SHOSTAKOVICH WITH
LEONIDAS KAVAKOS & HANNU LINTU
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Thursday (9 April 2026)
This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 13 April 2026 with the title "Lintu, Kavakos and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra make the case for Shostakovich".
Has Dmitri Shostakovich become the new Rachmaninov in Singapore? There have never been more performances of Dmitri Shostakovich’s music in Singapore within such a short space in living memory. Two weeks ago, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra scaled his Eleventh Symphony with Eliahu Inbal conducting, and the First Piano Concerto followed with Yeol Eum Son’s brilliant fingers a week later. The Fifth Symphony will be heard from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestral Institute in two days’ time, and under SSO’s Music Director-Designate Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, two blockbusters attracted audiences the size that would usually flock to Rachmaninov evenings.
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| Photo: Jack Yam |
The Soviet era composer’s blend of 20th century modernism, dissonant but ultimately tonal, with communicative raw emotions identifiable with contemporary living, was what packed them in. Raw and gritty, as opposed to Rachmaninov’s lush and opulent, also found receptive ears. There was no virtuoso more suave than Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos for the First Violin Concerto in A minor (Op.99), composed in 1947.
The opening Nocturne pitted low strings against the high line seamlessly established by Kavakos, whose clear and incisive tones sang out like a voice in the wilderness. The bitterness expressed, followed by lashings of vitriol in the Scherzo, where violin battled spiky woodwinds in a hammer-and-tongs struggle, would be suppressed until after Stalin’s death in 1953.
The concerto was clearly about a man against an oppressive totalitarian system, which the original dedicatee David Oistrakh fully understood. Kavakos, despite his cool approach, was never at odds with this, and the ensuing Passacaglia reinforced its gravity. There was a long pause for effect before the searing solo cadenza which launched inexorably into the finale’s Burlesque. In its frenetic pages, the baton flew off Lintu’s grasp, landing in front of Kavakos who returned it to the mirth of the audience. That was a brief moment of comic relief amid the flailing Klezmer-influenced mayhem which brought the concerto to a explosive close, greeted by a chorus of cheers.
Kavakos’ encore of J.S.Bach’s Loure from Partita No.3 in E major (BWV.1006) provided the perfect balm for the frayed nerves that came before.
Shostakovich’s longest symphony, the Seventh or “Leningrad”, composed during the thousand-day Nazi siege of the city where a million souls perished, completed the evening. Should this be regarded as absolute or programme music, or propagandist hubris for a wartime cause? Lintu and his charges let the music speak for itself, with sound production being the primary agenda. To this end, four French horns, three trumpets and three trombones were placed in the gallery behind the orchestra for maximal projection... and it worked. Seldom has there been a more clear-headed performance of the music, with its themes well-delineated and never strained beyond incredulity. The battle depicted resistance not so much against Fascism but against the banalities of vulgarity.
That infamous first movement invasion theme (based on either Lehar or Tchaikovsky, later parodied by Bartok) and its ensuing crescendo was built up organically, and ratcheted to an ear-lacerating climax. Guo Siping’s plaintive bassoon solo provided the desolate denouement. After the exhausting half-hour mark, the central slow movements provided relief despite interludes of upheavals for contrast, and it was the finale which picked up from the opening movement’s exertions. The transition to C major at its conclusion provided the final redemption for the city which “Stalin destroyed and Hitler finished off”.
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| Photo: Jack Yam |
The 78 minutes was a journey well spent. If this show of passion and commitment cannot stir zeal and interest in Singapore for arguably the 20th century’s greatest composer, nothing else will.
Star Rating: *****
The original review on Bachtrack.com:
