BEST & WORST CLASSICAL CONCERTS 2016

As published in the 18 December 2016 issue of The Sunday Times (Singapore):

BEST

WAGNER’S THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

  Richard Wagner Society Singapore 

  OperaViva & Finger Players

  Victoria Theatre, 23-30 October 2016

By no stretch of the imagination has Singapore become Bayreuth, but the first-ever local production of a Wagner opera was a success on many counts. Directed by Glenn Goei and Chong Tze Chien, and conducted by Darrell Ang, the Southeast Asian setting of The Flying Dutchman with the use of wayang kulit and shadow puppetry had a memorable outing. The Asian cast (with by Martin Ng as the Dutchman and Nancy Yuen as Senta) which performed on 28 October were no pushovers alongside their Western counterparts.

Visiting Soloists with national orchestras:

JOSHUA BELL 

  with Singapore Chinese Orchestra

  Esplanade Concert Hall, 9 April 2016

YO-YO MA & SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE

  with Singapore Symphony Orchestra

  Esplanade Concert Hall, 11-12 Nov 2016

ANDRAS SCHIFF with

  Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

  Esplanade Concert Hall, 1 November 2016

2016 was a year when big name soloists collaborated with local orchestras, and audiences became beneficiaries in a host of musical feasts. American violinist Joshua Bell in Vivaldi,  Saint-Saens, Sarasate and Chinese music, celebrity cellist Yo-Yo Ma playing Elgar and Zhao Lin, and Hungarian virtuoso Andras Schiff in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 have all been firmly implanted in the collective memory. 

Best Debuts

Mathea Goh plays plays unaccompanied Bach.

Felicia Teo Kai Xin
(with Jonathan Charles Tay) in
Donizettii's Rita 

MATHEA GOH, Violin

  Esplanade Recital Studio, 26 October 2016

FELICIA TEO KAIXIN, Soprano

  Esplanade Recital Studio, 13 April 2016

  Singapore Conference Hall, 4 Nov 2016

  Esplanade Concert Hall, 18 November

16-year-old violinist Mathea Goh, this year’s recipient of the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award, gave stunning and mature performances of Bach, Ysaye, Grieg, Paganini and Ravel in her debut solo recital. Also making big splash upon her return from studies in New York was soprano Felicia Teo Kaixin, who impressed in Donizetti’s Rita (New Opera Singapore), Dick Lee’s The Journey of Lee Kan (Singapore Chinese Orchestra) and the Singapore Lyric Opera’s annual Gala Concert.

WORST

Amateur pianists with professional ensembles

SOTA Concert Hall, 
31 January & 10 April 2016

Amateur music-making is to be encouraged, however parading non-professional piano players in public performances of concertos by Chopin and Rachmaninov alongside professional musicians is the height of hubris and folly. Two such performances at SOTA Concert Hall came to grief, with calamitous memory lapses necessitating an emergency page-turner coming to the rescue on both occasions.   

BEST & WORST CLASSICAL CDS 2016

As published in the 18 December 2016 edition of The Sunday Times (Singapore):

BEST

ZHOU LONG & CHEN YI

Symphony Humen 1839

New Zealand Symphony / Darrell Ang

Naxos 8.570611

Conductor Darrell Ang became Singapore’s first-ever Grammy nominee for classical music with this symphony jointly composed by the China-born husband-and-wife Zhou Long and Chen Yi. Commemorating China’s act of defiance in Humen, Canton that sparked off the Opium Wars, the 2009 work is both patriotic and cathartic, heralding the ascent of China as a global superpower.

THE CLASSICAL ELEMENTS

ALBERT TIU, Piano

Centaur 3503

The 20 piano pieces in this recital are inspired by the ancient concept of earth, air, water and fire as the four pillars of the natural world. The Philippines-born and Singapore-based pianist Albert Tiu has an exquisite and variegated touch in diverse works by Liszt, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Godowsky, Scriabin, Griffes, Ibert, Mompou and others, all of which are evocatively coloured.

