BENNETT & DUKE VIOLIN CONCERTOS + TCHAIKOVSKY 4 & 6 / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

BENNETT VIOLIN CONCERTO
AND TCHAIKOVSKY 4
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Friday 13 October 2023
Esplanade Concert Hall

DUKE VIOLIN CONCERTO
AND TCHAIKOVSKY 6
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Friday (27 October 2023)
Esplanade Concert Hall

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 October 2023 with the title "Forgotten works ably revived in recording project". 

 

The latest recording project of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra showcased the revival and Asian premieres of long forgotten violin concertos by two 20^th century American composers better known for their work in popular and stage music. These were showcased in two concerts with British violinist Chloe Hanslip and SSO’s former principal guest conductor Andrew Litton, coupled with two Tchaikovsky symphonies.

 

Robert Russell Bennett (1894 to 1981) is remembered for his orchestrations of Broadway musicals including The Sound of Music and South Pacific. His four-movement Violin Concerto from 1941 straddled between serious and light music. Opening like an outtake from Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, the solo violin’s confident entry was however a show of serious intent.

 

Hanslip’s prowess was amply displayed in a serious old-school cadenza, and exciting perpetual motion later exhibited in the third and fourth movements. The latter possessed the same frenetic energy and pace in the finale of Samuel Barber’s famous violin concerto. The beautiful slow movement, with lush orchestral strings, hinted strongly that this was glorified film music.   

 

The following Friday saw the 1943 Violin Concerto by Vladimir Dukelsky (1903 to 1969), better known by his Americanised alias Vernon Duke. Composer of popular jazz standards like April In Paris and Taking a Chance on Love, his three-movement concerto was a longer work made of sterner stuff. To borrow a metaphor, Duke’s was chalk to Bennett’s cheese.

 

It was hard to discern what key the concerto was in, its dissonant and chromatic idiom defying attempts, but the virtuosity was never in doubt. Hanslip had to dig deep into a long and thorny cadenza midway through the first movement. The second movement was a waltz, but not anything like Strauss. Its mock sentimentality and elusive melody put paid to all pretense, besides it closed with three abrupt and bumpy chords.  

 

The imaginative theme and variations finale echoed modern German composer Paul Hindemith’s astringency, leading one to conclude that composers had be taken seriously if they sounded like neo-Bachian Hindemith or atonal Schoenberg, preferably both. Whose concerto would better stand the test of time, Bennett or Duke? Judging by these performances, the deeper and more substantial Duke would edge the lighter and more entertaining Bennett.     

 

About Tchaikovsky, one would scarcely have encountered a more passionate reading of his Fourth Symphony in F minor. Its opening “Fate” motif was brilliantly nailed by the brass in imperious form, summing up its gripping narrative on a whole. Rachel Walker’s solo oboe stood out in the slow movement while massed pizzicato strings swamped the Scherzo with a wall of sonority. The hell-for-leather ride in the blistering finale made it all the more memorable.

 

 

More melodrama came in the Sixth Symphony in B minor, or the Pathetique, one week later. If there were a composer’s suicide letter, this would be it. Unrelieved gloom enveloped its opening, conductor Litton’s vision ensured its grim message was understood by all. The furious fugato of a development was gripping, contrasted by the faux gentility of the second movement’s bittersweet waltz.

 

The Scherzo's relentless march was crafted as the ultimate study in crescendo (that is until Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony almost 50 years later) and a quickening of pace made it even more thrilling. As if to forestall inappropriate premature applause, the finale’s Adagio lamentoso followed without a break, and the composer’s desperate descent into despondancy became complete. Performed by the orchestra with knowing sympathy and requisite pathos, there could be no more gut-wrenching finality to a symphony such as this.  

A review of the 13 October 2023 concert as published on Bachtrack.com:

Robert Russell Bennett’s Violin Concerto revived in Singapore | Bachtrack

ANDREW LITTON AND CHLOE HANSLIP / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

ANDREW LITTON AND CHLOE HANSLIP

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (4 March 2022)

An edited version of this review was first published in Bachtrack on 7 March 2022. 

This is possibly the worst time to celebrate things Russian, so the Singapore Symphony Orchestra discreetly amended the title of its latest concert from “Resonating Russia” to the generic and less incriminating “Andrew Litton and Chloë Hanslip”. This could have been confusing since the concert the week before had the title “Serenades with Andrew Litton and Chloë Hanslip”.

