SAYAKA SHOJI & MASAAKI SUZUKI
MOZART AND KALLIWODA
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Victoria Concert Hall
Friday (17 April 2026)
Kalliwoda. Where have we heard the name before? Maybe not. In the Singapore context, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra performed Kalliwoda’s First Symphony at Esplanade on 29 April 2022 as the second half to Stephen Hough’s Mozart Piano Concerto No.21. The conductor on that evening was Fabio Biondi. Now we have two Kalliwoda symphonies in the same SSO concert, led by Masaaki Suzuki no less. Is this a Kalliwoda renaissance of some sort?
Jan Vaclav Kalivoda (1801-1866), or Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda in his Germanised name, was a Prague-born Bohemian composer, violinist and conductor who was a contemporary of Franz Schubert and Hector Berlioz. He plied his trade mostly in Donaueschingen in Germany’s Black Forest, at the headwaters of the Danube and long before the town became the world's centre of music’s avantgarde*. Kalliwoda can hardly be called avantgarde, as I noted his First Symphony, played for the first time in Asia, had similarities with Mendelssohn’s First Symphony, both composed in 1824.
This evening, the Fifth and Seventh Symphonies (dating from 1840 and 1841 respectively) were performed as Asian premieres, both in four movements and a solid half-hour each. Having spent a full hour with this Bohemian, I can conclude that the craftsmanship is top-notch, even the ideas were hardly the most original. The passion and commitment invested in both works by SSO and Suzuki made it worthwhile, as I can scarcely imagine another professional orchestra outside of Germany or Czechia playing better than this.
The First Symphony in B minor opened with brass fanfares, not unlike how Schumann’s First Symphony announces itself, with the introduction working itself into a Sturm und Drang allegro main section. The urgency displayed in the exposition and development was quite arresting. The music is very pleasant, much like what we enjoy in the symphonies of Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann, perhaps without the memorability. However repeated listening could change that.
The Scherzo and “slow” movement (relatively speaking, marked Allegretto grazioso) are shorter, contrasting B minor and G major respectively. The final returned to the stormy and tempestuous, with a memorable Mendelssohnian second subject with possibilities and a more populist composer would have milked it for all its worth. Nevertheless, the symphony closed on a loud and exciting high, which was appreciated by all present.
The symphonies were separated by Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto in A major (K.219) with Japanese former prodigy Sayaka Shoji as soloist. For the ritornello, she played with the orchestra, as Mozart would have done himself, then emerging as a sweet and clear solo voice. Her free-spirited approach, regarding her role as a virtuoso, was established at the outset. Her intonation was not always perfect but never strayed to waywardness. The cadenza chosen was heavy duty, almost Romantic in intent, but before she could proceed further, one of her strings snapped. Exchanging violins with guest concertmaster Frank Stadler, she continued to blaze a path.
Oddly enough, the intonation issues soon evaporated for the aria-like slow movement, beautifully voiced, which included another tricky cadenza (no mishap this time). The Rondo finale, with its stomping Turkish janissary interlude, was gracefully hewn, with no resort to vulgarity or cheap tricks. The audience applauded her pluck, and she obliged with J.S.Bach’s Sarabande from Partita No.2 (BWV.1004) as a lovely encore.
Now to Kalliwoda’s Seventh Symphony in G minor. If anything, it makes for a more interesting and varied experience. The opening was dark and mysterious, with a low rumble provided by Christian Schioler’s timpani roll. It was like being in Carl Maria von Weber’s wolf glen territory, with a sense of expectation (perhaps dread) built up for the ensuing allegro, which constituted the longest movement of all. Its G minor theme was ripe for fugal treatment but that was not taken up.
The Scherzo shot off tensely like in Beethoven’s Ninth, but that was not sustained. Its abrupt closing proved an anticlimax or sorts. The Marcia that followed with booming brass and timpani was Schumannesque, its vigour contasted by Ma Yue’s clarinet solo, and finally a fugue (!) from the strings, but that too did not last for much. The finale followed attacca, and there was much string prestidigitation to be appreciated as the symphony wound to a thrilling close.
Kalliwoda was enjoyable rather than illuminating, and the SSO made the best case for him under Suzuki’s direction. This was clearly a Hans Sorensen (former director of artistic planning) gambit, which could possibly result with a recorded cycle of the seven symphonies on BIS. On the evidence of three symphonies performed, SSO’s efforts will likely become the benchmark recording should that ever transpire.
* It must be noted that the Donaueschingen Festival was founded in 1921 by the wealthy Furstenberg family, whose ancestors had been the original employers of Kalliwoda.
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There is just this one recording of
Kalliwoda's Fifth and Seventh in the catalogue... |
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| ... and SSO is very likely to better it. |
