CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2012)

INVITO AL VALZER

(INVITATION TO A WALTZ)

Fabula Classica 2242 / *****

This marvellous anthology of historical piano recordings is devoted to the waltz, highlighting some of piano’s greatest names from ages past. It begins with the original version of Carl Maria von Weber’s Invitation to the Dance, a deceptively difficult piece than the music suggests, played with much insouciance by Artur Schnabel. Listen to how Rachmaninov himself approaches Chopin’s Three Waltzes Op.64, with inner voices revealed and none of the speed-mongering that modern pianists favour. There are many showpieces on display; Joseph Lhevinne’s teasing ease in the Strauss-Schulz-Evler Blue Danube, Arthur Rubinstein in his namesake Anton Rubinstein’s vertiginous Waltz-Fantasy, or Claudio Arrau’s imperious take on the Liszt Mephisto Waltz No.1, before he abandoned it forever.

There are some rarities which are all but forgotten, such as Saint-Saëns’s Study in a Form of a Waltz, from the incomparable Alfred Cortot on one his better days, Mischa Levitzki’s charming little Arabesque-Valsante from the composer’s own fingers, or Arensky’s Waltz in C major, balletic grace on two pianos by Harold Bauer and Ossip Gabrilowitsch. For its sheer simplicity, Percy Grainger’s take on Brahms’s Waltz No.15 (from Op.39) should not be missed. These recordings date mostly before 1940, so do not expect pristine sound. The performances are quite something else, and demand study by today’s piano students.  

BEETHOVEN Diabelli Variations

ANDREAS STAIER, Fortepiano

Harmonia Mundi 902901 / *****

There are many recordings of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations but this is only its second recording on the fortepiano, the modern piano’s soft-edged and mellow-toned forerunner. In 1819, the published Anton Diabelli invited fifty of Vienna’s musical fraternity to write a variation each on a banal little waltz theme of his. Beethoven obliged with 33 if his own, and his 1823 publication has become one of the cornerstones of the piano repertoire. But what of the others?

German fortepianist Andreas Staier selects ten which include the likes of Carl Czerny (technically adroit as expected), Johann Hummel (florid and fussy), Franz Xavier Mozart (Wolfgang Amadeus’s son sounding very busy), Schubert (a graceful number unsurprisingly in the minor key) and Liszt (who was 8-years-old but already a barnstorming virtuoso in the Beethovenian mould). Staier also adds a dramatic prelude of his own that links the others with the Beethoven set. In his magisterial account played on a fortepiano modelled upon Conrad Graf’s original, Staier also uses several exotic pedals in some of the variations. Try Variation No.23 to hear the Turkish effect of the janissary stop, which makes the entire instrument shake, rattle and roll. Not just a sly gimmick, but a reflection of the tastes and trends of the age. Delicious.

ALEXANDER SITKOVETSKY AND WU QIAN / Violin and Piano Recital / Review

VIOLIN & PIANO RECITAL

ALEXANDER SITKOVETSKY, Violin

with WU QIAN, Piano

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (21 September 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 September 2012 with the title "Watch and learn from up-and-comers".

Ones To Watch is an annual series at the Conservatory that showcases young artists who are rising stars in the universal musical firmament. This year’s offering was the London-based duo of Russian violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky and Chinese pianist Wu Qian, who performed a demanding programme of sonatas, one that would not look out of place in Wigmore Hall.

If the name Sitkovetsky sounds familiar, that is because Alexander is the nephew of violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky and grand-nephew of pianist Bella Davidovich, Russian virtuosos well-known from their many recordings. Much of the pedigree has rubbed on, evident in the blistering performance of Prokofiev’s First Violin Sonata in F minor. From its morose opening through to the rants and raves of the ironic finale, he displayed an astonishing range of colours and emotions. 

Allying faultless intonation with a voluminous tone, his control was one to admire, not least in the mysterious third movement, where the fine balance of both instruments playing pianissimo was kept on a knife-edge. Despite the undisguised dissonance and barbed aggression of much in the music, Prokofiev was not one to resist a good tune, and when these arose, the duo responded with grateful lyricism.

The 50-minute long first half began with the romantic ardour of Schumann’s First Violin Sonata in A minor. The psychological upheavals in the German’s music were well realised, contrasting plaintive singing in the slow movement with the furious perpetual motion of its frenzied finale.

The shorter second half was subject to less storm and stress. Mozart’s congenial A major Sonata (K.305) still had its fair share of highs, the limpid and sensitive pianism of Wu now taking the lead. The theme and variations, based on a graceful minuet, provided the work’s main focus and delight.

