CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2015)

MENDELSSOHN, GRIEG

& HOUGH Cello Sonatas

STEVEN ISSERLIS, Cello

STEPHEN HOUGH, Piano

Hyperion 68079 / *****

How does British pianist-composer Stephen Hough's Cello Sonata figure in this new album of Romantic cello sonatas? Interestingly it is scored for cello and piano left hand and carries the Beethovenian subtitle “Les Adieux” (The Farewell). A single-movement work playing for 20 minutes, it is a darkly introspective work that distils the fraught and melancholic emotions of Romanticism through a tonal musical language that is as approachable as Shostakovich, Ravel and Fauré. Perhaps expressing regret, sorrow and parting, it receives a heartfelt performance from British cellist Steven Isserlis and the composer himself as pianist.

The work sits comfortably two rather different and not so often heard Romantic sonatas. Edvard Grieg's Cello Sonata in G minor (Op.36) was the closest thing he wrote to a cello concerto, and includes familiar themes to be found in his earlier Piano Concerto and Sigurd Josalfar incidental music. Another instance of musical deja vu (“Where have we heard this before?”), Mendelssohn's Second Cello Sonata in D major (Op.38) is typical of his ebullience and tunefulness, a good example of the early Romantic style. The juxtapositions on this album make total sense, and the high musicianship displayed by both performers is to be savoured.  

NEW SEASONS

GIDON KREMER, Violin

Kremerata Baltica

Deutsche Grammophon 479 4817 / ***

Is it blasphemous to state that “emperor's new clothes” is the reason why every new work by American composer Philip Glass is greeted with nothing but adulation? In his Second Violin Concerto (2010), also known as The American Four Seasons, he rehashes just about every cliché he has worked to death in earlier works, including his First Violin Concerto (1987). The Seasons are in 8 parts, with a Bachian solo (entitled Prologue and Songs Nos.1 to 3) preceding each movement proper. As expected, the limited musical material is built upon tonal triads and repeated endlessly to pad up its 40-plus minutes. So what else is new?

Georgian composer Giya Kancheli's Ex Contrario (2006) for violin, cello, keyboard, bass guitar and strings is minimalist in a different way. Its static pace, long stretches of pianissimo and gaping silences are drawn out to an almost interminable half hour. As brief fillers, the Estonian Arvo Pärt but cheerful Estonian Lullaby features the Girls Choir from the Vilnius Choir School, while Shigeru Umebayashi Yumeji's Theme from the film In The Mood For Love is sentimental and soothing movie music with a popular twist. Superstar Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and his string band give slick and polished performances in the demonstration class, but that is the very least one would expect for the premium-priced outlay involved.

UNFORGETTABLE TUNES II / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

UNFORGETTABLE TUNES II

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (22 August 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 August 2015  

There have been remarks that the Singapore Chinese Orchestra does not play enough traditional Chinese tunes or classics. The plain truth is: unlike the Western orchestra which has centuries of music to choose from, there is not enough traditional repertoire for Chinese orchestra to sustain an entire season. Hence the need for SCO to commission new works and fresh orchestrations of pre-existing melodies.

This concert conducted by Assistant Conductor Moses Gay looked back at some Chinese classics, through the prism of contemporary orchestrations. It did not take one long to recognise the melody of Tang Jian Ping's Overture for the New Century, a vigourous and festive arrangement of  Dance Of The Golden Snake by Nie Er, who also composed the Chinese National Anthem. Also familiar was Liu Wen Jin's Great Wall Capriccio, a condensed version of the erhu concerto with the same title, which rehashes its most memorable melody.

Peng Xiu Wen's 1961 composition Yue Er Gao (The Moon On High) is an acknowledged classic. He had orchestrated nine of twelve pieces from Hua Qiu Ping's Pipa Anthology dating from the Qing Dynasty. There was a stately air to this medley which relived the chamber music origins of Chinese music in its gentle treatment of dizi and guzheng textures, and graced by principal Yu Jia's lovely pipa solos.

