ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO
& NEW WORLD SYMPHONY
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (6 May 2022)
Pandemic precautions have been scaled down, and audiences returning to concert halls in droves is a good sign that normality has returned. This feel-good feeling was no more evident as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra rolled out its most populist programme for a long while. Almost a familiar favourites concert, even the gallery seats behind the orchestra was filled to brimming. Business as usual has resumed.
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| Photo: PianoManiac |
Led by visiting Swiss conductor Mario Venzago, the concert opened with the brassy growls of Sibelius’ tone poem Finlandia. Taken at a broader and expansive tempo, the grandeur of the music was better revealed, none more than the glorious central hymn (Finland Awakes), which became a patriotic song associated with freedom. Now an universal anthem of sorts, this was a rousing performance to get spirits and blood churning.
The sorrow of war was relived as German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott emerged to perform Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Written in 1919 as a response to the human carnage of the First World War, this work of deeply-felt pathos has become all the more relevant at this time of worldwide upheaval. From the moment of the cello’s entry, essentially a sighing lament taken in a single breath, one knew this was going to be a moving account. Müller-Schott’s tone is voluminous but not overpoweringly so, his voice speaking plainly of pain and tribulation. Just as trenchant was his mercurial approach in the scherzo-like second movement, before the pathos-inducing oration of that famous slow movement. This is surprisingly short-winded for all its hype (Jackie du Pre’s heroics notwithstanding), but he got it just right without making it a sob-fest of sorts.
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| Photo: PianoManiac |
If anything, the finale became even more impassioned. The orchestra was party to the music’s gripping narrative, not least with a earth-shattering return of the concerto’s opening sigh. That, truly conveyed the music’s sense of tragedy. Humans cannot be relied to learn from past mistakes of history, and will repeat the wars that will eventually consume mankind. The applause greeted both soloist and orchestra was tumultuous, and two contrasted encores from Müller-Schott further confirmed his immense artistry. The Gigue from Bach’s Suite No.3 in C major revelled in dance-like moves while the cello’s full voice came to bear in Ernest Bloch’s Prayer, which sounds even more penitential without accompaniment.
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| Photo: PianoMania |
Nobody was going to forego a performance of Dvorak’s popular Symphony No.9, which just everyone knows as the New World Symphony. The audience’s faith was repaid with a vigorous yet nuanced reading of a warhorse that risked over-popularity. Given what the pandemic had wreaked on concert-going over the last two years, there was not going to be that contempt associated with familiarity. Instead, one would listen with new ears. Has anybody paid attention to its quiet introduction, just before Christian Schioler’s timpani outburst and the iconic first movement French horn theme? Here every detail came to the fore, and what could have seemed hackneyed sounded fresh instead.
After the opening movement’s exertions came the famous Largo, and Elaine Yeo’s cor anglais solo could not have be a more welcome proposition. The brass, underused during much of the pandemic, rejoiced in their chorales, and who could blame the audience for prematurely applauding after this slow movement? The third movement’s Slavonic dance bristled with energy leading to the finale’s joyous machinations. Music is back, and so has the inappropriate applauding brigade, but this was not greeted condescendingly but gratefully. And there was none of the bronchial coughs between movements, the audience having also returned in a healthier state.
Seldom has the orchestra and guest conductor been with accorded such a spontanous and prolonged audience reception by way of prolonged and loud applause. There is much gratitude to be had with genuine artistry and sincere efforts in music-making, little wonder Venzago was grinning from ear to ear when acknowledging the accolades. Long may that continue.
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| Photo: PianoManiac |
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