AN ENCHANTED EVENING WITH ALEXANDER AND MASAKO / Alexander Souptel & Masako Suzuki / Review

AN ENCHANTED EVENING

WITH ALEXANDER & MASAKO

Alexander Souptel & 

Masako Suzuki White, Violins

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday (28 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 April 201 with the title "Partying with Sasha and lollipops".

If a history were written about classical music in Singapore, the name of Alexander Souptel would surely appear alongside the likes of Feri Krempl, Goh Soon Tioe and Lee Pan Hon. Souptel, or Sasha as he is known affectionately, was Concertmaster of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2012.

Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian native emigrated to Singapore where he became a naturalised citizen. Now playing in the rank and file of first violins and coaching conservatory students, he still cuts a commanding stage figure.

His is not one of stern authority but an avuncular, almost carefree charm, blest with the hallmarks of a born entertainer. His often outlandish demeanour was on full show in this concert of lollipops, in tandem with his inseparable companion Masako Suzuki White, herself a fiddler of considerable prowess.

Nobody quite wields the bow like Souptel, circumscribing wide arcs like a light sabre, accompanied by cheeky grins and knowing eyes. The “serious” work on show was Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, and even that had no pretensions to authenticity. With Jonathan Shin on piano and Guennadi Mouzyka's double bass, the baroque work swung like jazz, not least in the 1^st movement's fugato section.

In Massenet's cloying Meditation from Thaïs, the two violins came across as overcooked with schmaltzy sentimentality. Similarly, the gently gliding of Saint-Saëns' The Swan was supplanted by four young ballerinas from Cheng Ballet Academy who were very cute if not self-conscious.

For Brahms' Hungarian Dance No.2, the irrepressible Magyar spirit took over, with frayed bowstrings the inevitable result. More high jinks erupted in Bang Wen Fu's spiced-up version of Paganini's Caprice No.24, alternating between straight variations played unaccompanied and jazz-club raves with Mark de Souza's drum-set providing the heady beat.

The second half was no less fun, with the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria and Kreisler's Miniature Viennese March and Liebesfreud providing a generous flow of joie de vivre. Virtuoso fireworks were not spared for Sarasate's Navarra, where fearsome passages for triplets on both violins were tossed off with nonchalance, followed by the duel of Piazzolla's aptly titled Violentango. 

Swaying LED lights of audience handphones spontaneously lit up Leigh Harline's When You Wish Upon A Star from the Disney animated classic Pinocchio, which the usually overzealous ushers ignored as a legit part of the act. For Jacob Gade's Tango Jalousie, Souptel had a rose clenched between his lips before presenting it upon bended knee to a surprised Masako. Their patented party piece, Khachaturian's Sabre Dance, slashed its way to the programme's official close.

There were five encores, including Chinese lollipops The Moon Represents My Heart and Horse-Racing, and the titular Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific. The final encore began with the opening solo from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto before segueing into the Russian song Dark Eyes (Ochi Chornye). By this time, the audience was clapping along with the foot-stamping music, tossing roses on stage, and according a deserved standing ovation. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2016)

SEONG-JIN CHO

Winner of the 17^th International

Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition

Deutsche Grammophon 479 5332 / *****

Almost immediately after his triumph at the 2015 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, young Korean pianist Cho Seong-Jin's debut recording was issued, comprising wholly of live performances from the concours. 

His mastery of broad sweeping canvasses is immediately felt in the 24 Preludes (Op.28), made up of variegated miniatures which exhibit every facet of Chopin's technical armamentarium, and emotional breadth and depth. His impeccably polished technique is matched by a whole-hearted involvement which made this music very much his own.

One would also be hard put to find a reading of the Second Sonata in B flat minor (Op.35, or Funeral March Sonata) with as much passionate ardour, and that ceaseless probing of the human psyche's darker side. Here the names of Pollini, Argerich or Ohlsson may be cited, all of whom are enshrined in a pantheon of great Chopinists which Cho now joins. 

The disc is completed by the Nocturne in C minor (Op.48 No.1) and that most overplayed of Polonaises, the “Heroic” in A flat major (Op.53), both sounding as fresh as newly minted. All this accomplished at the age of 21, a promising musical career awaits this phenomenal new talent.

