CHAMBER OF HEROES / KOICHIRO HARADA & FRIENDS / Review

CHAMBER OF HEROES

T’ang Quartet

Victoria Concert Hall

Tuesday (29 August 2023)

 

KOICHIRO HARADA & FRIENDS

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Thursday (31 August 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 September 2023 with the title "T'ang Quartet and Koichiro Harada played two gripping chamber music programmes". 

 

It is good to see T’ang Quartet, Singapore’s longest standing professional chamber group, going back to basics. Founding violinists Ng Yu Ying and Ang Chek Meng with new members violist Dandan Wang and cellist Jamshid Saydikarimov have settled nicely as a cohesive outfit, evidenced by this serious and non-gimmicky programme.

 

Haydn was the “father of the string quartet”, yet his Quartet in C major (Op.20 No.2) is not so familiar. The foursome brought out its congeniality, displaying taut ensemble work yet with ample room to breathe. The composer’s originality came in its Adagio slow movement, unusually titled Capriccio. Its caprice had to do with unexpected tonal austerity and stark unison passages, handled with keen intent, later switching modes for the much lighter minuet and concluding fugal finale.     

 

The concert’s major work was Beethoven’s Quartet in E flat major Op.74, nicknamed "Harp" because of series of pizzicatos, resembling those of the plucked instrument. Although belonging to his "middle period", there were hints of the German's ethereal late style. The slow movement's long-breathed solo line was memorably helmed by violinist Ng, later contrasted by the scherzo's tempestuous raves and finale's breezy theme and variations.  

 

Wedged in between both classical heroes was the Singapore premiere of contemporary American composer Caroline Shaw’s Plan & Elevation: The Grounds Of Dumbarton Oaks (2016) in five short movements. Inspired by the historical estate in Washington D.C., each movement was named after different aspects of its renowned garden, premised upon a simple motif, over which layers of sound were added. The quartet brought from the quasi-minimalist music a nervous edge which regularly egressed into rarefied beauty. This concert showed that old and new music could be equally engaging when astutely juxtaposed.

 

The feast of chamber music continued with a piano quintet concert at the Conservatory led by Japanese violinist Koichiro Harada, founding member of the legendary Tokyo String Quartet and this semester’s visiting Ong Teng Cheong Professor of Music. He was partnered by faculty members Qian Zhou (violin) Zhang Manchin (viola), Qin Li-Wei (cello) and Ning An (piano) in two great contrasting works of the medium.

 

Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E flat major (Op.44), set in classical four-movement form, is famous for its expressive beauty. The German’s effulgent romanticism overflowed from the outset, with Harada as de facto leader and unifying force keeping all five players together. The ensemble was water-tight throughout, resolute in the opening movement’s expansive themes, while weathering storms of mood and tempo changes in the central movements.  

 

It was the finale’s tour de force of counterpoint, where multiple lines could easily get tangled, which impressed the most. The valedictory fugue was so adroitly handled that it seemed scarcely possible at that high speed. Hearing is believing, with the quintet concluding in a triumphant romp.     

Koichiro Harada is an inspiring leader.

  

Franco-Belgian composer Cesar Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor is a formidable work that takes no prisoners. Lasting almost 40 minutes, all three movements brooded with frightening intensity. Over a drone from lower strings in its opening, Harada’s violin came like an impassioned high-pitched groan. All through the piece, he carried important melodic lines, like some pleading soul in search for a voice of reason.

 

A robust opposing force was the mighty piano from An, recently appointed Associate Professor in piano studies, whose part waxed and waned between pure lyricism and raw-knuckled brawn. This tug-of-war between strings and piano, engaged over the work’s recurring motifs, was so absorbing as to render time illusory. Not for faint hearts, the finale’s harrowing close of sheer vehemence brought an uneasy mix of ecstasy and relief. The loud cheers said it all. That was what gripping chamber music on two evenings was supposed to do.