pianomania: CHLOE CHUA PLAYS PAGANINI / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

CHLOE CHUA PLAYS PAGANINI

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (2 September 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 September 2023 with the title "Chloe Chua plays Paganini with stunning aplomb".

This concert was marketed with Chloe Chua Plays Paganini as its unique selling point but was in reality far more than that. In many ways, it felt like two separate concerts with vastly contrasted repertoire welded together at the hip, with a festive feel reminiscent of London’s BBC Proms.

The first half was early Romantic with a strong bel canto flavour about it. Rossini’s Overture to Il Viaggio A Reims (The Journey To Reims), his last opera in Italian, opened with a serious tone but soon lapsed into comedy. Lovely solos from cor anglais and flute, with excellent woodwind ensemble and an exciting series of patented Rossini crescendos ensured its success under visiting Swiss conductor Mario Venzago’s direction.

Paganini’s Violin Concerto No.1 with SSO artist in residence Chloe Chua was the ostensible reason why the hall was packed to the brim. She did not disappoint, comfortably mastering the fiendishly difficult solo part with seeming effortlessness and impeccable intonation. Even the inordinately long cadenza by Emil Sauret, lasting almost a quarter of the first movement, was overcome with stunning aplomb.

The reduced orchestration with all percussion (timpani, drum, cymbals and triangle) excluded certainly rendered the accompaniment more transparent. The slow movement basked in the lyricism of bel canto, an all too brief respite from earlier acrobatics that would also consume the finale’s Rondo.

Photo: Chris P. Lim

Paganini as innovator of technical devices such as the infamous double-stopped harmonics came to the fore, but that did little to faze Chua’s command and control as the work romped to an imperious high to close. With no encore from her forthcoming, the appreciative audience had to make do with her winning winsome smile instead.

The second half shifted to the late 19^th and early 20^th century with a moving performance of Debussy’s Three Nocturnes. More like vivid visions of musical imagery than actual night pieces, the opening Nuages (Clouds) could have done with a little more mystery but the cor anglais solo stood out with its plaintiveness. The far more lively Fêtes (Festivals) was delivered with a lean incisiveness, with a pair of muted trumpets driving its quite thrilling processional march.

Breathtaking in a different way was the seductive beauty evoked by the wordless women’s voices from the Singapore Symphony Chorus and Youth Choir (Chorus master: Eudenice Palaruan) in the closing Sirenes (Sirens). Homogeneous and haunting, this made for the work’s quiet and peaceable end.

English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Toward The Unknown Region, with words by the American Walt Whitman, received its Singapore premiere. Euphemistically described as “a song for chorus and orchestra”, this 12-minute mini-masterpiece was a paean to the spirit of discovery and adventure. Now joined by men voices, the chorus of 67 members generated a bigger sound than thought possible, and with the help of Joanna Paul’s pipe organ, built up to a massive climax and valedictory conclusion.