REBECCA CHELLAPPAH & FRIENDS IN CONCERT / Review

REBECCA CHELLAPPAH

& FRIENDS IN CONCERT

Esplanade Recital Studio

Thursday (25 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 September 2014 with the title "Magical evening of great lieder music".

There appears to be an unusual efflorescence of song recitals and vocal events taking place over the coming week and a half. It seemed a pity that this excellent recital by Rebecca Chellappah, one of Singapore’s precious few mezzo-sopranos, had to coincide with the opening of the 4^th Singapore Lieder Festival. Splitting a potential audience meant that only about 50 people were in attendance for this very engaging evening of art song.

Chellappah did not prioritise bringing out popular crowd-pleasing songs but instead worked on the intimate relationship of setting words to music. All of her repertoire choices were thoughtfully and lovingly made, each highlighting the elusive art that separate great songs from merely good ones. Not all of these are well-known, but she had what it took to make them sound convincing.

Erich Korngold’s Abschiedslieder (Songs of Farewell), sung in its original German, was coloured with the dark hues and Romantic sensibilities that unite these with the better known Mahler lieder. Far from being lugubrious, Chellappah lifted the four songs with an air of wonder above the bittersweet contemplation. The best known number Mond, so gehst du wieder auf (Moon, So You Rise Again) was sensitively sung, with Lim Yan’s accompanying piano providing a veil of opulent harmonies.   

Manuel de Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs are familiar enough, but has anyone checked out the lyrics? From Chellappah’s facial expressions, one could tell which songs spelled regret, resignation, disgust or despair. Here she was partnered by her husband Billy Greenan on the guitar, which added a further dimension of authenticity.

The balance of the programme was accompanied by a piano trio, a rarity in itself. In Englishman Roger Quilter’s Three Pastoral Songs, the music was fairly straight-forward. The simple rusticity and folksong charm of it all was easy to bring out, even in Cherry Valley, which was lightly tinged with the impressionism of Debussy.

In the American songs cycles, the balance between voice and instruments was trickier. Chellapah had to rise above Siew Yi Li’s violin, Lin Juan’s cello and Lim Yan’s piano, as not all the scoring was texturally light or transparent. But when she did, the effect of the often poignant songs was close to magical.

Lori Laitman’s Daughters explored the relationships between mothers and daughters and the sense of loss engendered on departure or death. Stella Remembered with words by Karen Gershon was particularly moving, as a mother is willing to trade a truckload of photographs just to see her daughter turn around again. A Letter to My Daughter, a setting of Anne Ranasinghe’s poem, was so soothing that audible snoring from the back of the hall was heard at its conclusion.

In Jake Heggie’s Some Times of Day, the musical idioms of Americana stood out. It was jazzy and syncopated in The Minuet, a waltz-rhythm dominated the ironic song Simple, while a country feel pervaded The Best Time of Day. With all the serious stuff behind her, it was left for Chellappah to relax and luxuriate in this enchanting closing act. In many ways, this recital was a mini Lieder festival in itself.  

Photographs by the kind permission of 

Mrs Greenan and friends.

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP / Tang Tee Khoon & Friends / Review

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

Tang Tee Khoon (Violin) and Friends

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (24 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 September 2014 with the title "Chamber music treat from virtuosos".

Local musicians are the mainstay in Singapore’s active chamber music scene, but once in a while, it is good to have foreign musicians inject variety and diversity to the list of usual suspects. Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon, presently based in London, has forged successful partnerships with British musicians and their performances here have never been less than sterling.

Her latest collaboration, with pianist Sam Haywood and cellist Matthew Huber, focused on the close interwoven lives of Felix Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, and the young Johannes Brahms. Here was a meeting of the giants of musical Romanticism, which got the requisite response from a trio of young virtuosos they deserved.

The moment Huber’s 1685 Francesco Ruggieri cello sang the opening phrase in Schumann’s Three Fantasies Op.73, one knew it was going to be a musical treat. His use of gut strings ensured a mellowness of timbre that was simply gorgeous, and his singing tone rode through the music’s melting lyricism with rapturous fervour.