 

Music should never be a pawn of politics or cancel culture but human factors have made this inevitable. Witness the recent dismissals of Russian artists Valery Gergiev and Denis Matsuev, known associates of Vladimir Putin, from all Western concert posts and engagements for not speaking up against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand, other Russian artists like pianists Evgeny Kissin and Alexander Melnikov, and conductor Daniel Raiskin have rightly condemned this atrocity. All power to them.

 

It is no exaggeration to postulate that both Dmitri Shostakovich and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, if they were alive today, would have been staunch opponents of the present Russian regime. Shostakovich had campaigned covertly against Soviet communism and Stalinism in his specially coded music, while Tchaikovsky would scarcely be sympathetic to Putin’s anti-LGBT agenda. So there is no reason to cancel their music in any concert.   

 

Shostakovich’s only Violin Sonata was composed in 1968 as a 60^th birthday gift for David Oistrakh. This orchestral version with strings and percussion from 2005 by Michail Zinman (strings) and Andrei Pushkarev (percussion) almost constitutes a third violin concerto. Dark as the first two concertos (also written for Oistrakh) were, this one was positively painted in pitch black.

 

Soloist Chloë Hanslip, attired in a ruby-red tinselled gown, gave a searing performance as if carved out from blocks of solid granite. Her voluminous and incisive violin tone also weaved in and out of opaque string textures, and the work soon resonated like those Shostakovich chamber symphonies (fashioned from his string quartets by Rudolf Barshai) than an actual violin concerto. The brooding that opened the first movement gave way to a stiff poker-faced dance, but the oppressive mood was just as unyielding all the way till its close.

 

The violent central Allegretto movement was thought to have been Shostakovich’s response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and brutal suppression of Prague Spring. Some things never change whether its 1968 or 2022, and the players responded with the outright vehemence the music deserved. Doing the honours on percussion was principal Jonathan Fox, who had his hands full in this explosive movement. The finale’s Passacaglia will rank as one of Shostakovich’s most morbid movements. Hanslip’s trenchant pizzicatos paved the way for a procession of mourning. There were  moments of lyricism and radiance in her playing, also mirrored in the string accompaniment but these would wind down in a terminal decrescendo. This could only mean one thing: the slow but inexorable road to death.    

 

From the doom and gloom of Shostakovich to the sun-drenched vistas of Tchaikovsky might prove inconceivable to some, but the Singapore Symphony strings led by Andrew Litton shifted gears almost effortlessly. Grey clouds had been dispersed by fulsome string sonorities of Souvenir de Florence, the string sextet now writ big in its string orchestra arrangement. The first movement soared with barely bridled passion, contrasted with the slow movement’s graceful waltz. As if plucked from one of his ballets, the music swelled with significant solo contributions from violist Zhang Manchin, cellist Yu Jing and concertmaster Kong Zhao Hui.

 

The titular Florence had more to do with where Tchaikovsky wrote this music rather than any overt Tuscan influences. The third and fourth movements were Slavic in melodic inspiration, while retaining a Mediterranean glow and warmth. The finale was whipped to a fine frenzy without losing its focus, culminating in a busy fugue, before all forces converging into the most joyous of conclusions. 

On this fascinating coupling of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky, one question however remained: how could a land and people that gave forth music of such wealth of feeling and humanity be so callous and heinous with the lives of fellow human beings?  

 

This review is dedicated to our Ukrainian friends in Singapore, violinist Nikolai (Mykola) Koval (who played in this concert) and pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina, and their families in Kyiv and Kharkhiv. Wishing them strength and courage, and may peace prevail.

 

Star Rating: *****

SERENADES WITH ANDREW LITTON AND CHLOE HANSLIP / UNHEARD / Review

SERENADES WITH

ANDREW LITTON AND CHLOE HANSLIP

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (25 February 2022)

 

UNHEARD: CELEBRATING

SINGAPOREAN FEMALE COMPOSERS

The Arts House

Sunday (27 February 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 March 2022 with the title "Women musicians get chance to shine". 

It is no secret that classical music is male-dominated. Women musicians, especially composers (and conductors), have found it difficult to break this stranglehold. This is beginning to change as more  accomplished women are increasingly being recognised on par with their male counterparts.

 

One of Britain’s most prodigious violinists, former child prodigy Chloe Hanslip, returned to perform Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade for Violin, Strings & Percussion with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in a fundraising concert. Despite the deceptive title, it is a full-blown violin concerto, which received a blistering performance.

