THE PIANOMANIA AWARDS 2013: Best CDs of The Year

The Straits Times is not having its yearly round-up of Best Classical Concerts and Best Classical CDs for 2013, so I have taken upon myself to create The Pianomania Awards to identify the best of the best in a good year for classical music in Singapore.

Here are my three Best Classical Recordings of the year 2013, with an obviously and unashamedly Singaporean bias:

ELGAR Violin Concerto

GABRIEL NG, Violin

Orchestra of the Music Makers / Chan Tze Law

OMM Live! / *****

In 1932, Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) conducted and recorded for His Master’s Voice his Violin Concerto in B minor, now considered one of the great recordings of the last century. The soloist was the 16-year-old prodigy Yehudi Menuhin, on his way to becoming one of violin’s immortals. In 2011, 16-year-old Singaporean Gabriel Ng, a student of the Menuhin School, repeated the feat in a concert performance that has been captured in this recording. While it is pointless to compare note-for-note the merits of the two, Ng more than holds his own in a crowded field.

What is astonishing is not just the instrumental achievement, but the sensitivity, sheer warmth and depth of expression he brings to this sprawling work. Just listen to his entry in the 1^st movement, or the hush of the accompanied cadenza in the finale. Playing at 47 minutes, he is only slightly faster than Menuhin’s 50 minutes. All the superlatives showered on Menuhin at the time also firmly apply to Ng. Other points of spiritual connection: conductor Chan Tze Law, a committed Elgarian, was a student of Hugh Bean, who in turn was taught by Albert Sammons, the first violinist to record this concerto. The splendid Orchestra of the Music Makers which plays like professionals is, of course, named after Elgar’s choral masterpiece The Music Makers. This is a candidate for Record of the Year, without a doubt.

ROAD MOVIES

KAM NING, Violin

ALBERT TIU, Piano

Meridien 84619 / *****

The music of America in the 20^th century was distinguished by a plethora of styles, including serialism, minimalism and a movement that advocated a return to tonality by assimilating and re-adapting popular idioms. It is the latter two that are explored in this highly accessible anthology of Americana. John Adams’s Road Movies is the highlight, the outer two movements – Relaxed Groove and 40% Swing - depart from the mind-numbing repetitiveness of pioneer minimalists, instead delighting in its expert dovetailing of rhythmic precision and melodic interest. The Violin Sonata of John Corigliano (who composed the score of The Red Violin) is more traditional; its four movements retracing the well-worn path treaded by American icons Copland and Barber.

On the subject of film music, Charlie Chaplin’s Smile from Modern Times gets a sensuous and slicked-up treatment. John Novacek’s Four Rags are highly enjoyable, an update on Scott Joplin’s ragtime fantasies and equal to William Bolcom’s sophisticated classics. Both violinist Kam Ning and pianist Albert Tiu, with studies in America well behind them, closely identify with these works, bringing a stunning panache, infectious elan and zeal. Kam Ning’s own country-inspired solo improvisation of the church hall favourite Amazing Grace, both soulful and exuberant, brings the disc to a brilliant close. A small point in nomenclature: reformed English slave-trader John Newton only wrote the words, the actual composer of the hymn remains unknown. Here is an hour more than well spent.

DVORAK Cello Concerto

BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture

LI-WEI QIN, Cello

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 
LAN SHUI

Decca 889 8529 / *****

Perhaps the greatest performance in Singapore of Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor took place on 10 February 2012 at the Esplanade Concert Hall. This is the live recording from that concert, one that highlights not just the virtuosity of Chinese-Australian cellist Li-Wei Qin but also how well the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by Lan Shui responds as a sympathetic and sensitive accompanist. Very often one is drawn to the quality of the orchestral playing, especially the marvellous woodwind and brass contributions. These rapt moments complement Qin’s gorgeous tone and long-breathed passages on his 1780 J.B.Guadagnini cello. 

A most apt encore was Dvorak’s Silent Woods (known in Czech as Klid), a short but breathtakingly lyrical piece for cello and orchestra transcribed from the suite for piano duet From The Bohemian Forest. Also from the same concert was Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, no mean makeweight that brings together a collection of student songs, closing with the rowdy paean to drink Gaudeamus Igitur. Applause from the concert has been edited out and the audience is remarkably silent, a considerable feat in itself. This disc represents excellence all around.        

Next to Come: Best Classical Concerts of 2013!

