ANDREW LITTON AND CHLOE HANSLIP / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

ANDREW LITTON AND CHLOE HANSLIP

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (4 March 2022)

An edited version of this review was first published in Bachtrack on 7 March 2022. 

This is possibly the worst time to celebrate things Russian, so the Singapore Symphony Orchestra discreetly amended the title of its latest concert from “Resonating Russia” to the generic and less incriminating “Andrew Litton and Chloë Hanslip”. This could have been confusing since the concert the week before had the title “Serenades with Andrew Litton and Chloë Hanslip”.

 

Music should never be a pawn of politics or cancel culture but human factors have made this inevitable. Witness the recent dismissals of Russian artists Valery Gergiev and Denis Matsuev, known associates of Vladimir Putin, from all Western concert posts and engagements for not speaking up against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On the other hand, other Russian artists like pianists Evgeny Kissin and Alexander Melnikov, and conductor Daniel Raiskin have rightly condemned this atrocity. All power to them.

 

It is no exaggeration to postulate that both Dmitri Shostakovich and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, if they were alive today, would have been staunch opponents of the present Russian regime. Shostakovich had campaigned covertly against Soviet communism and Stalinism in his specially coded music, while Tchaikovsky would scarcely be sympathetic to Putin’s anti-LGBT agenda. So there is no reason to cancel their music in any concert.   

 

Shostakovich’s only Violin Sonata was composed in 1968 as a 60^th birthday gift for David Oistrakh. This orchestral version with strings and percussion from 2005 by Michail Zinman (strings) and Andrei Pushkarev (percussion) almost constitutes a third violin concerto. Dark as the first two concertos (also written for Oistrakh) were, this one was positively painted in pitch black.

 

Soloist Chloë Hanslip, attired in a ruby-red tinselled gown, gave a searing performance as if carved out from blocks of solid granite. Her voluminous and incisive violin tone also weaved in and out of opaque string textures, and the work soon resonated like those Shostakovich chamber symphonies (fashioned from his string quartets by Rudolf Barshai) than an actual violin concerto. The brooding that opened the first movement gave way to a stiff poker-faced dance, but the oppressive mood was just as unyielding all the way till its close.

 

The violent central Allegretto movement was thought to have been Shostakovich’s response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and brutal suppression of Prague Spring. Some things never change whether its 1968 or 2022, and the players responded with the outright vehemence the music deserved. Doing the honours on percussion was principal Jonathan Fox, who had his hands full in this explosive movement. The finale’s Passacaglia will rank as one of Shostakovich’s most morbid movements. Hanslip’s trenchant pizzicatos paved the way for a procession of mourning. There were  moments of lyricism and radiance in her playing, also mirrored in the string accompaniment but these would wind down in a terminal decrescendo. This could only mean one thing: the slow but inexorable road to death.    

 

From the doom and gloom of Shostakovich to the sun-drenched vistas of Tchaikovsky might prove inconceivable to some, but the Singapore Symphony strings led by Andrew Litton shifted gears almost effortlessly. Grey clouds had been dispersed by fulsome string sonorities of Souvenir de Florence, the string sextet now writ big in its string orchestra arrangement. The first movement soared with barely bridled passion, contrasted with the slow movement’s graceful waltz. As if plucked from one of his ballets, the music swelled with significant solo contributions from violist Zhang Manchin, cellist Yu Jing and concertmaster Kong Zhao Hui.

 

The titular Florence had more to do with where Tchaikovsky wrote this music rather than any overt Tuscan influences. The third and fourth movements were Slavic in melodic inspiration, while retaining a Mediterranean glow and warmth. The finale was whipped to a fine frenzy without losing its focus, culminating in a busy fugue, before all forces converging into the most joyous of conclusions. 

On this fascinating coupling of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky, one question however remained: how could a land and people that gave forth music of such wealth of feeling and humanity be so callous and heinous with the lives of fellow human beings?  

 

This review is dedicated to our Ukrainian friends in Singapore, violinist Nikolai (Mykola) Koval (who played in this concert) and pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina, and their families in Kyiv and Kharkhiv. Wishing them strength and courage, and may peace prevail.

 

Star Rating: *****

THE POWER OF 5 / Conservatory Percussion Ensemble / Review

THE POWER OF 5

Conservatory Percussion Ensemble

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Saturday (16 March 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 March 2013 with the title "Joyful night of percussions".

Percussion concerts invariably involve 20^th century and new music, and for the reasons below are also most engaging events. A large audience filled with school students attended this concert by the Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, part of the 6^th Singapore Chamber Music Festival.

Percussion instruments are the most primeval of sound-makers. Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood (1973) was a case in point. It involved five persons striking pairs of claves – essentially wooden cylinders of different timbres – in varying sequences and rhythms.