Contrast this with the two concertante works, newer orchestrations much in line with the virtuoso Western concerto. Zhang Yin (above) was the spectacular pipa soloist in Wang Dan Hong's Yun Xiang Hua Xiang (Clouds And Flowers Fantasies). Her mastery of the instrument and its myriad nuances was exquisite, a portrayal of feminine grace and beauty personified in the tragic concubine Yang Guifei.

Erhu soloist Tan Man Man (above) coaxed a sonorous and earthy tone for Wang Jian Min's Erhu Rhapsody No.2, a work which transitioned from slow and meditative to a fast and brilliant conclusion. SCO can be proud of these rank-and-file members who are truly consummate virtuosos.

Xu Hui's guzheng solos highlighted Chen Ning-chi's Ancient City Xian, a picturesque travelogue of the city of terracotta warriors, from vivid night scenes to historical monuments. Gu Guan Ren's The General Command's used another Qing melody but dressed in martial garb, with grouped suonas providing the raucous edge that would vanquish any foe.

The excellent young conductor Gay conducted the two-hour-long completely from memory. His pluck, and chutzpah in requesting a standing ovation, did not fall on deaf ears. The audience duly obliged, and was rewarded with an encore, Bizet's Farandole from L'Arlesienne. As they say in the Bible, “Ask, and it shall be given.” 

    

PIANO++ / Robert Casteels et al / Review

PIANO++

Robert Casteels et al

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (20 August 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 August 2015

Some thirty years ago, a duo called the Cambridge Buskers concocted a work for recorder and accordion which compressed all nine symphonies of Beethoven into a matter of a few minutes, and performed it at the 1988 Singapore Arts Festival to a bemused audience. Belgium-born Singaporean composer Robert Casteels has done something similar in his Grosse Sonate (Great Sonata) for piano solo, which incorporates themes from every movement of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas.

A work in four movements lasting some 55 minutes, its world premiere was given by three young Singaporean pianists at this recital, a supplement to the Piano Concerto Festival organised by The Performing Arts Company. Casteels did not add a single note of his own nor did he need to transpose any passages, instead skilfully stitching together “bleeding chunks” which cohered surprisingly well as it worked its way from Beethoven's Op.2 No.1 to Op.111, a musical journey spanning some 27 years.

Purists will balk at this “Frankenstein's monster”, but listening to it was an illuminating experience. Familiar measures sat comfortably with some which made one wonder, “Was this really Beethoven?” More importantly it displayed Beethoven's wealth of expression and inexhaustible creativity. Leslie Theseira (above) was tasked with the two most difficult movements, the 1^st and 4^th, which corresponded with the opening movements and finales. Although one would scarcely imagine him to have played all 32 before, his solid technique suggests that some day he will.

Muhammad Nazzerry (above) played the 2^nd movement, interpretively the most demanding because it coalesces all the slow movements. He got through the notes, but the draggy pacing suggests that some editing might have helped the course. Most witty was the Scherzo and Trio 3^rd movement, the shortest but one with the most surprises. Choon Hong Xiang (below) sounded under-rehearsed here and could have done with some coaching as to where to better place his accents.

The second half opened with a 2-piano arrangement of Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, which saw Nazzerry and Choon giving an exciting, rough and ready account. Casteels' Tintinabulum for 2 pianos was premiered by Choon and Theseira. Its six short movements of bell-like variations were all based on a theme formed by the notes C-E-C-B, taken from the initials of the Crédit Industriel et Commerciel Bank, which commissioned the work.

Casteels himself joined in the games with Nazzerry and Ng Chian Tat in Rachmaninov's Waltz and Romance for six hands. Originally written for three young sisters on one keyboard, the three grown men were spared from falling off the piano stool by spreading themselves out on two pianos. They oozed salon charm and did anyone notice Casteels playing a theme in the Romance that would later become part of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto?

