AKIKO SUWANAI & KAHCHUN WONG - DVORAK & ELGAR / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

AKIKO SUWANAI 

AND KAHCHUN WONG - 

DVORAK AND ELGAR 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Friday (4 April 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 April 2025 with the title "Wong Kah Chun pairs Dvorak and Elgar in astute programme for SSO".

For the second pair of concerts with homegrown conductor Kahchun Wong leading the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, one initially wondered what British composer Malcolm Arnold’s Four Scottish Dances had to do with Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s Violin Concerto. On paper, it appeared strange but in reality, the principal conductor of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester and chief conductor of the Japan Philharmonic had devised a very astute bit of programming. 

Kahchun holds aloft the score of
Malcolm Arnold's Scottish Dances.

Both works were based on folk music, the Scottish Dances opening with syncopated swagger in the key in A minor, then going through traditional jigs and reels associated with the highland country. The slow third movement’s modal melody even resembled those heard in Chinese music, while the closing dance featured frenetic fiddling in A major. 

That sumptuous wallow played a perfect prelude to the Dvorak, also in A minor, which was rooted in Bohemian folk music. Its emphatic syncopated opening saw Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai in imperious form. Coaxing a glorious tone from her Guarneri Del Gesu, her solos rose well above the orchestral throng, and there could not have been a more lyrical and emotional response in the slow movement which tugged on the heart-strings. 

This violin concerto lies in the shadow of Dvorak’s more epic Cello Concerto, but Suwanai clearly showed why that should not be. The finale, a furiant dance in A major, alternated between drama and light-heartedness, making for a free-wheeling and sizzling close. Her encore, the Gigue from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Violin Partita No.3, showcased more of her staggering sonority. 

What could possibly top the near-perfect synergy and symmetry of the first half? Edward Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, better known as Enigma Variations, received a very personal reading under Wong’s charge. The theme itself, an enigma since nobody has ever figured out Elgar’s inspiration for it, was taken at such a measured pace that was almost quizzical in countenance. 

The 14 variations, each a musical portrait of personalities in Elgar’s life (including his wife Caroline Alice and himself), were so sharply characterised that several came close to caricature. One might even describe some as mannered, but it made for totally absorbing listening as there was never a dull moment. 

Solos stood out including Zhang Manchin’s viola and Hyung Suk Bae’s cello, representing Elgar’s friends who played those instruments. The woodwinds’ chattering in imitation of peculiar speech patterns and braying brass portraying gruff and buff characters, including a bulldog, made for memorable moments. 

The 9th and most famous variation, Nimrod, was played without exaggeration or idiosyncrasy, with Wong allowing the music to gradually build up to the monumental edifice that it purports to be. 

The other big variation, the 14th and final (E.D.U., name after himself) was steeped in self-declared grandiosity, but one wished to have heard more of the hall’s Klais Organ bursting through the bluster with Joanna Paul pulling the stops. Little matter, it still made for a fine evening of music.