient Cambaluc (Beijing today) amidst the sound of fireworks. He and his party were supposedly the first Westerners to enter China, and The Cathay Years, the central part of the trilogy conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Timothy Reynish, was arguably the most colourful.

Here, six members of Ding Yi Music Company took centrestage, with exquisite solos from Lim Kwuan Boon's erhu and Tan Qing Lun's dizis, backed by sheng and three suonas. The Vocal Associates Festival Chorus provided a further dimension of sound with its wordless voices. The court of Kublai Khan, all pomp and ceremony, was ample reason for a giddying surfeit of chinoiserie that would have pleased the likes of Puccini and Busoni.

The tingling bells of Mien (Myanmar today) and evocation of New Year festivities with the orchestra in splashy full throttle provided a rowdy end for the concert's first half. Each part of the trilogy played for half an hour, and the finale The Book Of India, conducted by Alarcon himself, proved to be the most spiritual third of the show.

Han Lei's long and elaborate guanzi solo bade Polo farewell, and after a torrential monsoon which caused Polo who was escorting Princess Cocochin to seek refuge in Sumatra, he arrived in Ceylon, an ancient seat of Buddhism. Flute and oboe solos, followed by chanting from male voices of the Chorus at the Second Circle filled the air as he scaled the sacred Adam's Peak. The Indian segment comprised a raga wonderfully performed by Krsna Tan (sitar), Govin Tan (tabla) and Irfan Rais (tampura), which was almost improvisatory in its utter spontaniety, with its themes echoed by the orchestra.

All too soon, Polo was back in Venice with the bells of San Marco pealing and a return to his cell in Genoa, coming a full circle after over ninety minutes of music. His message, “I did not tell half of what I saw” summed up his escapades as the epic closed on a reassuring F major chord.

Similarly this short review scarcely does justice to the unstinting efforts of the players of The Philharmonic Winds who gave a most vividly portrayal of story-telling in music, lacking neither in passion nor detail in making the massive work both coherent and relevant. This was one wind concert that will stick in the mind for a long time to come.        

All three conductors receive their accolades.

The composer addresses the audience
and thanks all the performers.

SOUND & FANTASY / See Ning Hui Piano Recital / Review

SOUND & FANTASY

See Ning Hui Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (16 June 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 June 2015 with the title "Pianist See displays well-rounded flair". 

Young musicians in Singapore nowadays have the option of pursuing their advanced musical studies here at home or the traditional and much-revered institutions in the United Kingdom and the United States, or sometimes both. 19-year-old pianist See Ning Hui, who was awarded top placing at the first Singapore Steinway Piano Competition in 2012, is presently a student at London's Royal College of Music, and she continues to win further prizes.

Her piano recital demonstrated how she has progressed and matured over the years. No longer content to display flashy showpieces, the repertoire she offered was well-chosen and reflected an all-rounded musical personality.

Opening with J.S.Bach's Toccata in D major (BWV.912), there was both clarity and fluidity in a somewhat romanticised account that revealed more colours on a Steinway grand piano than one would expect from a harpsichord. The fugal gig-like dance that closed the piece was touched with lightness and pure joy.

Various shades and moods followed in Beethoven's Sonata in E flat major (Op.81a), also known as “Les Adieux”, reflecting the highs and lows which accompanied his patron Archduke Rudolf's departure and return. There was excitement in the first movement's farewell and desolation in the slow movement's portrayal of absence, which See brought out particularly well. The shift from minor to major modes at the point of return, reflecting the composer's exhilaration was another pivotal moment.

After the interval, two Scarlatti sonatas, both in D minor (K.213 and K.1), provided many points of contrasts. Here, small was beautiful as these little gems were windows into See's refined touch. The first was contemplative and probing, while the second a fast number caught up in a dizzying and mercurial sweep.      

These were mere preludes to the recital's big piece, Schumann's Fantasy in C major (Op.17). Belying See's petite physical stature was a voluminous sound, which carried through the work's three movements without the need for banging as a resort. While she can still continue to grow with this timeless masterpiece, there was much to marvel at her grasp of the music's architecture and form, and how she paced herself overall.

The wide chords and leaping octaves of the treacherous middle movement were negotiated without too much of fuss, leading to the long-breathed finale's transcendence to a higher plane of existence. Unfortunately, these revelations were lost to some cipher in the small audience, whose moronic ringtone from an unsilenced handphone contributed a most jarring intrusion.

The Schumann ended in quiet heavenly bliss, and she gave two substantial encores which offered more tantalising glimpses to her widening repertoire. Ravel's impressions of dancing fountains in Jeux d'eau was a impressive mix of delicate sprinkles and gushing spouts, and the piece de resistance that was Chopin's Winter Wind Étude was enough to blow all doubters away. See, the conquering heroine comes!  

