BRAHMS' MOTTO / Musicians' Initiative / Review

 

BRAHMS’ MOTTO 

Musicians’ Initiative 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Thursday (27 February 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 March 2025 with the title "Musicians' Initiative proves small is big in Brahms' Symphony No.3".

Musicians’ Initiative (MI) began life as The Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra (TYMFO), founded by Singaporean conductor Darrell Ang ten years ago. Young local conductor Alvin Arumugam, who also directs the South Asian Symphony Orchestra, took over its reigns in 2017 and has distinguished its concerts with a curatorial approach to programming. 

Alvin is a very engaging host.

Works are selected for their synergistic qualities, and special effort is made to demystify classical music by down-to-earth and jargon-free preambles with performed examples. Presently based in the United Kingdom, Arumugam’s last concert with MI in December 2024 showcased a convincing and idiomatic performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the School of the Arts. 

Performing Romantic orchestral repertoire in the small confines of Esplanade Recital Studio is a challenge necessitating the use of chamber-sized forces, and that informed MI’s approach. Those accustomed to the big sound heard in more capacious venues (such as Esplanade Concert Hall) would be pleasantly surprised by what forty-odd musicians can do under such circumstances. 

The tuttis in Antonin Dvorak’s Violin Concerto in A minor (Op.53) could have been plethoric and nastily over-reverberant but that was largely avoided under Arumugam’s direction. Instead, the orchestra ably supported Japanese violinist Sayuri Kuru, second violinist in the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, for her impassioned solo. 

She possesses a voluminous tone and healthy vibrato which was ideal for this melodious concerto. The opening movement bristled with palpable tension, contrasted with the central slow movement’s lyricism where sweetness ruled. All the stops were pulled in the folk-inspired finale, where her virtuosity was greeted with the rightful plaudits. 

In his illustrated talk, Arumugam waxed lyrical on the conception of Johannes Brahms’ Third Symphony in F major (Op.90), defined by its opening motto theme F-A flat-F, representing the German words “frei aber froh”, or “free but happy”. He also touched on the friendships which the German composer had with his younger Czech colleague Dvorak, the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim and Robert Schumann’s widow Clara. 

Such discourse helped remove the barriers between composed music, performers and the listening public, making for a more illuminating listen. What he omitted to mention was how the first movement’s theme was also derived from a passage from Schumann’s First Symphony. What had sounded retiring was now transformed into something empowering. 

The smallish orchestral forces employed by MI also had a precedent, in the Meiningen court orchestra which had premiered Brahms’ Fourth Symphony under his direction. “Small is big” distinguished this performance, which lacked nothing in grandeur and stature. The opening possessed heft and the development section readily brewed into a titanic struggle. 

Even better was to come in the slow movement, where its often overlooked dissonances were teased out, and has there been a more moving melody than the third movement’s Poco Allegretto? This performance pivoted around this emotional heart and never looked back. All four movements end quietly, making this Brahms’ least performed symphony, but also his most sublime.

DON'T MISS THESE CONCERTS: BRAHMS 125 with ARNALDO COHEN and FRIENDS

DON’T MISS THESE CONCERTS: 

BRAHMS 125

24-27 March 2022 @ SOTA

 

This year marks the 125^th anniversary of the death of great German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). To commemorate this momentous occasion, two pairs of concerts celebrate the musical genius of Brahms by his showcasing his chamber music and a piano concerto. World-renowned Brazilian piano virtuoso Arnaldo Cohen is partnered by cellist Qin Li-Wei, T’ang Quartet and Orchestra of the Music Makers directed by Lien Boon Hua.

 

Arnaldo Cohen has been described by Lord Yehudi Menuhin as “one of the greatest musicians I have ever heard”. He is best known as an interpreter extraordinaire of the music of Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. These concerts mark his chamber music debut performances in Singapore, having previously moved audiences at the Singapore International Piano Festival and performing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.  

