PRELUDE TO THE
AFTERNOON OF THE FAUN,
STRAUSS' DON JUAN &
ALBERT'S
TCHAIKOVSKY
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Tuesday (10 April 2018 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 April 2018 with the title "Pianist Albert Tiu steals the show".
The
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra's final concert of the academic year
resembled a graduation prom. Most of the lady players wore colourful evening
gowns, adding a dose of glamour to a programme filled with glitzy orchestral
showpieces. These are works which professional musicians are expected to play
in orchestras, and the young players did a fine job under the helm of French
guest conductor Olivier Ochanine.
Bravura
was first order of the day in Richard Strauss' tone poem Don Juan.
Needing little or no time to warm up, the orchestra immediately launched itself
into its passionate pages. The romantic sweep and swashbuckling impressed,
which was made even more special by the solo playing. The plaintive oboe in the
work's dreamiest episodes was excellent, matched by solo clarinet in repartee,
and the famous passage for French horns was truly a moment to wait for and
savour. There were heroes and heroines aplenty.
The
orchestra's versatility showed when it switched gears for Debussy's Prelude
To The Afternoon Of The Faun with its languid and haunting opening. Long
sinuous lines on solo flute set the mood where the ear entered a realm of
sensuousness. The sensitive and evocative playing was accompanied by projected
visuals created by media students Mervin Wong and Emilia Teo.
Great
music and spirited playing do not need added visual dimensions, and the moving
pictures of dispersing smoke, seeping water and close-up shots of plants and
flowers were merely innocuous appendages. Other than an unintentionally comical
cartoon of a faun, this seemed like an experiment in synaesthesia, an
affliction where sounds induce coloured visual hallucinations.
The
longest work of the evening was Tchaikovsky's rarely performed Second Piano
Concerto in G major, with Albert Tiu as soloist. Trailing in popularity to
its predecessor by a long distance, it is also ungratefully taxing for the
pianist.
Tiu
however mastered its crunching chords, stampeding octaves, and tricky fingering
with fearless aplomb, even if occasional over-enthusiastic orchestral playing
masked some passages. More importantly, the ballet-like quality of the music
shone through, culminating in a long and treacherously rhythmic piano cadenza
which did little to faze Tiu.
The
slow movement, played in its original unedited version, was a essentially a
mini-concerto for piano trio. Concertmaster Askar Salimdjanov and principal
cellist Jamshid Saydikarimov, both from Uzbekistan , conducted an exquisite pas de deux in an extended
introduction before being sidelined by the piano in the concerto's finest
melody. Resolution invariably occurs with Tchaikovsky, and a loving menage a
trois with all soloists ensued.
The
infectious gaiety of the rollicking finale brought the loudest cheers and two
encores. Still with Tchaikovsky, Tiu emoted with Mikhail Pletnev's transcription
of the Andante from Sleeping Beauty, followed by his own
arrangement of a fugal tango by Astor Piazzolla for the marvellously balanced
threesome. The house simply rocked.
Watch this performance of
Tchaikovsky's Second Piano Concerto here:
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