The final work, Casteels' Rakhmania for 2 pianos was a tribute to the great Russian himself. It was an expansion and elaboration of Rachmaninov's Prélude in B flat major (Op.23 No.2), playing on the canon-like quality of its main theme. Ng and Nazzerry did the honours in this thundering number, which was both a deconstruction as well as a conflation. Bells sounds filled the air, again, bringing this most unusual piano recital to a satisfying close.       

Photographs by the kind permission of The Performing Arts Company and Robert Casteels.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2015)

J.S.BACH Concertos for 2 Harpsichords

MASAAKI & MASATO SUZUKI

Bach Collegium Japan

BIS 2051 / *****

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) left the world with just three concertos for two keyboards (all dating from 1736), which seems like a real pity. These are some of his most enjoyable concertos, not just because of its melodic content or digital virtuosity but also its immaculate play of counterpoint. No autograph scores exist, but two of these - both in the key of C minor - will be familiar to listeners in other guises. The best known is BWV.1062, which has the same music as the famous Double Violin Concerto in D minor (BWV.1043). The work sounds slightly different now, with the busyness of both harpsichords replacing the more pared-down violin textures.

The other, BWV.1060, is more regularly heard as the Concerto for Violin and Oboe, distinguished by one of Bach's most beautiful slow movements. The Concerto in C major (BWV.1061) is his most cheerful and extroverted keyboard concerto by far. The father and son combo of Masaaki and Masato Suzuki on two harpsichords are ideally matched, and the balance struck with the accompanying string players is close to perfection. The bonus is Masato's transcription for 2 keyboards of Bach's Orchestral Suite No.1, conceived idiomatically as if the master wrote it himself. A delightful disc all round.     

BOOK IT:

MASAAKI & MASATO SUZUKI

with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

27 & 28 August 2015 at 7.30 pm

Tickets available at SISTIC

THE BUTTERFLY LOVERS

LU SIQING, Violin

Taipei Chinese Orchestra 

Chung Yiu-Kwong (Conductor)

BIS  2104 / ****1/2

Given China's inexorable rise as economic power and cultural giant, Chen Gang and He Zhanhao's Butterfly Lovers Concerto sitting pretty alongside with violin repertoire favourites has become inevitable. Gil Shaham had previously coupled Butterfly Lovers with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (with the SSO), but this new recording is wholly accompanied by Chinese instruments. Chinese violinist Lu Siqing cements his place as one of the work's most persuasive advocates with this moving account which also boasts of the best sound on CD.

The traditional instruments of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, in the arrangement by its conductor Chung Yiu-Kwong, also lend a touch of the authentic. Does the evocative introduction not sound better with dizi than the modern flute? At its climaxes, the piercing sound of suonas add to the pathos of the music. Its fillers include Chen's Sunshine On Taxkorgan, Ma Sicong's Nostalgia (from Inner Mongolian Suite), Kreisler's Tambourin Chinois (now sounding even better with Chinese percussion), Tchaikovsky's Melodie (from Souvenir D'un Lieu Cher), Sarasate's Gypsy Airs and Wieniawski's Legende. The last receives an idiomatic arrangement by award-winning young Singaporean composer Wang Chenwei. That's globalisation for you.

PIANO CONCERTO FESTIVAL / ADDO Chamber Orchestra / Review

PIANO CONCERTO FESTIVAL

ADDO Chamber Orchestra

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (16 August 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 August 2015 with the title "Momentous, but not without hiccups".

The Piano Concerto Festival, a project of The Performing Arts Company, is now into its second year, supported by the newly-formed ADDO Chamber Orchestra conducted by Clarence Tan. This annual event provides a platform for young Singaporean pianists, a godsend as opportunities to perform with an orchestra are very rare. Its first concert showcased contrasting piano concertos by Mozart and Prokofiev.

But first, an unusual prelude took the form of Mozart's concert aria Ch'io Mi Scordi Di Te? (You Ask That I Forget You?) K.505, sung by coloratura soprano Wendy Woon. Her emotive account, filled with pathos, was well supported by the orchestra, then came the substantial obbligato piano part from Leslie Theseira.