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, June 2015)

SCHUMANN Piano Works

IMOGER COOPER, Piano

Chandos 10755 & 10841 / *****

These are the first two discs of what appears to a recorded cycle of piano works of German Romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), by esteemed British pianist Imogen Cooper, offering very satisfying fill-ups by composers of his immediate circle.

The first CD showcases Schumann as a supreme craftsman of both miniatures and larger canvasses. His eight Fantasiestucke Op.12 (Fantasy Pieces) runs the full gamut of expression, from the blissful calm of Des Abends (Evening), virtuosic upheavals of In der Nacht (In The Night) and the flight of whimsy in Traumes Wirren (Restless Dreams). Also in eight but linked parts is Kreisleriana Op.16, one of his greatest rhapsodic works, inspired by author E.T.A.Hoffmann's literary creation. The Theme and Variations in D minor (from the First String Sextet) by the precocious Johannes Brahms, who was a young confidante of the Schumanns, makes a sober but apt addition.    

The second disc is dominated by the multi-part Humoreske Op.20, another work alternating lyricism and turbulence (although less stormy than Kreisleriana), and the First Sonata in F sharp minor Op.11, the most often performed of his three sonatas. One point of interest is the inclusion of his teenaged wife-to-be Clara Wieck's Le Ballet des Revenants (Op.5 No.4), which shares the same theme as the 1^st movement exposition of the sonata. Cooper performs these in succession, establishing the thematic and emotional links between the two lovers. The performances in both discs are unfailingly musical and enhance the appreciation of the Schumanns and their world.

1917 WORKS FOR VIOLIN & PIANO

TAMSIN WALEY-COHEN, Violin

HUW WATKINS, Piano

Signum Classics 376 (2 CDs) / ****1/2

The year 1917 was a tumultuous one. Europe was still in mired in war while the Russian tsar had just been overthrown. Music was entering into a modernistic, iconoclastic and atonal phase. The works on this album by four major composers, all written in this year, recorded their reactions to the earth-shaking events around them. All are tonal but radically different.

Debussy's Violin Sonata in G minor was conceived near his death, a brief rhapsodic work that meant to freely espouse French aesthetics while repudiating stolid German ones. Sibelius' Five Pieces Op.81 have a salon quality and include a mazurka, waltz, rondino and minuet, charming dances bringing to mind the bygone world of Kreisler's miniatures. Respighi's Violin Sonata in B minor is darkly hewn but concludes with a passacaglia, the ancient variations form from the baroque. Elgar's Violin Sonata in E minor also looks back with nostalgia to a more innocent age but not without struggles to cope with the present.

Young British violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen coaxes a beautiful tone from her 1721 Stradivarius, capturing both the dramatic and lyrical vistas of these works. Both she and pianist Huw Watkins are vividly recorded, and this 85-minute recital (on 2 discs priced as one) never fails to engage. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, June 2015)

MEMORIES LOST

CHEN SA, Piano

Taipei Chinese Orchestra

Chung Yiu-Kwong

BIS 1974 / *****

This is an excellent new album of contemporary Asian but mostly Chinese works for the piano. It opens with Turkish pianist-composer Fazil Say's Third Piano Concerto or Silence of Anatolia (2001), where the piano imitates traditional instruments and percussion of Asia Minor, much of which is now part of Turkey. It is a truly exotic work that evokes the incense and flavours of the Middle East.

The longest work at 30 minutes is Wang Xilin's Piano Concerto Op.56 (2010), an anti-Yellow River Concerto that used Beijing opera and Chinese folk music instead of patriotic or socialist songs. The violence was also a conscious reaction to the barbarism of the Cultural Revolution. Both works have been successfully transcribed for Chinese orchestra, and brilliantly partnered by the Taipei Chinese Orchestra.

Of the piano solos, Taiwanese pianist-composer Hsiao Taizen's Farewell Etude and Memory are obvious sweeteners, combining the pleasantries of Chopin and Rachmaninov. Julian Yu's Impromptu is exactly as the title implies, a spur-of-the moment keyboard doodle memorably captured. More Chinese in feel are Chen Qigang's Instants d'un Opera de Pekin, which cleverly incorporates the sound world of his teacher Olivier Messiaen, and Wang Xiaohan's A Song in the Childhood is a wistful meditation on the popular song Xiao Bai Cai (Little Cabbage). Chinese pianist Chen Sa has developed a solid career without the circus that surrounds compatriots Lang Lang and Yuja Wang, and deserves to be heard for her rare blend of poeticism and technical mastery. Highly recommended.   