The recital proper closed with Grieg’s popular Third Violin Sonata, opening with a Beethovenian emphatic statement of intent in C minor. The force of personality both performers kept up the tension throughout, before the most heartrending of melodies defined the slow movement. A vigorous Norwegian dance dominated the last movement which provided a cheery and folksy end.

The applause-happy audience, which could not resist clapping inappropriately in between movements for much of the evening, was rewarded with two encores. Elgar’s Salut d’amour was given that most alluring of lilts, and Vittorio Monti’s gypsy Csardas saw Sitkovetsky applying some individual flourishes of his own, a touch of caprice to a most satisfying evening of great chamber music.

  

House Concert by the Singapore Mahler Society

I am not  a member of the Mahler Society of Singapore, but occasionally do get invited to the Society's events and house concerts by the young artists who perform. Its been almost two years since I last attended one of these highly informal and enjoyable gatherings of music lovers to hear some of Singapore's most talented young musicians. There is hardly any Mahler ever performed or discussed, especially in the absence of the Society's President Tan Chan Boon, but there is always good music!

First to perform on this Saturday evening (22 September 2012) was violinist Lee Shi Mei, who won 2nd prize in the National Violin Competition in 2007. She has since studied in Massachusetts and returned as a free-lancer with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Displaying a very smooth and silky tone, she performed Gershwin's Summertime and I Got Rhtythm, the main theme from John William's Schindler's List, Gossec's Gavotte in D, Schumann's Träumerei, Massenet's Meditation from Thaïs and Elgar's Salut d'amour. Accompanying her was pianist Cynthia Tan.

The first pianist to perform was Wayne Teo, who has just returned from Paris where he studied with Olivier Cazal. He performed with conviction Bach's Italian Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Dumka for starters. 

Young pianist Wang Congyu is a regular at Mahler Society events. He has also returned from Paris, having being tutored by Gabriel Tacchino and Eric Heidsieck amongst others. In celebration of Claude Debussy's 150th Anniversary, he performed 5 Préludes (Danses du Delphes, Le fille aux cheveux de lin, La Danse du Puck, Ondine and Feux d'artifice), the Étude pour les octaves and the First Arabesque. He has matured greatly since I last heard him play here.

Wayne Teo returned with three very different pieces, Takemitsu's Rain Tree Sketch II, Rachmaninov's Étude-tableaux Op.39 No.1 and something by Debussy (which escapes my mind for now). 

In preparation for his recital in the Reunion islands, Wang Congyu performed Chopin's first two Ballades before taking a breather.  

Jeffrey Zhang, a former student of Congyu's, then performed Mozart's Sonata in D major (K.575), Brahms's barnstorming Scherzo in E flat minor Op.4 and Debussy's Reflets dans l'eau. 

Congyu returned to finish with the Third and Fourth Ballades of Chopin.

As an encore, he added Chopin's Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante!

An exhausting evening this certainly was, but I suspect that these young pianists can continue playing till tomorrow morning! 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2012)

DOHNANYI Piano Music Vol.1

MARTIN ROSCOE, Piano

Hyperion 67871 / *****

Although Erno Dohnanyi (1877-1960) was one of the great pianist-composers of the late Romantic era (ranking alongside the likes of Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Busoni and Grainger), his solo piano music is rarely heard these days. Even the popular Variations On A Nursery Tune gets a rare and very occasional airing, if any. This first volume of complete piano music by British pianist Martin Roscoe is a sympathetic and timely reminder of the Hungarian’s craftsmanship and virtuosity.

The Four Rhapsodies Op.11, laid out like a Brahmsian four-movement sonata, is perhaps his best known work. The scherzo-like Third Rhapsody was once a very popular encore of the rapturous, barnstorming kind, and the concluding Fourth Rhapsody sounds like the definitive apotheosis of the Dies Irae theme.

The Ten Bagatelles of Winterreigen (Winter Round Dances) are more ambitious than the title suggests, looking back to Schumann’s lyricism (the first is titled Widmung, for example) and ahead to Busoni’s complexities. Dohnanyi’s last piano work Three Singular Pieces (1951), while rooted in the Romantic past, does however attempt some modernisms. The final Perpetuum Mobile is a forerunner to Ligeti’s kinetically-charged Etudes. Finally, his Pastorale (Hungarian Christmas Song) and transcription of Delibes’s Coppelia Waltz are elegance personified. Warmly recommended.   