BLACKBIRD / THE BEATLES ALBUM

MILOS KARADAGLIC, Guitar

Mercury Classics 481 2310 / *****

That the music of the Beatles, like the works of J.S.Bach, could be translated into genres far removed from the original form is a testament of its universality and immortality. This album of Beatles standards by Montenegrin guitarist Milos Karadaglic is a winner not just because of his irrepressible personality, but also the idiomatic and seamless arrangements by Brazilian guitarist Sergio Assad.

The insouciant spirit of Lennon and McCartney's Blackbird, Come Together, The Fool On The Hill, And I Love Her, Eleanor Rigby and All My Loving, or George Harrison's Something and Here Comes The Sun are not lost despite the absence of words.

There is also a solo arrangement of Yesterday, by no less than Japanese modernist icon Toru Takemitsu (who despite his Zen-like austerity was a massive fan of the Fab Four), one which resonates deeply in its simplicity. 

There are cameo appearances by Gregory Porter (in Let It Be), Tori Amos (She's Leaving Home), cellist Steven Isserlis (Michelle) and sitar virtuosa Anoushka Shankar (Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds) which add to the glitter factor of this already desirable disc.

VIRTUOSOS OF CHINESE MUSIC / Ding Yi Music Company / Review

VIRTUOSOS OF CHINESE MUSIC

Ding Yi Music Company

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (24 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 April 2016 with the title "Shining showmanship by Chinese soloists".

Every year in its first concert of the season, Ding Yi Music Company invites as guest soloists luminaries from the world of Chinese instrumental music. These names may not be familiar to the casual listener or outsider, but erhu virtuoso Xue Ke, guzheng exponent Zhou Wang and dizi master Zhang Wei Liang are household names for serious Chinese instrumentalists.

In this 140-minute long concert, the trio from mainland China performed a selection of chamber and concertante works with members of Singapore's premier Chinese chamber ensemble. Xue's fiery crimson gown matched the intensity of Liu Wen Jin's Fire Maiden in a Colourful Dress for two erhus, a moto perpetuo in duet with Ding Yi's Chin Yen Choong. There was no let up in its frenetic pace, but Chin ably kept up with Xue by doubling the melody, harmonising in close intervals and providing rhythmic support.

Xue's appearance in Guan Ming's Ballad of Lan Hua Hua, a rhapsodic single-movement concerto, gave voice to the extreme expressions of an erhu. From anguished plaints to the courageous sacrifice of the eponymous heroine (who resisted and fled a loveless marriage to a rich old codger), the emotive playing elicited premature applause from an excitable audience in a short pause leading to its cadenza.    

Zhou was joined by Yin Qun and Yvonne Tay in Zhou Yan Jia's Love of Qing Bei, arranged for three guzhengs. Playing completely from memory, nary a note or beat was dropped in this showpiece that gradually accelerated to a brilliant conclusion with sweeping glissandi.

Zhou's concertante pieces included the traditional Song Of Desolation from Shaanxi, a poetic portrayal of profound sadness, markedly contrasted with Huang Zhen Yu and Zhou Wang's Western Theme Capriccio, a vigorous dance that used Central Asian themes and motifs from Jiangxi, China's Far West. Her command of the strummed and plucked instrument was absolute, vividly supported by the ensemble conducted by Quek Ling Kiong.

Zhang played on a combination of dizis and xiao. The latter is a vertically-blown flute with a lower register, and its mellow timbre was well-suited for the serene melody of Song dynasty classic Plum Blossoms In The Snow, accompanied by erhu, pipa, ruan, guzheng and percussion in Zhang's  arrangement.

The dizi's rusticity was ideal in the Hebei operatic number Little Shepherd, which had mellifluous exchanges between a shepherd and his love interest. In Zhang's own Tears for Fallen Flowers, composed in memory of his beloved late father, a Suzhou pingtan melody straddled between light-hearted reminiscences and poignancy.

All three soloists gave short interviews, which included encouraging budding players in the audience to discover and embrace their artistic souls. They were united for the final work, Gu Guan Ren's arrangement of the popular Flavours Of Jiangnan, which culminated with virtuosic flourishes for each part. Closing on a spirited high, this concert ushers yet another ambitious season ahead for the intrepid and industrious Ding Yi Music Company. 

