STEPHEN HOUGH. EGYPTIAN PIANO CONCERTO / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

STEPHEN HOUGH. 
EGYPTIAN PIANO CONCERTO
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (13 September 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times with the title" "Pianist Stephen Hough delivers a French feast".

Under the baton of Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Litton, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra performed an all-French programme opening with Hector Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture. Not written as a prelude to any opera or play, this was an out-and-out orchestral showpiece quoting themes from the opera Benvenuto Cellini that highlighted both ensemble and solo prowess.

After a slickly delivered introduction, the lot fell to Elaine Yeo’s cor anglais, which sang a plaintive melody with true pathos. Italian sunshine and drama filled the work’s animated pages, and it was with general pinpoint articulation and brilliant brass that began the evening on a high note.

The concert’s selling point was celebrated British pianist Stephen Hough’s return in one of his favourite party pieces, Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fifth Piano Concerto also nicknamed the “Egyptian Concerto”. Incidentally, he made his Singapore debut with this same work way back in 1986. Except for the central movement which quotes a Nubian song, there was little African to be had.

From the outset, it was French gaiety that reigned. But far from being the froth and fluff, Hough’s fingers of scintillation were tempered with steel. The filigree so key to Saint-Saëns’ keyboard writing was never submerged by the orchestra’s exertions, and it was clear this was no traipse in the Tuileries.   

The slow movement’s exoticism was delightfully overdone, the piano crafting piquant tinkling bell sounds. With the help of percussion, the wafting aromas went beyond Cairo to reach even Batavia. The toccata-like maneuvers of the finale, supposedly mimicking spinning turbines of a steamship, were a tour de force of velocity. With soloist and orchestra charging headlong at full speed, there could only be one result:  roars of approval from a clearly enthused audience.    

As an encore, Hough made the splendid gesture of sharing centrestage with SSO Co-Concertmaster Lynnette Seah, the orchestra’s longest serving player who retires later this year, in Elgar’s Salut d’Amour. Her tone was sumptuous, and the accompaniment classy and refined, after which Hough added Debussy’s Clair de lune, which was simply a treat.

The orchestra completed the evening with Cesar Franck’s Symphony in D minor. Franck was a key French establishment figure despite being born in Belgium and having a Germanic musical outlook. The opening to his symphony would have reminded one of Wagner and Liszt (his tone poem Les Preludes in particular), and the orchestra responded with a reading of taut objectivity.

Strings were sounding resolute yet capable of suppleness in the outer movements, while string pizzicatos, harp and cor anglais (Elaine Yeo again) set the right mood for the soothing slow movement. The finale was an ecstatically driven ride, with conductor Litton making frequent small leaps on the podium. The symphony’s triumphant close belonged to the brass, hitting the glory notes with fearless aplomb. So how do an English pianist, American conductor and Singaporean orchestra fare in French music? Very well indeed.