THE FIRST FIVE CDS I EVER BOUGHT

It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Thus, a collection of a thousand CDs begins with the first CD bought. I started my collection in late 1985 with just five CDs. Previously, I had collected vinyl LPs and before that, cassettes or tapes. Tapes proved to be unreliable, frequently subject to reels getting stuck or unraveled after multiple plays, or interminable tape squeak, and never lasted more than a few years. Vinyl is far more durable, but subject to surface noise from dust or static, and inevitable scratches. Plus, you have to turn a record over after hearing the first side.

Compact discs were supposed to be indestructible, having a lifetime guarantee, so I decided to listen to the very CDs which I had bought some 40 years ago. Could they still play, or have they corroded to the point of disrepair?

I bought my first five CDs at Sing Disc House at Lucky Plaza, having scouted all around Singapore a few months prior to see which record shop had the best range and most reasonable prices. Sing, then manned by Vincent Choo (husband of the wonderful and friendly Doris Tay who later ran the shop), was such a place, located at a quiet corner on the second floor and having good vibes. The CDs then cost $27, a ransom in those days, but still less than the $28 or $29 charged at other shops (Supreme Audio and Beethoven Record House).   

Selections were rather limited then but soon grew geometrically as record labels started to realise the seemingly endless potential of CD as a medium. My selections were made based on repertoire - popular works which I wanted to hear over and over, great artists, good sound as heard on the hi fi, as well as generous playing time. No way was I going to buy a CD that played for just 35 minutes!

So here are my first five CDs, and why I bought them:

My first piano concerto disc!
And it had to be Martha Argerich in two
popular concertos where she is next to peerless.
Later autographed by Charles Dutoit.

My first violin concerto disc!
Absolutely great value for money with
two great violin concertos which used
to occupy a single LP each.

My first orchestral disc!
Wanted to hear loud and scary music
blasted over the hi fi.

This one was an outlier, as I wanted to hear the great
piano romantic in three Liszt concertante works.
Malediction for piano and strings is still a rarity.
Later autographed by Ivan Fischer.

The only recording of Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit
that was available on disc then.
From Ravel's own student, I have yet to hear
a better Pavane pour une infante defunte.

I am happy to report that all five CDs can still play properly and without mishaps, despite some corrosion and occasional small holes in the silver plating. This afforded me over five hours of listening pleasure, and an invaluable walk down memory lane. Long live the CD!

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2015)

JORGE BOLET

Complete RCA and Columbia Album Collection

Sony Classical 88843014722 (10 CDs) / *****

The name of Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet (1914-1990) is synonymous with pianism of lush Romanticism from a bygone age, particularly the music of Franz Liszt. This box-set of RCA Victor and Columbia Masterworks recordings dating from 1958 to 1982 capture him at the height of his technical and interpretive prowess, which his later Decca recordings (just before he was diagnosed with AIDS) sadly miss out on. There are two patrician sets of Liszt Transcendental Etudes, the 1970 Barcelona recording (originally released on Ensayo) being the complete do. His utter clarity, tonal colour and magisterial pacing, shunning ostentatious outward theatrics, stand out in these and a clutch of Liszt and Rachmaninov transcriptions.

The jewel in the crown is his 1972 Carnegie Hall Recital, which cemented his place in the pantheon of greats. Seldom has the Bach-Busoni Chaconne and Chopin 24 Preludes sizzled with such fervent immediacy, topped off with the Wagner-Liszt Tannhauser Overture delivered with devastating panache, and rarely played encores (Schulz-Evler, Tausig, Moszkowski and Rubinstein) which teased and tantalised. The chamber offerings of Franck’s Piano Quintet and Chausson’s Concert (with the Juilliard Quartet and Itzhak Perlman in the latter) scarcely made up for the regrettable gap when RCA dropped him for someone younger and seemingly more marketable. The folly of those “lost years” will never be recovered, but one will be grateful for the treasures within this budget-priced collection.   

SCHUMANN Complete Symphonies

Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique

JOHN ELIOT GARDINER

Archiv 479 2515 (5 CDs) / *****

Anyone who doubts Robert Schumann’s gifts as an orchestrator in his symphonies should listen to these performances on period instruments. Too often one has been accustomed to big-scaled modern orchestra interpretations which make the music sound stodgy and overcooked. Not so when John Eliot Gardiner and his British (despite its pretentious French name) band enliven the very same notes with an irrepressible spirit and verve. Listen first to the familiar First Symphony (nicknamed “Spring”), which define the meaning of vitality itself. The more expansive Second and Third Symphonies (the latter known as the “Rhenish”) are given no less trenchant readings. In both, the bombast is ditched, once and for all.

It is not just the faster tempos adopted or the lighter orchestral forces utilised, but the conception that Schumann meant for those dynamics and economies of scale, that is convincing. Both versions of the Fourth Symphony (1841, later revised in 1851) are included, and one is left to conclude that his later thoughts were more persuasive. Earlier and lesser attempts at the symphony form - a Symphony in G minor (“Zwickauer”, 1832-33) and the Overture, Scherzo and Finale – complete the picture. The Concert Piece for Four Horns, Requiem for Mignon, and oratorio Das Paradies Und Die Peri (based on Thomas Moore’s oriental fairy tale Lalla Rookh) and choral music with the Monteverdi Choir make a generous bonus to an already indispensible set.  

