SIMON TRPCESKI
& ELIAHU INBAL:
RACHMANINOFF & SHOSTAKOVICH
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (28 March 2026)
This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 31 March 2026 with the title "Eliahu Inbal enlivens the Singapore Symphony in Shostakovich and Rachmaninov".
British-Israeli conductor Eliahu Inbal, who turned 90 last month, neither looks nor feels his age, evident by his latest concert leading the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. He is remembered here for conducting the SSO in Mahler’s Ninth Symphony on the eve of Singapore’s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral in March 2015, dedicating the performance to his memory. On this evening, he helmed two full-length works, and even appeared fresh and revitalised at its end.
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| Photo: Clive Choo |
Opening with Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor (Op.18), he kept the orchestra in sync with Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski. Loose and easy was Trpceski’s approach, happy to do the accompanying as orchestral strings sang the big tune, and coming in from the cold for solo flourishes. There was neither coming on strong nor gilding the lily, and there were moments in the first movement when the orchestra almost drowned out the piano.
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| Trpceski even resembles Rach in profile. |
No such worries in the Adagio sostenuto central slow movement, when the piano’s solo line sang out unabated, in a gradual unwinding that climaxed in a brilliant solo cadenza. The strings accompanying piano chords at its denouement provided the concerto’s most sublime moment. The finale was a thrilling white knuckle ride. Trpceski’s treatment of the big melody was initially subdued, and the intention was to work its way to a glorious apotheosis, and before that a central fugato section negotiated with the skill of a high-wire act.
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Trpceski leaps off the stool after the last chord. |
The close was predictably splashy, drawing a chorus of cheers, followed by two vastly varied encores. The Precipitato finale from Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata was devastating in its drive, contrasted with Rachmaninov’s serene Vocalise (Op.34 No.14) with guest concertmaster David Coucheron on violin. The latter was dedicated to the memory of Hans Sørensen, former SSO Director of Artistic Planning who passed away unexpectedly in January, and a plea for world peace.
Inbal cut a sprightly figure as he mounted the podium for a rare performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.11 in G minor (Op.103) or The Year 1905, first and last heard in Singapore in 1998. Composed in 1957 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution, it commemorated the slaughter of peaceful protesters on “Bloody Sunday” outside St Petersburg’s Winter Palace by Tsarist forces.
Questions on whether this was programme music with a Socialist Realist agenda were moot once the portrayal of icy wintry scenes of the Palace Square first movement got underway. Perhaps the most protracted and portentous slow boil in all of classical music, the music was a supreme test of patience with the tension built-up by desolate flutes, muted trumpets and ominous taps on Christian Schiøler’s timpani. The unbearable tension was unloosed by 9 January, a crescendo that would put Shostakovich’s earlier Leningrad Symphony and Ravel’s Bolero in the shade. The furious fugue of death led by the strings provided the coup de grace.
Performed without breaks between movements, the cinematic score unfolded magisterially under Inbal’s direction. The variations that came in the In Memoriam third movement were not in passacaglia form but what stuck firmly in the mind were the excellent violas’ consolatory tone, and one was well within the midst of a requiem. The finale’s Tocsin flew with all cannons blazing, but with the reprise of the Palace Square and Elaine Yeo’s poignant cor anglais solo, memory rather than vengeance was the goal. Closing in tragic G minor rather than triumphant G major, and clocking in at 60 minutes, Inbal’s epic view could survive several lifetimes.
Star Rating: ****
The review as published on Bachtrack.com:
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