Its minimalism was not in paucity of sound, but miniscule shifts and variations that take place within 9 minutes which made the work both absorbing and hypnotic. Imagine the scene when cavemen first discovered that sticks and stones made specific sounds, or a forest of cicadas during mating season. The audience, hitherto rowdy, was transfixed into silence.

The next two works highlighted unpitched and pitched percussion in their glorious diversity. Brett William Dietz’s Sharpened Stick (2000) was a study of rhythmic precision, and how the five players mastered and alternated between tom-toms, bongos, congas, brake-drums, bells and cymbals was admirable. Their shouts of “Yo-ho!”, reflecting native-American origins, punctuated the work and added to its raucousness.

Thomas Gauger’s Gainsborough (1965) relegated rhythm in favour of melody. Two marimbas, with their mellow vibes, were contrasted with the more metallic resonance of the vibraphone, the latter played with much adroitness by Shi Boya in the slow movement. The final Presto was an exuberant ride, fuelled by Bartokian energy and a jazzy beat.

The piece de occasion was ensemble director Jonathan Fox’s 2013 orchestration of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet (1940) for nine percussionists and string quartet. Purists and pianists might throw up their hands with despair in the face of this extravagance, but this is much in the covertly anarchic spirit of the Russian composer himself. Witness Shostakovich’s own percussion-heavy treatment of his Fifteenth Symphony or Vincent Youman’s Tea For Two.

The G minor opening chord and flourish, usually undertaken with a heavy-heart by the pianist, was shared by the percussionists. The succinct quality of the statement was rendered diffuse as a result but it soon got better as the “piano” themes became better delineated.

Surrounded on three sides, the T’ang Quartet was forced to up its volume projection of this deeply personal and troubled work. In the fugue and fourth movement passacaglia, percussion was employed sparingly, allowing the strings to lay on the pathos thickly with a shovel.

It was open season, however, in the uproarious Scherzo and mock-gaiety of the finale. The nine players functioned as a disciplined and well-drilled group, and while the temptation to overwhelm the strings was ever present, the fine overall balance was maintained without sacrificing the music’s subversive character.

Violist Lionel Tan (left) of the T'ang Quartet is happy to play the cowbell too.

The encore was an over-the-top arrangement of Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze. As the four members of the T’ang Quartet ditched their strings to join the kitchen department, one was left with the suspicion that string players, like pianists, are percussionist wannabes after all.

Percussion ensemble director Jonathan Fox salutes his 13 percussionists.

Life and Death in the City / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory New Music Ensemble / Review

LIFE & DEATH IN THE CITY
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory New Music Ensemble
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (18 April 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 April 2010.

The idea of musique concrete – the use of natural sounds mixed into a musical score - has been in existence for several decades, a technique often employed by the avant-garde movement. It made a definitive grand appearance in a concert by the Conservatory New Music Ensemble in works by Steve Reich and Mauricio Kagel conducted by SSO principal percussionist Jonathan Fox.

Reich’s City Life (1995) recently received its Singapore premiere some weeks ago by the same forces, and a second airing was equally welcome. If anything, the young performers displayed more confidence in tackling the thorny score that got increasingly frenetic and oppressive. Samples of street cries, pile-drivers, sirens, a fire engine and looped voices (a Reich specialty) were mixed within its five linked movements. The last, Heavy Smoke, used sounds from the scene of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, eerily foretelling the events of 911.

There was some relief provided by Malaysian Chong Kee Yong’s Liu Xu Fei (2001), a 6-minute work for oboe and cello inspired by Tang poetry. Oboist Wang Jin and cellist Pan Chang rendered their demanding intertwined soliloquys with much authority. The work was atonal for certain, but it had a strangely calming effect.

The largest work was the Argentine maverick Kagel’s “December 24, 1931” Garbled News (1991), which was also the zaniest. The date referred to his actual birthday, and each movement based on a news event that occurred on that day. Performed by just nine musicians, it seemed like a whole orchestra and the proverbial kitchen sink.

Sublime and ridiculous sat cheek by jowl in its seven movements, which included reports of a Buenos Aires jail revolt, Japanese atrocities in Manchuria, a Nazi cigarette commercial, a Vatican library accident, a migrant worker’s letter and Christmas chimes that failed. Reporting and singing the news in German was veteran baritone William Lim, whose deadpan yet theatrical delivery was a revelation.

The scoring was colourful, ingenious and often riotous. The final movement literally saw sparks fly from a car battery, an Ivesian collision of carillons and Lim’s own procession of “ding dongs” as he exited the stage. With persuasive performers like these, modern music at its most outlandish and irreverent looks likely to stay.

