MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN & SEBASTIAN WEIGLE / TROUT QUINTET & BRAHMS WITH MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN &

SEBASTIAN WEIGLE – 

BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO.2

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (6 August 2026)

THE TROUT QUINTET & BRAHMS

WITH MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN

with musicians of 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (8 August 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 August 2026 with the title "Canadian pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin shows mastery of wide repertoire in concerts with SSO".

Canadian super-virtuoso pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin made his fourth appearance with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra since 2005 in a sold-out concert directed by German conductor Sebastian Weigle. Hamelin’s legend as “the pianist’s pianist” was borne out by his complete mastery of the widest repertoire, and the art of making the most complex of works (by Charles Alkan, Leopold Godowsky, Ferruccio Busoni, Nikolai Medtner, Charles Ives, K.S.Sorabji et al) sound like child’s play.

All this seems to have overshadowed his true love and deep understanding of the core repertoire classics, set right in a masterly performance of Johannes Brahms’ monumental Second Piano Concerto in B flat major (Op.83). Cast like a four-movement symphony, its demanding piano part is so well-integrated into the musical fabric as to render its virtuoso presence moot.

Photo: Chris P.Lim

Hamelin’s role was to stand out like a soloist yet be part of the general ensemble, a task far easier said than done. His mission was helped by excellent orchestral players, opening with fellow Montrealer Marc-Antoine Robillard’s pitch-perfect horn solo, whose theme returned like an idee fixe (fixed idea) at pivotal moments.

Photo: Chris P.Lim

In the Andante slow movement, Ng Pei-Sian’s cello sang the concerto’s most memorable melody, its congeniality reciprocated by Hamelin’s mellowness of touch. At the Scherzo’s treacherous development section where lesser pianists fall short, Hamelin’s transcendental technique held sway. Playing very fast, very soft and very smooth all at once is what pianophiles marvel about.

The finale’s lightness saw Brahms at his most mercurial, with the Viennese waltz and Hungarian influences referenced, and a sprightly tarantella rhythm to close brought down the house. Hamelin’s encores, two riotous Earl Wild transcriptions of George Gershwin songs – Liza and Fascinatin’ Rhythm – were icing on the cake.

What an Esplanade full-house looks like,
a view from the gallery.
Photo: Kenneth Kwok

Antonin Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony in D minor (Op.70), the Bohemian composer at his most Brahmsian, completed the concert. The burnished quality of strings and warmth of excellent woodwinds distinguished the performance. Conductor Weigle ensured the Scherzo’s vigourous Slavonic Dance and dramatic finale were not rhythmically strait-jacketed, allowing the music to breathe and stride to a thrilling conclusion.

Photo: Aloysius Lim

On 8 August, Hamelin was joined by SSO musicians for a fully-subscribed chamber concert that will be long remembered for the quality of playing. Newly-appointed concertmaster Andrew Beer on violin and French horn principal Austin Larson were his partners in Brahms’ Horn Trio in E flat major (Op.40).

Photo: LG Lim

Larson’s exceptional tone quality, intonation and breath control were exemplary for its success, with the lively spirit of the hunt leaping into action in the second and fourth movements. Hamelin’s rock- steady pianism and Beer’s excellent articulation supported him to the hilt.

Photo: LG Lim

Photo: Aloysius Lim

Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major (D.667), better-known as the Trout Quintet, was the ultimate Hausmusik, a collegial house party of musical friends. Despite just having met within the week, Hamelin with violinist Beer, violist Chen Li, cellist Christopher Mui and double bassist Yang Zhengyi played and sounded like long cherished colleagues.

From the opening chord, the music radiated the sunshine of an Austrian summer. The exposition repeats just doubled the pleasure of hearing and seeing men at work. And was not everyone waiting for the fourth movement’s variations on Schubert’s lied Die Forelle (The Trout)? The familiarity of this melody (also heard on Samsung washing machines) will never tire. This delightful outing also highlighted the universality of chamber music, where world-renowned soloists and rank-and-file musicians dine at the same table.

Photo: LG Lim

MOZART WITH RODOLFO BARRAEZ AND AUSTIN LARSON

 

MOZART WITH RODOLFO BARRAEZ 

AND AUSTIN LARSON 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Friday (22 November 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 November 2024 with the title "Mozart makes delightful main course with SSO."

It is an incredulous fact that the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has never performed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Horn Concerto No.4 in E flat major (K.495) until this evening. Undoubtedly the most popular and best-known horn concerto in all of classical music, this gaping lacuna had to be filled sometime. 

Better late than never, one is grateful that SSO’s principal French hornist Austin Larson, just appointed to the post last year, did the honours. He is a supremely confident artist, one whose well-projected and warm tone brought much life and humanity to the music. 

Sustaining long unbroken lines and perfect intonation all through made the performance an unmitigated pleasure. The tricky cadenzas in the outer movements were negotiated with ease, while the rapidly repeated notes and quick leaps in the famous hunt-and-chase finale seemed like pure fun. 

