RACHMANINOFF PIANO CONCERTO 2 & SYMPHONY 2 / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

RACHMANINOFF 

PIANO CONCERTO 2

AND SYMPHONY 2

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

12 December 2024 

This review was published on Bachtrack.com on 15 January 2024 with the title "Singapore Symphony and Garrick Ohlsson’s patrician performances distinguish Rachmaninov anniversary".

The year 2023 marked the 150th anniversary of Russian pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninov’s birth, and 80th anniversary of his passing. Other than a single performance of Symphonic Dances last August, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under music director Hans Graf seemed to have deferred a definitive celebration until this month, with performances of the second and third symphonies and piano concertos. This was a case of better late than never. 

Veteran American pianist Garrick Ohlsson helmed the solo part in the Second Piano Concerto in C minor (Op.18). Close to 39 minutes, this had to be one of the most expansive performances encountered. The opening chords tolled lugubriously, and with the orchestra’s entry also concurring, the big melody played as a doleful dirge. As both pianist and orchestra were on the same page, it took some time for the first movement to be set alight. The kindling was Ohlsson’s fastidious and detailed fingerwork, still nimble for his 75 years, and his ability to sonorously project. The piano’s tinny treble abetted on that count, but detracted on the warmth quotient. 

The Adagio sostenuto central movement saw Ohlsson accompany several excellent wind solo, including Evgueni Brokmiller’s flute and Li Xin’s clarinet, the latter bestowed with the plummest of melodies. Weighted down by the cautious pacing, it was a slow boil that threatened to sputter out but thankfully never did, instead rising to a rapturous climax with lush string playing as the final payback. 

The finale’s scherzando aspects were well realised, with any doubt of Ohlsson’s ability to negotiate fast and tricky passages being unequivocally quashed. The big tune at the centre soared but without hint of sentimentality (an accusation regularly levelled at Rachmaninov), and the closing cadenza taken deliberately, capping the arpeggiated salvo with one brilliant rolled chord. That moment summed up this patrician performance, that one’s patience being rewarded with an unexpected but worthy coup de grace. 

Loud and prolonged applause yielded two encores: the first two Waltzes from Chopin’s Op.64, first the C sharp minor lavished with rubato galore and the D flat major (“You have to guess what this is” was his quip) with more surprises up his sleeves. 

The performance of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony in E minor (Op.27) was similarly broad, spanning close to an hour in duration. The first movement’s introduction mirrored the concerto’s lugubriousness, but the Allegro moderato that followed compensated with a lively verve, sufficent indication this was not going to be a geriatric reading. It however skimped on the regular portamenti that coloured performances under previous music director Lan Shui, thus the cloying and more sentimental aspects of the music were all but eschewed. 

The scherzo-like second movement was volatile and exciting, essentially the Dies Irae chant sped up to be almost unrecognisable and with dance-like elements thrown in. The tumultuous central fugato was a reliving of a similar segment from Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique, but Rachmaninov was not to be denied his moment. In the Adagio, the symphony’s throbbing heart, Ma Yue’s clarinet solo was plain-spoken with clarity as its main virtue. Here, the music’s dreamy longeuers were well fleshed out under Graf’s guiding hands, before the rollicking finale’s tarantella rhythm brought the symphony to a clangourous close. 

Star Rating: ****

The original article on Backtrack may be found here:

Patrician performances distinguish Singapore's belated Rachmaninov anniversary nod | Bachtrack

Post-concert pic:

A different illumination on
National Gallery's rotunda wing.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2013)

GRIFFES Piano Music

GARRICK OHLSSON, Piano

Hyperion 67907 / *****

Anyone who attended the wonderful piano recital by Abigail Sin on 5 March would have been intrigued by the Piano Sonata (1917-18) of American composer Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920). It is a relatively short but violent essay in three movements that sounded primeval and exotic, even oriental in character and feel. This was the unusual sound world of an exceptional talent, cut short at the prime of his life by complications of influenza. Like all American composers of his generation, he studied in Europe. His piano music, spanning the last ten years of his life, was influenced by the musical trends of the time.

Listen to his Three Tone Pictures, Fantasy Pieces and Roman Sketches (all composed between 1910 and 1916) and one discerns the harmonic innovations spawned by Wagner and his followers, and the impressionist hues of Debussy and Ravel. The titles are equally evocative; The Lake at Evening, Night Winds, White Peacock and Fountains of Acqua Paola are worthy start points. A Winter Landscape curiously employs the same motif as Leoncavallo’s Vesti la giubba from I Pagliacci, but this is probably a coincidence. The late Three Preludes (1919) are short and aphoristic, sounding like Scriabin and point to the future. Veteran American pianist Garrick Ohlsson is a master colourist, and his persuasive manner makes one feel these works cannot be played in any other way. 

FRANK BRIDGE Orchestral Works

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

RICHARD HICKOX

Chandos 10729 (6 CDs) / *****

This year marks the centenary of Benjamin Britten, largely regarded the greatest 20^th century British composer, but do spare several thoughts for his most important teacher and mentor Frank Bridge (1879-1941). It was Bridge who helped shape the highly original and modernist voice the young Britten was to become. This budget-priced collection of complete orchestral works includes Bridge’s light music and songs (he could write a good melody too), but the emphasis lies on his symphonic poems and concertante works which exhibit exuberance and boldness of colour. 