It is said that Mozart's piano concertos were inextricably linked to his operas, and here was a curious hybrid as if to prove the point. Theseira's pretty contribution was both ornamental as well as a foil for the singer, and at certain passages he blended as one with the orchestra. It was an excellent palate-cleanser for the proper concertos to come.

Mozart's Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor (K.491) was performed by Choon Hong Xiang, an irregular reading because of rawness of ensemble coupled with the pianist's diffidence. The opening tutti was marred by poor intonation from the woodwinds but it got better. Choon seemed overawed by the occasion, and despite neat and accurate fingerwork, his playing seldom projected beyond the orchestra's domain.

He came into his own in the 1^st movement cadenza, which he had composed himself, a lost art revived with some ear-catching ideas. Only the second of two minor key piano concertos by Mozart, the work was to evoke high drama and tragedy. This almost came when Hong completely missed his entry cue in the finale, only joining in a few bars later. Fortunately, he and the ensemble kept their wits, and concluded the Theme and Variations movement together without further mishap.

Altogether more confident was Nicholas Ho who tackled Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto with fearless aplomb. Now studying in Indiana with American pianists Edward Auer and Andre Watts, he has matured far beyond the impetuous youth who was previously described in these pages as having an “obsession with speed and volume” and a “surfeit of feral instincts”.

All he did now was to play the notes Prokofiev had written, and the effect was electrifying. The free-wheeling 1^st movement breezed through fairly easily, but the 2^nd movement's Theme and Variations saw a brief desynchronisation between pianist and orchestra. A full second's rupture occurred in the rambunctious finale, but that was no fault of his. Shrugging off the blip, both parties grappled with the music's high octane content to finish on an intoxicating high. 

Always eventful and at times harrowing, the Piano Concerto Festival moves to Victoria Concert Hall on 3 September to survey the first two piano concertos of Tchaikovsky.

The Piano Concerto Festival was presented by The Performing Arts Company in celebration of Singapore's 50 years of independence.

YELLOW RIVER! / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

YELLOW RIVER!

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (15 August 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 August 2015 with the title "Yellow River legends live on".

It seems inconceivable that any Chinese or Sinophile today be unaware of the Yellow River Piano Concerto or Yellow River Cantata. Like the geographical Huang He, both works are symbols of Chinese history and national sorrow, which have now transcended to represent Chinese patriotism and pride.

The composer of the Yellow River Cantata, Macau-born Xian Xing Hai (1905-1945), occupies a position in Chinese music not unlike that of Shostakovich or Prokofiev in modern Russian music. In commemorating the 110^th anniversary of his birth, Singaporeans are reminded that he spent ten years of his youth here, and was an alumnus of Yangzhen (Yeung Ching) School. He played in the school band and his musical talent was honed here before returning to China.

Two orchestral works opened the Xian Xing Hai tribute by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra conducted by Yeh Tsung. Phoon Yew Tien's rousing orchestration of Xian's Behind Enemy Lines incorporated its martial strains with the more optimistic Er Yue Li Lai (Second Lunar Month), both clothed in patriotic fervour. Law Wai Lun's A Decade Of Xing Hai In The Lion City was a brief reminiscence of Xian's melodies with the old Yangzhen School song accompanied by annotated archival photos.

Two soloists from the Shanghai Opera House sang a trio of songs orchestrated by Phang Kok Jun. Baritone Tao Kuo was a commanding presence in Ye Ban Ge Sheng (Phantom Lover), a song about midnight trysts. Soprano Liu Fei's two songs, Second Lunar Month and Tie Ti Xia De Ge Nu (Showgirl Under The Iron Heel), took on a socialist slant, extolling a fruitful springtime (to produce more patriots) and decrying the trials and tribulations of being a songstress.

The first half concluded with the Yellow River Concerto, composed in 1969 by a committee of six members of Beijing's Central Philharmonic Society by collating the most memorable melodies from Xian's Yellow River Cantata and recast into four movements. A shamelessly virtuosic vehicle, it brought together various technical devices from Romantic piano concertos by Liszt, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky and Grieg into one orgiastic whole.

