A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Friday (25 October 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 October 2024 with the title "SSO gives Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's music a full-bodied staging".

This title was just half the story, as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s early Romantic programme led by music director Hans Graf might as well have been two separate concerts. The main event was the Singapore premiere of Felix Mendelssohn’s complete Incidental Music to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Those familiar with its four-movement suite would find pleasure in this fleshed out edition with spoken verses by veteran Canadian stage actress Maureen Thomas and sung vocal parts. Every word was by the Bard himself, including a totally engaging Thomas playing the impish character of Puck and breaking the fourth wall to address the audience. 

Photo: Jack Yam

Shakespeare’s English is like a foreign language here, and one wondered whether the use of projected surtitles could have enhanced its appreciation. That would, however, have detracted from the theatre-like ambience deliberately created by dimmed lighting. 

Its Overture was a miracle of teenage precociousness, its themes to be reused in the ensuing twelve movements. Mercurial and full of vivacity, this continued into the feather-light Scherzo. The voices entered with You Spotted Snakes sung ever so sweetly by sopranos Kaitlyn Kim and Giselle Lim, with women from the Singapore Symphony Chorus and Youth Choir (choral director: Eudenice Palaruan) in support. 

Subtle horns and woodwinds distinguished the Nocturne, and everybody recognised that Wedding March, so overplayed at matrimonial services. The hee-haw motif representing Bottom’s asinine transformation lit up Dance of the Clowns, and the voices returned for the final blessing Through The House Give Glimmering Light. Puck’s disclaimer of an epilogue was cheekily delivered by Thomas but no apologies were needed, as this hour and a bit was well worth enjoying again. 

The concert opened with Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto in C minor (Op.37), performed by Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter, last seen here at the 2022 Singapore International Piano Festival. The orchestra’s opening tutti pulled no punches, and Fliter’s entry was every bit its equal. Sweeping scales were delivered with brusque immediacy and rude health, without mincing of notes or lines. 

Photo: Jack Yam

Beethoven had crossed the threshold from from Classical sensibilities to Romantic ardour without looking back. A singing tone and melting lyricism were never far away, humanising this account which matched elegance with bravura. 

The first movement’s cadenza had the intended bluster, balanced by the lovingly voiced chorale melody of the ensuing Largo slow movement. These tender feelings would soon give way to the rollicking Rondo finale that followed without break. 

Fliter’s sharp accents delineated a highly rhythmic dance, clearly relishing its boisterousness yet impossible to waltz to at this speed and intensity. Storm and stress would however turned to joie de vivre for the last pages, which romped home in cheerful C major. 

Her far quieter encore, the Andantino slow movement from Robert Schumann’s Second Sonata in G minor (Op.22), like the concerto that preceded it, was a perfect synthesis of poetry and passion.

You can read the original review of this concert that was published on Bachtrack.com: Mendelssohn and Beethoven share Singapore Symphony’s game of two halves | Bachtrack

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PIANO FESTIVAL 2022 / Review

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL

PIANO FESTIVAL 2022

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday to Sunday (10-12 June 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 June 2022 with the title "Piano festival makes grand return".

 

After the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was gratifying to see full audiences return to Victoria Concert Hall for the Singapore International Piano Festival. The 2020 edition had been cancelled, while last year’s festival featured only locally-based pianists, watched by only 50 people per recital. The virus has not been fully vanquished, as Japanese-Canadian pianist Kyoko Hashimoto had to cancel at the eleventh hour having contracted the infection.

 

The three-evening festival, with a common thread of “Vienna”, was opened by hometown favourite Shaun Choo. A student of universities in Salzburg and Berlin, his pianism is informed by the grand “Last Romantic” tradition espoused by the likes of the great Cuban-American Jorge Bolet and Ukraine-born Shura Cherkassky. His readings of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata and Chopin’s Fourth Ballade (both in F minor), were free and unencumbered by the metronome, yet displaying an aristocratic mien.

 

Showcasing an outsized but never clangorous sonority, the mighty Bach-Busoni Chaconne resounded as if sculpted from a solid block of marble. In three Schubert-Liszt song transcriptions, he delighted in bringing out the music’s inner voices while keeping the singing line unbroken. In dance music, rhythm was never sacrificed for filigreed detail. This was evident in the insouciance of the Kreisler-Rachmaninoff Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow), while Schulz-Evler’s fiendishly difficult Arabesques On Johann Strauss’ Beautiful Blue Danube dazzled as he cheekily slipped in bits of Chopin’s Minute Waltz and Paganini’s La Campanella.

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

 

Choo’s prowess as composer-improviser came to the fore in his own Tango, a teenaged indulgence, and two delicious encores celebrating the ragtime and sentimental ballad forms. Bringing down the house, all of these were heartily cheered.  

 

The Argentinian virtuoso Ingrid Fliter is sometimes remembered as the pianist who finished second to Li Yundi at the 2000 Chopin International Piano Competition. However, critical circles have long regarded her as the superior artist, and not merely a Chopin specialist. Her Singapore debut was a coup of creative programming and beautiful tone production.

 

Fliter’s juxtaposition of Haydn’s E minor Sonata (Hob.XVI:34) with Beethoven’s “Hunt” Sonata in E flat major (Op.31 No.3) was a metamorphosis from austerity to jollity. The transition from the unseemly light-heartedness of Haydn’s finale to Beethoven’s tonal ambiguities and implicit humour was seamless. Surprises abound (later spoofed in works by Schumann and Saint-Saens), culminating in a wild tarantella dance, the furious chase bestowing the sonata its nickname.  

