SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: COMING OF AGE / SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 21ST ANNIVERSARY

COMING OF AGE

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

21st Anniversary

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra marked its 21st birthday in 2000 with this compilation album of recordings made between 1979 and 1999. It includes important landmarks from the orchestra’s history from its inaugural concerts in January 1979, live performances and recordings made during this period. It would go on to make much better recordings, but this album, despite the variable quality of sound, provided an important snapshot of SSO’s progress over the years. The way we were, so to speak.

In the beginning...

The journey takes place at its very beginning, with a live reading of the popular Dance of the Yau People by Mao Yuan and Liu Tien-Shan, from the inaugural concerts at Singapore Conference Hall led by founding music director Choo Hoey, complete with audience applause. Following that is the brief but brutal second movement from Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, issued on a once-off Philips recording to mark SSO’s 10th anniversary in 1989. SSO’s prowess in 20th century music, Choo’s speciality, was evident for all to hear.

The only concertante track was the Rondo from Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos in F major (K.242) with the celebrated duo of Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung and SSO Chairman Tan Boon Teik, who was then the nation’s attorney-general (a sort of Singapore answer to West Germany’s Helmut Schmidt). That was part of a fund-raising LP recording made in 1983. Music by Singaporean composers was represented by Leong Yoon Pin’s Dayong Sampan, taken from the 1993 documentation recording rather than the 10th anniversary Philips album from 1989.

Lim Yau (extreme right) was
SSO Associate Conductor and SSC Chorusmaster
when he got the Cultural Medallion in 1990.

The dramatis personae who defined the SSO’s early years have been included, including long-time associate conductor Lim Yau and his Singapore Symphony Chorus, performing the Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth, the Choral Symphony. The 10-minute segment starts from bar 195, after the first orchestral fugue, all through to its glorious end. Lim’s successor for three years (1998-2000), the American Bart Folse is represented with Isoldes Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the recording from a Familiar Favourites concert “Opera Without Words”. SSO’s principal guest conductor the Finn Okko Kamu, appointed in 1994, does the honours in three Brahms Hungarian Dances, Nos.1, 5 and 17.

Bart Folse assumed Lim Yau's positions
from 1998 to 2000.

Okko Kamu was SSO Principal
Guest Conductor for over 20 years.

Lan Shui was SSO music director
from 1997 to 2019.

In 1997, Lan Shui succeeded Choo Hoey, becoming SSO’s second music director. One of his earliest recording projects on the Swedish BIS label was the complete symphonies and piano concertos of Russia-born composer Alexander Tcherepnin. The 2nd movement from the Third Symphony “Chinese” has been included here. The hour-long disc closes with three dances from Tchaikovsky’s ballets Swan Lake (Waltz) and Sleeping Beauty (Panorama and Waltz), a clear demonstration that the orchestra was truly adept in dance music.

At the turn of the century, SSO at 21 had come of age, and that was just the beginning of a long journey to musical excellence and worldwide recognition.

The cardboard case which the 
jewel case and CD were enclosed.

Post-script: This commemoration album was not for public sale, but presented to sponsors and guests at SSO's fundraising dinner in 2000. As editor of BraviSSimO! (The SSO Friends newsletter) and all-round kaypoh at large, I was asked to script the programme notes as well as the Chairmen's congratulatory messages.

PETRUSHKA. BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO.1 / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

PETRUSHKA / 

BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO.1

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (24 March 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 March 2017 with the title "Dances blossom under conductor's handling".

This listener was present at Victoria Concert Hall when Finnish conductor Okko Kamu first conducted the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in early 1985. In Sibelius' Fifth Symphony, the orchestra was galvanised in a manner that it never seemed to possess, sounding with a freshness, vitality and grit that remains indelibly etched in the mind to this day. Ten years later, he led the first of 88 programmes as the orchestra's only Principal Guest Conductor.

In his final concert in that official capacity, Kamu appeared almost embarrassed as SSO Chairman Goh Yew Lin sang his praises in a witty preamble. He smiled, mostly looking at the floor and did not say a word. His laconic demeanour then gave way to what he did best, marshalling the players from the rostrum.

The evening opened with Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka, a work that underlined the composer's Russianness. The ensemble was tautly held together in the busyness of the Shrovetide Fair, sounding plangent but not congested as the puppet show began. The eponymous puppet, a tragic figure represented by Stravinsky's “Petrushka chord” of interlocking triads and tritones, was very well characterised.

The orchestra as narrator worked tirelessly as the drama unfolded, with Shane Thio's demanding piano playing a major role, and important solos by Jon Paul Dante (trumpet, as Petrushka's love interest the ballerina), Jin Ta (flute) and Igor Yuzefovich (violin).

More importantly, this musical tableaux of dances was allowed to breathe and blossom under Kamu's direction, all through to its muted and ghostly end. As Dante's trumpet uttered Petrushka's last vengeful breath over faint echoes of the fair, one could hear a pin drop. The applause was loud and prolonged, but that was not the end.

Brahms' First Piano Concerto occupied the second part, with German pianist Martin Helmchen substituting for the indisposed Russian Nikolai Lugansky. This was no huge loss as Helmchen gave a performance that was as confident as it was magisterial. The stormy opening orchestral tutti was balanced by the piano's composed entry, which served as a calming influence. When it came to the development section, big octaves and chords showed he could barnstorm with the best of them.

The slow movement was a revelation, its hymn-like phrases on piano handled with utmost reverence and love. The orchestra's discreet contribution playing was one of an acute listener and partner, the beatific hush that permeated the Adagio was down to Kamu's totally sympathetic handling of the collaborating forces.