J.S.BACH Mass in B minor

Soloists with Concerto Copenhagen 

Lars Ulrik Mortensen

CPO 777 851-2

This recording of Bach’s classic choral work employs five soloists and just five ripieno voices (one voice per part) in the choral movements, accompanied by period instruments. The effect is one of lighter and more transparent textures without sacrificing on volume, depth or grandeur. A sitting will help redefine the words “divine” and “beautiful”. 

WORST

TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Violin

MusicAeterna / Teodor Currentzis

Sony Classical 88875165122

Has there been an uglier recording of Tchaikovsky’s popular Violin Concerto than this travesty? Moldovan-Austrian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja adopts a preening demeanour, deliberate extremes of dynamics, slashing and percussive bowing, and capped by a dry vitriolic tone that makes for irritating repeated listening. Simply perverse.

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF MUSIC GALA-CONCERT / Review

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL

FESTIVAL OF MUSIC GALA-CONCERT

Living Room, The Arts House

Thursday (29 December 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 31 December 2016 with the title "Local-born pianist thrills in comeback".

Music lovers with long memories might remember Singapore-born pianist Koh Poh-Lin who was active here during the 1980s before moving to Vancouver, Canada where she is now based. A student of the late pianist Ong Lip Tat and later the legendary pedagogue Lee Kum Sing, she was a semi-finalist at the 1989 Rolex Asia Piano Competition. Among her contemporaries are Singaporean pianists Shane Thio, Christina Tan, Lena Ching and Victor Khor.

She marked her long-awaited return to the local stage with a performance of Chopin's First Piano Concerto in a chamber version accompanied by a string quartet and double bass. Formed by members of the Singapore International Festival of Music (SIFOM) Orchestra, the string group that partnered Koh was unfortunately ragged and under-rehearsed.

The martial opening tutti was hesitant and out of sorts, with intonation being mostly a hit or miss affair. It seemed like an eternity before Koh's imposing entry of big octaves and chords, which broke the spell of mediocrity. The hall's Shigeru Kawai grand piano was not in best shape, but she made music with a sensitive and limpid touch, and the music's over-arching cantabile came through winningly.

Where the adrenaline level was upped in the 1^st movement's development section, she responded in kind, providing some of the concerto's more thrilling moments. With the strings scrambling to keep up, the collegial qualities that characterised chamber music at its finest was intermittent at best. When the ensemble seemed to gel at times, these were unfortunately not sustained for longer stretches.

The performance's best minutes came in the slow central movement, where its title Romanze was taken at face value. At a more relaxed pace, all six players luxuriated in the music's warm glow and seamless lyricism.

The finale's Rondo might be described as rough and ready, one which would have benefited from more rehearsal time. Other than a short section where a variation of the dance-like theme was missed out or not observed, Koh's pianism was otherwise one of steadfastness, the unifying factor that kept the ensemble together through to the concerto's romping close.

Would a solo recital have been a better choice to make one's comeback in front of a hometown audience? A standing ovation accorded by a full-house might encourage her to do just that in next year's edition of SIFOM, a festival that celebrates local talent.

Amanda Chia plays de Beriot.

SIFOM Artistic Director Darrell Ang
interviews the Hwang sisters, Claris & Crystal.

Crystal Hwang plays Debussy

  

On the same platform this evening were three younger Singaporean musicians. 16-year-old violinist Amanda Chia gave a confident reading of Charles de Beriot's Violin Concerto No.9 accompanied by pianist Iryna Vokhmianina. Sisters Claris and Crystal Hwang put the polish on a Haydn sonata movement and Debussy's First Arabesque respectively. Given time and hard work, they might one day emulate the achievements of Koh Poh-Lin themselves.

Iryna Vokhmianina and the Hwang sisters
are based with Tanglewood Music School.

A Rolex Reunion, after 27 years!
Koh Poh-Lin, with Albert Tiu and Susan Lai
took part in the 1989 Rolex Asia Piano Competition.

CD Review (The Straits Times, December 2016)

NEW YEAR'S CONCERT 2016

Vienna Philharmonic / MARISS JANSONS

Sony Classical 88875174772 / ****1/2

75 years of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's patented New Year Concerts have yielded over 319 different works by the Strauss family and other composers of festive light music, and more are added every year to this delectable smorgasbord of confections and lollipops. 