 

The programmes are as follows:

 

Thursday (24 March 2022)

Friday (25 March 2022)

 

BRAHMS Piano Quintet in F minor, Op.34

BRAHMS Cello Sonata No.2 in F major, Op.99

Arnaldo Cohen, Piano

T’ang Quartet

Qin Li-Wei, Cello

 

Saturday (26 March 2022)

Sunday (27 March 2022)

 

MENDELSSOHN Symphony No.3 in A minor, Op.56 “Scottish”

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor, Op.15

Arnaldo Cohen, Piano

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Lien Boon Hua, Conductor

 

All concerts at 7.30 pm, SOTA Concert Hall

 

Tickets available at SISTIC:

Brahms 125 with Arnaldo Cohen | SISTIC 

 

  

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2017)

BRAHMS Symphonies Nos.3 & 4

NDR Elbphilharmonie 

Thomas Hengelbrock (Conductor)

Sony Classical  88985405082  / ****1/2

FOR THE LOVE OF BRAHMS

Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis & Jeremy Denk

Academy of St Martin In The Fields

Sony Classical  88985321792 / *****

Hamburg's iconic new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie, opened its doors in January after a seven year delay and costing 500 million Euros over the initial budget. The first recording made in the hall by its resident orchestra the NDR Elbphilharmonie features the Third and Fourth Symphonies of Johannes Brahms, Hamburg's most famous native composer. 

The Fourth is heard first, and includes a four-bar introduction before the actual 1^st movement begins. This was Brahms' original idea before eventually dropping it, so the listener gets to hear a “new beginning”, thus symbolic of this new recording in a new venue. The recorded sound for both symphonies is excellent. 

The new recording of Brahms' Double Concerto in A minor from violinist Joshua Bell and cellist Steven Isserlis also stands out for its warmth, and closeness of communication between the two soloists and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. 

The fillers are also very apt. First is the slow movement from Schumann's late Violin Concerto in D minor, essentially a violin and cello duo, with Benjamin Britten's edition of its closing. 

Next is the original 1854 version of Brahms' Piano Trio No.1 in B major Op.8, which is longer and substantially different from the more familiar revised version heard in concert halls today. The duo joined by American pianist Jeremy Denk makes the strongest possible case for this rarity. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, May 2015)

BRAHMS Works for Solo Piano Vols.2 & 3

BARRY DOUGLAS, Piano

Chandos 10757 & 10833 / ****1/2

The renowned Irish pianist Barry Douglas' survey of the complete solo piano music of Johannes Brahms continues with the schema of short pieces juxtaposed with a major work. The German composer's three piano sonatas are large-scaled early works, wrought from a hot-headed and less than subtle barnstorming young Turk, who was still under the thrall of Beethoven. His Second Sonata in F sharp minor (Op.2), the main work of Volume 3, suffers from a surfeit of rhetoric with themes that do not seem to build to any sustained statement. Much better is the Third Sonata in F minor (Op.5), which concludes Volume 2, where thematic unity within its five movements makes up for its sprawling 37 minutes.

The shorter pieces which open both discs are judiciously chosen and well sequenced. Volume 2 contains three Ballades (from Op.10 and Op.118), which are totally varied in mood and style. Volume 3 opens with 16 Waltzes (Op.39), performed with elegance belying their humble length and origin. This is followed by the underrated and rarely heard Theme And Variations in D minor, a masterly transcription of the second movement from Brahms' String Sextet No.1. Both also contain a selection of Intermezzos, the preferred description of his later pieces, which are true gems. Douglas is a most persuasive interpreter, a true Brahmsian who will not disappoint.

MONIUSZKO Overtures

Warsaw Philharmonic / ANTONI WIT

Naxos 8.572716 / ****1/2

Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-1892) has been regarded as the most prominent Polish composer between  Frederic Chopin and Karol Szymanowski. Like his famous compatriots, his music was also strongly nationalistic, as Poland valiantly fought off political and military advances of neighbouring Russia. Moniuszko was best known for his stage works, including operas and operettas, from which this all-orchestral selection draws. This well-filled disc however opens with Bajka (The Fairy Tale), composed in 1848, a stand-alone fantasy that unfolds dramatically like a Liszt symphonic poem or Dvorak overture.