Haywood’s control of pedalling on the Steinway grand was close to perfection in the sometimes over-reverberant acoustics of the Recital Studio, and he blended ideally with both Huber and Tang, who performed Clara Schumann’s Three Romances Op.22. Her 1750 J.B. Guadagnini, on loan from the National Arts Council, shone prettily in the tender moments of these rarely-performed miniatures.

How Clara Schumann was able to maintain a semblance of hope and optimism in 1855, when her beloved husband was dying a slow death in an asylum for the insane, was testimony to her fortitude and dignity. Her spirit was buoyed by the presence of Brahms, who remained a close confidante till their deaths in the 1890s. All this was detailed in the helpful programme notes that accompanied the evening’s marvellous programme.

The main works on show were two of the greatest piano trios of the classical canon. Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No.1 in D minor is regularly played here, but rarely does one find a performance that radiated such warmth and true feeling as this evening’s outing. The overall balance was excellent, with both stringed instruments raising their stakes to meet the piano’s multitudes of notes.

The Scherzo flew on fairy-wings, and there was an audible gasp of delight from the audience as the music simply evaporated into the ether. The ardency and passion on display carried the outer movements which stormed and stressed, but there was never a moment of impetuousness or misplaced power.

Brahms’s Piano Trio No.1 in B major, in its revised version, provided even greater scope for expression and an emotional outlet. The broad opening melody, one of his most memorable, received a grandstanding treatment, contrasted with the Hungarian-inflected Scherzo, the slow movement’s longeurs and the finale’s breathless rush to the finish post. Performances like these leave listeners craving for more, and Tang with her friends will return in May next year with the late works of Franz Schubert, which should be an exciting prospect.        

Photographs by the kind permission of Tang Tee Khoon and Friends.

ON THE FLIPSIDE: AN ANTIPODAL CONCERT / Roberto Alvarez with Shane Thio / Review

ON THE FLIPSIDE:

AN ANTIPODAL CONCERT

Roberto Alvarez, Flute

with Shane Thio, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (23 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 September 2014 with the title "Virtuoso prowess on flute and piano".

When Singapore Symphony Orchestra flautist Roberto Alvarez was young, he wondered where he would be if he dug a hole in his native Spain and burrowed across to the far side of the earth. Answer: He would have arrived near the islands of New Zealand. That is the premise of this “antipodal concert”, one that brought together flute works from both Spain and New Zealand.

Two Spanish works bookended two Kiwi pieces, every performance being a Singapore premiere. All four compositions were tonal, with varying degrees of dissonance and lyricism but fraught with severe technical demands for both flautist and pianist. The concert opened with Elisanda Fábregas’s Flute Sonata, four movements of rhythmically tricky and aurally piquant musical textures.

Its exoticism were an offshoot from the sound worlds of Debussy and Messiaen, dreamy and impressionistic in the slow movement but picked up pace in the fleet-footed scherzo, an exercise in staccato playing that extended without a break into the finale. Both Alvarez and pianist Shane Thio were pushed to wits end to overcome the complexities but acquitted themselves marvellously.

Gareth Farr’s Nga Whetu E Whitu (The Seven Stars) refers to the constellation of stars Matariki, known to the West as Pleiades, and used by sailors for navigation. Over the piano’s insistent syncopated rhythm floated the flute’s still and calm voice, and from this a haunting chant-like theme emerged as if commanded by the Spirits. This was contrasted with a vigorous, almost savage dance to close the work on a febrile high.

On Fire: Roberto Alvarez's flute
with Shane Thio on piano weathered
the storm in this tempestuous recital

The irregular heartbeat that opened Anthony Ritchie’s Flute Sonata was unnerving with its aggressive and menacing demeanour, and flutter-tonguing from the flute provided a quivering effect that added to its mystery. The slow movement was reminiscent of Bartok’s “night music” with its fleeting motifs and flickering half-lights, while the finale revelled in an exuberant dance of ostinatos with a tinge of the Oriental about it.

The final work, Salvador Brotons’s Flute Sonata flirted with atonality but never embraced it fully. There was a strange lushness in its slow first part that almost veered into sentimentality, but was resisted and kept at arm’s length through its course. A solo cadenza then led to a mercurial finale, which afforded a brief moment of reflection before its spiky and volatile conclusion.    

