BEETHOVEN WITH JAMES EHNES AND LAWRENCE RENES / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

BEETHOVEN WITH JAMES EHNES 

AND LAWRENCE RENES 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Saturday (9 November 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 November 2024 with the title "SSO's most exciting and memorable Beethoven concert yet".

The idea of a concert comprising wholly works by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is hardly new, yet a fully packed Victoria Concert Hall showed that the great German composer still has a special cachet among concert-goers. Even the tried and tested three-work overture-concerto-symphony format seemed to work a charm. 

First up was Coriolan Overture (Op.62), not based on William Shakespeare but the German dramatist Heinrich von Collin. Nonetheless, the struggle between belligerence and peace-making in this tragedy remained the same, with the opening punched-out chords delivered with extreme vehemence. The level of tension ratcheted up by the orchestra under Dutch-Maltese conductor Lawrence Renes was key to its high drama. 

It was undoubtedly Canadian violinist James Ehnes performing the Violin Concerto in D major (Op.61) that was the concert’s main draw. His performance came closest to the perfect conception of this 45 minute masterpiece, longest in the violin concerto repertoire. 

From his entry, commanding yet not in-your-face, listeners were riveted by his big tone, purity of intonation and clarity of intent. The contrapuntally rich first movement cadenza by Fritz Kreisler was delivered effortlessly, and the passage accompanied by pizzicato strings immediately following that sounded like pure magic. 

Premature applause erupted and for some, that seemed like a guilty pleasure. The Larghetto slow movement also passed like a dream, its seamless lyricism made one wished it would not end. The Rondo finale’s dance-like moves were replicated by Renes on the podium as both violinist and orchestra romped to a brilliant close. 

Ehnes was not allowed to leave without offering two generous encores, Eugene Ysaye’s thorny Sonata No.3 (or Ballade) and the slow movement from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata No.3 (BWV.1005). Every moment in the company of Ehnes was time well spent. 

Moving in reverse Opus number order, Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony in B flat major (Op.60) closed the concert on a high. Although less glamourous than his Third and Fifth Symphonies, its many sublime passages can still move hearts and excite under the right hands. Conducting completely from memory, Renes had that Midas touch. 

Its Adagio slow opening, possessing the same set of notes as the famous Fifth Symphony, was arresting, then erupting into an Allegro that bristled and bounded with energy. Even the slow movement was illusory, gaining speed and volume, being built on waves of momentum to the timpani’s beat. 

The third movement’s country dance was very well judged, animated and charged without coming across as too ungainly. All and sundry would be swept away by the perpetual motion of the finale’s tarantella rhythm. Precision and accuracy were almost scarcely believable at such high speeds, and the symphony wound to a breathless close. 

In over 45 years of concert-going, this reviewer has yet to encounter a more exciting or memorable Beethoven concert than this.

The review of the same concert on Bachtrack.com here: 

James Ehnes and Lawrence Renes star in memorable all-Beethoven evening in Singapore | Bachtrack

ROMANTIC AIRS: HANS GRAF AND JAMES EHNES / JAMES EHNES IN RECITAL / Review

ROMANTIC AIRS –

HANS GRAF AND JAMES EHNES

JAMES EHNES IN RECITAL

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday & Sunday (21 & 23 October 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times with the title "Violinist James Ehnes' high wire act earns cheers".

 

Conducted by music director Hans Graf, this was a Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert which had a bit of everything. Its odds and ends made for initial confusion but good sense eventually prevailed. Opening with two works sung by the Singapore Symphony Chorus and Youth Choir, both Brahms’ Nänie and Beethoven’s Elegischer Gesang (Elegiac Song) centred on the pity of death.

 

The heroism associated with both German composers was far away, replaced by comforting solemnity. The Brahms was a fugal setting of words by Schiller (of Ode To Joy fame), an extension of his great German Requiem, while the briefer Beethoven was as retiring as it was short-winded. Both glowed in the warmth of the chorus’ good discipline and well-enunciated German. One wondered why these were not more often heard.

 

Closing the concert was Schumann’s Second Symphony in C major, his longest and arguably best symphony. Beethoven’s influence was apparent, with a slow and deliberate introduction leading to an energetic Allegro that flexed collective muscles and busted guts. Just as impressive were slick string-playing in the scherzo and the finale’s all-encompassing sweep.

 

Its bleeding heart was the long-breathed nobility in the slow movement, which must have given ideas to the young Brahms for his symphonies to come. Within 12 years, Schumann would be dead after sliding into insanity and pathetic decline. See how the three works were innately synergistic, united by spiritual and thematic connections.

 

The concert’s centrepiece was renowned Canadian violinist James Ehnes performing Samuel Barber’s lyrical Violin Concerto of 1939. The famous story goes that the American composer had written two slow and relatively non-virtuosic movements but over-compensated with a short finale that was technically too difficult for the intended soloist.

 

Ehnes handled all this in his stride, exuding a majesterial calm and simply beautiful tone in the first two movements. An underlying tension was maintained through its musings, only letting rip with the arduous runs of triplets in the finale’s breathtaking high-wire act. Responding to loud cheers, he offered two solo encores by Paganini and J.S.Bach, an enticement for his solo recital on Sunday afternoon.  