THE CHAMBER EROICA

Peter Sheppard Skaerved (Violin)

Aaron Shorr (Piano) et al

Metier 2008 / ****1/2

Volume 6 of the ongoing Beethoven Explored series by the duo of violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved and pianist Aaron Shorr, this is a rare performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony in E flat major (Op.55, also known as the Eroica Symphony), for piano quartet. Published in 1807, its arranger remains unknown, but is likely to be someone within the composer's inner circle. Such is its idiomatic scoring for piano, violin, viola and cello (with violist Dov Scheindlin and cellist Neil Heyde) that it does not feel like a mere transcription. Like Beethoven's violin and cello sonatas, the piano gets a central role, around which the other parts revolve. Yet it is not a piano concertante work in the usual sense.

The musical material remains intact, and one gets the grasp of Beethoven’s compositional intent and development of the form in place of his mastery of orchestration. Listening to all its four movements in a single sitting, which includes the opening movement's grandeur, pathos of the funeral march, the Scherzo's high spirits and the joyous The Creatures Of Prometheus variations in the finale, remains a highly satisfying experience. Rarely does one miss the glory of the full orchestra. Despite the multiple recordings of Eroica, this revelatory chamber version is well worth 

HOMECOMING / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

HOMECOMING

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (5 June 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 June 2015

This Singapore Chinese Orchestra concert, the first of a projected Homecoming series, was a showcase of Singaporean musical virtuosos who are now plying their trade overseas. Three soloists, each and every one a master, were welcomed home with a major concertante work that paraded their specific set of skills.

Conducted by Music Director Yeh Tsung, the concert began with SCO Composer-in-Residence Phoon Yew Tien's Reminiscence of March, composed for the 1999 Singapore Arts Festival. Unpitched percussion heralded a Wagnerian prelude from the strings, which led to a series of jaunty melodies involving all sections of the orchestra. This cheerfully portrayed the onset of spring in all its infectious gaiety.

The rest of the concert was devoted to concertos, opening with Taiwan-based wind soloist Kwok Chin-chye playing the octavin in the Iranian piece My Friends, arranged by Zhang Han Shu. This rarely-heard German instrument produces a dusky and earthy timbre in a Middle-Eastern flavoured melody that resembled a muezzin's call to prayer. The nimble dance that ensued saw a further extension of its range, now sounding like a jazzy alto saxophone.

Kwok's second piece, which followed after the intermission, involved five instruments. Li Che Yi's Rhapsody Of Da Gou, based on the old name of Kaohsiung city, strung together a medley of ethnic tunes from the various peoples of Taiwan. Here he comfortably transitioned between the nasal bleat of the suona, the goose-like honk of the ya-mu di (literally “mother duck fife”), the saxophone and a diminutive mouth reed. He had the audience in his palm and in stitches for the final tour de force, playing bitones on two suonas simultaneously.     

Less of a vaudevillian number was Zong Jiang and He Dong's violin concerto Luhuitou (Legend Of The Holy Deer) with violinist Kam Ning, now based in London. The work is a symphonic poem not unlike the better-known Butterfly Lovers Concerto, but about a hunter stalking a deer which magically transforms into a maiden on the turn of her head. Its recurring main theme highlighted Kam's voluminous tone while the animated development section was more about impressive prestidigitation in a series of tricky arpeggio passages.

The third soloist was another wind specialist Choo Boon Chong, armed with an array of instruments from the dizi family, including bangdi, qudi, baidi, shakuhachi, chi (a gourd-like instrument), xun (ocarina) and paixiao (panpipes). Divine Melody by Qu Xiao Song was the most modern and subtle work on show and accompanied a video by Casey Lim of Tan Swie Hian's brush-strokes in painting The Celestial Web. Its three movements were performed without break, and the impressionist hues from Choo's most sensitive and persuasive playing were evocative of the legends of creation as the Chagall-like painting came into glorious fruition. 

As a rousing encore, all three soloists returned to play solos in an arrangement of the foot-stomping Farandole from Georges Bizet's L'Arlesienne. As a show of virtuoso prowess, this triple bill of Singaporean soloists coming home for SG50 was hard to beat.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, June 2015)

TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.2

KIRILL GERSTEIN, Piano

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

James Gaffigan, Conductor

Myrios Classics 016 / ****1/2

This may come as a shock to some: the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 we know and love was never approved by the composer. This new recording revives the 1879 version of the warhorse, which Tchaikovsky conducted till his death in 1893, and has since been posthumously replaced by Alexander Siloti's popular edited version. This was also the version performed by Lazar Berman and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the 1994 Singapore Arts Festival.