The encore was a World Premiere, Waltz of Fortune by Gonzalo Casielles, a delightful bonbon based on five notes derived from the number on a winning lottery ticket. This concert, a show of seemingly limitless virtuoso prowess, was attended by just 32 people. By their show of appreciation, it would seem they had hit a musical jackpot. 

Photographs by the kind permission of Roberto Alvarez.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2014)

RZEWSKI 

The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

COREY HAMM, Piano

DMA Discs TK431 / ****1/2

It was the summer of 2008 when Singapore audiences witnessed not one but two performances of The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975), the hour-long theme and variations masterpiece for piano by American composer Frederic Rzewski (born 1938). The second of these was given in a studio at the Conservatory by Canadian pianist Corey Hamm, a remarkable achievement as he had performed with virtually nine fingers, having injured his right little finger. This 20^th century equivalent of Bach’s Goldberg Variations or Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations takes no prisoners given its immense complexities and physical demands on the performer.

The subject is a Chilean workers’ revolutionary anthem, which gets treated to 36 variations in total (6 sets of 6, with every 6^th variation an amalgamation of the 5 preceding it).The set runs the full gamut of 20^th century styles and idioms including folk, jazz, minimalism and atonality, with the pianist also expected to vocalise and whistle at certain points. One of few pianists in the world to tour with this work, Hamm brings out its panoply of nuances with missionary zeal and vigour. Although the improvisatory section has been omitted, this 2012 recording compares well with those of the composer and its dedicatee Ursula Oppens. A must listen for anyone interested in 20^th century piano literature.    

BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.5

SCHUMANN Fantasy Op.17

YUNDI, Piano

Berlin Philharmonic / Daniel Harding

Deutsche Grammophon 481 0710 / ****

After that unmitigated disaster in the Tchaikosky First Piano Concerto with the Singapore Symphony in 2009 and several humdrum years with EMI Classics, Yundi (who has since dropped his surname Li) has returned to the fold of Deutsche Grammophon. This is his first concerto recording with the German “Yellow label” since the highly successful Prokofiev and Ravel coupling of 2008. Also partnered here by the Berlin Philharmonic, it sounds like the Chinese pianist has made a note-worthy comeback.

His performance of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto is conceived on a grand scale and the big-boned playing reveals neither frailties nor idiosyncrasies. The sense of occasion, captured in live performances in January and February this year, is gratefully lapped up and the playing radiates warmth and joy. Included as a generous coupling is Schumann’s Fantasy in C major (Op.17), originally conceived as an ode to Beethoven in the manner of his late Sonatas. While the playing is somewhat less exulted as in the concerto, this is still a solid and moving account that redeems Yundi as China’s “Comeback Kid”.

FROM BACH TO BEATLES / Katona Twins Guitar Duo / Review

FROM BACH TO BEATLES

Katona Twins

RELC Auditorium

Thursday (18 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 September 2014 with the title "Twins rock Bach and Beatles".

Organised by the Goethe-Institut and Singapore International Guitar Festival, the renowned Katona Twins guitar duo made a big splash in front of a full-house enthralled by their intense musicianship belied by a seemingly casual and laid-back manner. Peter and Zoltan Katona were born in Hungary but are now based in Germany and England, where their eclectic style has found greatest traction.

Although classically trained, the youthful looking twosome was totally comfortable crossing over to popular and rock genres. Most of their repertoire consisted of very well-written arrangements, played on amplified acoustic guitars. Beginning with Handel’s Chaconne in G major, the duo found an inexhaustible fount of nuances in its 20 or so variations played over a repeated ground bass.

Seeing double? Peter (blue shirt)
with his twin Zoltan (in black).

Peter in a blue shirt played the melodic line and embellishments while Zoltan in black provided the chordal accompaniment, and before long they had seamlessly switched roles. This continuous interplay of give and take, as if guided by some inner telepathic force, was the guiding rule of the evening. They are, after all, identical twins.

Bach’s Allemande (German dance) from the Fifth French Suite was a model of geniality and decorum, and as the title of the concert suggested, segued into the Beatles’ Come Together. Rocking on stage like the Fab Four, the duo oozed attitude with the beat vigorously drummed onto the wood of their guitars.      