Among the operatic overtures, there are some memorable melodies in Halka (1848, by far his best known opera), Paria (1869, considered a flop because the music was considered “not Indian enough”), The  Raftsman (1858) and The Countess (1859), which are substantial works. Much of the music in overtures like Verbum Mobile (1860), Jawnuta (1860), The New Don Quixote (1841) and The Hetman's Mistress (1854) is light and bubbly, in the manner of Suppe, Offenbach and Smetana, who were Moniuszko's close contemporaries. The Grammy Award winning team of the Warsaw Philharmonic and Antoni Wit give lively and ebullient performances that are unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2015)

BRAHMS 101

Decca & CD-Rama 4785609 (6 CDs) / ****

How does one fit 101 tracks of German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) onto 6 discs? By using the pop music’s one-song-one-track model, which means all the Hungarian Dances (played by Ivan Fischer’s excellent Budapest Festival Orchestra with some traditional Magyar instruments in the mix) constitute 21 tracks and Variations on a Theme by Haydn (The Concertgebouw with Bernard Haitink) is split into 10 tracks. The same applies to the Liebeslieder Waltzes, which account for 18 tracks, but in the enchanting company of John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir with pianists Robert Levin and John Perry. The performances here are superb.

All four of Brahms’s symphonies get solid performances from the Vienna Symphony led by Wolfgang Sawallisch, recordings which date from the early 1960s. Great Belgian violinist Arthur Grumiaux also gets a look in with his classic performances of the Violin Concerto and Violin Sonata No.3 (Op.108). The single recital of piano music (Two Rhapsodies Op.79, late pieces Op.117, 118 and 119) from the legendary Romanian Radu Lupu is indispensible, easily the pick of the crop. The sublime Alto Rhapsody and choral music led by Herbert Blomstedt fill up the balance of the final disc. This well-compiled collection is most probably aimed at beginners, so why was basic programme notes on the composer’s life and legacy not included? A valuable opportunity in music education had been spurned!

SOL3 MIO

Decca 4811350 / ****

Was not the world waiting for coming of The Three Samoan Tenors? If truth be told, brother tenors Pene and Amitai Pati and their baritone cousin Moses Mackay, all residents of New Zealand, make a quite decent trio. After spending a small fortune having lessons with legendary tenor Dennis O’Neill in Wales, they had better be good. In this debut album, there are two versions of Ernesto di Capua’s O Sole Mio (their signature tune, accompanied by guitars and orchestra), which thankfully avoid the contrived vibes of the original Three Tenors. For one, they blend better and secondly, they have a more natural feel to the popular songs.

Whether it is Amanda McBroom’s The Rose, Paul Anka’s My Way, Gordon Mills’s Ten Guitars or Ennio Morricone’s Nella Fantasia, they avoid sounding strained or grating. In songs from musicals, Maria (West Side Story), Bring Him Home (Les Miserables), or hymns like Amazing Grace, O Holy Night and Silent Night, a touching sincerity is evident. The most rousing tracks: Jerome Grey’s We Are Samoa and World In Union, the rugby World Cup anthem based on Holst’s Jupiter. No doubt they have been properly tutored and primed for Bizet’s Pearl Fishers Duet and Puccini’s Nessun Dorma (Turandot), so they do not sound embarrassed alongside established opera singers. In short, this is an encouraging start and more is to be expected. 

BRAHMS: THE VIOLIN SONATAS / Lee Shi Mei & Lim Yan / Review

BRAHMS: THE VIOLIN SONATAS

Lee Shi Mei, Violin

Lim Yan, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (3 January 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 January 2015 with the title "Brilliant Brahms to kick off the new year".

Lovers of violin music could not have gotten a better start to the new year. The first two chamber concerts of January are violin and piano recitals, soon to be followed by the Singapore International Violin Competition within a week. Lee Shi Mei, 2^nd prize winner of the 2007 National Violin Competition (Artist Category), opened accounts with an ambitious recital of all three violin sonatas of Johannes Brahms with pianist Lim Yan.

These are relatively mature works by the German, which are closely linked with his Lieder. Lee gave short preambles to each of the sonatas, and followed up with performances that highlighted their innate lyricism. The duo began with the Second Sonata in A major (Op.100), arguably the lightest in the trilogy.

Her consistently singing tone was a delight, and this was maintained throughout the entire concert. Clearly she understood the phrasing of its seamless lines, and was in a close and attentive partnership with Lim, whose piano part was denser but perfectly balanced in ensemble.

Alternating between pensiveness and playful asides in the slow movement, and confidently striding in the finale’s broad melody, they gave the performance the emotional depth the work demanded. This continued into the meatier First Sonata in G major (Op.78), which scaled further heights of passion and expression.

