SCHUBERT 1824 / Chamber Music and Arts Singapore / Review

 

SCHUBERT 1824 

Chamber Music and Arts Singapore

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Monday & Tuesday 

(16 & 17 December 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 December 2024 with the title "Chamber Music and Arts presented sparkling showcase in mini Schubert festival".

So soon after the Ding Yi Chinese Chamber Music Festival came another mini-festival, this time for Western instruments by Chamber Music and Arts Singapore (CMAS) curated by Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon. Its focus was on Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) and the year 1824. Three repertoire works from that annus mirabilis were heard over two evenings. 

Tang Tee Khoon is the founder 
and driving force behind
Chamber Music and Arts Singapore.

Schubert’s Sonata in A minor (D.821), popularly known as the Arpeggione Sonata, was originally written for the arpeggione, an obsolete bowed instrument with frets. Now commonly heard on cello, this evening’s performance came instead from the viola, helmed by American violist Julianne Lee with locally-based American pianist Ning An. 

Cello or viola, the music is equally beautiful, intimated by Lee’s rich and warm tone. Its lyrical lines were gorgeously voiced and her intonation impeccable. Every bit an equal partner was An’s crisp and unflappable pianism which never sought to dominate, instead making the music sing through three congenial movements. 

While the sonata basked in genteel Biedermeier sensibilities, String Quartet No.14 in D minor (D.810), or “Death And The Maiden”, reflected a more turbulent aspect of the Romantics. Festival director Tang, local violinist Yang Shuxiang and German cellist Eckart Runge joined violist Lee for what had to be the most passionate performance of this masterpiece heard in recent times. 

Its unison opening bars came like a fearsome onslaught, fair indication of angst and agitation to come. Unity and tautness of ensemble was on full display, yet every voice was heard with a startling immediacy and resounding clarity. The tempestuous first movement was contrasted with the slow movement’s variations, based on the solemn plodding chords which Schubert’s eponymous song Der Tod und das Madchen (Death and the Maiden) begins with. 

The full gamut of string quartet writing was wondrously revealed, each variation unfolding with ever increasing tension. Solos from Tang and Runge were lovingly voiced in this mini-epic. While the short Scherzo and Trio contrasted brusqueness with decorum, the adrenaline-fueled finale’s tarantella rhythm closed with an unabashed show of blood and guts. 

The second evening saw a rare outing of the Octet in F major (D.803), scored for strings and winds. The earlier quartet of strings was joined by Frenchman Florent Héau (clarinet), Lim Tee Heong (bassoon), Kartik Alan Jairamin (French horn) and Wang Xu (double-bass), the latter three members from re:Sound Collective. 

In six movements running for almost 70 minutes, this is Schubert’s longest chamber work, even more expansive than his “Great” Symphony. That the eight musicians stayed the course for this exhausting (more for players but less so for audience) masterpiece was credit enough, but they also impressed with an excellent balance of voices and individual instrumental virtuosity. 

The imposing opening movement established their credentials beyond doubt, while the Adagio second movement’s sheer lyrical beauty could melt hearts. Héau’s clarinet solo was an echo of the slow movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Tang’s violin and Runge’s cello later took turns to gild the lily, while Kartik’s horn provided the counterpoint. Simply sublime. 

The faster movements, a Scherzo and Minuet, possessed a drive that resisted rhythmic rigidity, opting instead for flexibility when it came to contrasting second subjects. Sandwiched in between was one of Schubert’s greatest Theme and Variations movements, a folksy Mozartean subject put through a creative spin that was both inventive and delightful. 

Vigorous rumbling tremolos from Runge dramatically heralded the finale, an expressive outpouring of joie de vivre all the way to an ecstatic close. The rousing reception accorded to the octet was clear indication that the audience had witnessed something truly special.

