KIAN SOLTANI AND AMSTERDAM SINFONIETTA / Review

 

KIAN SOLTANI AND 

AMSTERDAM SINFONIETTA 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Tuesday (11 March 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 March 2025 with the title "Cellist Kian Soltani evenly matches orchestra in cello concerto".

The glut of excellent chamber concerts that began last week continued with the Singapore debut of Amsterdam Sinfonietta, presented by Esplanade Theatres on the Bay. Led by British violinist Candida Thompson, this 23-member string ensemble offered an unusual but highly enjoyable programme of music that spanned the baroque era to the present.

Although not a period instrument group, it brought out light and buoyant sonorities in Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach’s Sinfonia in G major (Wq.173) for its three-movement fast-slow-fast schema. Sound textures were evenly homogenous and exquisitely crafted with much care and finesse. 

Order and form gave way to more fluid thoughts in contemporary British composer Thomas Ades’ Shanty – Over The Sea (2020), with the use of sliding, microtonal pitches and harmonics. The result was other-worldly, sometimes ethereal but deliberately off-kilter as if the sea-shanty’s singers had imbibed too much rum. To break from stereotype, this was not some merry sailor’s jig. 

Photo: AlvieAlive

The concert’s selling point came in its only familiar work, with Austria-born cellist Kian Soltani as soloist in Joseph Haydn’s popular Cello Concerto No.1 in C major. The lovely sound he coaxed from the cello was commensurate with the ensemble’s size, never overbearing in nature yet well-projected, rising just above the massed strings. 

Photo: AlvieAlive

The slow movement provided unalloyed pleasure, its singing line crafted with seamless beauty, and one wished it would never end. The furious finale saw Soltani cast off fetters, with a flighty solo that matched the ensemble’s every cut and thrust. The perfect partnership brought out a standing ovation, followed by an encore of his own composition Persian Fire Dance, a drone-filled and rhythmically vibrant tribute to the land of his forebears. 

Photo: AlvieAlive

Soltani was not done yet, returning in three German lieder arranged for cello and strings, all love songs. Felix Mendelssohn’s Suleika and Franz Schubert’s An die Musik (To Music) and Du bist die Ruh (You are the Peace) were slow works showcasing more of his luscious tone. Truly songs without words. 

A refreshing departure from the umpteenth performance of Tchaikovsky or Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings from a visiting orchestra was the Singapore premiere of British composer William Walton’s Sonata for Strings (1970). This was a rescoring of his String Quartet in A minor (1947) specially for Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. 

Its four movements provided a virtuoso show from start to finish, combining the intimacy of its quartet origins with an outsized sonority of a symphony. From its opening bars and other sections throughout the work, the foursome of violinists Thompson and Catherina Lee, violist Georgy Kovalev and cellist Tom Posner held sway, like soloists in a modern concerto grosso. 

Walton’s combo of melodic richness and biting wit established its opening, contrasted with the Presto second movement’s typical con malizia (with malice) jibes and the slow movement’s lyrical largesse con malinconia (with melancholy). The finale’s vigorous romp completed a stunning show, capped off with another English delight, an encore of Frank Bridge’s elegant Waltz-Intermezzo.