The Sea (1910-11) is his best known work, a symphonic suite in four movements that is almost as evocative as the earlier La Mer of Debussy but far less celebrated. Bridge’s penchant for the vivid musical narration is to be found in Mid of The Night (1903), Dance Rhapsody (1908), Dance Poem (1913), Summer (1914-15) and Enter Spring (1926-27), all very well-crafted and deserve a listen. The two major concertos, Oration for cello (1929-30, with Alban Gerhardt as soloist) and Phantasm for piano (1931, with Howard Shelley), are excellent examples of his later style, bristling with dissonance and aggression, as if prescient of the great war to come. These performances from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales led by the late Richard Hickox set a gold standard for this music, and this set is unlikely to be surpassed any time soon.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2011)

BRAHMS Variations for Solo Piano
GARRICK OHLSSON, Piano
Hyperion 67777 (2 CDs)
******

Johannes Brahms’ early piano output was filled with large ambitious pieces, which got progressively smaller as he matured and aged. His six sets of piano variations are youthful works which contain some of his most virtuosic and original thoughts. Early promise may be found in his Op.21 pair, based on an original theme and Hungarian folksong respectively, but the Schumann Variations (Op.9), spare and pensive, reveal a visionary mind.

More familiar are his Handel Variations (Op.24), which build ever so inexorably around a popular air and climaxing in a massive fugal culmination. Piano competition junkies favour the Paganini Variations (Op.35), after the 24th Caprice (itself a set of variations), two books of Brahms’ most fiendish finger-busters. American pianist Garrick Ohlsson is the ideal Brahmsian, combining blustery brawn with an intimacy of touch and tone allure. His razor-sharp reflexes revels in the music’s sharp turns and contrasts, and does not miss a note. At 2 discs for the price of one, this set remains a prime recommendation.

THE SINGER AND THE SONG
Decca 478 2360 (2CDs)

****1/2

What makes a great song? Catchy and hummable melodies, memorable words, and the right singers to give the definitive performance. This collection of non-operatic songs draws from musicals, movies, folk traditions and popular culture, sung by the great vocalists of our time. Not all are idiomatic. Any of The Three Tenors singing in English will be dodgy, and operatic voices often do not suit the arch-simplicity of the popular song. But there are surprises. American soprano Renee Fleming completely makes Stevie Wonder’s My Cherie Amour and the Beatles’ In My Life her own. She does not oversing, and neither does Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter who sounds so natural in two Abba songs.

The Dutch soprano Elly Ameling feels the beat in Cole Porter’s Begin The Beguine and I Get The Kick Out Of You. The crossover forays of Bryn Terfel, Barbara Hendricks and Thomas Quasthoff are already well known. Some of the accompanists are top draw too, Andre Previn plays jazz piano for Sylvia McNair’s Jerome Kern and Kiri Te Kanawa’s Johnny Mandel, while the Labeque Sisters do their bit for Gershwin. Try as you may, but it is hard to really dislike these 38 tracks.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2009)

CHOPIN Complete Works 

GARRICK OHLSSON, Piano et al 

Hyperion 44351/66 (16 CDs) 

Rating ****1/2 

The piano is central to every piece of music that Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) wrote, and this handy box-set by American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, includes every single note. Virtually all his solo piano music is heard regularly these days, but the odds and ends including an enjoyable piano trio, small body of cello music, Polish songs and a solitary flute work remain rarities. Are these worth listening to? Yes, that is because Chopin – like Mozart - is one of those sensitive souls for whom beauty is an essential and little is ever routine. 

Ohlsson also marks himself as Chopin interpreter par excellence, even if aficionados may already have their personal favourites like Argerich (in the Préludes), Perahia (Études), Pires (Nocturnes), Lipatti (Waltzes), Zimerman (Concertos) and Rubinstein (in pretty much everything else). 

The recordings date mostly from the 1990s, originally issued by the now-defunct Arabesque label. The singular biggest draw here is its price; $99.95 at HMV works out to about $6 a disc or under 9 cents per minute of unalloyed pleasure. Hard to resist?

DEBUSSY / POULENC Cello Sonatas 

JEAN-GUIHEN QUEYRAS, Cello 

ALEXANDRE THARAUD, Piano 

Harmonia Mundi 902012

Rating ****1/2 

Two 20th century French icons Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) are united on this disc with the common goal of reviving French values in music. What may these be? For starters, it is the avoidance of dense counterpoint as espoused by the Germans, and steering clear of Wagner’s “modernism”. Secondly, a conscious return to the dance-forms of an earlier age, represented by the likes of Couperin and Rameau. Debussy’s Cello Sonata (1915) is the epitome of conciseness and clarity, all 11-minutes of it. Its middle movement Serenade is an evocation of evening minstrels and midnight trysts. 

Poulenc’s Cello Sonata (1948) joyously espouses the concept of “exquisite bad music”, one that does not take itself too seriously. Its third movement is entitled Ballabile, which literally means “danceable”; it is a gay, unpretentious and light-hearted romp. This album also includes Debussy’s “slower than slow” waltz La plus que lente, Poulenc’s Suite Francaise (based on 16th century dances) and two shorter pieces. Totally delectable.

JOSEF SUK Asrael Symphony 

Malaysian Philharmonic 

Claus Peter Flor, Conductor 

BIS SACD-1776

Rating ***** 

The Czech composer Josef Suk (1874-1935) is best known as the son-in-law of Antonin Dvorak and grandfather of the great violinist of the same name. His popular Serenade for Strings has been making its rounds, but the undisputed masterpiece is the 5-movement symphony Asrael of 1906. Named after the Islamic “Angel of Death”, it was borne of tragic circumstances; both Suk’s young wife and Dvorak had died within a year of each other. 

Running just over an hour, its musical language is influenced by Wagner and owes a debt to Mahler and Richard Strauss, while leaving Dvorak’s folksy symphonies in its wake. The quiet opening looks forward to Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony, while the tense and eventful scherzo predicts Prokofiev and Hollywood composers. Those seeking a sumptuously orchestrated canvas to wallow in, look no further. The Malaysian Philharmonic, conducted by its new Music Director in their first recording together, is on sizzling form.