THE BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTOS
LIM YAN and The Philharmonic Orchestra
LIM YAU, Conductor
School of the Arts Concert Hall
LIM YAN and The Philharmonic Orchestra
LIM YAU, Conductor
School of the Arts Concert Hall
Wednesday and Saturday
(13 and 16 June 2012)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 June 2012 with the title "Sizzling Beethoven moment".
It probably isn’t a great surprise that the
honour of being the first Singaporean pianist to perform all five Beethoven
piano concertos as a cycle here belongs to Lim Yan. He is, after all, the most
active Singaporean pianist in the local scene, as well as the most consistent.
These masterpieces, partnered by The Philharmonic Orchestra and veteran
conductor Lim Yau, spanned over three evenings. Only an overseas vacation
deprived this listener of attending the opening concert which presented the First and Fifth Concertos.
The second concert showcasing the contrasting Third and Fourth Concertos was a revelation of sorts. The ever-musical Lim
was in fine form, not so much as a barnstorming virtuoso but rather a thinking
person’s artist, one fully attuned to Beethoven’s passionate and often
tumultuous brand of music-making. The tension and drama of the Third (Op.37), in that passionate key of C
minor, unfolded with much purpose but it was one that sizzled rather than erupting
outright into flames.
Full-blown emotion was being kept in check, but
to good effect. It was somewhat ironic that in the more genteel Fourth (G major, Op.58), the tension between soloist and
orchestra, manifested by dynamic peaks and troughs, became more apparent. The
epoch-making G major chord and opening gambit was wonderfully delivered, so
clear and rapt that it set the tone and defined the performance as a
whole.
The final evening saw maximum contrasts applied
to the slender Second Concerto in B flat major (Op.19, but chronologically
earliest of the five), sprightly and spirited in the outer movements and
gravitas in the sublime slow movement. True to Beethoven’s spirit of innovation
and adventure, Lim contributed cadenzas of his own to these concertos.
These well thought-out musings played upon
earlier themes and rhythmic motifs, sometimes transforming the original ideas
but always surprising with harmonic twists and turns. Here, the lost art of
improvisation in classical music has been revived with great aplomb.
A rare airing of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (Op.56), essentially a concerto
for piano trio, came as a bonus. This performance however exposed an imbalance of
interplay between the soloists although it had lots of heart. Here pianist Lim
dominated his partners, violinist Grace Lee and the under-projected cellist Lin
Juan, who seemed discomfited by the substantial solo that occupied higher
registers for most part.
The chamber-sized orchestra supported the whole
enterprise with much sympathy and responsiveness. In the intimate setting of
SOTA Concert Hall, the balance of sound came across with just enough
reverberation to be close to ideal. The solo woodwinds, in particular, were a
pleasure to behold when called upon.
The applause on both evenings was long and
sustained. The enthusiastic but attentive audience knew it had witnessed
history in the making.