Photo: Pianomaniac

Photo: Pianomaniac

  

 

Built around J.S.Bach’s Sonata No.2 in A minor (BWV.1003), Ehnes’ unaccompanied recital drew a rare full-house for a chamber concert. This comes as no surprise, as his live performances are every bit as pristine as his many CD recordings. A full-bodied singing tone, ease of articulation and faultless intonation made every work pleasures to behold.

 

Each of Bach’s four movements defined every facet of his glorious technique. From perfect phrasing in the opening Grave, polyphonic mastery of the Fugue to the final Allegro's free-wheeling, this came as close as possible to the ideal reading. Particularly moving was the Andante's song-like countenance, gently accompanied by a constant throbbing pulse, the musical representation of the human heartbeat.

 

Almost every important composer of unaccompanied solos was represented, beginning with Georg Philipp Telemann’s Fantasia in B flat major. Its four short parts, alternating slow and fast, exhibited a fine sense of proportion later mirrored and writ large in the Bach. Ehnes emerged with a viola for Paul Hindemith’s Sonata (Op.25 No.1), which was the recital’s big surprise. Anyone who could make the viola sound this coherent and gorgeous, even in a movement marked Rasendes Zeitmass. Wild (Raging tempos. Wild) deserves recognition.

 

Returning to the violin in the well-known Eugene Ysaÿe “Ballade” Sonata (Op.27 No.3), it was not just mastering the notes that mattered, but getting all the nuances right for the searing showpiece. His recent Gramophone Award (Instrumental category) for the recording of six Ysaÿe  Sonatas was thus richly deserved.

 

A selection of popular Paganini Caprices, exploring a panoply of jaw-dropping technical tricks, completed the afternoon’s sumptuous fare. For the record, these included No.1 “Arpeggio”, No.9 “The Chase”, No.16 in G minor and the evergreen No.24 in A minor “Theme and Variations”. It would not have mattered what he had chosen, as everything Ehnes touched turned into violin gold.

Guess who came to watch?
Chloe Chua and Hans Graf!
Photo: Pianomaniac

A young violinist-fan gets 
some tips from James Ehnes.
Photo: Pianomaniac

The autograph session was
limited to just one hour.
Photo: Pianomaniac

Photographs by Nathaniel Lim / Aloysious Lim 

unless otherwise stated. 

Encores:

 

21 October:

Paganini Caprice No.16 in G minor

Bach Andante from Sonata No.2

 

23 October:

Bach: Largo from Sonata No.3

 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, July 2014)

VERDI Requiem

Soloists with Orchestra 

& Chorus of La Scala

DANIEL BARENBOIM

Decca 478 5245 (2 CDs) / *****

Once every decade or so comes a recording of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem Mass that stands heads and shoulders above the rest. This “opera in ecclesiastical garb”, as its early critics had hailed, has much to do with the cast of soloists as the conductor, chorus and orchestra. In this La Scala live recording, released to commemorate the Verdi bicentenary in 2013, boasts of as stellar and balanced a foursome as tenor Jonas Kaufmann, bass Rene Pape, soprano Anja Harteros and mezzo Elina Garanca.

Their impressive entries in that order of appearance in the Kyrie Eleison pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the 85 minute long masterpiece. Their arias, duets and ensembles are equally touching, not least the unison voices of the Agnus Dei. The chorus is magnificent in its portrayal of shock and awe in the fire and brimstone Dies Irae (returning ever so often as to remind the listener of the doom to come), as well as the fugal intricacies of the joyous Sanctus. It is Barenboim’s masterly pacing of the epic and attention to detail that also makes this outing rather special. By the rapt and quiet end of the Libera Me, one is chastened and humbled, which was the original intention of the work anyway.           

PROKOFIEV Complete Works for Violin

JAMES EHNES, Violin

BBC Phiharmonic / Gianandrea Noseda

Chandos 10787 (2 CDs) / *****

After the critical success in the Violin Sonatas and Violin Concertos of Bela Bartok, young American violinist James Ehnes now surveys Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev’s violin sonatas and concertos, conveniently housed in two well-filled discs. He successfully negotiates the virtuosic turns, vitriolic dissonances and bittersweet lyricism which distinguish Prokofiev’s style. The fairy tale world in the First Violin Concerto (1923) seems at odds with the brusque percussive manner of the First Violin Sonata (1946), but both receive convincing and stylish performances that emphasise beauty over brutality.

The Second Violin Concerto (1935) and Second Violin Sonata (1944, derived from the Flute Sonata), are mellower and more inviting works which come from the same world as his popular and melodious ballets. The generous fillers are two further sonatas (for unaccompanied violin and two violins) and the melancholic Five Melodies (Op.35bis) which are transcriptions of his wordless vocalises. Ehnes gets premium support from pianist Andrew Armstrong in the sonatas and a very sympathetic BBC Philharmonic led by Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda in the concertos. This sonatas and concertos appear on separate discs, and this set is hard to better.