MOZART
AND SHOSTAKOVICH
Yong
Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra
Esplanade
Concert Hall
Tuesday
(5 April 2016)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 April 2016 with the title "Irrepressible and unflinching playing".
It was a peculiar sight to behold
conductor Shui Lan on the podium conducting an ensemble that is not the
Singapore Symphony Orchestra. However it is totally natural for a Music
Director of a national orchestra to be invited to conduct the orchestra of a
national music conservatory. This first-time marriage of roles turned out to be
a total treat.
In Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in
E flat major (K.364), the soloists were the conservatory's heads of string
faculties, namely violinist Qian Zhou and violist Zhang Manchin. Instead of
waiting their turn, they joined their students in tutti sections as members of
the orchestral body itself. And when it came to their turn, their unison entry
soared above the throng.
For much of the score, Qian's violin had
the leading voice, which was answered by Zhang's viola. However this was a duet
of equals, not a duel, and they melded as one harmonious whole. Fitting like hand-in-glove, the tandem lit up the
work from the intricate 1st movement cadenza, through the
melancholic Andante (one of Mozart's most heartrending melodies) to the
ebullient Presto finale.
The orchestra under firm Shui's guiding
hand provided unobstrusive support, the strings shining with timely
interjections from pairs of oboes and French horns. This was ultimately chamber
music, and when far larger forces congregated for Shostakovich's Tenth
Symphony, the orchestra's full might became evident.
The opening's quiet subterranean rumbling
from cellos and basses was very well handled, conjuring an atmosphere of
ominous foreboding and dread. This was to escalate, with layer by layer of
grief sewn into the seams, before the ultimate gnashing of teeth which took
some time in coming. Solo clarinet, flute and bassoon were excellent, and while
the brass had shaky moments in its chorale, there was no denying their
commitment.
The slashing Scherzo, a portrait
of Stalin that could only be revealed after his death, was well characterised –
all malevolence and spewing vitriol. The enigmatic Allegretto that
followed, filled with cryptic clues and insider messages, was delivered with
irony. Shostakovich's own initials, the recurrent motif D-E flat-C-B and an
obsessive French horn call (representing some secret lover and sounded 12 times
to perfection) made this droll movement all the more personal.
The best was reserved for the finale,
where solo instrumental prowess and communal forces played to their strengths.
A sinuous quasi-oriental oboe solo, later joined by flute and piccolo,
underpinned the movement's wry humour and ambiguously victorious rally. Miss a
cue or exhibit less than precise timing, the joke would be lost, thus the
players responded magnificently to conductor Shui's energetic beat wielded at a
blinding pace.
Did the music display an in-your-face
triumph upon the demise of a much-hated autocrat, or was it merely celebrating
a moment's respite before the next dictator takes over? It was difficult to
say, but the playing was irrepressible and unflinching to the very end,
prompting a loud outburst of applause and cheers.
 |
| Post-concert reception: Cellist Ng Pei-Sian, Conductor Adrian Chiang, Ms Tang I Shyan, Prof Craig de Wilde & Prof Ho Chee Kong (L to R) |
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