   

Photographs by courtesy of Ding Yi Music Company.

GLORIA! / NAFA Orchestra & Chorus / Review

GLORIA!

NAFA Orchestra & Chorus

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday (19 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 April 2016 with the title "A moving evening of Poulenc".

An all-French programme was the culmination of an academic year's work for the School of Music at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Conducted by British conductor Nicholas Cleobury, presently Head of Opera at Brisbane's Queensland Conservatorium, there was a striking synergy and symmetry that united all three works in the concert.

Beginning with Maurice Ravel's ballet Mother Goose, the young orchestra crafted a very strong narrative thread through its movements (each retelling a tale from Charles Perrault's collection) and intervening intermezzos. The playing was sensitive and evocative, with excellent solos from woodwinds, particularly oboe, flutes and piccolo which conjured an imaginatively fabled atmosphere.

Strings were well disciplined and homogeneous in texture. The opening of The Fairy's Garden was beautifully played, and concertmaster Guo Xingchen's violin solos confident and impressive. In the pentatonic paradise that was Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas, harp, celesta and assorted percussion helped paint an indelible portrait of the Orient, filled with dizzying gamelan sonorities.

That was the vital link to the next work, Francis Poulenc's popular Concerto for Two Pianos, where he used keyboards to simulate the tintinnabuli and clangour of the gamelan orchestra. Soloists Lena Ching and Nicholas Ong, both of the piano faculty, navigated their tricky and intricate parts with razor-sharp reflexes and witty aplomb.

Its aromatic blend of orientalism, neoclassicism (the slow movement was pure Mozartean charm) and popular dancehall tunes wafted with the pungently intoxicating and hypnotic qualities of incense, a true riot for the senses. There was even a curious episode for two pianos and solo cello playing a melody in harmonics. Was this Poulenc's salute to the Javanese spiked fiddle?

After the frolicsome finale which closed with a brilliant show of pianistic hi-jinks, the second half comprised just Poulenc's Gloria for soprano, choir and orchestra. One of the most appealing and often-performed 20^th century choral works, it revealed diametrically opposite aspects of the composer – the sacred and profane, from saint and sinner.

The opening Gloria In Excelsis Deo, executed by excellent brass and percussion with righteous grandeur and pomp, also had an air of flippancy. The 86-strong chorus, meticulously drilled by Lim Yau, responded with corporate drollery, soon breaking out into an enthusiastic and sincerely felt Laudamus Te which made the proceedings all the more light and cheerful.

Cheerful would be an unusual adjective for a sacred work, but Poulenc did not hide behind feigned piety and supplication. Central to his exposition was Indonesian soprano Isyana Sarasvati, NAFA alumnus and now a media sensation of sorts, whose sweet yet unwavering delivery of Dominus Deus was an epitome of purity and poignancy.

The chorus' unison proclamation of Qui Sedes Ad Dexteram Patris was strong and fervent, setting into motion a truly moving finale. How often does one hear a Miserere Nobis (Have Mercy) sound this joyous? Sarasvati's sonorous Amen was a ringing declaration from high, an affirmation of answered prayers to which both chorus and orchestra concluded on a serene and sublime high.  

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2016)

FOUR HANDS

LEON FLEISHER &

KATHERINE JACOBSON, Piano 4 Hands

Sony Classical 88875064162 / ****1/2

The venerated American pianist Leon Fleisher, once afflicted with focal dystonia of the right hand, has returned to play piano repertoire for both hands. This album sees him joined by his wife and former-student Katherine Jacobson in a lovely programme for piano duet. Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer (Love Song Waltzes), heard here without the voices, is a more extended and mellower follow-up to his Waltzes Op.39.

The Fleishers play with great sensitivity and sympathy for the idiom, and this gemütlich (carefree and relaxed like only the Viennese know how) feeling continues into Franz Schubert's masterpiece Fantasy in F minor, which rises to dramatic height from its initial lilting indolence.