The 2016 edition conducted by Latvia-born Mariss Jansons throws in eight more works not previous heard in the Golden Hall of Vienna's Musikverein. Heading this list is Robert Stolz's United Nations March, composed as recently as 1962 and the most “modern” work ever performed in this series.

Also heard for the first time are Waldteufel's España (using the same tunes as Chabrier's España), Hellmesberger's Ball Scene, Ziehrer's Viennese Maidens, Eduard Strauss' Out Of Bounds, and three other Johann Strauss II rarities, all agreeable fare for the occasion. 

The familiar favourites also return, such as the Emperor Waltz, Treasure Waltz, Pleasure Train, Josef Strauss' Music Of The Spheres, and the sine qua non obligates - The Beautiful Blue Danube and Johann Strauss the Elder's Radetzky March - with synchronised clapping from the audience. Like all things Viennese, old habits die hard, and older pleasures ever more so.  

CD Review (The Straits Times, December 2016)

ROZYCKI & FRIEDMAN

Piano Quintets

JONATHAN PLOWRIGHT, Piano

with Szymanowski Quartet

Hyperion 68124 / *****

Two of music's greatest piano quintets are the sole examples by Johannes Brahms and Cesar Franck, both of which play for about 40 minutes. 

Casting the net wider for quintets of this stature, one will eventually stumble upon these virtually unknown and unjustly neglected works by the Poles Ludomir Rozycki (1883-1953) and Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948). Both piano quintets are in three movements and cast in C minor, the key of unbridled pathos and unrelieved angst.

The Rozycki (1913) typifies the late Romantic era, with broad melodies not dissimilar to those of Brahms, Faure and Richard Strauss, but tinged with the Slavic melancholy of Tchaikovsky and the young Rachmaninov. The slow movement is itself a portrait of gloom, only dispelled by a finale of animation and levity. The Friedman (1918) is slightly shorter, and has a veneer of Viennese charm over and above a bed-rock of pensiveness and rumination.

Are these undiscovered masterpieces? British pianist Jonathan Plowright and the Polish Szymanowski quartet perform with passion and authority, lifting these beyond salon superficialities and obscurity into the realm of established true classics.   

O FORTUNA! / CARL ORFF'S CARMINA BURANA / The Joy Chorale & Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra / Review

O FORTUNA!

The Joy Chorale

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (18 December 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 December 2016 with the title "Seasonal cheer from a joyful chorale".

It is amazing how Carl Orff's Carmina Burana has become one of the most popular and performed of all choral works. Why performances of it have not been banned a long time ago remains a mystery. Its greatest indictment was that Nazis appropriated it as a glorification of German (read Aryan) peasantry and its racially “pure” values.

Then there are those Latin and antiquated German words extolling the joys of the tavern, feasting, drinking and underage sex. Not even meriting a M18 rating has its advantages. After all, how would one get all those children into the hall to sing lascivious lines like “Oh! Oh, Oh! I am bursting all over with love!”?

To present Carmina Burana as a Christmas-time concert was a coup, as the hall was well-filled with families and children, toting camera handphones and all ready for some seasonal cheer. The 170-strong Joy Chorale (Chorus Director: Khor Ai Ming), including 85 children's voices, was colourfully attired and in good voice. Accompanied by the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Tan, this was a visual and aural spectacular as much as those Mahlerian concerts that have come before.

The gauntlet was thrown in the first timpani thwack and the opening chorus O Fortuna, sung with much guts and gusto. The wheel of fortune, waxing and waning like the moon, had spun and Fate dealt its first hands. One might not expect the same polish as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Chorus' previous performances, but the raw energy exuded was equally palpable.

The larger congregation of women singers were in their element throughout, easily the best section of the choir. Men's voices are always in short supply, but they excelled in In Taberna Quando Sumus with its repeated “bibit” toasts. In Si Puer Cum Puellula (If A Boy With A Girl), what was needed were several shots of choral Viagra. The children barely kept their tune in Amor Volat Undique (Love Flies Everywhere), but looking cute and innocent was all that mattered.

Of the soloists, baritone Alvin Tan was a confident and bellowing Abbot of Cockaigne, of hearty voice even if his pronunciation was not always perfect. Opposite him, soprano Xi Wang maintained a virginal presence, comfortably conquering the high notes even in the climactic Dulcissime, with the most joyous loss of maidenhood in all music.