An acute sense of rhythm and timing was key for two pieces by Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz, first a languid Mallorca (Barcarola) followed by the rapidly-shifting and exacting Asturias (Leyenda). Both dances and Astor Piazzolla’s tango Otono Porteno (Autumn in Buenos Aires) were accomplished with the greatest of ease, and one could only marvel at their rapier-sharp coordination.

Two of Peter’s own compositions were given an airing, Meditation and Passacaglia which began as a soothing serenade and built up to a sort of march rhythm, and the Dostoevsky-inspired Brothers Karamazov, a number filled with tension and a certain unease.

The art of percussion on guitars.

Rock standards such as Mad World by Tears For Fears and the Queen classic Bohemian Rhapsody were given the same treatment. Pleasant may not be the way these songs were meant to be remembered, as the sheer mellowness of the arrangements have blunted the thrust of the original conceptions.

Vociferous applause ensured that two encores were offered. Scarlatti’s Metamorphosis combined two of the Italian baroque composer’s sonatas, Aria and Toccata in D minor, in heady torrents of repeated notes. Quite appropriately, the latter is the fearsome sonata known by pianists as the “Guitar”. Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance brought the house down, triggering a manic rush for the Katona Twins’ CDs and autographs.

THE CHARM OF SILK AND BAMBOO / Members of Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

THE CHARM OF SILK AND BAMBOO

Musicians of the 

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (16 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 September 2104 with the title "Chinese chamber music that charms".

While symphonic composition for Chinese instruments is a 20^th century phenomenon, chamber music has existed for millennia, passed down by oral tradition and its practitioners from antiquity. Jiangnan si zhu is a hallowed tradition of intimate chamber music that thrived south of the Yangtze River, the reference to silk (si) and bamboo (zhu) being the bowed string and woodwind instruments used by the players.

Typically such an ensemble would feature a quartet, including the accompanying yangqin (dulcimer). This 80-minute concert by members of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, showcasing seven virtuosos and led by its Associate Conductor Moses Gay, did not profess historical performance practice or authenticity. Adapting to modern advancements and a considerably expanded geography, each soloist was given a chance to shine in front of a very enthusiastic full-house audience.

Two popular Cantonese tunes, Blossoms of the Cotton Tree and Song of the Full Moon, were poetry in the hands of erhu player Tao Kai Li, who looked resplendent herself in an ornately embroidered red gown. A singing tone and the ability to tug at the heartstrings of nostalgia were key to their success.

Lim Kiong Pin’s Dream of Bali featured the organ-like pipes of the sheng, performed by Ong Yi Horng. The pentatonic nem scale - commonly heard on the gamelan - was employed, first as a reverie-like introduction and later as an animated finale that had the same repeated rhythmic motif as the popular 1960s song Stand By Me.

Foong Chui San’s strummed ruan (a lute resembling a banjo) and Lee Khiok Hua’s bowed gehu (with a similar timbre and range as the cello) combined sensitively in The Song of Mulan, which began with martial strains improvised by Foong that portrayed the cross-dressing lady warrior of legend.

The zhonghu played by Sim Boon Yew and banhu by Tao highlighted the different ranges occupied by the instruments, in Mongolian song Pulling the Camel and Ge Yan’s Carriage Running over the Fields respectively. The latter was a fast romp, aided by conductor Gay striking its rhythm on a ma ling, jingling bells usually associated with sleigh rides in the snow. 

Let’s Talk About The Past in Sim Boon Yew and Tan Chye Tiong’s arrangement, a medley of popular Minnan and Taiwanese songs, received its World Premiere. Here Tan performed on a series of eleven blown instruments from the dizi family, including the Japanese shakuhachi, a pair of xuns (ocarinas), paixiao (panpipes) and what appeared like a snake-charmer’s pipe. This breathless tour-de-force received the longest applause.

All seven instruments, including Qu Jian Qing’s yangqin, had equal prominence in Zhou Cheng Long’s Festival of Mountain and Forest, a rhapsody based on Yi tribal themes which brought the concert to a stirring close. A very lively post-concert discussion hosted by composer-compere Liong Kit Yeng showed that appreciation of Chinese chamber music is a well worth cultivating. Kudos to Esplanade and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra for making it happen.

