ANDREW LITTON AND CHLOE HANSLIP
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Victoria Concert Hall
Friday (4 March 2022)
An edited version of this review was first published in Bachtrack on 7 March 2022.
This is possibly the worst time to celebrate things Russian, so the Singapore Symphony Orchestra discreetly amended the title of its latest concert from “Resonating Russia” to the generic and less incriminating “Andrew Litton and Chloë Hanslip”. This could have been confusing since the concert the week before had the title “Serenades with Andrew Litton and Chloë Hanslip”.
Music should never be a pawn of politics or cancel culture but human factors have made this inevitable. Witness the recent dismissals of Russian artists Valery Gergiev and Denis Matsuev, known associates of Vladimir Putin, from all Western concert posts and engagements for not speaking up against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand, other Russian artists like pianists Evgeny Kissin and Alexander Melnikov, and conductor Daniel Raiskin have rightly condemned this atrocity. All power to them.
It is no exaggeration to postulate that both Dmitri Shostakovich and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, if they were alive today, would have been staunch opponents of the present Russian regime. Shostakovich had campaigned covertly against Soviet communism and Stalinism in his specially coded music, while Tchaikovsky would scarcely be sympathetic to Putin’s anti-LGBT agenda. So there is no reason to cancel their music in any concert.
Shostakovich’s only Violin Sonata was composed in 1968 as a 60th birthday gift for David Oistrakh. This orchestral version with strings and percussion from 2005 by Michail Zinman (strings) and Andrei Pushkarev (percussion) almost constitutes a third violin concerto. Dark as the first two concertos (also written for Oistrakh) were, this one was positively painted in pitch black.
Soloist Chloë Hanslip, attired in a ruby-red tinselled gown, gave a searing performance as if carved out from blocks of solid granite. Her voluminous and incisive violin tone also weaved in and out of opaque string textures, and the work soon resonated like those Shostakovich chamber symphonies (fashioned from his string quartets by Rudolf Barshai) than an actual violin concerto. The brooding that opened the first movement gave way to a stiff poker-faced dance, but the oppressive mood was just as unyielding all the way till its close.
The violent central Allegretto movement was thought to have been Shostakovich’s response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and brutal suppression of Prague Spring. Some things never change whether its 1968 or 2022, and the players responded with the outright vehemence the music deserved. Doing the honours on percussion was principal Jonathan Fox, who had his hands full in this explosive movement. The finale’s Passacaglia will rank as one of Shostakovich’s most morbid movements. Hanslip’s trenchant pizzicatos paved the way for a procession of mourning. There were moments of lyricism and radiance in her playing, also mirrored in the string accompaniment but these would wind down in a terminal decrescendo. This could only mean one thing: the slow but inexorable road to death.
From the doom and gloom of Shostakovich to the sun-drenched vistas of Tchaikovsky might prove inconceivable to some, but the Singapore Symphony strings led by Andrew Litton shifted gears almost effortlessly. Grey clouds had been dispersed by fulsome string sonorities of Souvenir de Florence, the string sextet now writ big in its string orchestra arrangement. The first movement soared with barely bridled passion, contrasted with the slow movement’s graceful waltz. As if plucked from one of his ballets, the music swelled with significant solo contributions from violist Zhang Manchin, cellist Yu Jing and concertmaster Kong Zhao Hui.
The titular Florence had more to do with where Tchaikovsky wrote this music rather than any overt Tuscan influences. The third and fourth movements were Slavic in melodic inspiration, while retaining a Mediterranean glow and warmth. The finale was whipped to a fine frenzy without losing its focus, culminating in a busy fugue, before all forces converging into the most joyous of conclusions.
On this fascinating coupling of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky, one question however remained: how could a land and people that gave forth music of such wealth of feeling and humanity be so callous and heinous with the lives of fellow human beings?
This review is dedicated to our Ukrainian friends in Singapore, violinist Nikolai (Mykola) Koval (who played in this concert) and pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina, and their families in Kyiv and Kharkhiv. Wishing them strength and courage, and may peace prevail.
Star Rating: *****
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