POSTURES
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade
Concert Hall
Friday (4 July
2014)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 July 2014
The
Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s opening concert of the 2014-15 season gave the audience
a sneak preview of the programme to be performed at BBC Proms in London on 2 September. Aiming to make an impact
at its Proms debut, the orchestra served a heavy dose of familiar Russian
warhorses as well as a new work by an Asian composer.
Conducted
by Music Director Shui Lan, the orchestra began with Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture, a showcase
of its prowess in short pieces or lollipops. From its outset, the furiously
running string passages were well matched by the players, and when called upon,
solo woodwinds and brass shone brightly. Within five minutes, the appetiser
which piqued the senses was over.
Receiving
its World Premiere this evening was Chinese-American composer Zhou Long’s Postures, a piano concerto
co-commissioned by the Proms and SSO, and performed by the renowned Swiss
pianist Andreas Haefliger. Taking away all connotations of the work as a kung fu inspired piece, its 25 minutes
duration highlighted the piano as a virtuoso percussion instrument.
The
first movement Pianodance saw piano
and orchestra as equal partners, sharing in the rhythmic pacing that dictates
its narrative. It celebrates the hunter-shaman of Northeast China, one who imitates the movements of
animals in its game, and the dynamics range from roaring fortissimo to still
pianissimo.
The
piano dominated the central and longest Pianobells
movement, with the orchestra relegated to soft background string tremolos and
the occasion percussion outburst. The piano simulated many kinds of bells, from
the deep stroking of its innards, chord and trills occupying the high registers
and drolly repeated figurations.
Its
dream-like sequence was shattered in the tumultuous finale Pianodrums, which recalled Beijing Opera and the most recognisably
Chinese of the movements. Here the piano was integrated into the wider
percussion ensemble of the orchestra, yet it found its voice in the form of a
shrill battle cry which relived the exploits of the Monkey God. Cymbals,
xylophone and a battery of drums kept up with the action, and the work ended in
outright exuberance.
Nothing
quite sounds like this work. Not even the super-violent and ultra-percussive
Bartok First Piano Concerto comes
close.
The
concert closed with Rachmaninov’s Second
Symphony in E minor, a Romantic
throwback to the lush and unabashed emotionalism of Tchaikovsky. This is one of
the orchestra and conductor Shui’s favourite showpieces, yet the risk of
over-polishing the work to blandness was thankfully avoided.
The
key to sounding fresh was to take certain risks, and that was apparent in the
first two movements and finale, which strained at the leash without breaking
out of control. The slow movement with Ma Yue’s leading clarinet solo was a
thing of beauty, but the orchestra’s use of portamentos
(sliding between notes) was somewhat overdone. When heard for the first time,
sentimentality is sufficiently evinced but repeated hearings tended to descend
into bathos.
Nonetheless
the orchestra maintained its momentum without flagging through the 55 minutes.
The chorus of bravos that greeted its triumphant end could soon be repeated at
the Royal Albert Hall come September.
.JPG)