Young Chinese pianist Sun Yingdi, winner of the 2005 Liszt International Piano Competition, spared no effort in thundering out its outsized cadenzas, cascading arpeggios and stampeding octaves. But there were tender moments too, with Lim Sin Yeo's bangdi evocatively opening the 3^rd movement, Wrath Of The Yellow River, and Sun's excellent repeated note technique in simulating a pipa. So was this a nationalistic work or a Communist one? The inclusion of The East Is Red and the Internationale at the finale's apotheosis strongly points to the latter.

Xian's eponymous cantata, composed within six days in 1939 during the Sino-Japanese war, occupied the concert's second half. By now, many of its melodies would have been familiar, but despite its heroic tones, it is a more nuanced work than the concerto. Crosstalk exponent Huang Jia Qiang was the narrator, and his opening gambit, “Have you been to the Yellow River?” set the tone. A combined choir formed by the Shanghai Opera House Chorus and Nanyang Khek Community Guild Choir delivered a message of struggle and ultimate victory against all invaders.

Baritone Tao and soprano Liu sang one movement each, but it was the 5^th movement's animated dialogue between Everymen Zhang and Wang, sung by tenors Xu Xiao Ming and Yu Hao Lei (above) from the choir contributed a folk-like charm to the proceedings. The orchestra  provided excellent support through its eight movements, the original context of the overplayed concerto being laid bare. Love or loathe them, the legends of the Yellow River will live on as long as the Chinese walk this planet.    

Post concert: SCO Music Director Yeh Tsung
meets with founding SSO Music Director Choo Hoey,
who was also instrumental in founding the SCO in 1997. 

SSO CONCERT: SCOTTISH FANTASY / Review

SCOTTISH FANTASY

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (14 August 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 August 2015 with the title "Music keeps Choo Hoey young".

The SG50 celebrations of the past week have brought sharply into focus the nation's achievements and a reflection of the people in history who made Singapore happen. It was thus appropriate that the first Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert held after the 50^th National Day be conducted by its founding Music Director Choo Hoey, who led the orchestra from 1979 to 1996.

Now in his early eighties, Choo has lost some sprightliness in his step. The walk onto the stage appeared a little more effortful, but on the podium itself, he seemed revitalised. The spark of leading his charges and long-time friends in music-making returned, albeit for two whole hours.

The well-attended one-night-only concert opened unusually with Darius Milhaud's ballet La Creation du Monde (The Creation of the World). Scored for just 17 players, this was modern chamber music of the 1920s that embraced both the old and new worlds. Old because its form was classically conceived, even incorporating the fugue, and new because of that infectious Afro-American strain called jazz and the blues.

The performance bristled with a fervid beat, with solos by Tang Xiao Ping (on saxophone), Ma Yue (clarinet) and Rachel Walker (oboe) standing out. The balance of sound in the reverberant hall was however not favourable to the strings, as both violins, cello and double bass were virtually shut out by the winds, brass, percussion and piano.      

The orchestra's might also threatened to overwhelm the soloist in the next piece, Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy. Thankfully, the young man on centrestage was Taiwanese violinist Tseng Yu-Chien, 1^st Prizewinner of the 1^st Singapore International Violin Competition in January. His annus mirabilis continued with winning 2^nd Prize at the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow. Although not an overtly showy perfomer, his playing was brimming with confidence.

A bright clarion tone, with perfect intonation, lit up his entry in the opening movement, and shone out like a beacon in the 2nd movement when orchestral volume could have got out of hand. The 3rd movement's variations on the Scottish tune I'm Down For Lack Of Johnnie found the best balance of all, and how his violin truly sang. The bellicose finale provided a stirring show of fireworks from all on stage, and the audience cheered and clamoured for an encore. The soft-spoken and thoughtful soul obliged with further purity of tone in the first movement of Bach's unaccompanied Second Sonata. 