Lee explained how she felt closer to this sonata, and the playing showed. There is a tautness in its use of themes, united by a “Rain motif” (also derived from a Brahms’ song), a nervous little motif in dotted rhythm which recurs in the work. These moments were keenly brought out, culminating in the smouldering intensity of its finale which came to a surprisingly quiet but sublime close.

The shorter second half comprised the Third Sonata in D minor (Op.108) which was darker in mood, but never lacked rays of sunshine which characterised Brahms’ autumnal output. The radiant glow generated in the slow movement was a case in point, such was the warmth and nobility of the playing, contrasted with the spectral flitting rhythms of the mysterious third movement.

All stops were pulled for the dramatic and fiery fourth movement, where violinist and pianists vied neck and neck as first among equals. The chemistry was close to perfect as the cycle reached its red-hot conclusion. Two encores came in Brahms’ Scherzo in C minor, from his impetuous youth, and the lied Wie Melodien Zieht Es (Like Melodies It Moves), which was quoted in the Second Sonata.

Totally unplanned was a third encore, when pianist Lim improvised the Happy Birthday song from the opening bars of Brahms’ Op.100 as an impromptu gift to Lee. One hopes that this duo’s survey of the three Schumann violin sonatas would not be too far away.

Photographs by the kind permission of Lee Shi Mei & Lim Yan.

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP / Tang Tee Khoon & Friends / Review

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP

Tang Tee Khoon (Violin) and Friends

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (24 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 September 2014 with the title "Chamber music treat from virtuosos".

Local musicians are the mainstay in Singapore’s active chamber music scene, but once in a while, it is good to have foreign musicians inject variety and diversity to the list of usual suspects. Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon, presently based in London, has forged successful partnerships with British musicians and their performances here have never been less than sterling.

Her latest collaboration, with pianist Sam Haywood and cellist Matthew Huber, focused on the close interwoven lives of Felix Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, and the young Johannes Brahms. Here was a meeting of the giants of musical Romanticism, which got the requisite response from a trio of young virtuosos they deserved.

The moment Huber’s 1685 Francesco Ruggieri cello sang the opening phrase in Schumann’s Three Fantasies Op.73, one knew it was going to be a musical treat. His use of gut strings ensured a mellowness of timbre that was simply gorgeous, and his singing tone rode through the music’s melting lyricism with rapturous fervour.

Haywood’s control of pedalling on the Steinway grand was close to perfection in the sometimes over-reverberant acoustics of the Recital Studio, and he blended ideally with both Huber and Tang, who performed Clara Schumann’s Three Romances Op.22. Her 1750 J.B. Guadagnini, on loan from the National Arts Council, shone prettily in the tender moments of these rarely-performed miniatures.

How Clara Schumann was able to maintain a semblance of hope and optimism in 1855, when her beloved husband was dying a slow death in an asylum for the insane, was testimony to her fortitude and dignity. Her spirit was buoyed by the presence of Brahms, who remained a close confidante till their deaths in the 1890s. All this was detailed in the helpful programme notes that accompanied the evening’s marvellous programme.

The main works on show were two of the greatest piano trios of the classical canon. Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No.1 in D minor is regularly played here, but rarely does one find a performance that radiated such warmth and true feeling as this evening’s outing. The overall balance was excellent, with both stringed instruments raising their stakes to meet the piano’s multitudes of notes.

The Scherzo flew on fairy-wings, and there was an audible gasp of delight from the audience as the music simply evaporated into the ether. The ardency and passion on display carried the outer movements which stormed and stressed, but there was never a moment of impetuousness or misplaced power.

Brahms’s Piano Trio No.1 in B major, in its revised version, provided even greater scope for expression and an emotional outlet. The broad opening melody, one of his most memorable, received a grandstanding treatment, contrasted with the Hungarian-inflected Scherzo, the slow movement’s longeuers and the finale’s breathless rush to the finish post. Performances like these leave listeners craving for more, and Tang with her friends will return in May next year with the late works of Franz Schubert, which should be an exciting prospect.        