    

This concert was presented as part of the Esplanade Chinese Chamber Music Series.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2014)

STRADIVARIUS IN RIO

Viktoria Mullova &Friends

Onyx Classics 4130 / ****1/2

This is Russia-born violinist Viktoria Mullova’s third non-classical album, literally thousands of miles away from her baroque violin renderings of Bach and famous Tchaikovsky, Sibelius and Shostakovich concerto recordings. The music of Brazil in arrangements by guitarist Carioca Freitas allows her to let down her hair in tunes by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Zequinha de Abreu and others. There is an element of improvisation on her part but not on the same level as Stephane Grappelli, Roby Lakatos or Mark O’Connor, just to name great fiddlers on the other side of the crossover divide. Classical musicians tend to be more linear in their approach and extemporise far less freely.

Nevertheless, Mullova brings a wistful singing tone in numbers like Arnaldo Baptista’s Balada de um Louco, Pixinguinha’s Rosa and Jobim’s Falando de amor and Dindi, but can swing with the best in Abreu’s Tico Tico no fuba, Claudio Nucci’s Toada or Waldir Azevedo’s Brasileirinho. Her stock-in-trade acerbic tone is no impediment here, instead her Stradivarius positively shines through the rhythmic landscape like a laser beam. She is partnered by husband cellist Matthew Barley, guitarist Freitas with Luis Guello and Paul Clarvis on a host of traditional Brazilian percussion instruments. The only regret is the disc’s short timing, just 48 minutes of musical sunshine.

PACHELBEL Vespers

The King’s Singers

Charivari Agréable /Kah-Ming Ng

Signum Classics 198 / *****

Its seems that posterity has decided that German composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) is remembered only by his Canon in D, played ad nauseum in wedding ceremonies the world over. His musical career as church organist and provider of sacred music was centred in and around Thuringia, and he had close links with the famous Bach family. His Vespers, dating from the 1790s, were composed for late night services, taking the form of a liturgical Ingressus (a call to God for help) and Magnificat (Mary’s song of praise magnifying the Lord). These scores would have been lost if not for Pachelbel’s fourth son Carl Theodorus depositing the manuscripts in Oxford on his emigration to the New World.

The music contains the charm and purity of the German baroque, yet to be touched by the contrapuntal complexities of J.S.Bach or Handel’s propensity for theatricality and the spectacular. This collection performed by the all-men voices of The King’s Singers and Oxford-based ensemble Charivari Agréable led by Malaysia-born harpsichordist Ng Kah-Ming includes five Ingressi and two Magnificats. Two purely instrumental Sonatas by Pachelbel’s contemporaries Johann Krieger and Johann Kerll have been inserted into this marvellously conceived programme. Listen and be enchanted and spiritually moved.

PICTURESQUE MOUNTAINS / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

PICTURESQUE MOUNTAINS

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (12 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 September 2014 with the title "Stirring Chinese music with colourful tales".

The worlds of Chinese painting and Chinese music run close and parallel lives. While absolute music exists in Chinese compositional repertoire, programme music inspired by legends, literature, historical events and scenery are de rigueur in works performed on Chinese instruments. Traditional Chinese brush paintings are typically lyrical in their portrayal of reality, and the associated music is similarly effusive and expressive.

This premise was main thrust of the well-conceived Singapore Chinese Orchestra concert directed by veteran conductor and Cultural Medallion recipient Tay Teow Kiat. There were four Singapore premieres, beginning with three movements from Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains. Based on a famous Yuan (Mongol) dynasty painting, this is a composite work by no less than four composers.

Impressionistic might be a way to describe Flowing Waters, Drifting Clouds and Sounds of the Wind on an Intoxicating Night, which opened with soft murmurs from the winds, with a preponderance of dulcet tones from the dizi family. The mellow alto voice of the qudi provided a balm of serenity and repose in the latter movement, accompanied by harp, bird-calls, rain stick and wordless vocalisations from ladies of the orchestra. In The Mountains and Rivers as One, the suona heralded a call to arms in a crescendo which climaxed with solo voices, heroically helmed by tenor Zhuang Jie and soprano Su Yi Wen (above).