The cameo role afforded to tenor Melvin Tan as the roasted swan on a spit was well characterised. His agonised voice and demeanour, and attired in tribute to Björk's ludicrous swan costume, were alone worth the price of entry. There was even a terpsichorean role which dancer Rachel Lum obliged with no little grace.

Full lyrics and translations were provided both on screen and in the programme booklet, a luxury given the prohibitive copyright costs involved. Kelly Tang's orchestral showpiece Apocalypso in a virtuosic performance served as a excellent prelude, and Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You as encore provided a suitably festive send-off.  

THE ITALIAN BARITONE / MARTIN NG Vocal Recital / Review

THE ITALIAN BARITONE

MARTIN NG Vocal Recital

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Saturday (17 December 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 December 2016 with the title "A baritone grown in stature".

In a state where vocal recitals are uncommon events, a baritone concert is a curate's egg. Singaporean baritone Martin Ng has gradually been making a name for himself. Presently based in the Italian city of Verona, his recent outing as the eponymous Flying Dutchman in the Singapore premiere production of Wagner's opera in October gave notice to his considerable abilities.

This recital presented by opera blog The Mad Scene however centred around Italian operatic roles, where baritones are often limited to the part of villainous, avuncular and anti-hero characters. There was no Puccini but lots of Verdi. Here he proved his mettle, not just vocally but also dramatically, as one might in an opera house.

His programme began with two contrasting arias from Donizetti's bel canto operas. In Cruda finesta smania from Lucia di Lammermoor, he projected with a force and heroism more usually associated with tenor arias. Emoting equally well, the lyrical of pages of Come paride vezzoso (L'elisir d'amore) found that sensitivity and balance which showed he was not just a pair of sturdy lungs.

Ng's performances have grown in stature over the years. The board-like stiffness that accompanied his earlier appearances has given way to a more supple and flexible persona befitting a variety of roles. In Ponchielli's Ah! Pescatore from La Gioconda, his agile and articulate way around its tricky rhythms was a marvel to behold.

Even better were the second half's offerings of Verdi's Pieta rispetto e amore (Macbeth) and Cortigiani vil razza dannata (Rigoletto), and Giordano's Nemico della patria (Andrea Chenier). His towering and booming entries, tempestuous and anguished expressions, always found a foil in flowing melody which his mellow and multi-hued voice served well. This indicates he is ready for major roles in more repertoire operas in time to come.

Adding variety to the programme was Chinese soprano Li Jie, graduate of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and now living in Germany, in some non-Italian repertoire.  Her command of Schumann's lied In der Fremde, Lehar's Meine Lippen (from Giuditta) and the obligatory Puccini aria (Signore ascolta from Turandot) was excellent, and was every bit Ng's equal.

The accompaniment was provided by Montenegrin pianist Boris Kraljevic, whose orchestral conception of the music ensured that a fuller ensemble was not missed. His solo segment was as varied as the songs he played for, applying myriad shades of bell sonorities to two Rachmaninov pieces, the Musical Moment (Op.16 No.5) and Etude-Tableau (Op.33 No.8).

Together, the threesome served up sumptuous readings of the recital's most substantial pieces, operatic duets from three Verdi operas. The relationships between father and daughter (Rigoletto), father and prospective daughter-in-law (La Traviata), evil duke and would-be lover (Il Trovatore) were shelled out with a show of passion and conviction.

The chemistry between all three performers was clearly palpable, and prolonged acclaim following a stirring Udiste... Mira di acerbe lagrime (Il Trovatore) ensured that the heights of its conclusion would be encored, to further applause.  

Some Photos from SONG ZILIANG's PIANO RECITAL

On Friday evening (16 December 2016) at the School of the Arts Concert Hall, Singaporean pianist Song Ziliang gave an unusual piano recital as part of the Young Virtuoso Recital Series organised by MW Events Management. It was a classical piano recital which also included performances of popular music, encompassing Japanese anime, Korean drama, Chinese oldies and Singaporean Xinyao. The World Premiere of Singaporean Malay composer Syafiqah Adha Sallehin's Mahligai, a work that melded Malay and Western idioms, was also performed.