Photographs by the kind permission of Tang Tee Khoon and Friends.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2014)

BRAHMS Complete Piano Music

Deutsche Grammophon 479 1965 (9CDs) 

****

Despite its title, this is not quite the whole hog. Only German composer Johannes Brahms’s major solo piano works have been included, as well as the better known pieces for piano four hands. Pride of place however go to the reissue of Wilhelm Kempff’s vintage 1950s to 70s recordings of the 20 late pieces (Op.116 to 119), the monumental Third Sonata in F minor (Op.5) and Four Ballades (Op.10). These masterly readings have worn well despite their age. A young and totally musical Daniel Barenboim offers three sets of variations (after Handel, Schumann and the Sextet Op.18), as does the more virtuoso-inclined Tamas Vasary, whose take on the Paganini Variations and the short Op.76 pieces are breathtaking.  

There is fair barnstorming in the First and Second Sonatas from Anatol Ugorsky, who also plays Brahms’s left hand transcription of Bach’s famous Chaconne, originally for violin. The four hands works, including the F minor Sonata (after the Piano Quintet), Haydn Variations and 21 Hungarian Dances, from Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky sound staid by comparison. As a bonus, the ninth disc houses Brahms’s Chorale Preludes and Preludes & Fugues for organ, performed by Peter Planyavsky. Here is an inexpensive way to discover the length and breadth of this very interesting repertoire.

MEDTNER Violin Sonatas Nos.1 & 3

CHLOE HANSLIP, Violin

IGOR TCHETUEV, Piano

Hyperion 67963 / *****

The violin sonatas of Russian composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) are even more obscure than his piano sonatas, but this should not be so given their quality and accessibility. His style has been likened to that of Brahms and Beethoven, but an air of Slavic wistfulness and melancholy hangs about his musings. First listen to the delightful First Sonata in B minor (1910), a slender and graceful work capped by two dance movements, a lilting Danza followed by a more animated Ditirambo, an ode to Dionysius.

The Third Sonata in E minor (1938) is dubbed Sonata Epica for good reason. Its four movements play for 47 minutes, surpassing even Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata for breadth and scope. Medtner’s retiring nature prevents him from wearing heart-on-sleeve like his friend Rachmaninov, and the music ambles along with much purpose and meticulous craftsmanship without descending into heart-wrenching pathos. British violinist Chloe Hanslip and Ukrainian pianist Igor Tchetuev distinguish both works with beauty of tone and an understated virtuosity. Try it and fall in love.      

RENAUD CAPUÇON IN RECITAL / Review

RENAUD CAPUÇON IN RECITAL

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

Tuesday (1 October 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 October 2013 with the title "When students play with masters".

The strong relationship that exists between the national conservatory and symphony orchestra has meant that world class soloists who guest with the SSO also get a chance to perform chamber music with faculty members and students in a spirit of collegial camaraderie. This was never so apparent than in the case of French violinist Renaud Capuçon, who last performed at this venue the ten violin sonatas of Beethoven in 2011.

On this evening, the focus was on Johannes Brahms, whose chamber music is among the most sublime known to mankind. The recital opened with the First Violin Sonata in G major (Op.78), with pianist Bernard Lanskey (also the Conservatory Head) as equal partner. One was immediately struck by the close cooperation between the two. Capuçon’s sweet and even tome projected well across the hall but never overwhelmed, while Lanskey’s accompanying figurations blended well like hand and glove.

This is not overtly showy music, but the virtuosity was in maintaining close to perfect balance. While an air of quiet nostalgia hung over the entire work, the degree displayed in each of the three movements was well differentiated and vividly brought out. There was sobriety in the slow movement, but the emotional release in the finale, inspired by Brahms’s song Regenlied (Song of Tears), was not one of outward joyousness, but subdued exultation.    

After the interval, Capuçon was joined by faculty Zhang Manchin (viola), Ng Pei Sian (cello) and three students for the First String Sextet in B flat major (Op.18). The performance of chamber music is the perfect embodiment of democratic ideals, of people overcoming differences and working together towards a common goal.

What a pleasure and privilege it must have been for young violinist Shi Xiaoxuan, violist Wang Yangzi and cellist Lee Min Jin, selected to play alongside their teachers and one of the world’s great string players. Any hint of nerves or being overawed was immediately dispelled as all six players resounded in one accord from first to last.

The beginning of the opening two movements saw violist Zhang as de facto leader, cueing the low strings in the mellow but powerful musical statements that defined this sprawling 40-minute work. The intensity achieved in the second movement’s well-known Theme & Variations was admirable, balanced by the staccato lightness and humour of the short Scherzo.