PAINTED SCENES by Yong Siew Toh Percussion and New Music Ensemble / Review

PAINTED SCENES
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory
Percussion & New Music Ensemble
Jonathan Fox, Conductor

Conservatory Concert Hall
Saturday (27 March 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 March 2010.

People who attend orchestral concerts and carry the misconception that percussion players have it easy could do worse than attending all-percussion concerts, now regular features at the Conservatory. Led by SSO’s principal percussionist Jonathan Fox, these students of the “kitchen department” are bona fide virtuosos.

The opening work, Conversations In The Forest III by Japanese marimba doyenne Keiko Abe, featured just two players. Just how Sun Yi and Akari Tsurata, who played facing each other, reflected and reacted to each other’s playing was pure choreography. The marimba music was mellow timbred yet sonorous, filling the hall with a gentle and soothing aural glow.

Even more vibrant was American minimalist Steve Reich’s City Life (composer pictured left), performed by the New Music Ensemble and percussion casually attired in T-shirts, jeans, jockey caps and sneakers. Conductor Fox then turned up in his favourite Boston Red Sox jersey. In five conjoined movements, the 1995 work not mindless looping but a colourful mosaic of the urban landscape.

Recorded sounds of street cries such as “Check it out!”, taxi horns, car brakes, pile drivers and other heavy machinery “played” on sampling keyboards mingled with those of the orchestra. There was Reich’s trademark rhythmic chugging in the middle movement while a heartbeat pulsed through the fourth. Rhythmic precision ruled in this performance, which ended before it outlasted its freshness.

The big work was Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition (composer pictured left), with the original piano part augmented with six percussionists. Not merely an amplification of the score, Fox’s ingenious arrangement for all instruments available to him also altered the tone and character of some movements. The Old Castle was transported from the Mediterranean to East Asia, while Ballet Of The Unhatched Chicks took on a groovy samba beat.

Through all this, American-born pianist and conservatory professor Thomas Hecht was rock solid in one of his signature pieces, even if there were moments where overdone percussion threatened to drown him out. After the final massive chimes of The Great Gate Of Kiev, the party was just starting.

As the encore, Hecht and all eight percussionists clad in sunshades hammered out Lalo Schifrin’s iconic Mission Impossible theme, including an improvisation that interpolated Mussorgsky’s Promenade theme from the Pictures. They were having fun, and very much so had the audience.

SSO Gala Concert: Sarah Chang Plays Bruch

SARAH CHANG PLAYS BRUCH
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Friday (26 March 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 March 2010.

For Korean-American violinist Sarah Chang’s fifth appearance in Singapore since 2002, fears of satiety by her regular visits were unfounded. Despite higher ticket prices for this Gala Concert, the hall was brimming, with gallery seats packed shoulder-to-shoulder.

Unfortunately, the former prodigy was nowhere near her peak. At best, her performance of Bruch’s First Violin Concerto (composer pictured left)ticked off the boxes with a big gestures and technique; the opening solo was long-held and close to flawless. At worst, she sounded jaded, seemingly going through the motions.

Over-familiarity with this warhorse rendered its little more than blah, so cue a less-than- vociferous audience reaction. Music took second place to Chang’s screaming outfit - cross between tinsel-laden Christmas tree and giant guppy - her onstage gavottes and wide sweeps of the bow. As if having too little to do, she also joined in the orchestra’s tutti passages.

Not all of it was disappointing, as the slow movement had genuine lyricism aided by a purity of tone. This was however marred by a finale fraying at the edges, with a tendency for rushing, as if to finish a tedious job. There was no encore, rare for a gala concert, which was just as well if she was not in the right mood.

The evening was redeemed by the Nordic works, a truer reflection of the concert’s quality. Lemminkainen’s Return, from the Four Legends of the Finnish epic Kalevela by Jean Sibelius, gave the brass a terrific workout, serving more than a warm-up. The tension built up by Music Director Shui Lan’s pacing of the work was also palpable.

Even better was Dane Carl Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony, one of the great 20th century symphonies. Over a sinister string ostinato, woodwinds in couples cast a malevolent spell, which came to fatal fruition with Jonathan Fox’s insistent snare drumbeat. A call to battle was Nielsen’s (left) musical vision of war, death and destruction.

Shui expertly kept a tight rein throughout, guiding the juggernaut through minefields of peril, not least the closing movement’s fugue, which began in a jocular manner and turned increasingly malignant. The orchestra last played this in 2003, coinciding with SARS and the Allied invasion of Iraq. While the troops are still bogged down in the Gulf, the orchestra has improved in leaps and bounds. And that is all that matters.