BEETHOVEN'S COMPLETE MUSIC FOR CELLO & PIANO / THREE CONTINENTS CELLO CONCERTO / Review

BEETHOVEN 

COMPLETE MUSIC

FOR CELLO & PIANO

Chen Yibai (Cello) 

& Shi Boyang (Piano)

Victoria Concert Hall

Wednesday (16 August 2023)

 

THREE CONTINENTS 

CELLO CONCERTO

Jan Vogler (Cello) &

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (19 August 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times with the title "Stirring offerings from cellists Chen Yibai and Jan Vogler".

 

After the piano and violin, the cello is likely the most played of all Western classical instruments here. For that reason, there should have been far more people attending the all-Beethoven recitals by multiple award-winning young Chinese cellist Chen Yibai with pianist Shi Boyang, presented by Altenburg Arts. The German composer wrote relatively few works for cello, just five sonatas and three variation sets, comfortably encompassed within two concerts or two compact discs.

Photo: Ung Ruey Loon

 

The first evening showcased two of each kind. As Beethoven was himself a pianist, it was not surprising to see the piano lead the cello in his Variations on Bei Mannern (after Mozart), Variations on See, The Conqu’ring Hero Comes (after Handel) or the early Sonata in F major (Op.5 No.1). The melodies were gratefully lapped up by pianist Shi, with cellist Chen filling in the harmonies, but before long, parity was found.

 

Chen produced a lovely tone, always mindful of singing lines. Shi’s more fussy piano parts could have easily overwhelmed him with sheer notes alone but she was an ever-sensitive partner throughout. By Beethoven’s “Middle Period” Sonata in A major (Op.69), it was the turn of the cello to lead and Chen did so gloriously. Passion reigned as Beethoven transitioned between Classical era gentility to Romantic era impetuosity, and the full-blooded perfomance had it all.  

 

Photo: Ung Ruey Loon

Despite earlier exertions, the duo had an even more virtuosic number up their sleeves as encore, the tarantella finale from Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata (Op.47). Judging by the emphatic and convincing manner the duo tore through it, newcomers would not have guessed that was originally conceived for the violin.

 

Photo: Ung Ruey Loon

Completely different was the Three Continents Cello Concerto, receiving its belated Asian premiere by German cellist Jan Vogler (who commissioned the work) and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by rising Chinese conductor Yue Bao. Comprising three varied movements by three composers, Nico Muhly (American), Sven Helbig (German) and Zhou Long (Chinese), this half-hour work was symbolic of the universality of music.

 

Muhly’s Cello Cycles opened the concerto with an edgy kinetic energy pulsing through its veins, obliging Vogler to shift gears repeatedly through its series of variations. Neither minimalistic nor modern version of a passacaglia, the music pursued a relentless course of animated activity, contrasted by Helbig’s more measured Aria that followed.

 

The work’s spiritual and emotional heart, this was a heart-rending elegy, the cello’s seamless voice mulling some unspeakable tragedy. Building on waves of upheaval before hitting a shattering climax, even the audience seemed relieved by its close, according it nervous applause. However, nothing would prepare one for the inebriated flailings of Zhou’s Tipsy Poet, inspired by Tang dynasty poet Du Fu’s writings. Violent cello pizzicatos simulated the ancient guqin, merely part of getting stoned on alcohol fumes with Chinese characteristics. Vogler’s sober encore of J.S.Bach’s Sarabande in C major was just the right antidote.     

 

The concert opened with Samuel Barber’s Overture to The School For Scandal, a tuneful Rossini-like affair with the orchestra making most of its lively syncopations before revelling in a lyrical second subject. Rachmaninov’s final work Symphonic Dances, three movements constituting a symphony all but in name, received a taut and riveting reading. Conductor Bao brought out many shades of colours, its late Romantic idiom yielding just the right degree of nostalgia without overdoing it.  That  20^th and 21^st century music could draw an eager and encouraging audience as witnesses this evening was a clear sign that somethings were being done right.

