BEETHOVEN IM GARTEN 2022
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra
Botanic Gardens
Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage
Saturday (26 March 2022)
An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 30 March 2022 with the title "A prelude to better times with Beethoven".
The skies over the Botanic Gardens had been overcast for most of the afternoon. Distant thunder rumbled and one wondered whether Beethoven Im Garten (Beethoven in the Garden) would even take place if it had rained. Then at six, the sun emerged from the shadows and a cool breeze swept like a smile over the audience of a thousand, all ticketed, masked and partially socially-distanced.
There was to be no repeat of the stormy fourth movement of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, but more like its heartwarming fifth movement, a song of thanksgiving. The symphony to be heard this evening was, however, Beethoven’s Fourth in B flat major (Op.60), not the most popular of his nine masterpieces. The German composer and critic Robert Schumann described it as a “slender Grecian maiden between two Norse giants”, which was flattering albeit in an oblique way.
Beethoven In Garten was an initiative of the German Embassy in Singapore with young Singaporean conductor Wong Kah Chun, presently chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony, inaugurated in 2018 to celebrate German-Singapore friendship. Performed by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra (Wong’s alma mater) augmented by ten members from the Dresden Philharmonic, this event had the welcoming effect of ushering in a raft of concerts with relaxed Covid rules.
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The audience was still a segregated one, with sponsored and specially invited guests seated near the stage, while commoners (including this listener) were secluded far back in the rear separated by a 50-metre stretch of no man’s land. It was no picnic either as food and drinks had been banned, and listeners had to be content with listening to one of two speakers blaring out the music while observing the proceedings through binoculars.
After the obligatory speeches, the symphony soon got underway and Beethoven’s music rarely disappointed. Did one know that the slow introduction of the first movement employed a variant of the Fate motif of his famous Fifth Symphony? Now slowed down till barely recognisable, but it served as a launching pad for the movement’s exciting main section.
The energised start was followed by a masterly slow movement built on waves upon waves of sound. Contrast was provided by the Scherzo's somewhat ungainly lurching, but Wong's taut direction ensured the ensemble kept in sync throughout. Applause greeted the end of each movement, but unlike in concert halls, it did not feel inappropriate but a totally natural response.
The finale was a perpetual motion in fast tarantella rhythm, a breathless ride in which every player became his or her own virtuoso musician. Conductor Wong then spoke touchingly but frankly about how the pandemic had affected the lives of young professional musicians, and this concert was a harbinger for better times ahead.
The concert closed with the exhilarating final movement Saltarello (another fast and swirling dance) from Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony, better known as his Italian Symphony. The skies had darkened but the weather held up for a stirring conclusion.
You can catch the concert here:
[LIVE] Beethoven im Garten - YouTube
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