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2013)

ELGAR Violin Concerto

GABRIEL NG, Violin

Orchestra of the Music Makers 

Chan Tze Law

OMM Live! / *****

In 1932, Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) conducted and recorded for His Master’s Voice his Violin Concerto in B minor, now considered one of the great recordings of the last century. The soloist was the 16-year-old prodigy Yehudi Menuhin, on his way to becoming one of violin’s immortals. In 2011, 16-year-old Singaporean Gabriel Ng, a student of the Menuhin School, repeated the feat in a concert performance that has been captured in this recording. While it is pointless to compare note-for-note the merits of the two, Ng more than holds his own in a crowded field.

What is astonishing is not just the instrumental achievement, but the sensitivity, sheer warmth and depth of expression he brings to this sprawling work. Just listen to his entry in the 1^st movement, or the hush of the accompanied cadenza in the finale. Playing at 47 minutes, he is only slightly faster than Menuhin’s 50 minutes. All the superlatives showered on Menuhin at the time also firmly apply to Ng. Other points of spiritual connection: conductor Chan Tze Law, a committed Elgarian, was a student of Hugh Bean, who in turn was taught by Albert Sammons, the first violinist to record this concerto. The splendid Orchestra of the Music Makers which plays like professionals is, of course, named after Elgar’s choral masterpiece The Music Makers. This is a candidate for Record of the Year, without a doubt.

GOLDMARK Rustic Wedding Symphony

Symphony No.2

Singapore Symphony / SHUI LAN

BIS 1842 / ****1/2

There was a time when the music of the Austro-Hungarian composer Karl Goldmark (1830-1915) was regularly heard in concert halls. His Violin Concerto was a virtuoso vehicle performed by Nathan Milstein and Itzhak Perlman, and the 45-minute long Rustic Wedding Symphony (1875) in five movements had champions in Leonard Bernstein, André Previn and Sir Thomas Beecham. It was about time a top rank recording reappeared, and here it is, from our very own backyard.  

Quite unusually, it opens with an elaborate set of Variations on a bucolic theme, one that would have garnered high praise had it come from the pen of Brahms or Dvorak (which it resembles). The short Bridal Song and Intermezzo movements are country dances, the kind that appears in Mahlerian symphonies. The best music comes in the 4^th and 5^th movements, the tender In The Garden and a rousing fugal finale which shows that counterpoint could also be lots of fun. The coupling is Goldmark’s less memorable Second Symphony (1887), which   sounds influenced by Brahms; not so shabby at all.

The Singapore Symphony under Music Director Shui Lan give sympathetic and refined performances. But does one remember when the SSO actually performed the Rustic Wedding Symphony in concert? That would be 31 July 2009, during the forgettable first half of a concert totally overshadowed by Li Yundi’s nightmare with the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto. That is memory for you. 

SSO Concert: PRESIDENT'S YOUNG PERFORMERS CONCERT / Review

PRESIDENT’S YOUNG PERFORMERS CONCERT

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (5 July 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 July 2013 with the title "Polished pianist, chic violinist".

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s annual President’s Young Performers Concert at the Esplanade is one platform which Singapore’s talented young musicians dream most about. Curiously, only pianists, violinists and an odd violist have made concerto appearances in front of the President and the First Lady. What happened to exceptional singers, cellists, woodwind and brass players? Do they not exist in our midst?

This year’s roster was again the predictable pianist and violinist tandem, but the two teenagers selected are without question the cream of the crop. Pianist Li Churen, only 17 and a student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, gave a sparkling and totally musical reading of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto in B flat major (Op.19).  This was chronologically the German composer’s earliest concerto, and had a Mozartean lightness which Li exploited to its fullest.

Her crisp articulation and singing lines were a joy to behold, yet she was not afraid to exert herself to bring on contrasting fortes and broadened dynamics. The slow movement oozed a silky elegance while the finale’s Rondo danced with a most playful of spirits. Taking deep and low bows, Li was an epitome of poise and polish.

By way of contrast, violinist Gabriel Ng, just one year older and studying at London’s Guildhall School, was chic and cool personified. He sauntered casually on stage, played with the orchestra’s strings in the tutti, before launching out on his own in the solo of Mozart’s First Violin Concerto. He brought out a warm and welcoming tone, allied with a natural unforced virtuosity that made light of the prodigy composer’s showy flourishes.

The cadenzas of the outer movements were expertly handled, and there was a gentle, almost insouciant lilt in the central slow movement that approximated a graceful slow dance. That Ng put as much care in this slender and early Mozart work as Elgar’s monumental concerto (the recording of his has just been released) showed him to be more than just a prodigy. He is already a true artist.    

The orchestra conducted by newly appointed Associate Conductor Joshua Kangming Tan opened the concert with Berlioz’s Le Corsaire Overture, which highlighted the orchestra’s strings to best effect. The mercurial sheen the section radiated was only matched by the boldness of the brass which raised the temperature close to boiling point.