CD Review (The Straits Times, June 2018)

NEW WORLDS

Bill Murray, Jan Vogler & Friends

Decca Gold 28948157914 / ****1/2

American actor Bill Murray and German cellist Jan Vogler met by chance on a flight they were travelling, and quickly became friends. This album is an unusual collaboration between veteran thespian and virtuoso cellist, with over an hour of selections from American literature and well-selected music.

Murray is clearly the star, totally at home and fully idiomatic in readings from Walt Whitman (Song Of The Open Road), James Fenimore Cooper (The Deerslayer), Mark Twain (Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn) and James Thurber (If Grant Had Been Drinking At Appomattox). The last, a hilarious bit of “alternative history” is worth several laughs, accompanied by the Blues from Ravel's Violin Sonata, where the violin simulates a banjo.

Whoever thought Murray could actually sing? His untrained voice is actually convincing in Gershwin's It Ain't Necessarily So and Stephen Foster's I Dream Of Jeanie With The Light Brown Hair and he absolutely nails Van Morrison's When Will I Ever Learn To Live In God. 

Vogler, his wife violinist Mira Wang and pianist Vanessa Perez are but supporting actors in pieces by Saint-Saëns, Bach, Schubert, Bernstein and Henry Mancini, but do have Astor Piazzolla's tango Muerte De Angel to their own. A very enjoyable release.

SSO Concert: Russian Extravaganza / Review

RUSSIAN EXTRAVAGANZA
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (30 March 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 April 2012 with the title "Beautiful delivery of rare Russian work".

Once in a while, a concert throws up a work that is totally unknown or unheard of, either from neglect, esotericism or whatever reasons, the unique opportunity of listening with new ears and reassessment gratefully presents itself. This was the case with the hour-long ballet Les Ruses d’amour (Love’s Trickery) of 1898 by Alexander Glazunov, which had a rare but totally welcome airing under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

Anyone who adores Tchaikovsky would warm up to Glazunov’s (left) score, which besides being unremittingly melodious also gave orchestral musicians much scope for virtuoso solo playing. Han Chang Chou’s French horn, bold and confident, set the tone and it was a enjoyable ride through its 21 short movements.

Completely devoid of dissonance or neuroses, these dances provided sheer aural pleasure, not least in the fairyland music of Marionettes’ Dance, dominated by tingling high pitched instruments, including piccolo, xylophone and triangle. The musical high point, however, was the duet of Isabella and Damis, where concertmaster Alexander Souptel’s violin and Ng Pei-Sian’s cello romanced longingly in a loving pas de deux of exquisite beauty.

It was a stroke of inspired programming that included music from a second Russian ballet, Prokofiev’s aborted Ala et Lolli, within the same sitting. It is amazing how only 18 years separated both stage works, as the younger composer’s attempt to outdo The Rite of Spring so disgusted Glazunov that he walked out on its 1916 premiere.

The deafening din and dissonance of the Scythian Suite, aided by twelve percussionists (including piano and celesta), well and truly maxed the sonic capabilities of the hall. Seldom has the decibel level been breached with such terrifying vehemence and intensity, yet the ensemble was also capable of whispering pianissimos in the night music sequence.

In between both ballets was the First Cello Concerto of Shostakovich (left), undoubtedly Glazunov’s greatest student. The German guest soloist Jan Vogler ran the full gamut of its expressive extremes, from droll humour in the outer movements to the vale of tears of the Moderato and cadenza. His steely tone, so aptly applied, would also melt into the most poignant of sighs when called upon.

The irony of Shostakovich’s idiom was never far away, with Vogler’s sobbing cello provided with a mocking counterfoil in Marc-Antoine Robillard’s excellently helmed French horn. On this evening, the patrician conductor Rozhdestvensky presided over a gem of a concert. Compared with last week’s Brahms brouhaha, this even longer concert seemed like a breeze.