BOMSORI KIM PLAYS MOZART / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

BOMSORI KIM PLAYS MOZART

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (17 April 2021)

This review was first published on Bachtrack on 19 April 2021 with the title "Singapore Symphony aces World Premiere of Paul von Klenau’s Eighth Symphony".

 

The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic and safe distancing measures mandated on performing groups have had a major impact on musical life in Singapore. Limiting ensembles to a maximum of thirty onstage performers has however led to creative programming choices. This concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by chief conductor Hans Graf was an excellent example.

 

Danish composer Paul von Klenau (1883-1946) is unlikely to be known outside of his native country. He studied and worked in Germany and Austria where Max Bruch, Ludwig Thuille and Max von Schillings among his teachers. A contemporary of Alban Berg and Anton Webern, he was also influenced by Arnold Schoenberg and Second Viennese School atonalism. His works included six operas (with the artist Rembrandt and Queen Elizabeth I of England among his subjects) and nine symphonies.

 

While his Ninth Symphony (1945) was a 90-minute choral symphony in eight movements, the Eighth Symphony (1943), subtitled “In olden style” (im alten stil), runs its course of four movements within fifteen minutes. Cast in the key of D major, it is first cousin to Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, a pastiche of the symphony form by Haydn and Mozart. Its musical idiom is however more Romantic, closer to the likes of Schubert, although one might also cite similarities to Max Reger (without the turgidity) or Richard Strauss (without the opulence).

 

Its attractiveness lay in brevity and directness of ideas, including a sunny but brief sonata-styled first movement followed by a slow movement opened by woodwinds accompanied by cello pizzicatos. There were solo passages for flute and oboe, lovingly voiced by principals Jin Ta and Rachel Walker. A mere hint of sobriety in the third movement’s Menuet was soon dispelled by the Rondo finale’s mercurial streak lit up by Jon Dante’s trumpet, where the convergence of Mozart and Prokofiev (without the irony) became most apparent. While this was neither a work of striking originality or genius, it was nevertheless well crafted and received the World Premiere - a performance of immediacy and sincerity - it deserved.   

 

Korean violinist Bomsori Kim became the first overseas soloist to perform with the SSO in over a year, and the high expectations engendered were not to be disappointed. Mozart’s underrated First Violin Concerto, the 1774 work of a 17-year-old piano and violin prodigy, proved to be an ideal vehicle for Kim’s musicality and sensitivity.

 

A sweet tone was coaxed from her 1774 J.B.Guadagnini, never over-bright in intensity but well-proportioned to the chamber-sized forces supporting her. Only in the first and third movement cadenzas did she take the liberty to let rip, and this was also tastefully done. As with all of Mozart’s slow movements, lyrical beauty in aria-like passages dominated, as the orchestra provided discreet and restrained accompaniment throughout. The virtuoso show in the sprightly finale was nicely balanced by Kim’s choice of encore: the Sarabande from J.S.Bach’s Partita No.2 (BWV.1004), where her unaccompanied violin’s voice was given full rein.          

 

The concert closed with Schubert’s youthful Fifth Symphony, where from its outset, the freshness of spring bubbled up like uncorked spirits. Under Graf’s direction, the first movement benefited from a clarity of thought and well-defined lines, allied by refined and cultivated playing. A good balance between strings and woodwinds was achieved in the slow movement, where no hair fell out of place. 

The spirit of Mozart hovered in the third movement’s bucolic Menuet (in G minor, thus bringing to mind Wolfgang Amadeus’ Symphony No.40) and the ebullient and fleet-footed finale. While the music’s merry-making delighted, it was the ensemble’s sense of nuances and subtleties which made the performance a memorable one.

Star Rating: ****