RUSSIAN
EXTRAVAGANZA!
Esplanade
Concert Hall
Wednesday
(30 July
2014 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 August 2014 with the title "Rah-rah Russian tunes".
This
is certainly not the best of times to celebrate anything Russian, but the
Singapore National Youth Orchestra had put so much preparation into this
programme that it would be unfair to the young musicians to have cancelled the
concert. At least the title could have been changed to something less
offensive.
The
opener, Shostakovich’s Festive Overture
ranks as the most insincere work ever conceived by a great composer. For those
who know his music, this paints a glorious and eternally jolly portrait of the Soviet Union , one of modern history’s most murderous
regimes. Its brass fanfares, thrilling woodwind runs and slicked up string
melodies sing of optimism and great hope for a Socialist utopia, one cruelly
denied to many millions who had staked their lives on a fatal ideology.
The
orchestra led by its Principal Conductor Leonard Tan gave a best possible
account of its strident banalities, with much lustre and no hint of irony. The
brass section, boosted by offstage colleagues placed on balconies in the hall’s
first circle, have much to be proud of.
Coming
as total relief were two concertos by German composer Felix Mendelssohn. The
first was his very popular Violin
Concerto in E minor, with Neville Athenasius Ang in the solo part. For much
of the work, the chemical and biomechanical engineering graduate struggled with
intonation but was able to overcome its technical hurdles with fluency and no
little robustness. That he maintained his composure well when the audience of
mostly youngsters was getting restless and noisy was to his great credit.
A
better showing was provided by Benny Lim and Ralph Emmanuel Lim in Mendelssohn’s
Concert Piece No.2 for clarinet and
basset horn. This rather unusual work pitted two reed instruments of different
registers in tandem and how the two Lims complimented each other so well like
hand and glove. Within three short movements, they delighted in its witty
repartee and struck a vein of humour that flowed like sparkling champagne.
The
second half of the concert was devoted to just Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony in F minor. One of his
more highly strung and nervously charged works, conductor Tan coaxed from his
charges a performance of rare eloquence and no little emotion without resorting
to extremes in dynamics or tempi.
Despite
a fluff in the opening Fate theme blared out by the French horns, this was a
show of confidence which grew with each page. The first movement was taken at a
moderate tempo, one that seemed slack initially but proved ultimately
well-judged as it gradually built up to a head of steam that never flagged.
The
slow movement’s plaintive oboe solo was beautifully crafted by David Yee, and
the strings were superlative in the third movement’s massed pizzicatos, all of
which were indicative of how strong the orchestra has become over the years.
The torrential storm unleashed in the finale, a culmination of Tchaikovsky’s tormented
personal life, was greeted with long and prolonged applause.
By
which time, one might have also been persuaded that Tchaikovsky, despite being
born Russian, was also a citizen of the world.