Listeners of a certain vintage will remember Flanders and Swann’s comic take on this movement to appreciate its uproarious quality. Larson’s encore of fellow American hornist-composer Gina Gillie’s Ditty for Jonathan (2007) was a brief but dazzling show of brass virtuosity. 

Having supported the concerto to the hilt, the orchestra was on its own in two of Mozart’s most popular symphonies, conducted from memory by SSO’s award-winning Associate Conductor, the young Venezuelan Rodolfo Barraez. 

Genuine congeniality distinguished Symphony No.29 in A major (K.201) which opened the evening. Showcasing an enviable evenness on the strings from its outset, this set the tone for the rest of the work. The Andante slow movement delighted in delicate counterpoint between first and second violins, and later basked in its aria-like second theme. 

The third movement’s Menuet had a light bounce in its dance steps, contrasted by a more leisurely Trio section. The finale had that same vivacious spirit of the hunt, later echoed in the concerto, and sweeping ascending scales – much easier said than done – which brought the symphony to a joyous close. 

More serious was Symphony No.40 in G minor (K.550), part of Mozart’s miraculous final trilogy of 1788, which occupied the concert’s second half. The familiar opening melody was taken at a lighter clip than one might have expected, but the storms and stresses would come later, notably in the development section. 

A steady and unerring pulse dominated the slow movement, which was very polished, but possessing a nervous edge with mild dissonances sprinkled in each page. More contrasts followed with a vigorous Menuet and its graceful Trio counterpart. The Finale with its buffo (comedy in opera) elements and ensuing fugatos (later finding gloriously fruition in his final symphony, the “Jupiter”) was pure icing on this well-baked cake. 

This totally enjoyable concert is emblematic of the era established by SSO’s Austrian Music Director Hans Graf’s tenure since 2020, one in which the performance of Mozart is no longer an afterthought, but the main thought itself.

SEIKA ISHIDA PLAYS CHOPIN / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

SEIKA ISHIDA PLAYS CHOPIN

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (4 August 2023) 

This review was first published in Bachtrack on 6 August 2023 with the title "Hans Graf's gripping Schubert's Ninth tops Chopin in Singapore".

 

Conducted by music director Hans Graf, this Singapore Symphony Orchestra programme was united by three early Romantic composers, with works composed around the time of Beethoven’s death in 1827. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828) all died young themselves, and one wondered what if each of them had lived for several decades more.

SSO Music Director Hans Graf
spoke briefly about how the three works
in the concert were linked.

 

Weber’s Oberon Overture began the concert, perfect opportunity to showcase the orchestra’s new principal horn Austin Larson, who handled the very exposed opening solo with much aplomb. After the slow introduction, the music then eloped into its world of fairies and elves, the lightness (also referenced in the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream) was well captured by the orchestra. If the piece sounded familiar to some listeners in Singapore, that was because of a washing detergent advertisement on television (remember UIC?) that was suitably soapy and sudsy.   

 

Had Weber lived several years beyond the London premiere of Oberon (machinations of which precipitated his premature demise), he might have heard Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto in F minor, an early work (preceding the better-known First Piano Concerto) that owed a debt of influence to Mozart. Young Japanese pianist Seika Ishida was heard last November in the Sturm und Drang of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, and her Chopin was very similar, with clarity and restraint being hallmarks. Some degree of rubato was exercised, which distinguished Chopin from Mozart. When the chance came in the first movement development to catch fire, she remained steadfast and unflappable. One might have wished for a higher quotient of passion.

 

That was duly delivered in the Larghetto, where contrasts between its nocturne-like opening and the highly-strung central episode became more palpable. The concluding Rondo was more tasteful than exciting, and despite col legno (the wood of bows striking the strings) urgings from violins and violas, strict composure was maintained. The French horn’s wake-up call did the trick, with a rhythmic thrust propelling both soloist and orchestra through to the furious final furlong. Ishida’s lyrical encore showed where her persuasions belonged, a quasi-improvisation that joined Edvard Grieg’s first and last Lyric Pieces, Arietta (Op.12 No.1) and Remembrances (Op.71 No.7), at the hip. Totally charming.

 

As with the SSO's last concert (of Mozart and Richard Strauss), the highlight was the final work - a gripping performance of Schubert's Symphony No.9 in C major, also known as the "Great". Composed in his last year, premiered in 1839 under the baton of Mendelssohn no less, Schubert's four movements lived up to that favourite description, being of "heavenly length". Yet under Graf's tautly strung reading, its 51 minutes did not sound hectic or harried. It was Larson's French horn again that confidently set the stage for the music's ebb and flow. Even the opening movement sounded breezy and short-winded, while the second movement's brisk march built up to a climax, with an aftermath that paid ever more dividends.

 

               

The ensuing Scherzo was suitably rambunctious, and did anyone think that its Trio sounded like For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow? What was never in doubt, was the valedictory finale’s quote of the Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s own Ninth Symphony (composed several years before Schubert’s), which never sounded more blatant. Now here is a thought: had he not died at the tender age of 31, Franz Schubert’s future symphonies might suggest that he, rather than Gustav Mahler, would have become the Austrian symphonist most closely associated with Anton Bruckner.             

                                              

Star Rating: ****