Taiwan-based Lo Leung Fai’s Beautiful Mount Chai was a erhu concerto in all but name, one which displayed the solo prowess of Wang Gui Ying. Its programme in the form of a symphonic poem allowed Wang to run the full gamut of elegiac and exultant feelings, culminating with a series of discursive yet gripping solo cadenzas.

The orchestra accompanied discreetly and sensitively, never overwhelming the lone voice, and continued in the same vein for Liu Xi Jin’s Lingering Snow on the Broken Bridge. This is the famous wintry landscape of West Lake in Hangzhou, ubiquitous in literature and lore, which got the work it deserved. The single movement concerto for dizi followed the basic ternary form, with a most glorious of melodies bookending a scherzo-like dance for the piccolo-like bangdi, with soloist Zhan Yong Ming milking the sentimentality for all its worth.

The final work, Three Friends of Winter by Gu Guan Ren was an essay on three vegetative species which thrive in winter, serving as a metaphor for virtues of the Chinese people in lean and straitened times. Stout Pine portrayed strength and resistance with its heroic, martial gestures, contrasted with Jade Bamboo, a lilting serenade which bends with the wind but maintains its resilience.

Cheerful pipas and Zhao Jianhua’s silky erhu completed the trilogy in Winter Plum, a sturdy flower which blooms and looks forward to the welcome onset of spring. Close your eyes, and the stirring music begins to tell its own stories. That, in an essence, is the joy of Chinese music.         

All photographs by the kind permission of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

SSO @ BBC PROMS / Review, Report and Reactions

Here are The Straits Times reviews and reports of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's recent BBC Proms debut on 2 September 2014. Needless to say, the national orchestra covered itself with pride and made the nation proud of its achievements. Above is the ST review by fellow music reviewer Mervin Beng on 4 September. By the way, shouldn't the byline read "SSO sizzles" rather than "SSO sizzle"?

Also included is the official report by ST arts writer Lisabel Ting on 5 September, which quotes the Facebook of Minister for Culture, Communications and Youth Lawrence Wong who was in London for the concert.

He had posted this photo of the audience reaction at the end of the concert, which showed a Singapore flag being proudly flown... by a British gentleman Neil Franks Esq. who had lived in Singapore for 30 years before returning to England. 

Here is Neil Franks's letter to The Straits Times forum page on 6 September declaring his pride to have enjoyed and appreciated the Singapore's music scene over the years.

Here's another photo of the Singapore flag
proudly flown at the Royal Albert Hall
(Photo: Courtesy of  Mr Goh Yew Lin)

... and my letter to The Straits Times in the hope that some day, a Singaporean composer's work gets played by the SSO the next time it gets invited to the BBC Proms. This is followed by SSO General Manager Anthony Brice's reply, which does give some hope for the future. Let's hope that the BBC bites!

DECONSTRUCTED / EDQ Wind Quintet / Review

DECONSTRUCTED

EDQ Wind Quintet

Esplanade Recital Studio

Thursday (11 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 September 2014 with the title "Award-winning quintet's joyful night of new-isms". 

While violinists and pianists get the most attention by general audiences here, it should not be forgotten that wind and brass players have made a quantum leap in furthering their art. The award-winning EDQ wind quintet, formed in 2011, is undoubtedly the most visible and active of professional wind chamber ensembles in Singapore.

Its 70-minute programme of 20^th and 21^st century music was a microcosm of the marathon concerts by the London Sinfonietta recently presented at the Singapore International Festival of the Arts. Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles (1953) were the most familiar pieces played this evening. These were transcriptions of piano pieces from Musica Ricercata, each movement based on a fixed number of notes in a chromatic scale.

Rapid reflexes were called for in the first piece, contrasted with the slickness of articulation in the third piece where Cheryl Lim’s flute smoothly glided over a sea of running figures. The spirit and influences of Bela Bartok hovered over each number, the solemn fifth piece being a memorial to the composer who regularly appended the word mesto (sad) to his music. The set closed with humour and cheek, the wit of which was ardently captured. 

