3rd Singapore Chamber Music Festival: SCHUMANN & CHOPIN / Review

SCHUMANN & CHOPIN
3rd Singapore Chamber Music Festival
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory
Wednesday (3 February 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 February 2010.

The third concert at the 3rd Singapore Chamber Music Festival was a dual celebration of Robert Schumann and Frederic Chopin. Both composers were close friends and shared the same year of birth: 1810.

Schumann (left) composed only one piano quintet, in E flat major (Op.47), and what a masterpiece it is. Allying a richness of melodic interest and undercurrents of tension, it comes close to the definitive Romantic chamber work. And it received a deservedly whole-hearted treatment from the Philippines-born pianist Albert Tiu and the T’ang Quartet, in its original line-up with Lionel Tan returning on viola.

Colleagues and long–time collaborators since the Conservatory opened, the five launched an incisive attack on its Allegro brillante opening, releasing a wellspring of heartfelt emotions. Schumann was one to wear his intense feelings heart-on-sleeve. Replete with waxing and waning, this was exploited fully in its march-like slow movement and the Scherzo’s furious cascade of scales.

The finale, a delightful study in counterpoint and precision playing, was positively riveting, culminating with a fugal tour de force that recalled the momentous ending of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony. If the performance was impressive, the second half proved to be an added treat.

The chamber version of Chopin’s First Piano Concerto in E minor (Op.11) received its Singapore premiere, in a piano quintet version specially arranged by Tiu. Removing the double bass part and trimming off the piano’s contribution in the tutti sections, the string quartet became the de facto orchestra.

This newfound transparency and clarity allowed the scintillating piano part to further stand out, and Tiu was more than up to the task. His combination of spellbinding virtuosity and seamless cantabile, the very hallmarks of Chopin playing, was transcendent through the three movements. Credit to the ever-sensitive T’ang Quartet too, that Chopin’s often-derided original orchestration was hardly missed.

The quintet then let down their collective hair in a luxuriant performance of Astor Piazzolla’s tango Oblivion. If two excellent evenings in the company of Schumann and Chopin within five days is not an embarrassment of riches, one wonders what is.

3RD SINGAPORE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL: ROBERT, CLARA & JOHANNES / Review

ROBERT, CLARA & JOHANNES
3rd Singapore Chamber Music Festival
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Sunday (31 January 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 February 2010.

There are many nooks and crannies of the chamber music repertoire that deserve to be explored but for a number of reasons remain obscure. The Singapore Chamber Music Festival, organised by The Chamber Players, has played a massive part in introducing these to a receptive local audience. The first concert of the festival’s third edition was an excellent example of this.

The eternal triangle of Robert Schumann, his wife Clara and the young Johannes Brahms was celebrated with a piano trio each, performed by nine musicians representing a Who’s Who of classical music in Singapore today. In lieu of programme notes, each performance was preceded by carefully chosen words from the ever-thoughtful Dennis Lee.

He was also the pianist in Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No.2 in F major (Op.80), bringing freshness and exuberance to the music, trading interwoven melodic lines with violinist Ike See and cellist Natasha Liu (above). This is an unfamiliar work, one brimming with energy and optimism, yet balanced by a gentle lilting lyricism. The very crisp articulation by the threesome in the skittish staccato-filled finale was a joy.

Even rarer still was Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor (Op.17), the slightest work on the menu. Oozing Mendelssohnian lightness and charm, its salon-like quality was delightful and unpretentious. Ironically, an all-male trio of pianist Lim Yan, violinist Seah Huan Yuh and cellist Leslie Tan (above) all clad in Chinese New Year hongbao red did the honours, alternating sensitivity with the odd spot of virility.

The greatest of the three trios fell to Brahms, forever rumoured to be more than platonic soul buddies with Clara. His Piano Trio No.1 in B major (Op.8) was the longest and most expressive in the evening. It also had the most memorable melodies. Two women, pianist Toh Chee Hung and violinist Qian Zhou, partnered cellist Chan Wei Shing (above) in a performance that might be described as rough and ready in parts.

It nevertheless had enough passion and the sense of being on the edge to make it absorbing. One would easily accept a handful of wrong notes here and there than sit through than a squeaky clean but sterile outing. The intimacy of chamber music at its most sincere was more than well served.

Long-time cello pedagogue Mrs Herminia Ilano

(extreme left) was honoured at the festival.

This concert and the 3rd Singapore Chamber Music Festival was organised by The Chamber Players, and supported by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.