FROM US TO YOU / More Than Music with Ng Pei-Sian / Review

FROM US TO YOU

More Than Music

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (18 June 2022)

 

The pre-requisite of chamber music is that artists involved must have healthy simpatico, a keen understanding of each others’ personalities and their motivations. In that respect, the duo of More Than Music, violinist Loh Jun Hong and pianist Abigail Sin, have honed their abilities of communication to a fine art. That infectiousness has also rubbed on to guest artists, and on this evening SSO Principal Cellist Ng Pei-Sian was bitten by the bug as well.

 

Their programme consisted of works as gifts by composers to close friends, opening with the first two movements from Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello. This was dedicated to the memory of colleague and sometime rival Claude Debussy after his untimely death in 1918. Sounding less characteristic of the “Swiss clockmaker” nickname that Ravel garnered, the music was closer in spirit to Debussy’s three late sonatas which espoused a more au naturel French style.

 

Modal melodies resembling folk music were used, with the twin voices of Loh’s violin and Ng’s cello closely intertwined as if in a tight embrace. It would take a laser to separate both of them, as intimacy of expression was the rule. Raw pizzicatos in the second movement piqued the ears, as did its pentatonic tunes which gave the strangely familiar illusion of Oriental music. But it was mostly the gusto which distinguished the performance that clearly roused the enthusiastic audience.

 

Next came a rarity, Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu’s Third Cello Sonata, composed in 1952 in memory of the Dutch cellist Hans Kindler who was principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. This is a gratifyingly tuneful work which cellist Ng clearly relished in bringing out its singing lines. Typical of Martinu was his kinetically charged style, with syncopations galore in its tricky score which pianist Sin mastered with aplomb. One might cite the use of Bohemian themes, but it was the rhythmic finale (Allegro ma non presto) which most caught the ear. Surely its jazzily exuberant dance rhythms must have left some impression for Leonard Bernstein to emulate in the Socrates-Alcibiades movement of his Serenade for violin, strings, harp and percussion of 1954. The similarities are too uncanny to be ignored. Its exultant end was greeted by a chorus of applause.

 

The evening’s main work was Beethoven’s Piano Trio in B flat major (Op.97), better known as the Archduke, dedicated to his patron and piano student Archduke Rudolf of the Habsburgs. A monumental work lasting some 45 minutes, this was taken by the threesome at an expansive tempo. The broad opening melody never sounded this majestic or relaxed, yet there was nothing sluggish about it, allowing every voice to be heard and savoured. With all three players telepathically in sync throughout, it was a treat from start to end.

 

Even the Scherzo was played with humour in mind, especially violinist Loh’s animated movements which had part of the audience in titters. Even cellist Ng had let down his shoulder-length locks, a sure sign that the trio was going to have fun. Decorum was restored in the hymn-like slow movement, with its variations unfolding ever so beautifully. The finale truly sparked joy (to borrow a Mari Kondo-esque expression) for all involved, with Beethoven have many of the laughs of his own, not least in his “wrong note” moments, and the ongoing game of “follow the leader”. Who knew its first performances in 1814 were going to be his last ever public appearance as a pianist, having been afflicted with irreversible deafness?

 

More Than Music and Ng Pei-Sian delivered much more than the sum of many notes, and that is the true essence of chamber music. Whoever said that chamber music had to be boring?