HANS GRAF FAREWELL SERIES: MOZART AND SALIERI / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

HANS GRAF FAREWELL SERIES:

MOZART AND SALIERI

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday (21 May 2026)

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 26 May 2026 with the title "Mozart and Salieri under the spotlight in Hans Graf’s Singapore farewell".

Let’s first get this out of the way. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a musical genius while Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) a skilled journeyman. The premise of Hans Graf’s final concert in his six-year tenure (2020-2026) at the helm of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra was not just to compare achievements of both composers, but to ponder the gulf between hard work and divine inspiration, and how we live with both.

The evening opened with Salieri’s Piano Concerto in C major (1773), from a rising 23-year-old who still had 52 years to live. The opening Allegro maestoso was a martial ritornello that exuded the same vibe as Mozart’s K.503, also in the same key. Big chords paved the way for young pianist Adrian Tang’s clean and accomplished delivery, which lacked nothing in polish and purpose. 

The problem was how Salieri worked his musical ideas and themes. While Mozart delighted in variety and nuance, Salieri resorted to what virtuosi of the day did best, note-spinning and striving for effect. The development and cadenza had lots of that, and one soon tired of listening. The slow movement in A minor had an opening solo resembling the corresponding movement of Mozart’s K.488, but fell short of his combo of gravitas and elegance. The finale’s Rondo saw delicate and nimble fingerwork on display with passages of Sturm und Drang by way of contrast. While pleasant and euphonious to the ear, it proved ultimately unmemorable.

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.14 in E flat major (K.449) was premiered when he was 28, right at the cusp of greatness. What a big difference it made with the workmanlike Salieri. Young soloist Toby Tan did the honours, giving a dream performance of fluency and care for detail. He truly got into the spirit of Mozart, imbuing the score with a singing quality and en point articulation. 

The slow movement was a lyrical gift that kept on giving, milked for all its worth, while the finale’s theme and variations sparkled, going full buffo in a comedic coda for a final flourish. Both pianists, students of Albert Tiu, joined hands for a delightful encore, the finale from the Sonata for four hands in D major by ... Mozart (K.381), thank goodness.

Photo: Chris P.Lim

Toby Tan and Adrian Tang
with their teacher Albert Tiu

Rimsky-Korsakov’s one-act opera Mozart and Salieri (1897), based on Pushkin’s little tragedy from 1830 and sung in Russian (with English surtitles), received its Singapore premiere. This piece of speculatory fiction had spawned an industry built on the scurrilous rumour that Salieri murdered Mozart. He did nothing of the sort, but judging by Russian bass Mikhail Svetlov’s self-pitying monologue as the industrious but pedantic Salieri, might as well have done so. By poisoning the god-given genius of an irreverent and flippant Mozart, played by the much younger-looking Russian tenor Boris Stepanov, he was preserving hoards who bore the badge of mediocrity.

This was not so much a lyrical opera in the traditional sense but a psychological melodrama that pitted earth-bound against celestial talent. Rimsky-Korsakov was also comparing himself with the cultural giants that were Pushkin and Mussorgsky. 

Photo: Chris P.Lim

A chamber-sized orchestra accompanied the action, and there were cameos by Matthias Oestringer as the blind street violinist and Adrian Tang in the pastiche piano part. Members of the Singapore Symphony Chorus (Eudenice Palaruan, choral director), placed high in the balcony sang the opening page from Mozart’s Requiem, as the musical rivals memorably walked into the pages of infamy. Graf’s final act as music director of the SSO could not have been more poignant.

Rating ****

Posterity has shown
who's got the last laugh.

The original review on Bachtrack.com:

Mozart and Salieri under the spotlight in Graf’s Singapore farewell | Bachtrack

FOR FRIENDS AND LOVERS / Concordia Piano Quartet / Review

FOR FRIENDS AND LOVERS

Concordia Piano Quartet

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (21 May 2022)

 

The Concordia chamber group, part of re:Sound Collective, has returned but in the form of a piano quartet. Of the original string quartet, second violinist Kim Kyu Ri had resumed her Masters studies overseas, while cellist Theophilus Tan retired. First violinist Edward Tan and violist Mathias Oestringer were joined by new cellist Lin Juan and pianist Jonathan Shin to form the Concordia Piano Quartet. This group’s first concert together was nothing less than a musical triumph.