The final Rondo was not of the rollicking kind usually associated with Brahms, but one of fleet and flowing lyricism, with sunshine inexorably emerging through thickets of clouds. Passion and high spirits rode the crest to its conclusion, and the vociferous applause by the sizeable audience was rewarded by a welcome reprise of the delightful Scherzo.       

    

SSO Concert: BRAHMS DOUBLED / Review

BRAHMS DOUBLED

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (1 March 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 March 2013 with the title "A perfect love match".

Concerts of all-German music are nothing unusual, but this one conducted by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu was of music that cast a backward glance to musical traditions of the past.

The 20^th century German composer Paul Hindemith should no longer strike fear in the hearts of concert-goers, as his primary preoccupation was to emulate J.S.Bach. Thus his ballet suite Nobilissma Visione, inspired by the life of Francis of Assisi, had a ring of the familiar despite its mild dissonances.

Mellow strings, always a pride of the orchestra, shaded the Introduction with a lustrous patina. The mock-military March with Roberto Alvarez’s perky piccolo soon culminated in a busy fugue, while there was no disguising the passacaglia form in the striding finale which brought the work to a satisfying close.

Johannes Brahms was innovative in using the passacaglia to conclude his Fourth Symphony, but the Third Symphony in F major heard this evening was a little more traditional. His model was Beethoven, but with less angst and more objectivity.

There are reasons why this symphony is less popular than his other three. It is his least emotionally-wrought utterance, has two slow movements played in succession, and ends on a quiet note with a retiring variation of the virile opening theme.

Kamu refused to overplay its qualities, instead coaxing his forces to stay close to the middle of the road. The final outcome, while not boring its listeners, was one of overall safety. There were moments, however, in the central slow movements that genuinely touched.

The highlight of the evening was the performance of Brahms’s Double Concerto for violin and cello, featuring two SSO musicians. Violinist and Co-Leader Lynnette Seah is the orchestra’s longest serving player (since 1978), while cellist Ng Pei Sian is the orchestra’s youngest ever principal (born 1984). Age and experience were not an issue, as they blended beautifully together.

After the emphatic opening orchestral tutti, Ng’s big solo, weighty but delicately poised and possessed with a freedom as if improvised, set the tone. Despite awry intonation from French horns attempting to crash the party, Seah’s sweet-toned violin rose to meet the challenge. It was not so much a gauntlet, but a love-match.

Their interplay was delightful throughout, with neither seeking to outdo each other. In the slow movement, the even unison of its hymn-like melody was so wondrously weaved as to be nigh inseparable. It was left to the Hungarian-flavoured Rondo finale for both to bring out the fireworks. Their two encores together – Londonderry Air and Faure’s Pavane – were a testament to the art of listening to each other. That was just the perfect send-off.  

          

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2012)

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.1

MAURIZIO POLLINI, Piano

Staatskapelle Dresden / Christian Thielemann

Deutsche Grammophon 477 9882 / *****

The First Piano Concerto of Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was the German composer’s first major symphonic work. From a young virtuoso pianist who seemed to model himself after Beethoven, the concerto mirrored his three early piano sonatas in harnessing raw power and strength, revelling in outsized gestures like heavy octaves and chords. 

Its portent of tragedy and high drama continues from the passion of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, the form of which it builds upon. The suicide attempt of mentor Robert Schumann and tender feelings towards his wife Clara also colour the 45-minute masterpiece that opens in a tumultuous maelstrom, professes reverence and love, before closing in a blaze of triumph.

For these earth-shaking emotional shifts, legendary Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini dusts off accusations of being dispassionate or anti-Romantic in the manner he launches fearlessly into its bristling pages. As expected, his impeccable technique more than holds up to the lofty demands, but more importantly this performance vividly captures the music’s turbulence and inner strife. 

The orchestra, providing more than just support, is integral to Brahms’s symphonic thoughts and ideals. In a way, this was his first “symphony”, with the piano playing its chief protagonist. Pollini’s new account, recorded live in 2011, is possibly the best of his three recordings for the Yellow Label.        

SOUNDS OF THE 30S

Gewandhausorchester / Riccardo Chailly

Decca 476 4832 / ****1/2

The period between the two World Wars saw a love affair blossom between the classical composers of the Old World and the groovy new movement called jazz from the New World. This interesting album is the fruit of that successful cross-cultural exchange, beginning with Maurice Ravel’s iconic Piano Concerto in G major. 