Song Ziliang studied music at the Moscow Conservatory and later at London's Royal College of Music, where Mikhail Petukhov and Gordon Fergus-Thompson were his principal teachers respectively. He is presently a teacher at Zhonghua Secondary School, where General Music and Marketing are his main subjects.

His classical programme included the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, Schumann's Fantasy in C Op.17 and Scriabin's Sonata No.5. In between were the popular offerings, some of which were requests from his Facebook friends and followers, which he played off an iPad.

Ziliang is an adept and personable speaker and fully engaged his audience with an assortment of anecdotes, and was unafraid to use a little Singlish as well. His listeners clearly warmed up to his efforts and were totally appreciative in their response. As to his concert attire, he deliberately dressed down (denim jeans included) as he did not want to make concerts a stuffy experience.

Ziliang with local composer
Syafiqah Adha Sallehin.

With cellist Loke Hoe Kit,
whose Young Virtuoso Recital takes place on
1 July 2017, at Victoria Concert Hall.

Loke Hoe Kit and pianist Heegan Lee
plugging their forthcoming concerts,
organised by MW Events Management.

TITANIC MASTERPIECES / Orchestra of the Music Makers et al / Review

TITANIC MASTERPIECES

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (14 December 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 December 2016 with the title "Bravo for a stunning show"

The Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) is one group that does not operate in half-measures. Its concerts, like a Mahlerian symphony, aim to encompass the world,. Its latest concert, a collaboration with the Western Australian Youth Orchestra (WAYO), was a sequel to their last concert together in 2009 entitled When Heavens Collide.

It was more a case of “when bodies collide” when over 180 instrumentalists ascended the stage of Esplanade Concert Hall for two popular symphonies. The first was Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in Gustav Mahler's orchestration which featured the OMM-School of the Arts Camp Orchestra with the Australians, conducted by Peter Moore.

Refreshing was to hear an old-fashioned big sound in a Beethoven symphony when the new normal was a lithe, Twiggy-like sonority favoured by many orchestras today. Opulence is a sin for some, but not so in Moore's expansive approach which could never be called sluggish. The entries were mostly very precise, amazing for so many young musicians huddled closely together.

The violas and cellos in the opening of the slow movement were svelte and mellow, so homogeneous that one imagined them to be seasoned professionals. Even if the 3^rd movement's goose-stepping was not always perfectly in sync, the sweep in the propulsive finale hugely impressed. Here, Mahler's favour boosting woodwinds and brass made their parts stride to the forefront. Even the humblest piccolo began to sound like a solo instrument.

       

Not wanting to neglect the concertante element, Quebecois violinist Alexandre Da Costa took centrestage in Sarasate's Gypsy Airs, accompanied by WAYO. His was another old-fashioned wallow with a vibrato that stretched the Nullabor Plain, and the virtuosic tricks to match. His encore, accompanied by just a string quartet was a stanza from the Canadian national anthem, O Canada.

The main event was the second half OMM-WAYO pairing in Mahler's First Symphony, also known as The Titan, conducted by Chan Tze Law. The opening had shaky moments for woodwinds and offstage trumpets despite the rapt pianissimo from the strings, but the dawn was evocatively captured. The strolling main theme, quoting one of Mahler's own Wayfarer Songs, stole the scene and the early awkwardness was soon forgotten.

Even better was the rollicking country dance of the 2^nd movement, where contrasts between the earthy and the spiritual were well delineated. The next movement's droll funeral march with the Frere Jacque theme was lit up with some lusty Klezmer-like playing that truly brought out the spirit of Mahler's sound world.

The finale's “cry of the wounded heart” was delivered with a directness and vehemence that was simply stunning. If one thought this mega-orchestra was all about dash and flash, the quiet and slow bits between showed the young musicians were also capable of nuance and sensitivity. 

Where did the conductor go?

As if to also demonstrate its total independence, conductor Chan stepped off the podium, and the players performed its encore, Franz Waxman's Ride Of The Cossacks from the movie Taras Bulba, on their own. Bravo indeed! 

Here they are! Partners in crime:
Peter Moore & ChanTze Law

Here's how to fit almost
200 people on stage.