SCHUBERT'S PIANO SONATAS WITH PAUL LEWIS / Review

SCHUBERT'S PIANO SONATAS

WITH PAUL LEWIS

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (18 February 2023)

 

This review was first published in Bachtrack on 20 February 2023 with the title "Paul Lewis’ Schubert scores a big hit in Singapore".

 

Spare a thought for poor Franz Schubert (1797-1828), who died from syphilis at the age of 31 and never got to enjoy the fruits of his labour. Many of his late (and great) works were published and premiered posthumously. How flattered he would be to learn his piano sonatas were being appreciated almost two hundred years later in a concert hall halfway around the world, in Singapore. The performer was British pianist Paul Lewis, one of Schubert’s most compelling  modern interpreters.   

 

Like the “Unfinished” Eighth Symphony, Schubert’s Sonata in C major (D.840) exists as only two completed movements. Carrying the nickname Reliquie (or Relic), it opens with plain-speaking earnestness, surprisingly subdued given its “cheerful” key. Lewis laid into pages with serious intent, quickly building into a mini-climax, later contrasted by a second subject B minor which sounded unusually optimistic. It is this paradoxical mix of emotions, enhanced by well-placed dissonances, that makes Schubert endlessly fascinating.

 

The Andante second movement in C minor glimpsed into the world of Schubert’s lieder, particularly its darker and more melancholic pages. Lewis infused these substantial movements – vulnerability, tenderness and all - with an ardent advocacy that that was totally absorbing. For most listeners, these two movements would be enough exposition (as in the symphony), but one wonders what might have been.

 

By contrast, Schubert’s “little” Sonata A major (D.664 / Op.120), one of his most popular, gifted some twenty minutes of his sunniest music. Unremittingly tuneful, a song-like thread through its three movements was most gratefully delivered. Even the mere hint of dark clouds in the central movement was quickly dispelled with a broadening of its glorious melody. The finale – a rondo all but in name – continued the penchant with melody but the stakes were now upped on the technical front. With the quickening of pace and of expansion of volume, there was to be no hardening of tone or nuance, just a celebration of its jocular humour and country dance steps.      

 

Contemporaneous with the earlier D.840, the “big” Sonata in A minor (D.845, both were written in 1825) in four complete movements displayed what happens when Schubert really got stuck in with his jobs at hand. Lewis’ view was to regard it as one comparable in stature with the great final trilogy (D.958-960). No punches were pulled, and little to nothing was spared in displaying anger and angst within its fraught pages. Bringing into a boil early in the game, the music’s alternating between light and shade offered further insights into the composer’s state of mind. The plot thickened in the second movement’s elaborate theme and variations, with no resolution in sight.

 

The short scherzo contrasted skittish dance rhythms with the calm and placidity of its trio, and Lewis went headlong attacca into the finale with its unease and agitation turning into full-blown strife and  turmoil. Here was Schubert at his most uncompromising and direct, and Lewis’ gloves-off and furiously punched-out chords revealed an unvarnished passion and Beethovenian defiance. Garnering a spontaneous standing ovation, his sole encore displayed a more congenial side to the great Austrian - the sixth of his Moments Musicaux (D.780) in A flat major. Needless to say, it was totally sublime. 

Star Rating: *****

Photographs by Yong Junyi / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

SCHUBERT: THE PIANO TRIOS / Kelvin Chan, Vladimir Choi & Brandon Voo / Review

SCHUBERT: THE PIANO TRIOS

Kelvin Chan (Piano),

Vladimir Choi (Violin) & 

Brandon Voo (Cello)

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (28 May 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 May 2016 with the title "Newly-formed trio's baptism of fire".

Despite the popularity of Franz Schubert's chamber music in Singapore, his two piano trios have not been performed enough. Thus it was a rarity to encounter both works in a single concert, given by the newly formed trio of Singaporean pianist Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong-Canadian violinist Vladimir Choi and very active local cellist Brandon Voo.   