Next, French horn player Alan Kartik gave an imperious solo display in Olivier Messaien’s Appel Interstellaire (Interstellar Call) from the massive 12-movement symphony Des canyons aux etoiles (From the Canyon to the Stars) of 1974. Playing in pitch darkness, the bell of the horn was directed into the grand piano, with the resonance of its strings adding a spectral echo to the impassioned and highly virtuosic brass soliloquy. 

In the world premiere of Singaporean Liew Kongmeng’s Partitional (2014), the five players were widely spaced apart. Oboist Leow Rui Qing and clarinettist Benjamin Wong played from behind the audience, creating an antiphonal effect with bassoonist Emerald Chee, Lim and Kartik on the floor stage. Long held single notes, sometimes in unison and often with narrow pitched intervals, permeated the air and the general mood was one of strange calm.

In Estonian Arvo Pärt’s Quintettino (1964), the emphasis was on generating a range of varied tonal splashes in its three very brief movements. Short repeated staccato bursts and slow sustained notes coloured the first two pieces, and the rhythmic finale ended with a musical in-joke, all the funnier when crowned with wrong closing cadences.

Guest pianist Nicholas Loh garnered the solo spotlight in four pieces from Makrokosmos Book II (1973) by the American George Crumb. Altering the piano’s timbre by placing paper on, manually strumming and striking the strings was all part of the pianist’s arsenal in a showing that would have made avant-gardist Margaret Leng Tan proud.

As if to repay the audience’s patience for sitting through a host of new-isms, the final work was not just gratifyingly tonal but unabashedly populist. Dutch composer Leo Smit’s Piano Sextet (1932) predates the far better known Sextet by Poulenc, but shares with it a similar warmth and congeniality. Its insouciance and gaiety were made light work by the industrious quintet and Loh in a performance that was lapped up by both players and audience alike. EDQ’s next outing should be worth waiting for.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2014)

A BEETHOVEN ODYSSEY Volumes 1&2

JAMES BRAWN, Piano

MSR Classics 1465 & 1466 / ****1/2

Any complete survey of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas would rightly be described as an odyssey. This was a compositional journey of some 30 years, beginning with Bonn’s angst-ridden smasher of keyboards of the early 1790s and culminating in the 1820s stone-deaf sage of Vienna with his timeless, visionary musings. British pianist James Brawn’s first two discs includes two early sonatas and the popular ones bestowed with nicknames. Listen first to Volume 2 which opens with the Pathetique (Op.13) and Moonlight Sonatas (Op.27 No.2). The titles were given by publishers to enhance sales but reflect Beethoven’s expressive abilities, from pathos to dreaminess and outright tempestuousness. Between these and the passionate Waldstein Sonata (Op.53) are the two “easy” sonatas of Op.49, which fall comfortably within children’s hands.

Volume 1 contains the two sonatas in the moody key of F minor. Op.2 No.1 was Beethoven’s first published sonata, dedicated to Haydn but already showing signs of surpassing the old master’s gifts. Op.57 is none other than the Appassionata Sonata, epitome of Beethoven’s stormy Middle Period. s Beethoven'han the Appassionata Sonata, thester'1 was Beethoven'stein Sonata (Op.53)nist Both sonatas sandwich the congenial Sonata in C major (Op.2 No.3), one of his sunnier and more humorous creations. These are very satisfying performances with brain and brawn, bringing to mind many qualities of the great Beethoven interpreters: Kempff, Arrau and Brendel. Further instalments in this cycle are keenly awaited.

These CDs may be purchased online from: www.msrcd.com

MEDTNER/RACHMANINOV/PROKOFIEV

SOFYA GULYAK, Piano

Champs Hill 064 / ****1/2

In 2009, the Tartarstan-born pianist Sofya Gulyak made history when she became the first woman to win 1^st Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition. Unsurprisingly, her calling card début disc is a programme of 20^th century Russian piano works which play to her strengths. She is an uncompromisingly direct pianist with a burly physical stature that can more than withstand the repertoire’s heavyweight blockbusters. This is most evident in Prokofiev’s Sixth Sonata where the force of a juggernaut, seemingly unlimited endurance and sense of irony are a premium. 