ARGERICH. KREMER. MAISKY

Complete Duo Recordings

Deutsche Grammophon 477 9524 (13CDs) / *****

This very substantial box-set is the fifth part of a retrospective documenting Argentine pianist Martha Argerich’s prodigious recorded output on the German yellow label over the decades. Among her favourite partners in chamber music are violinist Gidon Kremer and cellist Mischa Maisky, both originally from Latvia, with whom she has recorded the complete Beethoven duo sonatas. Kremer’s rather dry and wiry tone is an acquired taste, which you either love or loathe, but his approach works well for the two discs of 20^th century music – sonatas by Prokofiev, Janacek and Bartok. The Hungarian’s First Violin Sonata receives the most blistering, hell-for-leather performance thought possible.

Maisky is more congenial, and his contributions include J.S.Bach (sonatas originally for viola da gamba and harpsichord), Beethoven’s sets of Variations, Schumann (including the Cello Concerto sans Argerich) and two love concerts in Romantic (Chopin and Franck) and 20^th century Russian (Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich) repertoire. Argerich’s role is pivotal to the success of these collaborations. More than mere accompanist, she is the livewire that sparks her partners like never before and perhaps after. The original sleeve art has been reproduced for all 13 discs, and this budget-priced release retails for $79.90 at HMV. This is, in reality, a steal.  

MAGICAL MOVIE MUSIC / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

MAGICAL MOVIE MUSIC

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Republic Cultural Centre

Saturday (15 September 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 September 2012 with the title of "A night of movie music magic".

It might seem odd for conservatory students to perform music from the silver screen but this is a reality of the times. Film music is as close as contemporary music gets to be performed as regularly as the great classics. And most of these young musicians will be playing popular and commercial movie music professionally as soon as they graduate.

So let us not get too snobbish about film music, as much of it is more intelligible and superior than what passes as new music today. This pleasurable two-hour concert at Republic Polytechnic’s acoustically superb concert hall was conducted by Jason Lai, who was not only a most personable presenter but a committed film buff as well. He spoke at length about each of the choices performed, and his enthusiasm was genuine and infectious.

Classics that were appropriated by Hollywood as well as specially-composed film scores were included, beginning with the first two minutes of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, that unforgettable depiction of sunrise used in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. This 1150-seat auditorium was made for this kind of music, where the brass is resplendent and strings sumptuous.

Ennio Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso then brought out the tender, bittersweet textures from piano and string quartet, and later a larger body of strings, the perfect expression of nostalgia. From another Italian, Pietro Mascagni’s timeless Intermezzo from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana tugged on heart-strings, made all the more vivid by Lai’s musing about Robert de Niro’s method acting in Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull.

Glamourous violinist Qian Zhou made a cameo appearance, polishing off the quasi-Jewish lament from Schindler’s List by John Williams. Her tone was luscious as always, even with the great familiarity of its melody, but how many people have actually watched the 1994 Oscar winning movie? For many years, the Steven Spielberg movie was not made available for rental here.

One could sense that the audience belonged to a certain younger demographic by the way they responded to certain pieces more than others. Although many appreciated Tara’s Theme from Max Steiner’s score for Gone With The Wind, they only got truly excited after hearing Klaus Badelt’s music for Pirates Of The Caribbean. The tricky jig-like rhythms and high octane propulsive drive was negotiated with enviable ease by the orchestra, fully living up to the swashbuckling adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl on the high seas.

The fantasy music of John Williams also drew the loudest cheers, from the tintinnabulation of the celesta from Harry Potter & The Sorceror’s Stone to the brazen brass of the Star Wars franchise. The multifarious influences of classical composers were all there to admire, from Wagner, Holst, Korngold to Walton. The saying that “While good composers borrow, great composers steal” strikes the nail on the head for film music.

For the record, the applause was so loud and prolonged that the entire Star Wars Main Title was encored. It was just as good hearing the second time around. 

One of Singapore's Best Kept Secrets: Republic Cultural Centre

 

Where is the best place in Singapore to hear orchestral concerts? If you said Esplanade Concert Hall or SOTA Concert Hall, then think again. One of Singapore music scene's best kept secrets is the concert hall of Repbublic Polytechnic, the Republic Cultural Centre. Located close to the northern tip of Singapore island, it is nearer to Johore Bahru than any other concert venue.

 

Last weekend, the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra gave its first concert at RCC, and the audience was treated to a sound they have probably never heard before in Singapore. Not only is the hall naturally reverberant, every detail from the orchestra could be heard from a great distance away. The best seats are in the Circle, and when the music of Star Wars is played, one truly feels the the full impact of the score. Its much better than being in the movie theatre!  

