BEETHOVEN AT AN EXHIBITION
ADDO Chamber Orchestra
Esplanade Rehearsal Studio
Wednesday (31 May 2017 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 June 2017 with the title "Classical music concert with smells of grass and sweat".
When
one thinks of concerts, the idea is that of a seated audience listening and
watching passively to whatever is being performed. This concert by the ADDO
Chamber Orchestra conducted by Clarence Tan was conceived to challenge that
convention. Even the venue, the secluded 6th floor Rehearsal Studio
in Esplanade, reached only by a long flight of stairs, seemed to further the notion.
Seating
was strictly optional, and the atmosphere was social media friendly. The
audience was heeded to take as many photographs or videos as one liked, and to
post them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Everyone was also free to walk
between the widely-spaced musicians and immerse themselves in a surround sound
ambience.
That
was exactly what happened when conductor Tan gave the downbeat for Beethoven's
familiar Fifth Symphony. With hardly any practice time and the
intimidatingly close proximity of total strangers, the orchestra did not
perform at a level beyond rehearsal standards, but that was besides the point.
The
experiment of being an interloper moving freely within the orchestra's ranks
was an interesting one, if only to experience a player's point of view and to
witness how a work can sound so different under the circumstances. There were
however some safety tips: keep a safe distance from being stabbed by rapidly
wielded bows, and do not stand directly in front of the trombones.
Singaporean
composer Hoh Chung Shih's Hi-lo Fide-lio received its Asian Premiere
this evening. The work is a deconstruction of the vocal quartet Mir Ist So
Wunderbar from Beethoven's opera Fidelio. The orchestra played fragments in
the form of a canon, while historical recordings by Furtwängler, Walter and
Böhm were blared through three speakers.
The
audience could also tune in via handphones after scanning QR codes provided in
the programme sheet. This made for one cacophonous outing, with people
wandering in and out of the ensemble while others sitting and fidgeting with
digital gadgets as the music played. The takeaway was this: there was a
uniquely different perspective depending on what one did.
The
final work was Mikhail Tushmalov's orchestral arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures
At An Exhibition, originally a piano suite with a quasi-interactive
inspiration. Its opening piece was titled Promenade, which imagined a visitor
walking in a gallery between viewing art pieces, rather apt given this
concert's context.
An
added sensory element was the involvement of scent artists Christopher Yap and
Johari Kazura who mingled with the audience bearing cannisters of various
fragrances and odours, including freshly cut grass and fallen rain (pleasant)
to smoke and sweat from a 3-day unwashed shirt (not so pleasant).
By
now, sceptics might sense that the various scents distracted listeners from the
sometimes ragged playing, but that might just be the whole point of it all. Our
senses sometimes deceive us by the confusion of multiple inputs, which is why
music is perhaps best experienced in complete and utter silence.
 |
| Scent artists Christopher Yap and Johari Kazura, with composer Hoh Chung Shih in between, taking their bow. |
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