BEST & WORST CLASSICAL CONCERTS 2016

As published in the 18 December 2016 issue of The Sunday Times (Singapore):

BEST

WAGNER’S THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

  Richard Wagner Society Singapore 

  OperaViva & Finger Players

  Victoria Theatre, 23-30 October 2016

By no stretch of the imagination has Singapore become Bayreuth, but the first-ever local production of a Wagner opera was a success on many counts. Directed by Glenn Goei and Chong Tze Chien, and conducted by Darrell Ang, the Southeast Asian setting of The Flying Dutchman with the use of wayang kulit and shadow puppetry had a memorable outing. The Asian cast (with by Martin Ng as the Dutchman and Nancy Yuen as Senta) which performed on 28 October were no pushovers alongside their Western counterparts.

Visiting Soloists with national orchestras:

JOSHUA BELL 

  with Singapore Chinese Orchestra

  Esplanade Concert Hall, 9 April 2016

YO-YO MA & SILK ROAD ENSEMBLE

  with Singapore Symphony Orchestra

  Esplanade Concert Hall, 11-12 Nov 2016

ANDRAS SCHIFF with

  Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

  Esplanade Concert Hall, 1 November 2016

2016 was a year when big name soloists collaborated with local orchestras, and audiences became beneficiaries in a host of musical feasts. American violinist Joshua Bell in Vivaldi,  Saint-Saens, Sarasate and Chinese music, celebrity cellist Yo-Yo Ma playing Elgar and Zhao Lin, and Hungarian virtuoso Andras Schiff in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 have all been firmly implanted in the collective memory. 

Best Debuts

Mathea Goh plays plays unaccompanied Bach.

Felicia Teo Kai Xin
(with Jonathan Charles Tay) in
Donizettii's Rita 

MATHEA GOH, Violin

  Esplanade Recital Studio, 26 October 2016

FELICIA TEO KAIXIN, Soprano

  Esplanade Recital Studio, 13 April 2016

  Singapore Conference Hall, 4 Nov 2016

  Esplanade Concert Hall, 18 November

16-year-old violinist Mathea Goh, this year’s recipient of the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award, gave stunning and mature performances of Bach, Ysaye, Grieg, Paganini and Ravel in her debut solo recital. Also making big splash upon her return from studies in New York was soprano Felicia Teo Kaixin, who impressed in Donizetti’s Rita (New Opera Singapore), Dick Lee’s The Journey of Lee Kan (Singapore Chinese Orchestra) and the Singapore Lyric Opera’s annual Gala Concert.

WORST

Amateur pianists with professional ensembles

SOTA Concert Hall, 
31 January & 10 April 2016

Amateur music-making is to be encouraged, however parading non-professional piano players in public performances of concertos by Chopin and Rachmaninov alongside professional musicians is the height of hubris and folly. Two such performances at SOTA Concert Hall came to grief, with calamitous memory lapses necessitating an emergency page-turner coming to the rescue on both occasions.   

BEST & WORST CLASSICAL CDS 2016

As published in the 18 December 2016 edition of The Sunday Times (Singapore):

BEST

ZHOU LONG & CHEN YI

Symphony Humen 1839

New Zealand Symphony / Darrell Ang

Naxos 8.570611

Conductor Darrell Ang became Singapore’s first-ever Grammy nominee for classical music with this symphony jointly composed by the China-born husband-and-wife Zhou Long and Chen Yi. Commemorating China’s act of defiance in Humen, Canton that sparked off the Opium Wars, the 2009 work is both patriotic and cathartic, heralding the ascent of China as a global superpower.

THE CLASSICAL ELEMENTS

ALBERT TIU, Piano

Centaur 3503

The 20 piano pieces in this recital are inspired by the ancient concept of earth, air, water and fire as the four pillars of the natural world. The Philippines-born and Singapore-based pianist Albert Tiu has an exquisite and variegated touch in diverse works by Liszt, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Godowsky, Scriabin, Griffes, Ibert, Mompou and others, all of which are evocatively coloured.

J.S.BACH Mass in B minor

Soloists with Concerto Copenhagen 

Lars Ulrik Mortensen

CPO 777 851-2

This recording of Bach’s classic choral work employs five soloists and just five ripieno voices (one voice per part) in the choral movements, accompanied by period instruments. The effect is one of lighter and more transparent textures without sacrificing on volume, depth or grandeur. A sitting will help redefine the words “divine” and “beautiful”. 

WORST

TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Violin

MusicAeterna / Teodor Currentzis

Sony Classical 88875165122

Has there been an uglier recording of Tchaikovsky’s popular Violin Concerto than this travesty? Moldovan-Austrian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja adopts a preening demeanour, deliberate extremes of dynamics, slashing and percussive bowing, and capped by a dry vitriolic tone that makes for irritating repeated listening. Simply perverse.