THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
re:Sound
Victoria Concert Hall
Wednesday (1 March 2017 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 March 2017 with the title "Advantage ensemble".
August
31 of 2016 will be remembered with much fondness, for that was the day when
re:Sound, Singapore
The
essence of chamber music lies in diminutive forces, with a small number of
individuals listening and reponding to each other within a show of intimate
cooperation. This was no better illustrated in avant-garde Hungarian composer
Gyorgy Ligeti's Ramifications, scored for just 12 string players, each
with a different part.
With
six players tuned a quarter-tone sharper than the others, the effect was one of
deliberate aural disorientation through constantly wavering pitches. Like a
floor that fluidly shifts under one's feet, the emanating sound evolved from an
incessant buzzing, through high-pitched tinnitus to subterranean growls, all
achieved with utmost control at low volumes.
This
“music” then evaporated into the ether, leaving the conductor beating time in
thin air and ambient silence. These startling plays on sonics will explain why
Stanley Kubrick so effectively used Ligeti's music for his iconic movies 2001:
A Space Odyssey and The Shining.
Altogether
more traditional was Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto in G major with
veteran Penang-born pianist Dennis Lee as soloist. His delivery of its opening
chords was pivotal, a secure statement borne from wealth of experience, which
defined the tenor of this reading. His
was a more classical-attuned view, of transparent textures, measured gestures
and no little nimbleness, as opposed to the boisterously Romantic version
offered by Nicholas Angelich recently with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Lee's
Apollo was a world apart from Angelich's Dionysus, but both had much to offer
in this masterpiece. One factor that
tipped to Lee's favour was the smaller ensemble, which revealed often
glossed-over details besides providing sensitive accompaniment. The rapt
conversation of Orpheus and the Furies in the slow movement was a lovely
interlude before the unbridled jollity of the finale.
The
programming of Mendelssohn's Third Symphony (also known as the “Scottish”)
seemed like straying into SSO territory but no, this was a thoroughly
enthralling account that revelled in the chamber forces utilised. No victim to
Victoria Concert Hall's sometimes feared reverberance, the strings sang without
inhibition, while woodwinds and brass rang with bell-like clarity.
Conductor
Lai's tempos were excellently judged, the solemnity of the opening movement
(evoking the ruins of
The
martial finale did not strike a warlike posture for long, instead delighting in
the ending chorale cast in the major key. Delivering victory without too much
bloodshed, one looks forward to re:Sound's next concerts on 26 April and 2
July.
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