CD Review (The Straits Times, October 2019)

DEBUSSY Nocturnes / Printemps etc.
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
LAN SHUI
BIS 2232 / *****

This is the final instalment of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s three-disc survey of orchestral music by Claude Debussy (1862-1918), under the direction of former Music Director Shui Lan. Having recorded major works La Mer and Three Images for Orchestra, this disc concludes with the Three Nocturnes (1897-99), which helped establish the Frenchman as a frontline composer.

Impressionist in thought and colour, Nuages (Clouds) and Fêtes (Festivals) are musical tableaux distinguished by contrasting moods which are vividly evocative. The ennui of grey skies and frenetic pace of human activity are soon effaced by the haunting finale, Sirenes (Sirens), which features wordless women’s voices from the Philharmonic Chamber Choir of Europe  

There are also two concertante works, beginning with Rapsodie (1901-11), showcasing the variegated shadings of superb French saxophonist Claude Delangle, reminding one of the sinuous opening to the famous Prelude to The Afternoon Of The Fawn. The beautiful Two Dances (1904, Danse sacré et Danse profane) are graced by SSO principal harpist Gulnara Mashurova, who brilliantly brings out their alternatingly formal and sensuous faces, backed by just strings.

This interesting album is completed by various lesser-known odds and ends, the Scottish March On A Popular Theme (1890), Berceuse Heroique (1914), which quotes La Brabançonne, the Belgian national anthem, and the early Printemps (1887, orchestrated by Henri Busser), a reminder of the French Belle Epoque. SSO is served with spectacular sound, and the ecologically friendly packaging (with no plastic) does its part to save the planet. 

With this review, I conclude my fortnitely/weekly column of CD reviews for The Straits Times which began 22 years ago in 1997. There have been a total of 1186 CD reviews in total since the very first one (Paul McCartney's Standing Stone on EMI Classics). 

I thank The Straits Times for their faith in me, and indulging me in my musical whims and pianomaniac fancies. 

SAX & SEXTET / VCH Chamber Series / Review

SAX AND SEXTET

VCH Chamber Series

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (31 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 November 2015 with the title "SSO scores a hat-trick".

Three Singapore premieres featured in this concert by members of the Singapore Symphony Orchestras and their guests, part of the innovative Victoria Concert Hall Chamber Series. World renowned French classical saxophonist Claude Delangle, in town for recording sessions with the SSO, helmed the first half with two rarely programmed works.

The first is slightly better known, Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff's Hot Sonata (1930) for alto sax and piano. The term “hot” referred to the fever that was sweeping Europe from the New World during the 1920s and 30s, the influence of Afro-American jazz in music that also obsessed composers like Ravel, Poulenc, Milhaud and Martinu. Its four movements thrived on vigorous syncopated rhythms, blues harmonies and any hint of the subversive.

Delangle lapped up its sultry vibes with great relish and animation, especially in the 3^rd movement with wailing portamentos that would not be out of place in the smoky dives of Harlem. Providing accompaniment was pianist Low Shao Suan whose rock-solid timing and mastery of tricky beats enabled him to weave a magical spell through the work's quarter-hour.

More conventional was Adolf Busch's Saxophone Quintet (1925), with Delangle joined by violinists Chan Yoong Han and Cindy Lee, violist Luo Biao and cellist Chan Wei Shing. Think of a clarinet quintet but replace it with the duskily burnished tones of sax, and throw in pages of rich Brahmsian counterpoint spiced with skirting at the edges of tonality.

The result was an adventurous performance which gave much satisfaction, capped by a quirky Theme & Variations movement which alternated between sobriety and whimsicality before closing with long-breathed lyricism and quiet sublimity.

The third was, also the longest, was Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Sextet (1824), composed when he was only 15. It is a virtuoso piano concerto in all but name, with pianist Albert Tiu from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in supreme control. The unusual scoring, with violin (with Chan Yoong Han), two violas (Gu Bing Jie and Marietta Ku), cello (Ng Pei-Sian) and double-bass (Yang Zheng Yi), was for the purpose of domestic Hausmusik, that is to be played by skilled amateurs in polite 19^th century homes.

