HANS GRAF FAREWELL SERIES: MOZART AND SALIERI / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

HANS GRAF FAREWELL SERIES:

MOZART AND SALIERI

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday (21 May 2026)

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 25 May 2026 with the title "Mozart and Salieri under the spotlight in Hans Graf’s farewell concert in Singapore".

Let’s first get this out of the way. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a musical genius while Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) a skilled journeyman. The premise of Hans Graf’s final concert in his six-year tenure (2020-2026) at the helm of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra was not just to compare achievements of both composers, but to ponder the gulf between hard work and divine inspiration, and how we live with both.

The evening opened with Salieri’s Piano Concerto in C major (1773), from a rising 23-year-old who still had 52 years to live. The opening Allegro maestoso was a martial ritornello that exuded the same vibe as Mozart’s K.503, also in the same key. Big chords paved the way for young pianist Adrian Tang’s clean and accomplished delivery, which lacked nothing in polish and purpose. 

The problem was how Salieri worked his musical ideas and themes. While Mozart delighted in variety and nuance, Salieri resorted to what virtuosi of the day did best, note-spinning and striving for effect. The development and cadenza had lots of that, and one soon tired of listening. The slow movement in A minor had an opening solo resembling the corresponding movement of Mozart’s K.488, but fell short of his combo of gravitas and elegance. The finale’s Rondo saw delicate and nimble fingerwork on display with passages of Sturm und Drang by way of contrast. While pleasant and euphonious to the ear, it proved ultimately unmemorable.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.14 in E flat major (K.449) was premiered when he was 28, right at the cusp of greatness. What a big difference it made with the workmanlike Salieri. Young soloist Toby Tan did the honours, giving a dream performance of fluency and care for detail. He truly got into the spirit of Mozart, imbuing the score with a singing quality and en point articulation. 

The slow movement was a lyrical gift that kept on giving, milked for all its worth, while the finale’s theme and variations sparkled, going full buffo in a comedic coda for a final flourish. Both pianists, students of Albert Tiu, joined hands for a delightful encore, the finale from the Sonata for four hands in D major by ... Mozart (K.381), thank goodness.

Toby Tan and Adrian Tang
with their teacher Albert Tiu

Rimsky-Korsakov’s one-act opera Mozart and Salieri (1897), based on Pushkin’s little tragedy from 1830 and sung in Russian (with English surtitles), received its Singapore premiere. This piece of speculatory fiction had spawned an industry built on the scurrilous rumour that Salieri murdered Mozart. He did nothing of the sort, but judging by Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov’s self-pitying monologue as the industrious but pedantic Salieri, might as well have done so. By poisoning the god-given genius of an irreverent and flippant Mozart, played by the much younger-looking Russian tenor Boris Stepanov, he was preserving hoards who bore the badge of mediocrity.

This was not so much a lyrical opera in the traditional sense but a psychological melodrama that pitted earth-bound against celestial talent. Rimsky-Korsakov was also comparing himself with the cultural giants that were Pushkin and Mussorgsky. 

A chamber-sized orchestra accompanied the action, and there were cameos by Matthias Oestringer as the blind street violinist and Adrian Tang in the pastiche piano part. Members of the Singapore Symphony Chorus (Eudenice Palaruan, choral director), placed high in the balcony sang the opening page from Mozart’s Requiem, as the musical rivals memorably walked into the pages of infamy. Graf’s final act as music director of the SSO could not have been more poignant.

Rating ****

Posterity has shown
who's got the last laugh.