BORODIN QUARTET – ELEGY
BORODIN QUARTET – EPILOGUE
Victoria Concert Hall
Saturday & Sunday
(13 & 14
October 2018)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 October 2018 with the title "A full measure of what chamber music is about".
Longevity
is the enduring quality of Russia Singapore
Its
two concerts, part of the SSO Chamber and VCH Presents series, gave listeners
the full measure of what chamber music was all about. Three of its members
partnered with Singapore Symphony Orchestra players for two popular quintets on
the first evening. Violist Naidin and cellist Vladimir Balshin were joined by
violinists Chan Yoong Han and Chikako Sasaki and cellist Ng Pei-Sian for
Schubert’s late String Quintet in C major.
Despite
the “heavenly length” of nearly 55 minutes, it was a superbly paced performance
that breathed freshness, revealing the intimacy of close cooperation all
through its four movements. There was nothing to separate Russians and locals
in the seamless music-making, from the opening movements’ lyrical musings to
more vigorous exertions of the Scherzo and Rondo finale.
Oneness
of ensemble also inhabited Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor,
where violinist Sergei Lomovsky and violist Naidin played alongside pianist Lim
Yan, violinist Margit Saur and cellist Wang Yan. In this music of emotional and
dynamic extremes, the temptation to lapse into caricature was resisted. While
playing the score straight, the result was a catharsis borne of extreme duress
while keeping a straight face. This irony was clearly appreciated by the
audience.
The
Borodin Quartet, led by first violinist Ruben Aharonian, was on its own in the
second concert, which presented diametrically contrasting halves. Musical
sunshine lit up Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet, with its very
familiar Andante Cantabile slow movement, where Aharonian’s melodic line
soaring above quiet pizzicatos from Balshin’s cello could not have been more
tender.
The
rest of the work showcased immaculate ensemble, sensitive to myriads of
nuances, and finely balanced by an understated virtuosity. The four players
could easily have played this, their musical heritage, blind-folded. Hugo
Wolf’s brief and jolly Italian Serenade, filled with Mediterranean
warmth, was served like an enjoyable encore.
 |
| Dmitri Shostakovich with the original members of the Borodin Quartet |
A
sugar-coated first half would scarcely have prepared one for the bile of
Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.15, his final embittered work in this
medium. The hall was plunged into near darkness, with the players barely
visible through dim lights illuminating their scores. This seemed like the only
way to experience the work’s six continuous slow movements, highlighted by
painful pauses, pregnant silences and interjected dissonances. One could hear a
pin drop amid this blanket of unnerving stillness and unease, so grippingly
negotiated by the quartet.
There
was nearly a minute of silence before house lights came on with the ensuing
applause. Two short Tchaikovsky encores seemed trite and inconsequential, as
all present knew all through the music’s unremitting bleakness, they had
attended a requiem.
 |
| SSO violinist Chan Yoong Han and his daughter Chantal meet the Borodins. |
 |
| SSO violinist Chikako Sasaki is ecstatic she got to play with the legendary quartet. |
The Borodin Quartet also performs at
The Joy of Music Festival 2018
Hong Kong
Wednesday (17 October 2018):
Tchaikovsky String Quartet No.1
Wolf Italian Serenade
Shostakovich String Quartet No.15
Friday (19 October 2018):
Haydn String Quartet Op.33 No.1
Shostakovich String Quartet No.9
Shostakovich Piano Quintet
(with Ilya Rashkovskiy, Piano)
8 pm, City Hall Concert Hall
Tickets available at URBTIX
https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/music/programs_620.html
No comments:
Post a Comment