Photo: Nathaniel Lim

 

The second half saw a meditative Scarlatti Sonata in C sharp minor prelude Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, which opened in the exact same key. Mastery in extremes of tempos and dynamics distinguished her magisterial performance, made even more alluring with the inclusion of five “posthumous” variations, the two most sublime ones appearing after the work’s showstopping final etude. That the set closed in a beatific quiet instead of grandstanding bravura was the intention, and credit goes to the awestruck audience for heeding Fliter’s cues by not erupting prematurely.   

 

British pianist Leon McCawley’s recital returned to the classical world of Vienna, represented by Haydn’s masterly Variations in F minor and Mozart’s rarely heard Sonata in F major (K.533/494). There is a shared sobriety in the Haydn and Mozart’s slow central movement, brought out with a gravitas that was both touching and moving. In the Mozart fast movements, clarity and illumination were the rule, and the music could not have been more tastefully rendered.

 

Then there was Schubert’s final Sonata in B flat major (D.960), a work of heavenly length, where McCawley’s sense of proportion and architecture was peerless. Playing the exposition repeat of its first movement’s ensured that its warmth and lyricism was doubly enjoyed. An overwhelming sense of mortality possessed the haunting slow movement, as if the composer knew he would be dead within a matter of months. This, balanced by the apparent gaiety of the last two movements, gave this magnificently judged performance a human perspective that has become all too rare.

 

Three evenings of piano music, by three very different pianists, showed what interpretation was all about. And there was never a dull moment to be had.  

To show how popular the pianists were,
there was a long line for autographs
and photographs every evening.

 

For the record, the encores performed by the pianists were:

 

SHAUN CHOO (10 June 2022)

Shaun Choo Rondo Fashionisto

Shaun Choo Together Forever

Chaminade Automne (Op.35 No.2)

 

INGRID FLITER (11 June 2022)

Chopin Nocturne in D flat major (Op.27 No.2)

Chopin Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2)

Chopin Waltz in D flat major (Op.64 No.1)

 

LEON MCCAWLEY (12 June 2022)

Mendelssohn Song Without Words Op.30 No.1

Grieg Little Bird from Lyric Pieces (Op.43 No.4)

Schumann-Liszt Widmung

A longer review of Ingrid Fliter's piano recital (11 June 2022) has been published in Bachtrack:

Ingrid Fliter's creative programming and beautiful tone inspires awe in Singapore debut | Bachtrack

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2010)

CHOPIN Waltzes
INGRID FLITER, Piano
EMI Classics 51489922
****1/2

It used to be commonplace to find a volume of Frederic Chopin’s Waltzes in every household endowed with a piano. As a group, these are his most approachable pieces, suitable for relative beginners as well as those with aspirations to virtuosity. For children, there’s that modest posthumous A minor Waltz, which is often mistaken to be a mazurka. There are five Waltzes in A flat major alone, all of which are gems of digital brilliance and well-suited for the concert hall.

The Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter placed second to Li Yundi at the 2000 Chopin International Piano Competition, but was awarded the arguably more coveted Irving S. Gilmore Award in 2007. In these often understated dances, she finds a certain tragic quality to match her supple and fluid fingers. There’s no better time than on Chopin’s 200th birth anniversary (which falls on 21 February) to enjoy his music.

CHOPIN GOLD
Deutsche Grammophon

477 8727 (2CDs)
****

Tributes to Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) come thick and fast in his bicentenary year. This double-disc album assembles 18 of the Universal labels’ top pianists dead and alive for a well-programmed anthology of the French-Polish pianist-composer’s greatest solo piano music. From Sviatoslav Richter and Michelangeli come the Third Ballade (Op.47) and Second Scherzo (Op.31) respectively, a summation of Chopin’s heady blend of poetry and passion. Vladimir Horowitz and Emil Gilels supply a Mazurka (Op.17 No.4) and Polonaise (Op.40 No.1) each, poignant reminders of his unwavering nationalism.

Of the marquee artists, Maurizio Pollini has the lion’s share of 24 flawless minutes, performing the Heroic Polonaise (Op.53), First Ballade (Op.23) and lilting Barcarolle (Op.60). Helene Grimaud in Berceuse (Op.57) and Funeral March (from the Second Sonata, Op.35), and Maria Joao Pires with the Minute Waltz (Op.64 No.1), Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op.66) and a Nocturne (Op.37 No.2), get 15 and 14 minutes each. Seven Préludes (from Op.28) are shared by Martha Argerich, her teacher Friedrich Gulda and young Polish ace Rafal Blechacz, while honours are even for Vladimir Ashkenazy and Nelson Freire in four Études.

The youngest pianist here is the recently unveiled Alice Sara Ott, only 19, who gets to play the Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2), with the most delicate of touches. Even mavericks Ivo Pogorelich and Lang Lang are included, whose views of the Third Scherzo (Op.39) and Nocturne (Op.27 No.2) demonstrate that Chopin’s music can more than survive their self-indulgence. Top notch playing all round, but the lack of sleeve-notes (all one gets are artist photographs and a George Sand quote) is regrettable.