THE PLANETS. RITE OF SPRING / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

 

THE PLANETS. RITE OF SPRING

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (11 July 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 July 2025 with the title "OMM raises roof with Holst and Stravinsky".

When it comes to orchestral blockbusters, it is hard to beat the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM). The Singapore Symphony plays monumental works too, but these are spread over the course of a full year. OMM has just four to five concerts annually, thus offering super-sized meals to digest at each sitting. From past experiences with works by Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner and Leonard Bernstein, local listeners have been totally up for it.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Its latest concert, led by American conductor by Tito Munoz, recent music director of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra (Arizona), featured two great and influential classics of the early 20th century. English composer Gustav Holst’s The Planets (1917), which has greatly impacted modern movie scores, opened the show.

There is hardly music as loud as its opening movement, Mars The Bringer of War, hammered home with a vehemence which defined the rest of the evening. Venus The Bringer of Peace and Saturn The Bringer of Old Age showed the orchestra equally adept in slower and less blustery music, bringing out instrumental detail before building up to concentrated climaxes.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Mercury The Winged Messenger revelled in quicksilver playing, highlighting high registers of silky strings, celesta and a pair of harps. Uranus The Magician had a spirit of jocularity, musical sorcery at its most canny. The suite’s most famous movement, Jupiter The Bringer of Jollity, with its grandstanding central hymn later set to I Vow To Thee, My Country, was milked for all its worth.

Photo: Yong Junyi

The most moving moments came in the still and quiet finale, Neptune The Mystic, a nebulous depiction of cosmic dust giving way to the offstage siren call from the 42 women of the Voices of Singapore Ladies Choir (Darius Lim, Chorusmaster). It was hauntingly ethereal, raising many a goosebump before wafting into the nether reaches

Earth was not one of Holst’s celestial bodies, but the subject of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (1913), which occupied the concert’s second half. Also conducted from memory and without baton by Munoz, this was arguably the better of two superb performances, as the orchestra had more than warmed up.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Guo Siping’s excellent bassoon solo clung on thin air for what seemed like an eternity, before woodwinds and brass jostled for dominance in the introduction of Adoration of the Earth. Pizzicato strings entered and ushered in the infamous pounding rhythm of Augurs of Spring, beginning of the mayhem which brought on the riotous fisticuffs at its Paris premiere.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Admiration arises when one peruses the score and learn how technically and rhythmically complex the score is, and to see and hear over a hundred musicians with their thorny individual parts and rise with fearless abandon to the challenge together.

To nitpick for rough spots in a performance of a work that is classical music’s greatest rough spot is plain futile. To witness The Sacrificial Dance, of the chosen one in throes of terminal convulsions, is to experience the most thrilling of musical rides. OMM has done it again.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Victoria Memorial Hall & Theatre
and UOB Tower illuminated
for National Day.

CAPRICCIO - STRAVINSKY'S PIANO CONCERTOS / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

CAPRICCIO 

STRAVINSKY'S PIANO CONCERTOS

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (28 October 2022)

This review first appeared on Bachtrack on 31 October 2022 with the title "An unusual Stravinsky-Mozart combo shines under Hans Graf in Singapore".

 

Compared with the piano concertos of Rachmaninov, Prokofiev or Shostakovich, those of Igor Stravinsky are hardly performed or heard in Singapore. This evening provided a rare opportunity for the Russian’s Concerto for piano and winds and Capriccio for piano and orchestra to be played. Doing the honours was Russian pianist Alexei Volodin, past winner of the Geza Anda International Piano Competition, who will also record both concertos with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Hans Graf’s direction.

Photo: Chrisppics+

 

Both works are neoclassical in form, but diverge completely in style and demeanour. The Piano Concerto (1923), scored with wind instruments and double basses resembled Baroque concerti grossi from the era of J.S.Bach. A mock-serious march-like opening, sounding as dry as dust, ushered in toccata-like figurations from the piano. That was where the fun started. Volodin, playing from a score turned by his wife, was hard pressed to keep up with woodwinds and brass with regards to volume and pacing. Its general exuberance eventually found a match with the soloist maintaining an athletic, utterly steadfast and somewhat unyielding mien throughout.

 

Whether this was deliberate or a necessity given the circumstances, was hard to say, but the ensemble finally got to luxuriate a little in the aria-like central movement. Its rare moments of lyricism would soon give way to the finale’s irrepressible syncopations. Now one can safely vouch that the earlier seriousness was merely a ploy, and humour would ultimately be revealed. The orchestra had not played this concerto since 1991 (with Marios Papadopoulos as soloist), and this outing came across as under-rehearsed. A few more tweaks and a credible recording should result.

 

Photo: Chrisppics+

Quite different was the Capriccio (1928), receiving its local premiere, which is closer in spirit to Stravinsky’s ballets from the same period including Apollon Musagetes or The Fairy’s Kiss. The buffer of a full orchestra also gave it a more luxuriant feel, despite having lighter and more transparent textures. Volodin more than coped with the tricky piano writing, jazzily rhythmic in many parts, bringing out playful and whimsical aspects of the music. Judging from the vibrant reading, there is little reason why this piano concerto in all but name should not be as popular as those of Ravel or Poulenc.  