This is a fully written out score with no possibility of improvisation, but the liberal use of the blues, syncopation, driving beats and rhythms, decked with exotic orchestration that makes it sound jazzy. Italian jazzman Stefano Bollani gives an idiomatic but somewhat soft focus reading that makes one pay more attention to the excellent woodwind and brass players of the Gewandhaus Orchestra instead.

His solo contributions of Stravinsky’s Tango, with far more swing than most classical pianists, and laid back transcriptions of Kurt Weill’s Surabaya Johnny (Happy End) and Tango Ballad (Threepenny Opera) are a plus. 

The chief reason to acquire this disc is the ballet Mille e una Notte (A Thousand and One Nights) by Italian conductor-composer Victor de Sabata (1892-1967). Imagine Puccini in Hollywood for a breezy 28 minutes, with dance sequences leading up to a finale that owes much to Gershwin’s hit song Fascinatin’ Rhythm but dressed in the opulent colours of Respighi. Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly and his German charges make it sound like a masterpiece.

200 YEARS OF THE PIANO / An Interview with Kenneth Hamilton

200 YEARS OF THE PIANO
Piano Recitals by Kenneth Hamilton
31 March & 2 April 2012 / 7.30 pm

Esplanade Recital Studio

Singapore welcomes back the Scottish virtuoso Kenneth Hamilton, who has over the years presented some of the most interesting and intriguing piano recitals to my knowledge. Not only is his breadth and depth of the piano repertoire astounding, as he is a scholar with the most inquisitive of minds, it is his breath-taking delivery and the inimitable wit which have made his recitals memorable and treasured events. For the first time, he performs over two evenings.

The full programme is available here:

http://www.sistic.com.sg/stix/images/internetcontent/piano0412/doc/200yrs.pdf

As generous as always, Kenneth Hamilton avails himself to yet another exclusive Pianomania interview.

200 years of piano literature encompassed in two recitals. Surely omitting certain works by iconic composers must have been a painful experience. How did you arrive at this final programme?

You are quite right. I simply had to resign myself “with regret” to wholesale omissions. There is no way, after all, that I could have offered an example of everything, even if the recitals had been of a gargantuan, Anton Rubinstein-like length (and that in itself would have been a bad idea—one can have too much even of a good thing). 

So I was basically guided by a few ground-rules: to make sure that the programmes had sufficient variety, while also giving some idea of how writing for the piano had changed over the last two centuries; and only to perform pieces that I myself loved and admired. After all, if the performer isn’t himself enthusiastic about what he is playing, he can hardly expect the audience to be!

We start with Mozart and Beethoven, who were among the first of the great composers to have tried their hands on the pianoforte. Mozart was indifferent to it while Beethoven embraced it with open arms. Do you think that was some turning point in the history and fortunes of the instrument?

Yes, it was a turning point, but motivated more by the development of the instrument itself than anything else. When Mozart grew up, the harpsichord and clavichord were still in general use, and the piano was simply one of a selection of keyboard instruments one could choose to play on. When Beethoven was trained a few decades later, the piano had slowly begun to supplant the other instruments, at least for domestic and concert purposes (let us not forget that Beethoven was also known as an organist in his young days). 

The piano had “won”, if you like, because it was gradually becoming more reliable, more responsive and somewhat louder than before. Of course, it still had a very long way to go. Beethoven was well known for still being unhappy with the state of what he called “a most imperfect instrument”. Still, it was more “perfect” than it had been in Mozart’s day, and that was the turning point. For the first time, the advantages of the piano - sensitivity, a range of dynamics - outweighed the disadvantages.

You have given more than ample playing time to Charles Alkan (1813-1885), who celebrates his bicentenary next year. Just how important and revolutionary was his contribution to the piano, with respect to Chopin and Liszt?

Alkan was a fascinating pianist and composer. I don’t think, however, that his direct influence on keyboard writing was that great, given that his music tended to be relatively little known (even if it had always attracted a clique of influential fans, like Liszt and Hans von Bülow). His indirect influence, on the other hand, was much greater. That was mediated through Ferruccio Busoni. Many aspects of Busoni’s keyboard style - the spacing of scales and figuration two octaves apart, for example, or the chordal technique - are pretty obviously derived from Alkan. And from Busoni we then derive several important aspects of early 20th-century pianism. Alkan at a distance, as it were.