The major orchestral work that concluded the concert was Hindemith’s cumbersomely titled Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria Von Weber, essentially a concerto for orchestra in four rather easy-on-the-ears movements. Here the simple and rather banal melodies get the “full monty” treatment, being orchestrated and dressed up to the hilt.

There are a number of laugh-out-loud moments, including the chinoiserie of the second movement’s Turandot Scherzo, which culminated with a swinging jazzy fugue based on the pentatonic main theme, and a furious final march which must have given John Williams some ideas about his Star Wars music. Through all this barnstorming bluster, the lovely flute solos by Evgueni Brokmiller in the relative solace of the slow movement resounded like no other. Such wide-ranging contrasts are the essence of great music and art.

HSBC YOUTH EXCELLENCE AWARDS CONCERT 2012 / Review

HSBC YOUTH EXCELLENCE 

AWARD CONCERT 2012

University Cultural Centre

Thursday (30 August 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 September 2012 with the title "Depth of talent".

The HSBC Youth Excellence Award has been around since 2000, and if one scans its roll of honour, it reads like a very impressive young Who’s Who of classical music in Singapore. Every year, a new name is added and one marvels at the depth of talent that exists here.

The annual showcase concert, attended by President and Mrs Tony Tan, opened with performances by two previous recipients. Guitarist Kevin Loh (2010 winner), student at the Menuhin School, showed his mettle in Joaquin Turina’s flamenco dance-inspired Homage to Tarrega.

His keen perception of pulse and rhythm was allied with sensitivity of touch, both of which provided a strong backbone for Astor Piazzolla’s L’Histoire du Tango (History of the Tango), where he was joined by violinist Gabriel Ng (2006 winner). The four-movement suite was an enjoyable chronological treatise of the tango, and the duo blended well, delighting in its tricky counterpoint, and alternating sultry and fiery spirits.

This year’s awardee was unveiled as 10-year-old cellist Aoden Teo Masa Toshi, who had earlier made a very public appearance at this year’s National Day Parade. The smiley and bespectacled lad is the very portrait of confidence and poise. His sense of purpose and enthusiasm makes one want to listen to him, and hold the audience captive he did.

Aoden Teo plays
Saint-Saëns's Allegro Appassionato
with pianist Michelle Seah.

His Prelude from Bach’s Suite No.1 had both clarity and rock steadiness, besides being able to shade the repeated arpeggios with contour and colour. The cantabile line in Saint-Saens’s The Swan was deliciously shaped, and when fireworks were called for, his mastery of the same composer’s Allegro Appassionato was accomplished with breathtaking ease.

Some inexperience showed in the performance with the Orchestra of the Music Makers of Saint-Saens’s First Cello Concerto. Several spots saw intonation go awry, and synchronisation was not always perfect. As only the first movement was played, the music came to an unsatisfying jolting halt. One hopes to hear him in the whole work sometime soon. 

The young orchestra (itself the recipient in 2009) conducted by Chan Tze Law also accompanied Gabriel Ng in the rip-roaring finale of Mozart’s First Violin Concerto. Its own showcase was equally prodigious, first polishing off Walton’s Spitfire Prelude & Fugue with requisite pomp and aplomb. The highlights from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake were also gripping, with the opulence of playing easily overcoming the dry acoustics of the hall.

As an encore, all three young soloists joined the orchestra in Elgar’s rambunctious Wild Bears from The Wand of Youth, with Kevin Loh ditching his guitar for the humble triangle. Clearly everyone on stage was enjoying themselves, and that is what makes these awards well worth the while and outlay.

The most recent HSBC Youth Excellence Award for Music winners (from L): Violinist Gabriel Ng (2006), Guitarist Kevin Loh (2010), Cellist Aoden Teo Masa Toshi (2012) with conductor Chan Tze Law and the Orchestra of Music Makers (2009). 

OMM's next concert: WINDFLOWER: GABRIEL NG PLAYS ELGAR

Don't miss the latest concert by the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) this Friday 17 June 2011, featuring the phenomenal 16-year old violinist Gabriel Ng in Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor. Conducted by Chan Tze Law, OMM will also perform the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition.

Where: Esplanade Concert Hall
When: 7.30 pm, Friday 17 June 2011

Tickets available at SISTIC.

