SAX
AND SEXTET
VCH
Chamber Series
Victoria
Concert Hall
Saturday
(31 October 2015 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 November 2015 with the title "SSO scores a hat-trick".
Three Singapore
The first is slightly better known, Czech
composer Erwin Schulhoff's Hot Sonata
(1930) for alto sax and piano. The term “hot” referred to the fever that was
sweeping Europe from the New World during the 1920s and
30s, the influence of Afro-American jazz in music that also obsessed composers
like Ravel, Poulenc, Milhaud and Martinu. Its four movements thrived on
vigorous syncopated rhythms, blues harmonies and any hint of the subversive.
Delangle lapped up its sultry vibes with
great relish and animation, especially in the 3rd movement with
wailing portamentos that would not be
out of place in the smoky dives of Harlem . Providing
accompaniment was pianist Low Shao Suan whose rock-solid timing and mastery of
tricky beats enabled him to weave a magical spell through the work's
quarter-hour.
More conventional was Adolf Busch's Saxophone Quintet (1925), with Delangle
joined by violinists Chan Yoong Han and Cindy Lee, violist Luo Biao and cellist
Chan Wei Shing. Think of a clarinet quintet but replace it with the duskily
burnished tones of sax, and throw in pages of rich Brahmsian counterpoint
spiced with skirting at the edges of tonality.
The result was an adventurous performance
which gave much satisfaction, capped by a quirky Theme & Variations movement which alternated between sobriety
and whimsicality before closing with long-breathed lyricism and quiet
sublimity.
The third was, also the longest, was
Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Sextet
(1824), composed when he was only 15. It is a virtuoso piano concerto in all
but name, with pianist Albert Tiu from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in
supreme control. The unusual scoring, with violin (with Chan Yoong Han), two
violas (Gu Bing Jie and Marietta Ku), cello (Ng Pei-Sian) and double-bass (Yang
Zheng Yi), was for the purpose of domestic Hausmusik,
that is to be played by skilled amateurs in polite 19th century
homes.
In reality, only seasoned professionals
could pull off the perfomance the audience was treated to today. The balance
between strings and piano was excellent, and the inevitable pianistic
prestidigitation flowed like pure silk. The slow movement was a seamless “song
without words” contrasted by a Beethovenian urgency of the Minuet and Trio.
The exciting finale was pure joy itself,
with moments of humour as the dominant piano gave way for the violin to hog the
limelight, albeit for few short measures. This is the sort of congeniality that
takes place in sparkling chamber music, and no one would begrudge the loud and
lengthy applause that greeted its spirited finish.
 |
| Claude Delangle meets with Singapore's young saxophonists. |
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