The foyer of the Concert Hall at Republic Cultural Centre

The 1150-seat concert hall is supposedly modelled on a pre-existing concert hall in Japan, one already famed for its acoustics. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra will come calling soon, and that would be one concert to catch, never mind the extra distance!

TUNES OF HAKKA / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

TUNES OF HAKKA

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (14 September 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 September 2012 with the title "Delightful Hakka harmonies".

Who were the Hakkas? According to The Singapore Encyclopaedia, the Hakkas or Khek, literally “guest people”, were a Chinese dialect group that migrated from Northern China to the South over the past millennium. Settling mostly near Huizhou in Guangdong province, they are distinct from the Cantonese and known for their circular community houses or tulou. Further afield, the Hakka diaspora has spawned illustrious descendants in Singapore like Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew (Happy 89th Birthday!) and his family.

This specially-themed evening devoted to Hakka music, conducted by Yeh Tsung, was the Chinese counterpart of a Western classical concert highlighting Gypsy and Hungarian music. Central to this theme is its rigorous song and dance tradition, which began with Lo Leung Fei’s Medley of Hakka Tunes, a celebratory suite of three folksongs. The slow central movement delighted in the pastoral xiao and a lovely melody on the gaohu. 

Two guest Hakka singers then stole the show. Well-known Chinese soprano Huang Hong Ying sang six folksongs, beginning with more traditional numbers like Profusion of Olive Blossoms and Faraway Sight of Your Arrival. Her highland twang and comely demeanour had native Hakka speakers in the audience cooing with glee.

Welcome to Huizhou was an undisguised advertisement of her native city, extolling its virtues, scenery and culinary treats. Even Hakka yong tau foo gets an honourable mention. This and the strophic Boat Song revelled in a yodel-like refrains that goes something like hei-ya-lo-ti-hei, to which the audience gamely clapped along.

Taiwanese singer-songwriter Huang Lien Yu was more like a country singer, a Khek Kenny Rogers if you will. He played the guitar, harmonica and crooned along in A Path of Mountain Songs and Hakka World, songs which reflect the itinerant way of life and how Hakkas are well-adapted to wherever they be. In Rising Sun, his inebriated guttural grunts were chorus to the joys of waking up with a hangover. 

The second half was more serious. Kuan Nai Chung’s Folk Song for piano and orchestra could have easily been called Hakka Rhapsody, for its slow-fast form and Lisztian pianism from the unerring fingers of Clarence Lee, 2^nd prize winner of the 2011 National Piano Competition. The longest work was the world premiere of Wang Ning’s Earth House Nocturne, which was more a symphony in one movement.

Xu Zhong’s evocative solo cello opened by depicting a sage spinning old yarns from within a tulou, soon it evolved into a dance and the film music-like score introduced different groups of instruments, supported by women’s voices of the Nanyang Khek Community Guild Choir. Somewhat overlong by half, the profusion of ideas in its 25 minutes served to usher in the two solo singers, who were united for a final sing-out. A more grandiose piece de occasion for Hakka pride will be hard to find.    

          

LEEDS INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION 2012: Winners Named

The winners of the 2012 Leeds International Piano Competition have been named. They are as follows:

1st Prize: FEDERICO COLLI (Italy)
2nd Prize: LOUIS SCHWIZGEBEL (Switzerland)
3rd Prize: SUN JIAYAN (China)
4th Prize: ANDREJS OSOKINS (Latvia)
5th Prize: ANDREW TYSON (USA)
6th Prize: JAYSON GILLHAM (Australia)

It is interesting to note that both Osokins and Gillham were former 3rd prize winners of the London International Piano Competition (2009 and 2005 respectively). Louis Schwizgebel used to go by the name Louis Schwizgebel-Wang. The big surprises in this year's competition was the failures of Ilya Rashkovskiy (prizewinner in the Queen Elizabeth, Rubinstein, Vianna da Motta, Hong Kong International Piano Competition) and Di Wu (finalist in the last Van Cliburn competition) to progress beyond the first and second rounds of the Leeds respectively.

Broadcasts of the competition will be available soon at the competition website: www.leedspiano.com

Finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2012 begin tonight!

The finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2012, Great Britain's most prestigious piano competition, takes place tonight. The six finalists have been named (below), and they will perform a concerto each with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder at Leeds Town Hall at 7.30 pm tonight and tomorrow evening. 