In reality, only seasoned professionals could pull off the perfomance the audience was treated to today. The balance between strings and piano was excellent, and the inevitable pianistic prestidigitation flowed like pure silk. The slow movement was a seamless “song without words” contrasted by a Beethovenian urgency of the Minuet and Trio.

The exciting finale was pure joy itself, with moments of humour as the dominant piano gave way for the violin to hog the limelight, albeit for few short measures. This is the sort of congeniality that takes place in sparkling chamber music, and no one would begrudge the loud and lengthy applause that greeted its spirited finish. 

Claude Delangle meets with
Singapore's young saxophonists.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2014)

LEGENDARY VAN CLIBURN

Complete Album Collection

Sony Classical 88765407232

(28 CDs + DVD) / *****

Exactly one year ago, the American pianist Van Cliburn (1934-2012) died from metastatic bone cancer. Although he shot to fame by winning 1^st prize at the inaugural Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in 1958, his meteoric concert career lasted all about twenty years before a self-imposed retirement. This handsome box-set encompasses his complete recordings on the RCA Victor label and a documentary DVD. He had a smallish repertoire of mostly Romantic works but nothing was less than whole-hearted and conceived on a grand scale.

The concertos by Tchaikovsky (No.1), Rachmaninov (Nos.2 and 3) and Prokofiev (No.3) give an insight to his lush, all-embracing sound, outsized technique, and are justly celebrated. Also not to be ignored was his magisterial sweep in Edward MacDowell’s underrated Second Piano Concerto. Of the larger solo works, sonatas by Liszt, Chopin, Rachmaninov (No.2), Prokofiev (No.6) and Barber exhibit that passion and largesse that made him a hero. Given his celeb status and popular appeal, the record label offered him the luxury of issuing albums titled My Favourite Encores, Chopin’s Greatest Hits, The World’s Favourite Piano Music and the like, where his mastery of smaller works is particularly delectable. Here was a pianist in a million, one who will be sorely missed.

LA CREATION DU MONDE

CLAUDE DELANGLE, Saxophone

Swedish Wind Ensemble / Christian Lindberg

BIS 1640 / ****1/2

The saxophone is a versatile instrument equally at home with the classics and jazz, a quality exploited by many 20^th century composers. From one of the world’s great classical saxophonists comes this marvellous album of saxophone concertante works. The main work is Frenchman Darius Milhaud’s La Creation Du Monde (The Creation Of The Earth), a short ballet which uses Afro-American themes and rhythms to depict the coming of an African Adam and Eve. Composed in 1923, it was one of the first works, like Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue, to successfully marry jazz and classical idioms.

               

The other major work is American Paul Creston’s Alto Saxophone Concerto (1944), whose eclecticism and tonal allure follows in the manner of Copland, Barber and Bernstein. The saxophone “crosses over” on numerous instances in Roger Boutry’s Divertimento (1963), Anders Emilsson’s Salute The Band (2006, composed for the 100^th anniversary of the Swedish Wind Ensemble), and arrangements of John William’s Catch Me If You Can and Astor Piazzolla’s tango Escualo (Shark). French virtuoso Claude Delangle gets de luxe accompaniment by conducted by no less than the great trombonist Christian Lindberg. A must-listen for wind enthusiasts.

CLAUDE DELANGLE Saxophone Recital / Review

CLAUDE DELANGLE Saxophone Recital
Singapore Saxophone Symposium 2011
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts
Sunday (31 July 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 August with the title "Subdued, spectacular sax".

The saxophone has in recent years garnered a sizeable following in Singapore, evidenced by the increasing number of players in wind ensembles and bands, and the very presence of the Singapore Saxophone Symposium, a festival organised by local composer-conductor and saxophonist Goh Toh Chai.

The stature of this international event was underlined by the appearance of world-renowned French classical saxophonist Claude Delangle, who has previously performed and recorded with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. His recital was a veritable showcase of the instrument’s versatility and range of colours outside of its popular role as a jazz instrument.

Beginning with Debussy’s Rhapsody, the dusky allure from sinuous solo lines resembled those of the Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn, before giving way to a series of whimsical dances. Delangle’s ability to shape and vary the narrative thread was matched by pianist Boris Kraljevich’s sensitivity to the orchestral textures of his part.