Equally daunting is Nikolai Medtner’s single-movement Sonata Tragica which is as dense and compact as it is lyrical, a showcase of Slavic brooding and sublimation. A different light is shed on Medtner’s lesser-known Skazki (Folk Tales) Op.26, four short and varied miniatures that reveal a plethora of colours. This sense of fantasy is consummated in Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations, where her formidable technique is every match for the work’s kaleidoscope of nuances. This is a very well-conceived recital, expertly delivered, one that demands serious attention.

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR CHINESE ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION 2015: Advertisement in Gramophone Magazine

Imagine my surprise when I picked up this August 2014 edition of the Gramophone magazine. This was what I found on its inner cover page:

A full-page advertisement for the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2015. 

Now in its third edition, this competition organised by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra has contributed significantly to the growing body of symphonic works for Chinese instruments. Now by paying for this ad, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra is seeking a truly global market for Chinese instrumental and orchestral music.

It is good to see that at least one national orchestra is putting some money where its mouth is.   

JOE BURGSTALLER AND THE SINGAPORE WIND SYMPHONY / Review

JOE BURGSTALLER &

THE SINGAPORE WIND SYMPHONY

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (7 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 September 2014 with the title "Top brass shines with Singapore Wind Symphony".

Here is a piece of sound advice: If you want to catch a world-class brass soloist in action, go to a Singapore Wind Symphony concert. After great success with the New York Philharmonic’s Principal Trombonist Joseph Alessi earlier this year, the orchestra has now engaged the wizardry of Joe Burgstaller, who was for eight years the trumpeter and arranger of the legendary Canadian Brass.

The concert in the newly opened Victoria Concert Hall resounded with four brilliant concertante works, including two World Premieres. Malaysia-born Su Lian Tan’s Trumpet Concerto entitled Ming was heard for the first time in its two-movement form. The first movement Ming Dai (Ming Dynasty) had little or minimal Chinese influences, instead luxuriated in impressionistic hues inspired by antique brush paintings. This was contrasted with the new second movement Xian Dai (Modern) which took on freer means of expression, including adapting contemporary and popular dance idioms.

The trumpet’s part was typically thorny, full of virtuosic devices and a panoply of thematic ideas which sometimes bewildered the listener. Burgstaller swallowed these challenges whole, making light of its complexities. The ensemble led by Taiwanese-American guest conductor Apo Hsu coped well without skipping a beat, bringing much cohesion to the difficult score.

Composer Lee Jinjun acknowledges the good work
by the SWS and Joe Burgstaller.

More accessible was young Singaporean Lee Jinjun’s Variations on Chan Mali Chan, the premiere conducted by Adrian Tan, the local answer to Arban’s fantastic Carnival of Venice Variations. The familiar Malay melody was presented in many different and surprising guises, each imaginative and obliging Burgstaller to jump through a dizzying series of technical hoops. Expect this work to be heard far more often in the near future.

Further variety was provided in Rafael Mendez’s Virgin of the Macarena, a Spanish bullfight standard where Burgstaller gave a masterclass in circular breathing, which enabled a passage to be repeated for an extended duration without catching a breath. After that feat of sheer athleticism, a Vivaldi trumpet concerto – formal and ceremonial - completed the generous trumpet offerings.

The ensemble also distinguished itself in purely orchestral numbers. Benjamin Yeo’s Redhill – A Symphonic Folklore was a well-conceived piece of programme music which retold the ancient story of Bukit Merah and how a school of killer swordfish was repelled. His facility with lyricism, notably in the pivotal oboe solo, showed that he could be writing Broadway musicals pretty soon. Taiwanese composer-conductor Chung Yiu-Kwong’s Festival Celebration, which the set the traditional lion dance to music, showcased the ensemble’s excellent percussion section.

Robert Russell Bennett’s symphonic suite arrangement of music from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess was a delight with its hit tunes, and had ensemble trumpeter Adrian Flowers (above) taking the spotlight and doing the honours in the evergreen Summertime. If you are a wind player who likes to perform, joining the Singapore Wind Symphony and sharing in its vast pool of talent would be a dream come true.

All photographs by the kind permission of the Singapore Wind Symphony.