The order of finalist and their performances are as follows:

Friday 14 September:

LOUIS SCHWIZGEBEL (Switzerland) in 

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.4

JIAYAN SUN (China) in 

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.2

JAYSON GILLHAM (Australia) in 

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5

Saturday 15 September:

ANDREJS OSOKINS (Latvia) in 

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.3

FEDERICO COLLI (Italy) in 

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5

ANDREW TYSON (USA) in 

RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No.3

Live performances may be caught at BBC Radio 3 (www.bbc.co.uk/radio3)

Earlier performances from the competition may be heard at the piano competition's website:

www.leedspiano.com 

PIAZZOLLA FOREVER SEPTET 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR / RICHARD GALLIANO et al / Review

PIAZZOLLA FOREVER SEPTET

20^TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

Richard Galliano, Accordion

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (11 September 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 September 2012 with the title "Playing Piazzolla with Pizzazz".

The tangos of Argentine bandoneon player and composer Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992, below) have travelled so far and wide that the music is now available in every conceivable instrumental arrangement thought possible. Every classical artist or ensemble is thought cool and progressive if Piazzolla featured in their repertoire. His revolutionary Tango Nuevo (literally New Tango) was however conceived for quintet or octet, led by the bandoneon (Argentine folk accordion).

French accordion virtuoso Richard Galliano’s Piazzolla Forever Septet, assembled for the 20^th anniversary of Piazzolla’s death, comes closest to the original conception. Galliano was himself mentored by Piazzolla and offered an instinctual view of this infectiously rhythmic and often raunchy music.

The 90-minute concert, played without break, began with the little Chiquilin de Bachin, played on a harmonica-like instrument, its tiny sonorous pipes powered by lungs rather than pulled bellows. This short prelude ushered in the group’s seven members, and Galliano brought out the accordion for his Tango for Claude, which established the general tenor of adrenaline-pumped exuberance of the evening.

The main work was the popular Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, beginning with Spring and Summer, the unmistakeable ostinatos and whooping portamentos (slides) making these favourites instantly recognisable. From deep within, a fount of melody - usually melancholic by contrast - comes to the fore. One soon realises that tango is not just a dance or art form, but an unspoken language, even a way of life. Galliano’s passionate and deeply involved artistry was proof of that.

He then swapped the heavy accordion for the more diminutive bandoneon (above), which resembles a concertina, resting it on his upheld thigh as he played. With its more intimate and sustained tones, soulful numbers like Milonga del Angel, Oblivion, Michelangelo 70 and Soledad found their true voice. Violinists Sebastian Surel and Bertrand Cervera, and cellist Eric Levionnois all found themselves in the spotlight for a spot of improvisation.

The Seasons were completed with Autumn and Winter, the latter being the only slow movement of the four, and with good reason. As folks go indoors and nature hibernates, the music darkens but not without a fanciful cadenza from pianist Dimitri Naïditch.

Galliano’s own music, including Heavy Tango and New York Tango, were essentially tributes to the master. The latter was particularly frenetic, with a startling sequence where the strings in sequence simulated the inimitable inner city wail of sirens.    

There were three generous encores, including Matos Rodriguez’s La Cumparsita and Piazzolla’s highly energised Libertango, the latter seeing Galliano as a veritable one-man-band. There could not have been anything else but a standing ovation after that. 

There was no programme booklet provided for this concert, so I'm very grateful to Esplanade for providing me with this concert listing of works performed.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2012)

BRAHMS Piano Works Vol.1

BARRY DOUGLAS, Piano

Chandos 10716 / *****

The Irish pianist Barry Douglas was awarded first prize at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, having performed the First Piano Concerto by Johannes Brahms. His affinity for the German composer continues with this, the first instalment in a cycle of Brahms’s complete solo piano music. Instead of performing complete sets of his short pieces as they were published, Douglas’s selections are piecemeal in approach. This works well because he is able to vary the mood and colour with each succeeding piece, beginning with scorching virtuosity in the  Rhapsody in B minor (Op.79 No.1) and then moving into intimate vistas of the late Intermezzos, which in turn are separated by the more volatile and excitable Capriccios (three from Op.116). 

Douglas is fully attuned to Brahms’s big gestures and ever-shifting undercurrents of brooding disquiet. These accounts are probing, sometimes intense and even beautiful (the Ballade in B major, Op.10 No.4), but never superficial or flashy for its own sake. The concession for full-blown virtuosity finally arrives in the much earlier Variations And Fugue On A Theme By Handel (Op.24) where all stops are pulled. Each short variation is imaginatively shaped and the overall effect is kaleidoscopic, with an exciting build-up to the valedictory final fugue. Volume 2 will be keenly awaited.      