Liszt's Totentanz was inspired by 

the Dance of Death fresco 

by Francesco Traini.

Tell us a little more about Liszt’s Totentanz, which is better known in its orchestral form. It polarises many listeners because it contains both transcendental and vulgar aspects of Liszt’s pianism. What is your take?

Well, the devil was supposed to be a virtuoso (like Paganini), so it is quite appropriate that a musical “dance of death” should be virtuosic! And the virtuoso writing in Totentanz - the implacable, overwhelming piling up of difficulties - is an essential part of the musical expression. It is, to some extent, the horror-film music of the 19th century. They didn’t actually have horror films, of course, but they had Gothic novels and various other macabre art forms. Totentanz is a musical realisation of this sort of thing. It is, in my view one of Liszt’s very best pieces.

It originally did not have much success. It was obviously too “advanced”, novel and shocking for most people. But then in the early 1880s, when Liszt was an old man, some of his pupils began to revive it (Alexander Siloti was the best known of these) and it suddenly became a huge hit with audiences, much to Liszt’s surprise. “I’ve now had my revenge” he said, “for failures of days gone by!” 

Liszt then revised some sections of the piece, and extended some passages in the version for piano and orchestra. These revisions are still often neglected (simply because many pianists don’t know about them), but I’ve added them into Liszt’s solo transcription of the piece that I’ll be playing in Singapore, so to that extent it will be a “new version”.

As for Brahms, was he a better composer for the piano in his youth with his large-scaled Sonatas and Variations, or as a mature sage with his late miniatures Klavierstücke and Intermezzos?

That’s a very pertinent question, especially as I have just played the F minor Sonata (Op.5) in a few concerts in the UK. The early works have many intriguing features, and promises of greatness to come, but they also exhibit some fairly glaring faults, at least in my view. The piano writing is often uncomfortably thick, verging on the stodgy. And a few of the sonata movements are, quite frankly, too long for their material. The slow movement and Scherzo of the F minor Sonata, for example, work very well indeed. 

The outer movements are nevertheless problematic, albeit still interesting to play and to hear once in a while. It was with the Handel Variations (Op.24) that Brahms completely came into his own. That is an unalloyed masterpiece, and most of the later, shorter pieces are also utterly beautiful, and perfectly proportioned. I feel the same way about the two piano concertos, incidentally. The first has some wonderful ideas, but also some pretty tedious stretches. The second is magnificent throughout.

We know you love playing transcriptions. With respect to Ronald Stevenson, Busoni, Liszt, Brahms and Rachmaninov (whom all appear in the programme), what makes successful transcriptions work?

In a good transcription, the piece is reconceived for the piano, not simply transliterated. With the work of the best transcribers, one might think that the music had been written for the piano from the start. The other side of the coin are these truly dreadful vocal score arrangements of operas and oratorios et cetera, some of which are almost unplayable. And of course, the very finest transcriptions also have a “value added” aspect. They highlight some elements of the piece that are perhaps not so obvious in the original, or shed new light on the work in some other way. 

Both Liszt and Busoni had a quite phenomenal ability to reconceive orchestral, operatic, or organ music in terms of the piano. Ronald Stevenson also has this gift. For instance, his arrangement of Richard Tauber’s My Heart and I is more or less a new composition, but one that retains the passion of the original, and adds a bittersweet, nostalgic tinge to it as well. Truly “value-added” indeed.

There was a time when the piano was a necessity in all households, but this has been replaced successively by the radio, television and now personal computers. Do you think someday that the piano will make a glorious comeback?

No, alas, the real glory-days of the piano are over in that sense. We can’t un-invent the CD player, and all the rest. But in fact, one of the most astonishing things is how popular the piano has remained, notwithstanding all the domestic musical rivals that turned up in the last century. The piano, of course, produces live music - and consequently gives the performer and audience a direct contact that they don’t get in many other media. And whether the player is good or bad, he or she is still instrumental in producing the music, rather than simply being a passive recipient from the radio, CD player, or whatever. 

There is something unusually thrilling about being in the presence of live music and that, I think, is one of the reasons why there are still audiences for piano recitals, and why so many people still learn the piano themselves, even if they have no intention of becoming professional players. All in all, the piano is still holding its own pretty well these days, despite the competition!

Kenneth Hamilton was interview by PianoManiac.