 

It seemed almost incredulous that the Singapore Symphony Orchestra had never previously performed Mozart’s Symphonies No.28 and 30, given the many airings of the A major symphony (K.201) in between. Trust the Salzburg-native in Hans Graf to put that right, and he went even as far to suggest a performance of that trilogy someday. Now that is a great idea.   

Photo: Chrisppics+

 

Symphony No.30 in D major opened the concert, its four short movements resembling more like Mozart’s Divertimenti, works conceived for general entertainment. Lightness and litheness were key, making little demands on listeners. Grace and refinement in both the slow and fast movements were to be outdone by the finale’s mercurial act, which had a surprisingly understated close, a taste of Mozartian humour.

 

In a similar vein, Symphony No.28 in C major completed the evening with more mirth. For example, whoever opens a symphony with a minuet? And in the actual Minuet movement itself, Mozart has the French horn echo in imitation of the strings. The accuracy of execution in the Presto finale also had one imagining the SSO as a genuine Mozart orchestra. That is a great idea too.

 

Star Rating: ****

STRAVINSKY IN FRANCE / N.E.O.Ensemble / Review

STRAVINSKY IN FRANCE

N.E.O. Ensemble

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (10 January 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 January 2016 with the title "Shining Stravinsky".

The N.E.O. (New Epoch Orchestral) Ensemble is the newest local orchestra to unveil its talents in a land well populated by musical groups. Formed by some of the nation's finest young professional musicians and conducted by Seow Yibin, it debuted with an all-Stravinsky programme. This concert covered the Russian composer's neoclassical phase, which spanned the 1920s and 30s when he lived in France.

Four works were performed, all using chamber-sized forces, a conscious paring down from his large and opulent ballet scores like The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. Such a diminution was obvious in the Octet for Winds (1923), for flute, clarinet, two of each of bassoons, trombones and trumpets.

The clear delineation of its parts was well handled by the players, each one a virtuoso in his or her own right, and the overall balance was generally excellent. The 2^nd movement's Theme and Variations saw an admirable ability to cope with the music's twists and turns matched with pin-point playing.

Conductor Seow spoke briefly about the composer, but his impromptu spiel was poorly prepared. Referencing musicologist Richard Taruskin, “Wagner symphonies” (he did not write any significant ones) and “machine-like French music” (really?), it all came across as incoherent. Thankfully his conducting was much better defined, as were Natalie Ng's well-researched programme notes. 

Pianist Lim Yan was soloist in a rare performance of the Concerto for Piano & Winds (1923-24), a neo-Baroque creation in three movements that demanded utmost precision and concentration. A veteran at handling the thorniest of scores, Lim's mastery of its irregular rhythms and syncopations made it an enthralling outing.

The piano's metallic clangour ensured he was not submerged by a larger group of woodwinds and brass, and there were spots for subtlety and sensitivity, notably in the slow movement's aria-like lyricism. The busily raucous finale trundled on industriously before its abrupt and emphatic close which caught the audience almost by surprise.

By the time the Symphonies for Wind Instruments (1920) concluded, the ensemble had warmed up and the playing was even more assured. The tandem of flautist Cheryl Lim and clarinettist Desmond Chow had significant parts, and they were nigh inseparable. The title made use of the Greek meaning of “symphony”, which was to “sound together” rather than the compositional form, and that was exactly what the the group delivered.

The final work, Dumbarton Oaks Concerto (1937), a deliberate homage by Stravinsky to Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, saw strings outnumber the winds. Now there were three violins, three violas, two cellists and two basses alongside flute, clarinet, bassoon and two horns. Textures were therefore lighter, and the ensemble adjusted its sound accordingly.

The outer movements were thick with counterpoint, bookending a slow movement that was a graceful gavotte-like dance with typically Stravinskian harmonic quirks. As with the preceding pieces, the reading shone with its highly responsive playing and vivacity. Live performances like these bring out the spirit of the music and the composer far better than the umpteenth canned recording for sale.   

  

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2012)

STRAVINSKY The Firebird / Orchestral Arrangements

Bergen Philharmonic / ANDREW LITTON

BIS SACD-1874 / ****1/2

The music of Igor Stravinsky’s first ballet, The Firebird, is usually enjoyed at concerts in the form of its short 1919 Suite, which lasts some 20 minutes. The complete ballet, a rarity because of the massive orchestral forces employed, plays for over twice as long. It is an extremely colourful score, much in the style of Stravinsky’s teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, with its Russian fairy-tale story of a hero, princesses and ogres vividly characterised. In this sumptuous recording, the dances truly come to life aided by excellent woodwind and brass, culminating in the ferocious Infernal Dance and glorious final apotheosis.

The value of this disc lies in its unusual fillers. Instead of another ballet, Stravinsky’s rarely heard orchestrations of music by Tchaikovsky (Bluebird Pas de deux from Sleeping Beauty), Sibelius (Canzonetta) and Chopin (a nocturne and a waltz) are offered. True to form, Stravinsky’s ingenious play with sound textures assures quirks aplenty. The biggest surprise is reserved for the minute-long Birthday Greeting, an outlandish distortion of the children’s Happy Birthday party song which plays down the melody but magnifies the accompaniment. Have fun in this musical “hall of mirrors”.