BRITISH CLARINET SONATAS

MICHAEL COLLINS, Clarinet

MICHAEL MCHALE, Piano

Chandos 10704 / *****

Many composers write their clarinet works with certain favourite virtuosos in mind. Mozart had Anton Stadler while Brahms’s muse was Richard Mühlfeld. British composers have Charles Draper and his student Frederick Thurston to thank, and this anthology is the fruit of their collaborations. The earliest music is the Sonata (1911) by Irishman Charles Villiers Stanford, which is heavily influenced by Brahms’s two late clarinet sonatas. The autumnal Romantic style of the German master is unmistakeable. Arnold Bax’s Sonata (1934) is more impressionistic, and like his tone poems on Celtic lore is very rhapsodic in character.

John Ireland’s evocative Fantasy-Sonata (1943), cast in the slow-fast form, is much in the same vein. Also included are the brief Pastorale (1913-14) by Arthur Bliss and the latest work, Herbert Howells’s Sonata (1947). Lyricism and mellowness of tone again rule in this two-movement work which is both mellifluous and memorable. Britain’s most celebrated clarinettist Michael Collins is in top form for these recordings, combining sensitivity and a wealth of nuances with an undeniable virtuosity. The fact that Collins’s teacher was Thea King, Thurston’s student and widow, also lends the performances some historical significance and a touch of authenticity.

LIVING WITH... MRS ILANO'S CELLO FAMILY / Review

LIVING WITH MRS ILANO’S CELLO FAMILY

The Living Room @ The Arts House

Monday (10 September 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 September 2012 with the title "Cellists' beautiful tribute to teacher".

Thanks to the glamour and allure of Yo-Yo Ma, Jacqueline du Pre and others, the cello has become a popular instrument among Singaporean students, its appeal only exceeded by the piano and violin. Its practitioners have also to thank the legacy of teaching, which in pre-Conservatory years was led by Singapore Symphony Orchestra cellists, the most prominent being Mrs Herminia Ilano.

She was the sub-Principal cellist of the national orchestra from 1979 to 1994. She is still teaching and her list of students reads like a Who’s Who of the cello in Singapore today. This enjoyable hour-long concert was presented by four of her most accomplished former students in advance celebration of her 75^th birthday in December.

It began with the most famous cello work bar none, Saint-Saëns's The Swan in an arrangement for four cellos. The most senior of the four, Chan Wei Shing, was given the honour of playing its swooning melody. Leslie Tan provided the bass pizzicato accompaniment, while Song Woon Teng and Loke Hoe Kit performed the figurations in between. Then each played a selection of repertoire works in turn.

Chan, an SSO musician and recent conductor of Singapore premiere of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, opened with the first movement of Zoltan Kodaly’s Unaccompanied Cello Sonata. Inspired by earthy Hungarian folk music, this was a deeply-breathed oration that brought out a wealth of emotional extremes. His big vibrato was memorable, as were those passages played sul ponticello, near the bridge, which produced an unnerving edgy metallic sound.

Song, also of the SSO, delighted in the prestidigitation of Czech composer David Popper’s Hungarian Rhapsody. This was more of a gypsy fantasy, closely aligned to Franz Liszt’s own rhapsodies, the melodies (of mostly doubtful authenticity) were liberally quoted and spun out at spellbinding speeds. He was accompanied by pianist Low Shao Ying, who also had cello lessons with Ilano.

Tan, best known as the cellist of the T’ang Quartet, played movements from Bach’s Suites Nos.1 and 4 on a baroque cello. Using gut strings and tuned at a lower pitch than its modern counterpart, a dry but deeply resonant sound was yielded. As the instrument had no end pin (or the “spike”), it was a curious sight to see Tan cradling it with his legs, and holding the bow near its mid-point.

The youngest player was the 24-year-old Loke, one generation younger than the rest and winner of the Lynn Harrell Cello Competition in Texas. With Ilano, he learnt to play Edouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto in D minor. In its Intermezzo movement, he comfortably transitioned between solemnity in the opening and playfulness in its scherzo-like interludes. 

All four cellists returned for the hymn-like Ave Maria by Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, a veritable song without words, which closed the concert on an emotional high. Its sheer beauty as the broad melody gradually unfolded was the climax of the evening. Ilano had exhorted her musical children to “play with your heart”, and that was exactly what they did.

Mrs Ilano's Cello Family.