GEOFFREY SABA Piano
Recital
Churchill Room @ Tanglin Club
Saturday (1
September 2018 )
The Tanglin Club off Scotts
Road was an unusual place to hold a piano recital,
but it was good to have some culture at a swanky venue where privileged people
go to see and be seen. The hour-long recital was given by the London-based
Australian pianist Geoffrey Saba, who is no stranger in these parts. Over the
decades, he has performed piano recitals at the National University of
Singapore Cultural Centre, besides giving the Singapore premieres of Bartok’s First
Piano Concerto (with the SSO) and Peter Sculthorpe’s Piano Concerto
(with NUSSO).
A small of audience of mostly
children, their parents and retirees were treated to the music of Claude
Debussy (1862-1918), whose death centenary is being observed this year. Saba
opened the recital with English pianist Leonard Borwick’s transcription of Prélude
a l’après-midi dun faune. This was a mostly literal and bare-bones look at
one of classical music’s most exotic and sensuous scores. Although Saba
tried to add as much colour, shade and nuance to the music, he was hampered by
a rather deadpan Steinway baby grand which was not responsive to his variegated
touches. There were a few slips here and there but at least the instrument was
in tune.
More satisfying was the First
Book of Préludes, which was performed with a penchant for mood,
variation and fantasy. From the opening Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers
of Delphi) to the final Minstrels, there was an effort to impart a
spirit of vivid imagery to the 12 vastly contrasted pieces. Debussy first wrote
out the preludes, and then added their evocative titles, hence the notion of
the music being impressionist. He actually hated the term, which he felt was
derogatory, and preferred to called “symbolist”.
There was a remarkable sequence
of music from numbers five to eight, from the lively tarantella rhythms of Les
collines d’Anacapri (The Hills of Anacapri), bleakness and
desolation in Des pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the Snow),
pummelling violence of Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest (What the West Wind
Saw) to the gentle ministrations of La fille aux cheveux de lin (Girl
with the Flaxen Hair). The vast contrasts were brought out as best as
possible from the limited piano, one where the full dynamic range could not be
fully realised. Nonetheless, the playing was evocative (particularly La
Cathedrale Engloutie or The Engulfed Cathedral), lively and animated
in the final dance-like numbers La serenade interrompue (Interrupted
Serenade), La Danse de Puck (Dance of Puck), and Minstrels.
The theme of negroid dances
continued into Saba ’s sole encore, which was Louis
Moreau Gottschalk’s Le Bananier (The Banana Tree), a short and
delightful number. With the recital ended, the audience then dispersed for high
tea, a Saturday afternoon ritual that is de rigeuer for The Tanglin Club.
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