The second half was The Choo Hoey Show, in the familiar warhorse that is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. If the listener had expected broad tempos and stolid posturings in the manner of Klemperer or Celibidache, one was to be surprised. Clocking in under 35 minutes, this was no slouch of a performance, nor was there the litheness and light textures that come with modern approaches. Choo demanded a rich, full-bodied sound through its four movements, and he got it.

The iconic 1^st movement was brisk, tautly held together, but it never sounded hectic. The strings were given ample space to breathe in the slow movement, which brought out the work's lyrical best. The lightly traipsing 3^rd movement was given more nuances than one suspected, with virtuosic ensemble playing in its agitated middle section. The expectant lead-up to the grandstanding finale was exciting, only bettered by the actual article itself. The brass - two French horns, two trumpets and three trombones – were in top form, and who would have thought Beethoven giving in its final pages such prominence to the humble piccolo?

The breathless close, brilliantly marshalled, brought out prolonged accolades for the revered maestro. There seemed to be one common thought that ran through the house: Music makes one young again.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2015)

IPPOLITOV-IVANOV Symphony No.1

Singapore Symphony / CHOO HOEY

Naxos 8.573508 / ****

The name of Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859-1935) survives on the strength of his Procession of the Sardar (from Caucasian Sketches) which occasionally appears in pops programmes. A student of Rimsky-Korsakov and good friend of Tchaikovsky, his career took him to Georgia where he encountered Central Asian folk music (which he incorporated into his music) and later became the Director of the Moscow Conservatory. His First Symphony (1908) bears only faint influences of Tchaikovsky and is more aligned to the symphonies of Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Playing for just over 35 minutes, its generally thin material makes for a pleasant if not utterly memorable listen.  

This was one of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's earliest recordings of Western classical music, taped in 1984 and appearing on LP on the Hong Kong Records label. The recorded sound is relatively thin but it received a reasonably good review from Gramophone, which also noted the orchestra's inexperience but youthful enthusiasm. Its couplings, Turkish Sketches and Turkish March, like his Caucasian Sketches, are light and enjoyable. These are the only recordings available of this music, and deserve our attention because of its relevance to the SSO's mission of bridging the cultures of East and West.

JAMES HORNER Pas De Deux

Mari & Hakon Samuelsen, Violin & Cello

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

Mercury Classics 481 1487 / ****

The timing of this release could not have been more ironic. Celebrated American film composer James Horner (of Titanic and Avatar fame) had just perished in June, in an accident while piloting his private plane. Pas De Deux, a double concerto for violin, cello and orchestra marked a return to his classically trained roots. In three movements, it was written for the young Norwegian siblings Mari and Hakon Samuelsen as a concert piece. While suitably showy for performers, the work makes little demands for its intended audience, who will wallow in its blend of minimalism, sentimental film music and easy listening.

Made of sterner stuff is Estonian Arvö Part's cult favourite Fratres (1977) in its version for solo violin, strings and percussion. Its staid harmonies and static rhythms still exude profundity after all these years. From Italy comes Giovanni Sollima's Violoncelles, Vibrez! for two cellos (with Alisa Weilerstein) with contrasting sections that are far more interesting than Ludovico Einaudi's rather anodyne Divenire for violin and cello. The album's recorded sound is excellent and fanciers of classical crossover should have no worries making its acquaintance. 

Photographs from SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA CONCERT BY THE BAY

It seemed that every group in Singapore was getting to do its SG50 celebration and bit of history. The Singapore Chinese Orchestra performed a wonderful concert at the Marina Bay Sands Waterfront Promenade on Saturday 8 August 2015 with a programme of local favourites and patriotic music. It closed with a blaze of fireworks, which never fails to please the crowd.

A segment of the waterfront audience.

The opening work was
Xu Chang Jun's rowdy Lion Dance.

The Women Police Pipes & Drums
in Eric Watson's Singamedley.

MICacappella Close Up.

A vigorous performance of
Phang Kok Jun's MICamedley.

Vocal Associates join in for
Law Wai Lun's Ode To Singapore.

No words were needed for the pyrotechnics
display as the band struck up with
Stand Up For Singapore.

HAPPY 50TH NATIONAL DAY!