BACH SONATAS & PARTITAS / Midori, Violin / Review

BACH SONATAS & PARTITAS

MIDORI, Violin

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Tuesday (30 May 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 June 2017 with the title "A teacher's crystal-clear and resonant strings".

This year's Singapore Violin Festival could not have had a more star-studded presence than the eminent Japanese violinist Midori. She is a member of its faculty of teachers, and what better way of showing, telling and inspiring younger violinists than by performing a full-length concert?

The six unaccompanied Violin Sonatas and Partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach are arguably the greatest solo violin music ever composed. This music is as pure as it is utterly exposed, a formidable challenge of expression and interpretation for the performer. For the veteran artist that is Midori, playing seemed as natural and unaffected as breathing.

In this 75-minute-long recital without intermission, Midori performed the First and Third Sonatas and Second Partita. The Sonatas each have 4 movements, alternating slow and fast, including a fugue as the second movement. The Partita is a suite comprising wholly antique dance movements.

From the outset, one was struck how Midori did not regard these merely as virtuoso showpieces for pure technical display. In the opening Adagio of Sonata No.1 in G minor (BWV.1001), she created a cushioned and intimate sound, the voice of which was crystal clear and resonant, bolstered by perfect intonation.

In the corresponding movement of Sonata No.3 in C major (BWV.1005), a simple two-note motif was built up in a gradual and incremental manner, arriving later at a resounding and stately high. The fugues were marvels in counterpoint, the voices laid on in sonorous layers with a progressively deepening of textures. There was no murkiness, even when multiple-stopping (voicing more than one note at a given instance) in the relentless Fugue of the Third Sonata meant the playing reached an orchestra-like and volume and intensity.   

The third movements provided quiet respite, before the unleashing of torrents in the perpetual motions that constituted the finales. These are probably the most technically difficult of pieces before the advent of Paganini's 24 Caprices. Midori handled these with consummate ease and artistry without as much as raising a sweat.  

Partita No.2 in D minor (BWV.1004) was the most familiar, with its 5 movements conceived as dance pieces. Midori was to bring different colours and spirit to each, with expressive qualities brought to the fore. There was a spring to the step of the Corrente and Giga, and the rapt meditation of the slow Sarabande in between seemed to radiate like a spiritual centre.  

To close, the Chaconne built upon a series of short variations represented the crowning glory of the set. Its series of climaxes were plangently built it, but nothing could have felt more noble than Midori's understated and unshowy ending. There were four curtain calls and an encore: the mercurial Preludio from Partita No.3 in E major (BWV.1006), which brought down the house.

For those who missed this treat, all six Bach Sonatas and Partitas can be heard on 15 and 16 June at The Arts House, performed by Kam Ning and Loh Jun Hong. 

SSO Concert: Midori Gala / Review

GOH KENG SWEE MEMORIAL CONCERT / GALA: MIDORI
Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Esplanade Concert Hall / Saturday (23 April 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 April 2011 with the title "Goh Keng Swee: In memoriam".

The gala concert of all Russian fare began with Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, dedicated to the memory of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s founding patron, the late Dr Goh Keng Swee, whose passage from our realm took place eleven months ago.

The apparent tardiness of this memorial was never explained, but the gesture, carried out without fuss or ceremony, and attended by his family, would have been one he approved. He would have also been excited by the high standards – the term world-class becomes unavoidable here – attained his brainchild.

The big bluster from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture was one that turned an observance of faith from the ceremonial to the rowdily celebratory. Solo passages from violin, cello, flute and clarinet were spot on and the ensemble, especially trombones and trumpets towards the end, blazed with a magisterial authority.

The Japanese former prodigy Midori’s first appearance with the SSO was something truly special. Those sated with Tchaikovsky’s ever-popular Violin Concerto would have to reassess their stand after this most magnificent of performances. Her opening entry - a world apart from Lara St.John’s flaccid attempt from two nights before – was so breathtaking as to defy words.

Her shaping of every phrase and passage was thoughtful and perfectly weighted. Armed with flawless intonation and immaculate fingering, hers was playing to dream about. It was as if Tchaikovsky himself had bared his soul through her ex-Hubermann Guarneri del Gesu, revealing a world of grief and inner torment.

The inherent flashiness was never made to sound gratituous, and seldom has the central Canzonetta been sung with such desolation. The final fireworks seemed almost an obligatory afterthought, but handled with such convincing panache that a standing ovation seemed mandatory, one spontaneously accorded by no less than the President of Singapore himself.

The Third Symphony by Rachmaninov which concluded the concert was no anti-climax. Conducted by Music Director Shui Lan from memory, it also underpinned the orchestra’s sympathy for Russian music. The rendition brought out an aching nostalgia, one amply illustrated by the wonderful cellos in the first movement’s main theme.

The second movement, almost slow movement and scherzo rolled into one, was paced with utmost immediacy, with never a superfluous moment. Only in the finale did its short-windedness and abrupt ending seemed a come down. Blame the composer, not the orchestra, which otherwise had a superlative outing.