Here is the interview which I did with Maestro Chan Tze Law and Gabriel Ng, published in the April 2011 edition of Singapore Medical Association (SMA) News.

http://news.sma.org.sg/4304/Concert.pdf

HSBC YOUTH EXCELLENCE GALA 2009: Review

HSBC YOUTH EXCELLENCE 

GALA CONCERT

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Chan Tze Law, Conductor
Esplanade Theatre
Tuesday (25 August 2009)

A severely edited version of this review was published by The Straits Times on 27 August 2009.

This year’s recipient of the HSBC Youth Excellence Award for Music was not an individual as in previous years, but an outstanding group of individuals – the barely one-year-old Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM). It was on this very platform accompanying past awardees in concert that the OMM was founded.

Four concerts later, the 90-strong ensemble led by conductor Chan Tze Law had not only found its feet, but has begun to soar. Its depth of repertoire is ambitious, playing works way more advanced than their collective ages suggests, and performing at such a high level as to challenge the professionals. Shostakovich’s Festive Overture appropriately kicked off the concert, and even if the trumpets cracked on the opening fanfare, there was no stopping the outpouring of spirit and exuberance.

Its commitment to local music sealed a sympathetic performance of young award-winning composer Wang Chen Wei’s The Sisters’ Islands (composer pictured left) This enjoyable tone poem featured solos on the guzheng and recorder, while marrying Indonesian-flavoured themes with an orchestration that assimilated influences from Sibelius and Tan Chan Boon.

Two former HSBC laureates, violinists Janell Yeo (15 years old, left above) and Gabriel Ng (14 years old, left below), joined the OMM in showy concertante works. The former lit up the stage in Saint-Saëns’ lilting Havanaise, displaying a sweet ingratiating tone, while the former blazed a brilliant path through the finale of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No.1 almost effortlessly. To prove he was not just all fingers, Ng’s opening phrase and solo in Beethoven’s Romance No.1 in G major (Op.40) was so warm as to melt the iciest of hearts.

Reprising the past week’s Rachmaninov revelry, OMM brought out the heavy artillery in the finale of the Russian romantic’s Second Symphony. Again, it was the precision of execution and sheer passion that impressed. The strings were just gorgeous, treading the fine line between sentimentality and schmaltz, coupled with the winds and brass in top form capped yet another memorable outing.

As a parting gift to the President and First Lady of Singapore, Elgar’s Nimrod from the Enigma Variations brought out the most subtle and noble of crescendos, rising to a glorious high before gently receding. This is virtuosity at its purest, not just efficiently delivering the notes but to sincerely convey what mere words cannot express.

HSBC Youth Excellence Gala: Review

Concert Review:
HSBC Youth Excellence Gala
Victoria Concert Hall
Thursday (28/08/08)

This review first appeared on the pages of The Straits Times on 30 August 2008

Witnessing the birth throes of a new orchestra is one of the most exciting phenomena for music lovers. The Orchestra of the Music Makers, formed by alumni of various youth and school orchestras in Singapore and led by conductor Chan Tze Law, made the best possible start.

The primary function of its debut was to partner three past recipients of the HSBC Youth Excellence Awards, but it had many minutes of its own to bask in the spotlight. An unanimity of purpose distinguished Dvorak’s rousing Carnival Overture which, despite some roughness around the edges, provided the evening with a high-octane start.

First of the teenage stars was soprano Janani Sridhar, a singer possessed with natural poise and disarming stage presence. Her sweet and expressive agile voice carried four arias from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cosi fan Tutte with aplomb.

Combining the virtuous with the coquettish, and a change of evening gowns in between, there was further room to develop a set of lungs and cords that could transcend the orchestra and fill the hall. Her encore, the Laughing Song from Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, sparkled like champagne.

Singapore’s youngest ever student in New York’s Juilliard School, Clare Yeo, was next. Her reading of Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue tended to be on the staid side, despite clarinetist Vincent Goh’s best efforts to sound sexy in his opening solo. There was, however, much thought to shape phrases creatively, and with utmost musicality. The coruscating cadenza was also whipped off with great confidence.

Yehudi Menuhin School resident Gabriel Ng seems like the most natural virtuoso of the trio. His effortless take on the first movement of Paganini’s Violin Concerto No.1 has to be heard to be believed.

Allying close to spotless intonation with a fearless disregard for the work’s myriad technical challenges, his showing was the one to marvel at. His encore, Kreisler’s Recitative And Scherzo, was further assurance of his abilities.

All three joined the orchestra for the closing number, the Mexican Arturo Marquez’s Danzon No.2, recently made famous by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. The instrumental prowess and infectious zeal transmitted by all on stage was much cause to rejoice in.

Who really needs to journey to Venezuela when there resides a world’s local bank of prodigious musical talent on our very doorstep?