 

Pandemic disruptions had done little to dent the players’ abilities and yearning to put on a good show. The concert opened with Mozart’s Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor (K.478), the first important work written for this medium, essentially a string trio augmented by a piano. The unison of strings and piano at its outset delivered the music’s sturm und drang (storm and stress) without apology, and the alternating between minor and major modes kept the narrative interesting. Shin’s pianism was crisp and tidy, and with the string players formed a cohesive unit. The central slow movement was a model of lyrical grace, contrasted with the chirpy Rondo finale, filled with the same light-heartedness of the finale from Piano Concerto No.17 (K.453), also in the same key. This was a reading of true joie de vivre.  

 

Prolific composer Jonathan Shin’s Four Pictures of Mid-Winter Boston for piano trio was composed in 2017 while snowbound in his New England apartment. Its four movements used simple themes, occasionally modal in nature and sometimes resembling impressionist hues of Debussy and Co. While the opening movement’s piano introduction and string harmonics evoked mystery, the scherzo-like second movement was a playful snow fight between friends, the swift tempo later upped into the little storm of piano flurries in the brief third movement. Edward Tan’s violin’s dominated the final movement, recalling Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with its pentatonic melody before unleashing a series of Paganinian arpeggios. With short piano chords and a whisper from the cello, the contemplative dream was over.

 

The concert concluded with Fauré’s Piano Quartet No.1 in C minor (Op.15), the Frenchman’s early masterpiece now considered one of the great piano quartets alongside those of Schumann and Brahms. The opening with unison strings echoed that of the earlier Mozart quartet, filled with passion and fervour. The tact taken by the foursome was more gentle, less hectic than those heard in recordings, but its escalation to full steam sounded all the more thrilling. That the ensuing Scherzo seemed lots of fun, with string pizzicatos accompanied by piano arabesques, led to premature applause. This was a sign that the IAB (inappropriate applause brigade) is back in force, which is no bad thing, since concerts desperately need audiences including newbies alongside concert hall veterans.

 

The slow movement was what Lin Juan described as the angst and pain Fauré had experienced in while falling in and out of love. Its opening voice was provided by his cello, and the movement stood out with its austerity of harmonic language, more often associated with his later and rarefied chamber works. This was beautifully crafted before the energised finale’s romp which reprised the opening movement’s passion.    

 

Twenty years ago, excellent performances as witnessed this evening could only come from full-time musicians of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. That non-SSO musicians could now achieve standards that equalled or surpassed those concerts of the past speaks well of how our music scene has progressed over the years.

CONCORDIA QUARTET @ HOME / Review

CONCORDIA QUARTET @ HOME

Streamed Live on the Internet

Friday (12 June 2020) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 June 2020 with the title "Hurdles aplenty, but quartet's first online concert a success."

  

The Concordia Quartet, Singapore’s latest professional chamber group, made its debut in February  at the Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre (Funan Centre) to critical acclaim. Its second public concert was another first, a live performance by four musicians on the Internet, separated physically by Covid-19 circuit breaker and social distancing rules.

Its players, violinists Edward Tan and Kim Kyu Ri, violist Matthias Oestringer and cellist Theophilus Tan, never had face-to-face rehearsals for this concert. Instead, they played from their own living rooms, united by nifty technology, employing the Jamulus audio software, high-tech headsets and microphones, and the ubiquitous Zoom app for visual cues.

Its audience was alerted via social media, and tuned into Youtube for the concert experience. While it seemed a surreal experience attending a concert remotely, one was spared of extraneous distractions like rustling programmes, fidgety children, and worst of all, coughs and sniffles.