What are the major differences? The cascades of opening chords in the 1^st movement are arpeggiated (spread out as if being played by a harp), and there is a major restoration of excised material in the development of the finale which is whimsically elaborative, almost altering its complexion. Furthermore, the final run of double octaves near the end is now maginally less brilliant than the Siloti version.

Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein gives an excellent account of these original thoughts, while the unchanged balance of the work has to yield to more explosive performances by Horowitz, Argerich and Freire. Its generous coupling is Prokofiev's monumental Piano Concerto No.2, a masterly and well-judged performance, in its revised version. The original was irretrievably lost during the Russian Revolution, but hope springs eternal for its eventual resurrection and recovery.    

KARAJAN AND HIS SOLOISTS I

Warner Classics 825646336258 (8 CDs) / *****

The recording legacy of Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989) will forever be associated with the Deutsche Grammophon label but he had a very fruitful relationship with the British EMI label, cutting highly successful records from 1946 to 1984. This is the first volume of concerto recordings for EMI, dating from 1948 to 1958, with great soloists all of whom he outlived. The tragically short-lived Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti's takes on Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21 and Schumann's Piano Concerto will be cherished for their surprising drive and lack of timidity.

The Schumann also features, despite an unfortunately incomplete 1^st movement, with the German Walter Gieseking, who also recorded Mozart (Piano Concertos Nos.23 & 24), Beethoven (Piano Concertos Nos.4 and 5), Grieg and Franck (Variations Symphoniques) with Karajan. True to his authoritarian reputation, Karajan's collaborations were noted for their pristine sense of order and total lack of histrionics.

However there is warmth to the Mozart concerto recordings with The Philharmonic Orchestra, partnering Dennis Brain (another soloist who died young) in the four horn concertos, and a British wind quartet in the Symphonia Concertante K.297b. The absolute rarities are Kurt Leimer's Piano Concerto in C minor and Left Hand Piano Concerto, with the composer as soloist, virtuoso works of neo-Romantic slant with influences of jazz and film music. Finally, Hans Richter-Haaser registers one of the most underrated readings of Brahms's Piano Concerto No.2. Essential listening, not just for Karajanophiles. 

MASTERWORKS / ADDO Chamber Orchestra / Review

MASTERWORKS

ADDO Chamber Orchestra

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Saturday (30 May 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 June 2015 with the title "Brilliant debut by new orchestra".

The birth of a new orchestra is a cause for celebration. The newest kid on the block is the ADDO Chamber Orchestra (ACO) led by young conductor Clarence Tan, which gave its debut concert at the School of the Arts. Coincidentally its first utterance, American modernist Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question, was also performed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Choo Hoey at its inaugural concert in January 1979. 

In semi-darkness, hushed strings heralded Erik Tan's solo trumpet which issued its rhetorical question from the dress circle. A woodwind quartet, placed on the illuminated gallery, pondered on its significance, only to be posed with further questions. This music-as-theatre piece of symbolism, performed with confidence and no little sensitivity, seemed to ask of this ensemble: where do we go from here?

Maybe the most obvious answer was Max Bruch's very popular First Violin Concerto with Christina Zhou as guest soloist. Her entry in the Vorspiel (“foreplay” or prelude) was clarity itself, forthright if not totally commanding, and this spelt out the conduct of the performance. She coaxed a sweet but not over-cloying tone and was lyrically disposed, which came through winningly in the slow movement.

Her technique held up well in the faster outer movements, but came close to crisis in the finale when a tuning peg suddenly loosened. The orchestra played on while she re-tuned her violin in a tutti and joined in quite seamlessly to close the work in a blazing triumph. Her coolness in the face of extreme duress is a testament to true musicianship and fortitude.

Other than some tentative woodwind entries at the work's outset, the orchestra played the supporting role very well, allowing Zhou full rein of her virtuoso abilities. Credit goes to conductor Tan's steady, no-nonsense leadership which would withstand the acid test in the concert's main work, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

The slow introduction to the opening movement was taken boldly and steadily, leading to the explosive Allegro which immediately established this young orchestra's ambition and credentials. Its responsiveness to the conductor's cues was spot on, and this continued in the second movement's variations which was well-paced and tidily laid out.

Brash enthusiasm, so characteristic of novice groups, was not the cards. This ensemble of recent music graduates and students was capable of subtlety and nuance too. The last two movements, which led to Wagner's description of the work as the “apotheosis of the dance”, were thrillingly dispatched. Fuelled by adrenaline, the players seemed to have boundless reserve as they tackled and overcame its hurdles head on and at blinding full speed.      

After its breathless conclusion, conductor Tan was gifted with a bottle of bubbly instead of the obligatory bouquet. Back to the unanswered question: where does ACO go from here? The easiest answer: its next concert, with Mozart and Prokofiev, on the cards takes place on 16 August. Another musical treat beckons.