 

A petite physical stature was no impediment to Hanslip’s full-bodied and rich tone. With perfect intonation and ample projection, she easily cut through thickets of textures from supporting strings and a battery of percussion. Alternating between austerity and levity, she also revelled in its rhythmic elements, not least in the final movement’s jazzy swagger, bringing on a chorus of cheers. Interestingly, the 2004 Singapore premiere of this work, was given by another woman: Kam Ning.      

 

The balance of the concert led by SSO Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Litton featured two popular and familiar serenades. The elegiac quality of Elgar’s Serenade for Strings was contrasted with a robustness of approach to Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, both revealing more facets to the string section’s virtuosity.

 

Unheard is a concert series founded by soprano Rachel Lim in 2019 to showcase the music of women composers, with seven Singaporean women represented in its latest edition. Their disparate voices showcased varieties of styles from popular film music influences (Sandra Lim’s Morning Memories), impressionism (Wynne Fung’s In A Quiet Grey), both works for violin with Brenda Koh accompanied by piano, and ethnic modes (Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin’s Fantasia Of Home for solo piano), to more modern and avant-garde trends.

 

Art song is a strong suit of local composers, including Koh Cheng Jin’s The Fungus (heard in an audio recording) and Time And Again, sung by soprano Akiko Otao and tenor Jonathan Charles Tay respectively. Food Street and Back Street Barber from Tan Yuting’s Chinatown Song Cycle were realised by Rachel Lim herself in evocative and idiomatic Mandarin. All’s the pity that words and text translations had not been made available.

 

One important aspect of Unheard was the mentorship provided by more senior composers to younger colleagues, with Young Artist Award recipient Emily Koh guiding Lee Jia Yi in the crafting of a new commission. Both composers’ works were performed, opening with Koh’s Chronoma for saxophone, piano and percussion, with Samuel Phua on alto and soprano sax as its leading voice and protagonist.

 

The piece de resistance had to be Lee’s emanate for two pianos, percussion and electronics, receiving its world premiere. It was curious to see pianists Jonathan Shin and Pauline Lee, and percussionists Eugene Toh and Ramu Thiruyanam all gathered around to tinkle and strike the insides of a grand piano. The overall effect ranged from ethereal and mysterious, to jarring and downright disturbing. New music is always fresh and thought-provoking, and local women composers showed they can equal or surpass the best of creative spirits.

Photo credits: Pianomaniac (SSO), Jamie Chan (Unheard) 

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.      

SSO Concert: Choo Hoey Returns / Review

CHOO HOEY RETURNS
Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (6 November 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 November 2009.

For devoting 17 years of his career as Music Director of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, it was only appropriate that Choo Hoey be invited back to conduct in its 30th anniversary season. And what leaps and bounds the orchestra he had painstakingly created and nurtured made in the interim.

True to form, Choo delivered yet another Singaporean premiere. Debussy’s Printemps (1887) predated the far more familiar Afternoon Of The Fawn by seven years. The orchestration by Henri Büsser also opened with an atmospheric flute solo, lovingly crafted by Evgueni Brokmiller. This ushered into a luxuriant sound world, straddling between Romantic and impressionist hues, one in which the orchestra was coaxed into a picaresque reading that gently arched from delicacy to ecstasy.

The orchestra then played accommodating partner to young British violinist Chloe Hanslip (left) in Tchaikovsky’s swashbuckling Violin Concerto. Here too much restraint seemed at odds with the diminutive Hanslip’s raging hormones, big tone and outsized gestures. The orchestra trailed in her wake for much of the quicksilver passages as she blazed a fiery path through hell and high water.

Although far from the perfect performance, it had lots of personality and adrenaline, while squeezing every last drop of Romantic excess thought possible. Choo took the supporting role in his stride, after all it was he who introduced the extravagant talents of Lang Lang, Di Wu and Jin Li in their first performances here.

The piece de resistance went to Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony, the sort of work that SSO excelled in its early years, and which showcased the orchestra on its first overseas tour to Scandinavia in 1985. Choo’s view of the work remains untainted by effect for effect’s sake, carving out an honest to goodness reading in which the orchestra responded with warmth and genuine sympathy.

The second movement had every thing going for it. Lush strings, delicate wind solos, concertmaster Alexander Souptel’s lovely cameo, and an insouciant pastoral opening ambling into blustery pathos, all made for an enjoyably scenic ride. The Slavonic dances that ensued and closed the work also had room for sentimentality, before reveling in a faux-pompous climax and ending.

Receiving a chorus of cheers from the audience, Maestro Choo – all of 75 years young – showed there was still much fire in his belly.