BEETHOVEN FOR ALL

DANIEL BARENBOIM, Piano & Conductor

Decca 478 3513 (2 CDs) / **1/2

Anyone who has gone through the triumphs and vicissitudes of life will identify with the life-affirming music of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). He was Everyman personified, dogged by unrequited love and deafness, yet invigorated by his ideals of liberty, egalitarianism and the brotherhood of man. This double-disc is a sampler of his complete symphonies, piano concertos and piano sonatas (to be issued on 18 discs in three box-sets) as interpreted by Daniel Barenboim, surely one of great Beethovenians of our age.

Six of the nine symphonies, four of the five piano concertos and three sonatas (out of 32) are represented. Despite the fine performances, the sequence of disembodied movements selected does the music scant justice. There is neither chronological order nor programming intelligence in place. For example, the lovely Adagio slow movement of the Emperor Concerto does not fade off when it should but continues with the linking passage as if launching into the Rondo finale. Then the listener is assailed with the Rondo of the First Piano Concerto instead! Surely Barenboim could not have been party to this insult. Clearly this is Beethoven For Dummies. It is far better to get the full sets instead (and probably Decca’s intention as well).

ANATOMY OF AN ORCHESTRA: A Rehearsal of The Rite of Spring with the Orchestra of the Music Makers

There are few things as fascinating as witnessing an orchestra at work. Here are some photographs taken at a rehearsal in the School of the Arts of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) conducted by Chan Tze Law on Sunday evening (27 May 2012).

THE STRINGS: The violas in action.

The scrolls of the double basses resemble a fern before it turns into a frond.

Even cello cases have very different  personalities.

THE WOODWINDS: Bass clarinets add an unusually deep timbre to the music.

Two members of the flute family: the diminutive piccolo and the alto flute.

The contra-bassoon provides a deep throaty sound to the proceedings.

THE BRASS: A trumpeter's paraphernalia. This trumpeter is playing with a mute in place.

On the left is a Wagner tuba, to be performed by the 7th and 8th horn players. There can be no more awesome sound than the French horn section playing together.

Tubas give a sonority of great heft, and a hand helps mute a French horn.

Trumpets and horns in unison.

THE PERCUSSION: Tubular bells and metallaphones.

A timpanist's bag of assorted mallets.

The percussion always looks like the most exotic section.

TUTTI: The conductor is the interpreter-in-chief. All the musicians follow his lead and perform as one.

A view from the back of the violas.

One is guaranteed a loud reception when seated near the brass. For The Rite of Spring, the volume is close to deafening.

100 YEARS LATER: PETRUSHKA / The Philharmonic Orchestra / Review

100 YEARS LATER: PETRUSHKA
The Philharmonic Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Thursday (15 September 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 September with the title "Taut playing of Petrushka".

Veteran conductor Lim Yau completed the third leg of his personal quest of performing Igor Stravinsky’s music this year with an outing of the ballet Petrushka, completed exactly a century ago.

Consistent with The Philharmonic Orchestra’s approach to musical appreciation, this was preceded by The Philharmonic Chamber Chorus singing two short hymns by Stravinsky and a Russian folksong, to illustrate the composer’s sources of musical inspiration. The first half however belonged to irrepressible actor-presenter William Ledbetter (below), a wellspring of musical knowledge and on this evening a one-man ballet troupe.

Not only did he “dance” out the roles of the titular clown puppet, ballerina and Moor to musical excerpts, he also did a fine job demystifying the jargon associated with modern music – polyrhythms, bitonality, Petrushka chord, hemiolas and the like. It was almost sad to see this born entertainer take his leave, but the music had to begin sometime.

With Petrushka, Stravinsky had already made several advances from the late Romanticism of The Firebird towards his epochal The Rite of Spring. In using the 1947 orchestration, smaller forces allowed for a leaner and more transparent sound, which the orchestra exploited to the fullest.

The opening and closing Shrovetide Fair scenes boasted some very alert and taut ensemble playing, with conductor Lim tightly engaged on the reins. While there were some less than precise moments in the Danse Russe and short snatches of the final tableau, this kinetically charged and exuberant score received nothing less than total commitment from the young orchestra.

Stravinsky’s ingenious interplay of rhythm and harmony was clearly and coherently delivered, with no half measures given. Pianist Nicholas Loh was a pillar of strength in his virtuoso solos. Woodwinds were generally excellent, the standout being flautist Marcus Tay, with the pair of clarinets, whose elucidation of the Petrushka chords was spot on, not far behind. Pride of place goes to trumpeter Nattapong Veerapun, whose silvery tones in the central dance segment and the muted Petrushka’s ghost should not go unnoticed.

The only disappointment was the small audience. Perhaps the Ministry of Education should make special arrangements for its multitudes of music students to attend the orchestra’s thoroughly laudable educational endeavours. Till that happens, one eagerly awaits The Rite of Spring.