It was totally apt that Chan was listed first, as he was the de facto leader, who was also endowed with technically the most demanding parts. He was a rock-solid pillar, whose procession of piano octaves and chords mandated the complexion and pace of the notes, not to mention the regular flourishes of filigree called upon him.

That was how the B flat major Piano Trio (D. 898) opened, resolutely and tautly conducted. The exposition repeat was observed, thus doubling the pleasure, not least from Voo's cello, for which the juiciest melodies fell. The threesome was completed by Choi, whose initial diffidence in projection and intonation soon dissipated as the trio got warmed up.

There are few tunes that can match the slow movement's rocking cradle-song, which was milked for all its worth. The Scherzo that followed was a delightful exercise in staccato and crisp playing, and the Rondo finale with all its cheerful lightness and chirpiness, never lapsed into outright sentimentality.

The full-house audience applauded after every movement, however inappropriately, but this gave the players short breathers to re-tune and regroup. Imagine this to be a Viennese house concert during Schubert's day and these intrusions do not seem so bad after all. By the final chord, the trio had played close to 45 minutes.

The E flat major Piano Trio (D.929) after the intermission was to be an even longer work. Now totally acclimatised to the venue and audience, the trio coaxed a more nuanced and arguably better performance. The declamatory unison opening was delivered with great purpose and much poise, and the darker countenance of its musings more fully realised.

Even if the Andante con moto direction of the slow movement was taken a tad briskly, the engagement of the music's tragic quality felt wholly genuine. The tenseness evoked in its faster central section was also heightened to very good effect.

Like its counterpart in the earlier trio, the Scherzo also floated with the lightness of angel's wings. However the finale, easily the most difficult of all eight movements in both trios, threatened to make heavy weather. The treacherous repeated notes called for in all three parts were negotiated not without some effort, and Chan's beleaguered piano held steady to the very end.

After almost 50 minutes, the appreciation showered on the trio was requited with an encore, a lovely arrangement of what is possibly Schubert's most popular melody – the Ständchen (Serenade) from song-cycle Schwanengesang. More is to be expected from this trio after its baptism of fire.   

TRANSCENDING THE ORDINARY / Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series / Review

TRANSCENDING THE ORDINARY

Tang Tee Khoon, Violin et al

Esplanade Recital Studio

Thursday (28 May 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 May 2015 with the title "Welcome a new string quartet of maidens".

When the National Arts Council's prized 1750 J.B.Guadagnini violin was loaned to young Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon some six years ago, one of the conditions was that she performed it regularly here in concert. She has more than fulfilled that role of violin ambassador and now has her own line of recitals called the Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series, featuring guest musicians from around the world.

The first pair of concerts in this series was Transcending The Ordinary, focusing on the late chamber works of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828). The Viennese composer had lived in the looming shadow of Beethoven and was better known for his songs or lieder. Much of his later and more ambitious works where discovered and published after his premature death.

The works performed on the first evening date from 1824 to 1827, beginning with Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata in A minor, composed originally for the obsolete guitar-like instrument with frets called the arpeggione. Today's cellists claim it as their own, including the Briton Colin Carr who brought out all the singing qualities on his Goffriller cello. His tone was warm and sumptuous, seamlessly gliding between passages of absolute cantabile and blissful elation in its three movements.

Never producing a harsh tone too was pianist Sam Haywood whose support was close to perfection, and the stakes were upped in the Fantasy in C major for violin and piano. This is undoubtedly Schubert's most virtuosic work for these two instruments, from its hushed dreamy opening with pianissimo tremolos to soaring highs filled with octaves and running scales. Tang and her Guadagnini made their entrance, not so much as boldly but sensitively, fully aware of the music's innate poetry.

Playing for almost half an hour, the work traversed peaks and valleys, best exemplified in the central variations on the Schubert's lied Sei mir gegrusst (I Greet You) which had all the nuances one could hope for, before a reprise of the opening's reverie. The work closed on an exuberant high with the big strides of one of Schubert's most happy melodies.