The concert closes with Lucien Garban's transcription for piano duet of Maurice Ravel's La Valse. Confined to a single keyboard, its range seems unusually constricted for most part, but the duo generates a voluminous sound and much excitement towards its climactic end. The encore is a 4-hand arrangement of living American composer William Bolcom's most famous short piece, The Graceful Ghost Rag, rendered with rare finesse and nostalgia.

THE LURE OF THE EAST

GEOFFREY SABA, Piano

Carnegie Concerts CC017 / ****1/2

Here is an excellently-programme recital of piano music inspired by Western composers' fascination with the Orient. Its generous 77 minutes of exotica may be subdivided into three parts. First is traditional musical picture-postcard views represented by Debussy's Estampes (Pagodas evoke the sound of gamelans), Godowsky's Gardens Of Buitenzorg (after the famous botanic gardens in Bogor) and Ravel's Jeux D'Eau with its cascades of pentatonics.

The substantial central section delves deeper with Szymanowski's Sheherazade (from Masques), Messiaen's ferociously complex Canteyodjaya (which in Sanskrit translates into “song of joy”), Australian Peter Sculthorpe's Harbour Dreaming and Indonesian Krisna Setiawan's AgMaTa 1, which relives techniques used in gamelan music and the kecak dance.

The final and lightest third part approximates kitsch, closing with Abram Chasins' Three Chinese Pieces (the best known is Rush Hour In Hong Kong) and Percy Grainger's Beautiful Fresh Flower, a transcription of Molihua. Australia-born British pianist Geoffrey Saba has the requisite technique, sense of colour and shade to do his selections justice, and this is accompanied by well researched programme notes and historical illustrations.

PIANOMANIA HITS 1 MILLIONTH READ! THANK YOU FOR VISITING!

As of this morning, PIANOMANIA has just received its 1 millionth read! To be honest, the view counter came into effect in 2010 although the blog was started in 2008, so its millionth view was probably some years ago. But this landmark is still worth a celebration of sorts.

THANK YOU FOR VISITING, READINGS, AND SHARING YOUR COMMENTS!

CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW Piano Recital / Review

CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW Piano Recital

VCH Chamber Series

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (15 April 2016)

The British pianist Christian Blackshaw's first piano recital in Singapore consisted of works “that are better than they could be performed,” to borrow the words of a certain Artur Schnabel. Austro-Germanic, that was probably what he meant, thus excluding all Slavic, French and contemporary repertoire. So no Chopin, Liszt or Rachmaninov, the usual crowd-pleasers.

Nevertheless, a good house greeted Mozart's Sonata in C minor (K.457), one of two sonatas (from 18 sonatas in total) written in the minor key. The first movement was muscular and tension-laden, brought out in a crisp and sprightly manner by Blackshaw, fully aware of its symphonic possibilities. The cantabile he crafted in the slow movement outlined the the music's simplicity and beauty. The finale returned to the earlier storm and stress, but this time it felt leaner and with a meanness that provided little comfort. 

This was Mozart at his most gaunt and unsmiling, and kudos to Blackshaw for not trying to gilt-edge its overall sombre mood. However C minor gave way to C major for Schumann's Fantasie Op.17, one of his most glorious piano creations. The full flush of Romanticism would hit one in the face, and Blackshaw's generous account stirred up feelings of love and warmth through its surging pages, notwithstanding a few mishit notes.

The central movement's march strode with purpose and passion, and even the treacherous octave leaps nears its conclusion did little to faze him. These were committed whole-heartedly with no diminution of speed or power. The slow movement that was the finale unfolded majestically with the valedictory chordal climax arriving not once but twice, each time rising to an almost undescribable high, before resigning to sublime quiet C major chords.

After the interval, the sermon at the Vic continued with Schubert's final Sonata in B flat major (D.960). This, again, was a wonderfully nuanced reading, with the gravity of the first two movements balanced by the levity of the last two.

Again the warmth of sound enveloped the hall in the 1^st movement's longeurs. Blackshaw omitted the exposition repeart, thus averted those uncharacteristic hiccuping bars that might have disrupted the music's inexorable flow. Neither did the music sound short-winded as a result, such was Blackshaw's mastery of exposition and development.