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, May 2014)

JORGE BOLET His Earliest Recordings

APR  6009 (2 CDs) / *****

The Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet (1914-1990) found fame and celebrity only late in his illustrious career. The Decca recordings of his last decade find a tired and sadly worn-out virtuoso, so the re-issue of his first four LP recordings from the early 1950s are a boon. These reveal an artist in his prime. The first disc comprises shorter solo works, including idiomatic Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Liszt. His close identification with the Hispanic music of Granados, Falla, Albeniz and Lecuona is endearing, and those who yearn for prestidigitation will have much to enjoy in Saint-Saens’s Etude in the Form of a Waltz and Moszkowski’s En Automne, unabashed showpieces which he delighted in.   

Bolet’s 1953 recording of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto with the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by Thor Johnson on the Remington label was the first commercial recording of this now favourite concerto. Despite a cut in the 1^st movement cadenza, this reading stands the test of time through by its magisterial sweep and emotional heft, with little of the banging that invariably accompanies Prokofiev. The four Chopin Scherzos, mercurial and playful in his hands, complete this invaluable anthology.

BRAHMS Double Concerto

MOOR Concerto for 2 Cellos

QIN LI-WEI, Cello et al

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Jason Lai

Cello Classics 1031 / ****1/2

This is the first commercial recording by Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra, presently led by the UK-born Chinese conductor Jason Lai. The obvious attraction is an excellent live recording of Johannes Brahms’s Double Concerto in A minor (Op.102), with violinist Qian Zhou and cellist Qin Li-Wei, respective department heads, in starring roles.

There is an obvious chemistry going on with each voice exerting itself yet blending into a harmonious whole. The 1^st movement’s opening cadenza is breathtaking in that it immediately captures the attention, while the gentle unison playing in the slow movement is beautifully judged. The Hungarian-styled Rondo finale swaggers ever so inexorably to a chorus of cheers. 

Almost completely obscure is the Double Cello Concerto by Hungarian-Jewish composer Emanuel Moor (1863-1931), a conservatively romantic work composed for the stellar husband-and-wife cello pairing of Pablo Casals and Guilhermina Suggia. Even if its four movements are not as memorable as the Brahms, there is lot to be enjoyed in its lyricism and tightly-knit writing for the instruments, helmed by Qin and British cellist Sebastian Comberti. This unusual coupling is well worth exploring.   

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2011)

JORGE BOLET
THE ROMANTIC VIRTUOSO
Decca 478 2374 (4CDs)

*****

The Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet (1914-1990) was fortunate to have lived long enough for his Romantic sensibilities to be appreciated by a generation of listeners bred on Teutonic musical puritanism. These Decca recordings come from his last decade, when waning technical facilities were gloriously supplanted by the warmth and largesse of his playing. All four discs in this retrospective play for a generous 80 minutes each. Start with the selection of Encores, where Chopin miniatures are heard alongside Godowsky’s uproarious amplifications. The nonchalant ease in which he tosses off Paul de Schlozer’s finger-busting Étude or Liszt’s super-vulgar Grand Chromatic Gallop is simply stunning.

The all-Rachmaninov disc is highly satisfying if not jaw-dropping. The Third Piano Concerto is magisterial in its approach although it could do with added voltage, but the broad sweep achieved in the Chopin Variations is breathtaking. Liszt was Bolet’s specialty, capturing the spirit if not outright virtuosity in Totentanz, Hungarian Fantasy, the rarely performed Malediction and Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. For more “serious” repertoire, his solid and unmannered takes on Brahms’ Handel Variations and Schumann’s Fantasy put Bolet among the elite of interpreters. No pianophile should be without this.

BERNSTEIN Theatre Works
Deutsche Grammophon 477 8853 (7CDs)
***1/2

There is a fine line differentiating the operas and musicals of Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990). For example, does West Side Story qualify to be an opera? And why is the serious subject matter in Candide treated with outright frivolity? This is the essence of Bernstein – his music defies to be pigeon-holed. This budget boxset brings together arguably his five most concert-worthy pieces of musical theatre. His 1984 recording of West Side Story is contentious, with the miscasting of Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras, with their hoity-toity operatic voices, as Maria and Tony. The 1989 Candide remains definitive, its Rossinian pacing and sense of farcical satire inimitable.

On The Town, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, is high class musical, plain and simple. A Quiet Place is serious opera, incorporating an earlier one-acter Trouble In Tahiti, a social commentary on hum drum suburban values. Finally, A White House Cantata, conducted by Kent Nagano, rehashes scenes from the Broadway flop on the American presidency, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Alas this attractive package, boasting vocal superstars by the truckload, is let down by a booklet with neither libretto nor synopses, which is a real pity.