For the second half, Tang was joined by violinist Yuki Kasai, violist Mariko Hara and cellist Olivia Jeremias, musicians all based in Germany, for Schubert's String Quartet in D minor, also known as “Death And The Maiden”. All the ladies are experienced chamber musicians, and one could tell by their immediacy in the way they launched into its dramatic first movement.       

A common sense of purpose united the foursome through the music's heightened tension, and this electricity never flagged in the work's 40 minutes. Even in the slow movement's variations on the chordal piano theme from the lied Der Tod Und Das Mädchen, the accompaniment provided for Kasai's pleading solos was sprightly and alert.

The brief and prickly Scherzo served as a prelude to the finale's furious tarantella rhythm. Here the unision playing in high tempos, far more tricky than it sounds, was delivered with stunning accuracy. There was to be no tiring as the quartet raced to a breathless finish, that was greeted by a near-capacity audience with loud acclaim. It was after the fact that this reviewer learnt that the four virtuosas were playing together in concert for the very first time.

A question remains: what should this very talented new string quartet be called? The name Tang Quartet has already been taken, so what about Schubert's Death And The Maidens? 

SCHUBERT'S DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN / Alan Bennett and Choi Hye-Seon / Review

DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN

ALAN BENNETT, Tenor

CHOI HYE-SEON, Piano

SOTA Concert Hall

Friday (14 February 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 February 2014 with the title "Conveying unrequited love exquisitely".

How did you spend your Valentine’s Day evening? Was it an expensive restaurant and overpriced roses with someone you were hoping to impress, or in the company of the music of Franz Schubert? The Austrian composer was one of the great Romantics, for whom Fate dealt a bad hand in a tragically short life. His Lieder and song cycles dwelled on love, but he was not to enjoy its fruits.

His 1823 cycle Die Schöne Müllerin (The Fair Maid Of The Mill) of 20 songs after poetry by Wilhelm Müller was about young love, unrequited and rebuffed, leading ultimately to despair and suicide. Not quite the stuff for courting couples, but given the chemistry between the husband and wife team of tenor Alan Bennett and pianist Choi Hye-Seon, one could be easily persuaded.

The concert began with two solo Impromptus (from Op.90) performed by Choi. The rippling right hand figurations over which lyricism ruled supreme provided a prelude to the exquisite hour and a bit to follow, besides allowing late-comers to settle in their seats.

Bennett possesses an unusually bright and youthful voice, one with a clear ring in the topmost registers, belying his hefty physical stature. Singing completely from memory and not fettered with a score, he was able to convey a myriad of moods and emotions by communicating directly at the audience.

From the unabashed optimism of Das Wandern (Wandering) and Wohin? (Whither) to hesitant uncertainty of Der Neugierige (Curiosity) and Ungeduld (Impatience), one could readily follow the young miller’s descent into emotional turmoil. This was aided by a booklet with the German texts and translations, but the downside was the rustling caused by hundreds of leaves being noisily turned. At least people were paying attention.

It was a testament to Bennett’s art and endurance that each song sounded freshly minted, and there was little or no evidence of strain as he progressed. The 14^th and 15^th songs Der Jäger (The Huntsman) and Eifersucht und Stolz (Jealousy and Pride), with indignant words spat out at a furious pace, were accomplished with relative ease and facility. His partner Choi was sensitive and supportive throughout.

The cycle’s last three songs, also its most famous, were wonderfully portrayed. The bleakness of Tröckne Blumen (Wilted Flowers), synonymous with love snuffed out, and the dirge-like rhythm of Der Müller und Der Bach (The Miller and The Brook) were allusions of death itself. The final Des Baches Wiegenlied (The Brook’s Lullaby) provided an uneasy balm of terminal repose, with its waters obliviously washing over hope and life itself.    

The encore demanded by the audience was a teaser for the next song cycle to come, Winterreise (Winter Journey). A warm reception for Bennett and Choi awaits.