RELATIVELY MOZART / PAUL LEWIS PLAYS MOZART PIANO CONCERTO 25 / Review

RELATIVELY MOZART

Donald Law, Piano

NAFA Wind Ensemble

Esplanade Recital Studio

Monday (13 February 2023)

 

PAUL LEWIS PLAYS

MOZART PIANO CONCERTO 25

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Thursday (16 February 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 February 2023 with the title "Three servings of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.25".

 

Mozart wrote some 27 piano concertos, but what were the odds of encountering the same concerto performed three times within the same week? The concerto in question was Piano Concerto No.25 in C major (K.503), which garnered the attention of Singaporean Donald Law and Briton Paul Lewis (twice) in two different but equally engaging programmes.

 

The first performance was in an idiomatic arrangement for winds by Malaysian pianist-composer Wong Chee Yean, with Law accompanied by the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Wind Ensemble conducted by Dutch wind specialist Joost Flach. The plangent sonorities of woodwinds and brass could easily overwhelm any solo instrument but this combo of eleven players - pairs of flutes, oboes, clarinets, French horns and bassoons, and double bass - were kept well in check.

 

This allowed the highly musical personality of Law to shine, impressing with crisply articulated  fingerwork and a singing tone. The effect was that of fine chamber music, with the martial strains of outer movements tempered by his lyrical restraint. When virtuosity was demanded, he also duly delivered. The choice of Hungarian pianist Lili Kraus’ cadenza for the first movement, which had the cheek of incorporating the La Marseillaise (French national anthem) near its end, was inspired.

The concert also saw Law playing Mozart’s Sonata in A major (K.331) which delighted with a familiar set of variations and the famous Rondo Alla Turca (Turkish Rondo). As a bonus, the ensemble was joined by four members of the special-needs Purple Symphony – a flautist and three percussionists – for a rousing version of that romping rondo.

 

Then there was the pair of performances with Lewis partnered by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by American conductor Robert Spano. Little was spared in Mozart’s original orchestration which had in addition to strings and winds, a pair of trumpets and timpani, providing the music with a festive and celebratory feel.

Photo: Chrispics + / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

 

Like Law, Lewis revelled in the solo part’s technically demanding passages which can easily get embedded within the busy orchestral partnership. Lewis played his teacher-mentor Alfred Brendel’s first movement cadenza, which also quoted La Marsaillaise, albeit a secondary motif (which Debussy used in his piano prelude Feux d’artifice), but at its beginning. What is the big deal about La Marsaillaise? That was because many listeners thought Mozart’s repetitive second subject to resemble that patriotic French tune by Rouget de Lisle.

 

Ultimately it was Lewis’ more free-wheeling interpretation, which included skillful ornamentations and added piano chords in loud tutti sections, which tipped the balance in his favour. Law was, however, in no way a lesser musician. As an encore, Lewis’ choice of Schubert’s brooding Allegretto in C minor, lovingly voiced, was icing on the cake.

Photo: Chrispics+ / Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Robert Schumann’s grand Third Symphony in E flat major, also known as the Rhenish, closed the concert with a bang. The German’s orchestration has long been criticised to be dense and overblown, resulting in musicologists calling for the score to be pared down and slim-lined. There was to be none of that this evening, with a plethora of sound filling the limited confines to near breaking point.

 

Near being the operative word, as conductor Spano coaxed from the ensemble playing of the most lively kind, possessed with a nervous cutting edge throughout, but never going over the top. Standing out was the chorale of brass which distinguished the solemn fourth movement, a glorious portrait of Cologne’s gothic cathedral. By the symphony’s rapturous end, loud cheers indicated that some things should be best left well alone. 

       

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE HISTORY OF WIND MUSIC / NAFA Wind & Brass Ensembles / Review

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE

HISTORY OF WIND MUSIC

NAFA Wind & Brass Ensembles

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (5 February 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 February 2015 with the title "Blowing through history of wind music".

A more ambitious title for a concert would have been hard to find, but the Wind and Brass Ensembles of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts did what they could to showcase the diversity of of music written for their instruments over the centuries. These are two separate ensembles led by different conductors, and French horns were the only instruments common to both groups.

Nine works, five for woodwinds and four for brass, were performed. These were played not in chronological order but in a sequence alternating brass and winds that allowed the young performers to catch their breath. Historical context was provided by wind ensemble conductor Joost Flach who preceded each work with brief but helpful descriptions in lieu of programme notes.

Fred L.Frank's Overture for Brass scored for four trumpets, three trombones, two horns and one euphonium, began the concert. Conducted by Terrence Wong, the short work included ceremonial fanfares, a waltz and cheerful circus party music to round up. The general warmth of the playing was a reassuring one.

Wind bands gained popularity in the 18^th century, and numerous arrangements of popular works and symphonies, written with or without the composers' permission, arose to cater to the demand. Among these were Josef Heidenreich's arrangement of Mozart's Magic Flute Overture and Charles Bochsa's arrangement of Haydn's Symphony No.85.  

The solemn masonic chordal opening of the former was taken a little too slowly, which resulted in a strain to the ensemble, but the fast fugal section had a good sprightly pace which brought out the ebullience of the piece. The latter's first movement, which included a double bass, was very well judged, befitting its rather regal nickname of “La Reine” or “The Queen”.

Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli was famous for his brass choruses which played in the sanctums of St Mark's Cathedral during High Mass. To simulate the antiphonal sonics, eight brass players performed Canzon Septimi Toni No.1 on the steps on both sides of the hall, with Wong conducting in the centre. Even when individual players were not always flawless, the surround-sound effect was nonetheless impressive. The polyphony of Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez's Tulerunt Dominum, performed on stage, provided a similar buzz to the ears.

For once, the noisy girls with handphones
sat through the music stunned with silence.

Two contemporary works for winds were included. Malaysian composer Johan Othman's highly chromatic He Too A Simulacrum, That Another Person Was Dreaming Him was the evening's most demanding work for both players and listeners. Almost atonal, it operated within a narrow bandwidth of dynamics and emotion, and was clearly not meant to be understood at first listen. British composer John McCabe's Symphony for 10 Winds was far more accessible, and the playing was correspondingly more coherent.

To close the winds displayed good unison playing in the first movement of Frenchman Andre Caplet's Persian Suite, while the brass had the last words with two Regimental Marches by Bohemian Franz Krommer. These jaunty and upbeat numbers gave a positive lift to an educational and enlightening evening of music for blown instruments.