Concordia’s programme was a compact one, just under half an hour of music, boosted by a question-and-answer session hosted by technical controller and Resound Collective’s founder Mervin Beng. These precious few minutes were however hard earned, given the logistical hurdles to overcome, but paid off handsomely.

There was a false start at the beginning with Mozart’s Divertimento in D major (K.136) which was quickly remedied. As there was a lag phase between visual and aural inputs for the musicians, it seemed a miracle they even came together at all. All that will be down to hard work getting used to the medium and how professional musicians adapt to each other’s music-making.    

Like in a jazz combo, a three-count from first violinist Tan was needed to start the music flowing, when a nod of the head used to suffice. The issue of balance surfaced for a short while in the lively opening movement, when accompanying low strings sounded over-emphatic but that was also corrected. The slow movement was lovingly coaxed, while the fast finale which necessitated pin-point accuracy was driven to a breathless close.

This was what viewers got to see at home.

Judging by positive live comments from its audience, this experiment was going to be a success. The heart of the concert belonged to Russian nationalist composer Alexander Borodin’s Second String Quartet. While some hoped to hear its popular and melancolic Notturno, the more meaty opening movement was performed instead.

By now, the quartet had more than warmed up and wearing heart on sleeve, this ultra-Romantic music’s passionate throes were milked for all its worth. For the online listener, this was as good as it gets. As a short encore, the world premiere of young local composer Jonathan Shin’s highly idiomatic arrangement of the Beatles hit-song Eleanor Rigby was the icing on the cake. Judging by positive live comments from its audience, this experiment was a success.

While live concerts witnessed by a live audience in a concert hall will not die an ignominious death, could online concerts such as this be a regular feature of the new normal?

You can view the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k14_9OQX4zA

The Chamber Players: Bach to Bach / Review

BACH TO BACH
The Chamber Players
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall
Sunday (20 September 2009)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 September 2009.

If a definitive history of Western classical musical performance in Singapore were written, The Chamber Players would at least merit a page or two, because it is the longest existing amateur chamber ensemble today. Formed about 30 years ago from remnants of the defunct Singapore Philharmonic Orchestra, it also united players from the Singapore Chamber Ensemble and old Singapore Youth Orchestra.

Today, it is a rejuvenated and dynamic young group, still playing without a conductor, but boosted by professional musicians in key positions. Having not performed for almost two years, one wondered how they would sound. Just three words: very much improved. The musicians have gotten better individually, and the general ensemble is cohesive and well focused. Weak, anaemic string sounds and hesitancy of co-ordination seem very much in the past.

The mostly-Bach programme began with the Second Orchestral Suite in B minor (BWV.1067) the closest thing Bach wrote to a flute concerto. With just ten string players and harpsichord, the ensemble ably supported flautist Mohamad Rasull (left), one of Singapore’s very few Malay Western classical musicians. His performance was a generous Hari Raya Puasa treat, full of verve and vibrancy, capped with an exuberant Badinerie, which displayed delightful touches of his own.

The two soloists in Bach’s Double Violin Concerto (BWV.1043), Seah Huan Yuh and Mathias Oestringer (left), were well matched but tended to keep their tone on a subdued side. Although both had independently different parts, they mostly breathed as one. The slow movement, in particular, had an aria-like seamlessness that was pleasing.

The full orchestra came together for Schubert’s light-hearted Fifth Symphony in B flat major. For a conductor-less group of nearly forty individuals, the togetherness was admirable. Relying mostly on subtle cues from concertmaster Seah Huan Yuh, a healthy full sonority was generated. The performance was very direct, fresh like the morning dew, and devoid of ego or idiosyncrasy.

There was however some instability in the Trio of the third movement’s Minuet, where a conductor’s guiding hand would have helped. No matter, as the finale hurtled swiftly and where some element of risk-taking was apparent, the Players came through with flying colours.

The Chamber Players’ policy of free concerts (with donations accepted at the door) is totally laudable, and one hopes they were as justly rewarded as the audience it entertained.