The opening of the timeless slow movement was marvellously weighted, its echoes resounded as if emanating from some distant valley. The life-affirming central section in A major was also built up with purpose, providing much needed contrast. Time stood still for what I consider the true heart of this masterpiece, one that reflects Schubert's inner sorrow and torment.

The last two movements seemed almost inconsequential after the first two, but what is Schubert without his humour and gaiety? The Scherzo was dainty, even skittish, but fingered with a lightness that was hard to dislike. The Hungarian-flavoured finale that followed doubled the delight, but tempered by a passionate outburst, as if trying to shake off the earlier frolicking. The all too short and abrupt ending to the sonata (contrast this with the “Great” C major Symphony) sounded as if Schubert was anxiously trying to close accounts with little more to add.

Nevetheless, Blackshaw gave an enthralling and moving account of Schubert's greatest sonata, which to be honest has not been performed much on this stage. This listener remembers great readings by Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich (1986, before he became just Stephen Kovacevich) and Nikolai Demidenko (2003), and Christian Blackshaw joins this small but illustrious list. What could possibly follow this as an encore? Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major (Op.90 No.3), played with the same grace and beauty that had distinguished all that came before.

No photographs of the concert were available, as the artist had instructed that the house-lights be dimmed to near semi-darkness for the entire duration of the concert.


DON'T MISS:
CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW 
& SSO musicians in
SCHUBERT'S Trout Quintet
Victoria Concert Hall
Sunday 17 April 2016,  4 pm
Tickets available at SISTIC

DONIZETTI'S RITA / New Opera Singapore / Review

DONIZETTI'S RITA

New Opera Singapore

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (13 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 April 2016 with the title "Spousal abuse Punch and Judy way".

This seems to be the month for chamber opera in Singapore, as so soon after L'arietta's debut with three operas in a hour, New Opera Singapore has unearthed bel canto master Gaetano Donizetti's one-act comic opera Rita, or Le Mari Battu (The Beaten Husband).

Created in 1841, it was not performed until 1860, well after the composer's death. Comprising a cast of only three singers and running for just 50 minutes, its farcical plot centred on one taboo subject: spousal abuse.

Rita (sung by soprano Felicia Teo Kaixin) takes perverse delight in berating and slapping her timid and ineffectual husband Pepé (tenor Jonathan Charles Tay), but the table is turned when Rita's abusive first husband Gasparo (baritone Sangchul Jea), orginally thought to have died, unexpectedly returns. Pepe sees this as a chance for bailing out, but learns a thing or two from Gasparo on how to love but keep a wife under control.

Rita provides a new definition
to the term "ballistic".

All this sounds almost sado-masochistic in a Punch and Judy way, and that was ironically what kept the audience mostly in stitches despite the grim subject matter. Large credit has to go to director Stefanos Rassios' simple yet brilliant staging, which saw spoken dialogue trimmed off but retaining all the music. Gaustave Vaëz's French libretto was sung with projected English surtitles which greatly enhanced the experience.

The classic bel canto singing to be found in Lucia Di Lammermoor or La Favorita was not on show here, but the short arias, duets and the final trio still needed agile and expressive voices to pull off the dark comedy.

Teo's taunt of “When it comes to husbands, simpletons are the best” came off as funny rather than cynical. Jea's brash and booming counsel, “You can beat your wife, but don't knock her out” seemed almost good advice in the self-confident way he put it. Even Tay's declaration of glee in his aria when he thought he had seen the last of Rita was genuinely sincere.

What equalled or even surpassed the singing was the actual acting. Every singer rose to the test, particularly New Opera debutant Teo, whose transformation from bored stage prop (she sat on stage throughout all the preliminaries before any music began) to sadistic husband-beater and ultimately submissive spouse was remarkable.

The casting of actress Carina McWhinnie as the silent Cynthia seemed a luxury, but she added a further dimension to the story by acting out the inner thoughts of each singer. Besides delivering an excellent accompaniment, the casually outfitted pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina also had a minor role, spouting phrases in Ukrainian, probably swear words.

Like all comic operas, all's well that end's well. Or is it? Rita is rid of Gasparo (who wants to marry someone else anyway) but gets to keep a “reformed” Pepé (who has been well taught by Gasparo). A husband-and-wife detente is re-established, but like many a workable or peaceable marriage, tensions still exist. But who has the upper hand now? 