Delangle was joined by US-based Singaporean Lin Chien-Kwan in Hindemith’s Concert Piece for two alto saxophones, where the intricate counterpoint meant both duo partners were nigh inseparable. The tonal but astringent idiom was piquant, spiced up by the music’s rhythmic vitality in the outer movements.

More accessible were four Études by Astor Piazzolla, originally written for flute. These were in reality well-disguised tangos in the Argentine’s inimitable languorous and sultry manner. Even in the alternating slow numbers, the beat from Kraljevic’s piano was palpable, with Delangle filling in with runs and arabesques, from subdued to spectacular.

The amicable Frenchman spoke in between pieces, and mused about the multi-cultural influences to be found in the saxophone arrangement of Chen Gang’s popular violin piece Sunshine Over Tashkurgan. Was it Chinese, Mongolian, Caucasian, Middle Eastern, Gypsy or Hungarian, or a smorgasbord of all of these? It’s almost anybody’s guess as his wailing soprano saxophone brought to mind a diversity of ethnic styles and their instruments in one exuberant romp.

Both Delangle and Lin were reunited for Philippe Portejoie’s Paris Bouquet, an enjoyable medley of songs and dances from the Gay Paree of Edith Piaf’s era, bringing the hour-long concert to a heady close. With the Gala Concert featuring more local and foreign talent that followed, the classical saxophone never had it so good here.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2009)

SIMPLY MAHLER
SimplyCD-053 (4CDs)

Rating ****

Despite the cheap appearance of this super-budget boxset, do not turn your nose up at it. The three most accessible of Gustav Mahler’s nine symphonies make for a worthy “Mahler for Beginners” primer. Start off with the First Symphony, also known as the “Titan” with its rustic country dance and Klezmer-styled funeral march. Then enjoy the lightness of the Fourth Symphony, his shortest and least bombastic score, capped with a child’s angelic vision of heaven. The journey from death to life in the Fifth Symphony includes the famous Adagietto, ethereally scored for strings and harp.

The performances by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Eliahu Inbal are far more than serviceable. The fourth disc houses Mahler’s Songs of the Wayfarer and Des Knaben Wunderhorn, German lieder filled with hope, sorrow and fantastical imagery, which are closely linked with these symphonies. No texts or translations have been included but there are brief and helpful biographical notes for the neophyte. Priced at under $20, this is Mahler without tears indeed.

THE ESSENTIAL JAMES GALWAY
RCA Red Seal 82876803182
Rating ****

Hands up all those whose first acquaintance of the flute was the silky, golden strains of Irish flautist James Galway. This double CD album is his “Greatest Hits” compilation, filled with popular favourites and some gems. The first CD is completely classical, and the usual suspects are there: Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee, Bach’s Badinerie (from Suite No.2) and Briccialdi’s Carnival of Venice Variations. The only seriously classical piece: French lady composer Cecile Chaminade’s wonderful Flute Concertino. 

Interestingly, the second CD of pops sounds more varied, beginning with James Horner’s Titanic theme My Heart Will Go On, the ubiquitous Annie’s Song by John Denver (one of Galway’s signature tunes), Elton John’s Can You Feel The Love Tonight? (from The Lion King) and closing with Londonderry Air. Sir James is a charmer as always, but if a lot of this sounds like elevator music, blame the hotels and shopping centres but not the performer!

UNDER THE SIGN OF THE SUN
CLAUDE DELANGLE, Saxophone
Singapore Symphony Orchestra / LAN SHUI
BIS CD-1357

Rating ****1/2

The title here refers to the warm Mediterranean influence on 20th century French composers, whose concertante saxophone works within display a joie de vivre illuminated by sun and climate. The two major works are Jacques Ibert’s Chamber Concertino and Henri Tomasi’s Alto Saxophone Concerto, both in 2 movements, straddling the genres of concert music and popular forms such as jazz and movie music. Distinctions are blurred but the quality and craftsmanship of the music shines through. 

Paule Maurice is an obscure woman composer whose 5-movement suite of dances, Tableaux de Provence, is as pastoral as one can get. Ravel’s Pavane for the Dead Infanta and Milhaud’s Brazilian-flavoured Scaramouche are the popular makeweights. French saxophonist Claude Delangle plays with great élan and panache, and there is much to enjoy in this marvellous anthology.