The cast takes its bow together with
New Opera Singapore founder Jeong Ae Ree
and director Stefanos Rassios (centre).

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2016)

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.2

TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1

BEATRICE RANA, Piano

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

ANTONIO PAPPANO, Conductor

Warner Classics 0825646009091 / *****

The 22-year-old Italian pianist Beatrice Rana shot into the limelight after winning the Silver Medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Her highly impressive debut concerto recording features the same concerto she played in Fort Worth, Texas: Sergei Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto.

In four movements, it is gradually eclipsing the popularity of his Third Piano Concerto, simply because more young pianists are now able to cope with its immense technical demands. Take for example the 1^st movement's massive cadenza which also doubles up as its development. Or the 2^nd movement's motor-like scurry of semi-quavers which never lets up for a second.

Rana takes these in her stride, wallows in the grotesqueries of the balletic 3^rd movement and finishes off the tempestuous finale with breathtaking aplomb. She is less excitable or volatile than her closest rival, the flashier Yuja Wang (on Deutsche Grammophone) who was recorded live, but this reading stands multiple listens. 

Just as brilliant is her reading of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, which in terms of visceral thrills, equals that of Martha Argerich's famous recordings. If Rana is the future of the piano, listeners have a lot to look forward to.

SHOSTAKOVICH PLAYS SHOSTAKOVICH

Warner Classics 0825646155019 (2CDs) / ****1/2 

It may not be common knowledge that the great Soviet era Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) once harboured thoughts of being a virtuoso pianist. He even won a diploma at the 1927 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, which came as a bitter disappointment for him. 

Thankfully he turned to composition thereafter and never looked back. These recordings of Shostakovich playing his own music date mostly from 1958 when he was already a famous and established composer.

His playing is best exemplified in the two Piano Concertos (with Andre Cluytens conducting) and the Three Fantastic Dances, which shows him to be skittish, mercurial and almost improvisational, very unlike the more studied and disciplined accounts of modern-day pianists. More sober but equally persuasive is a selection of the Preludes and Fugues (Op.87), where his clarity in voicing of individual contrapuntal threads becomes paramount. 

Also priceless is hearing him accompany the great Mstislav Rostropovich in the lyrical Cello Sonata in D major. The date and venue of this rarity remains unknown, but the performance is a diamond among assorted gems.  

RACHMANINOFF'S SECOND CONCERTO / The Young Musicians' Foundation Orchestra / Review

RACHMANINOFF'S SECOND CONCERTO

The Young Musicians' 

Foundation Orchestra

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (10 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 April 2016 with the title "Promising public debut by young orchestra".

It is always exciting to greet the appearance of yet another new orchestra in Singapore, a city-state already filled with young orchestras. The Young Musicians' Foundation Orchestra (TYMFO) was founded by Darrell Ang several years ago, but this evening marked its first public concert under the leadership of present Music Director Alvin Seville Arumugam. 

Regular concert-goers might recognise several familiar faces in Concertmaster Lim Shue Churn on violin, viola principal Siew Yi Li and cello principal Lin Juan, all of whom are experienced hands. Their mentorship of the young musicians was to provide the much-needed stability for the demanding enterprise of performing a live concert.

The programme opened with Morning Mood from Grieg's Peer Gynt. This was a very clean and fresly minted reading, evocative of the Sahara Desert at dawn (rather than the cliched vision of Norwegian fjords) lit up by confident showings from flautists Rachel Ho and Shaun Leoi. The tonal colour brought out by the orchestra was also close to perfection in this short curtain-raiser.

The less said about the titular Second Piano Concerto by Rachmaninoff, the better. The soloist was Charles Cousins, a mature amateur with far more enthusiasm than experience. A highly uneven performance with some sublime spots marred by many mistakes, lapses and an outright collapse (necessitating an emergency page-turner, not for the first time at this venue) showed that public performances of Rachmaninoff concertos should be best left for professional concert pianists. 

There was nothing amateurish about the performance of Beethoven's Symphony No.5 in C minor that took place after the intermission. In reality, it was a very good one, in terms of overall ensemble, projection and the realisation of that most Beethovenian of commands – con brio. The familiar 4-note opening motif was launched with precision and verve, and the first movement brimmed with a palpable vitality that was hard to resist.

As if to prove that was no fluke, the opening of the slow movement with violas and cellos was beautifully sung, almost weightless in its delivery. The Andante thus unfolded with grace and purpose, rising to a ecstatic climax. If there were any quibbles, the tricky changing metre of the 3^rd movement gave the ensemble a few problems, the sort which could be ironed out with time and experience.

Leaving best for last, the Finale blazed with an incandescence of white heat that was totally memorable. Conductor Arumugam's secure and steady beat which kept the ensemble focussed at such high speeds seemed almost implausible. The trombones, first heard in this symphony, were excellent, blasting off with great aplomb. Always in pitch, they never came close to hogging the show.

Although urgent in feel, this did not feel like a hard-driven performance. That is the rare skill of a good conductor, one always sensitive to the music and ensemble, but directing with a single-minded vision according to an innate sense of aesthetics. This life-affirming outing bodes well for a young orchestra with very much to offer.  

JOSHUA BELL WITH SCO / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

JOSHUA BELL WITH SCO

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (9 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 April 2016 with the title "Brilliant musical blend".

One of the major fixtures of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's 20th Anniversary celebrations was this Gala Concert with renowned American violinist Joshua Bell as soloist. Getting him to Singapore was a coup in itself, but the question that ran through the minds of many was how he would fare in a first-ever collaboration with an orchestra of Chinese instruments.

This would be non sequitur, as Bell just needed to be his usual virtuosic self in standard fare like Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns and Sarasate. So the more pertinent question would be how the SCO led by Music Director Yeh Tsung does in repertoire that was the reserve of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The results could be summed up as thus: very well indeed.

This was helped by very sympathetic arrangements by Eric Watson, Phoon Yew Tien and Law Wai Lun. Take Watson's take on Vivaldi's Spring from The Four Seasons with a much reduced ensemble for example. The accompanying huqins were exemplary in lightness and transparency of textures, while Xu Zhong's cello and Qu Jian Qing's yangqin (Chinese dulcimer) served perfectly as modified basso continuo.

Equally idiomatic was Phoon's transcription of Saint-Saëns' Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso. Bell's effortless playing and sumptuous tone were, of course, the highlights, and yangqin and harp were up there with him in the slow section. But who would have thought the sheng running away with the melody with Bell's violin spinning arpeggios at full tilt in the brilliant conclusion?

The concert also presented several non-concertante works, which was a veritable showcase of the orchestra's strengths. Ruan Kun Shen's Da Ge opened the evening with an impressive parade of percussion, climaxing in Jin Shi Yi's pungent suona cadenza. Liu Xing's Invisible Sword simulated the digital dexterity of electronic music with chirpy dizis colouring the jovial mood in this scherzo-like piece.

After the interval, Wu Hou Yuan's Yu Tang Chun skilfully melded Beijing opera themes with the Western prelude and fugue, with plucked strings (pipas, liuqins and ruans), yangqins and percussion as the protagonists. Liu Tian Hua's Song of Birds in a Desolate Mountain presented bowed huqins with an open season for the mimicry of birdsong.

Bell returned with an authentic Chinese work, Mao Yuan's Xin Chun Le (A Joyous New Year) in an arrangement by Chuan Joon Hee, and how he captured its festive feeling with a spirited spiel complete with portamentos truly resounded with the audience. The applause rang louder, after which the orchestra reciprocated by playing Western music, in Watson's highland-inspired The Ceilidh, which has folksong O Waly Waly (sometimes sung as The Water is Wide) as its centrepiece.   

The concert concluded with Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) in Law's orchestration. Again Bell's mastery of this warhorse was unquestionable, with the orchestra supporting his every note and phrase to the hilt.

A standing ovation was the immediate response, and although Bell came for his curtain call sans violin at the first instance, he had to return for an encore. “Derived from American music,” he announced to chortles from the audience, and that turned out to be Variations on Yankee Doodle (his version of Henri Vieuxtemps' Souvenir d'Amérique) which brought down the house.