While the final Rondo was an exciting romp, it was Helmchen's nuanced playing that had most to admire. Lighter touches and intricate staccato playing were to offset the tempest-tossed pages as the concerto drew to its tumultuous close. This was more a reading of nobility than a tragedy-laden one. True to form, the self-effacing conductor Kamu quietly retired to allow the young man to bask in two encores (Bach-Busoni and Schubert) and the well-deserved limelight.  

ROCOCO VARIATIONS / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

ROCOCO VARIATIONS

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (30 September 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 October 2016 with the title "Splendid hat-trick".

There was a pleasing symmetry to the pair of concerts by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by its Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu last weekend. Two symphonies in the key of D major bookended a concerto, with all three works sharing a common theme of classicism.

Neoclassical may describe Prokofiev's First Symphony, also known as the Classical Symphony, which was an early 20^th century update on the symphonies of Joseph Haydn. “Small is beautiful” is the credo of this delightful work which got a bubbly reading that was also well paced. Amid the busyness was bassoon principal Zhang Jin Min's ever-steady arpeggiated passages that pulsed like clockwork.

The slow movement displayed much lightness in its staccato beat with violins singing a seamless melody. The 3^rd movement's Gavotte, where there was a deliberate effort to parody its ungainliness, did not come off as planned. It sounded lead-footed, but the quick-fire finale was mercurial and incisively driven to be truly exciting.

Next came Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, popularly known as just the Rococo Variations. The term rococo refers to a late baroque style that favours simplicity over the typically florid and ornate figurations of the earlier 18^th century. It was such a Mozartian theme that inspired this lovely piece which received a stunning performance from SSO Principal Cellist Ng Pei-Sian.

Sporting a short-sleeved tee-shirt and with his hair tied up in a short tail, the orchestra's youngest ever principal was the epitome of chic informality. More importantly, his playing also expressed that sense of freedom, one with a rich, singing tone that projected richly to the highest circle seat, and perfect intonation. 

His nimbleness was articulated perfectly in the tricky variations, and the slower, more lyrical moments were a marvel of tenderness and grace. The furious finale variation was delivered with unabashed aplomb, and the loud audience applause was rewarded with Bach's Prelude in G major as encore, three more minutes which were simply sublime.  

 

Beethoven's Second Symphony completed the evening's programme. Its punched out opening chords were loud and uncompromisingly direct, as if trying to make a point. The slow introduction soon led into the Allegro section of raw virile energy. Here was Beethoven's angst, coinciding with the onset of his irreversible deafness, laid out for show.

The orchestra was on the same page throughout, and while there was bustling activity in the 1^st movement, the slower 2^nd movement benefited from a sturdy unceasing pulse that lent much to its attractiveness. The Scherzo was vigorous and full bodied in its approach, which set the tone for the rollicking finale.

Here, a relentlessly hectic pace could have been pursued, but conductor Kamu favoured one that allowed its wit and humour to come through. As the much animated finale drew to its feverish close, one could easily discern that this was no routine run-through, but a bona fide and true interpretation. 

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2016)

BRAHMS Sonata for 2 pianos

SCHUMANN Piano Quintet

CYPRIEN KATSARIS 
& HELENE MERCIER, 2 Pianos

Piano 21  044-N / *****

In the homes of 19^th century and fin de siécle bourgeoisie, before the advent of radio and gramophones, musical entertainment took the form of the pianoforte and arrangements for multiple hands on the keyboard. 

Here are two classics of chamber music, heard in versions for four hands or two pianos. Johannes Brahms' Sonata in F minor Op.34b for two pianos is the better known, because it has exactly the same music as his popular Piano Quintet. One simply does not miss the strings here, as Brahms' conception was more symphonic rather than texture-based.

The duo of French-Cypriot Cyprien Katsaris and French-Canadian Helene Mercier are totally musical throughout, yet able to summon the forces of passion for the tempestuous Scherzo and the 4^th movement's final showdown. 

A true rarity based on another popular work is Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat major Op.44 in a transcription for piano four hands by his wife Clara Schumann. She was the bona fide piano virtuoso of the couple, and the result is so idiomatic such that one wonders why this is not played more often. Here is a gem of a disc that deserves many listens.     

SIBELIUS The Symphonies

Lahti Symphony / OKKO KAMU

BIS 2076 (3 CDS) / *****

Longing for a symphony cycle by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) from the Singapore Symphony Orchestra? This is the closest thing to it. SSO's Finnish Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu has recorded all seven symphonies in his homeland with the Lahti Symphony, where he is Principal Conductor. It is a magnificent set that truly captures Sibelius' heroic and often rough-hewn music.

A way of listening is to follow his progression from first-time symphonist to that of a visionary. Symphony No.1 (1900) on Disc 1 follows from Tchaikovsky's model, then cut off to Disc 2 for the popular Symphony No.2 (1902) as he is established as Finland's patriot. 

This is followed by Symphony No.5 (1919) which shares its bluster and rhetoric. Disc 3 brings together the lightly-textured Symphony No.3 (1907), Symphony No.6 (1923) and the compact Symphony No.7 (1924), which is the shortest symphony comprising his longest single movement.

Then return to Disc 1 to conclude with the enigmatic Symphony No.4 (1911), the bleakest of utterances that ponders the future, as if staring into an abyss. Sibelius' conception revolutionised the 20^th century symphony form, in the manner that Beethoven did a century before.    

SSO CONCERT: EROICA / Review

EROICA

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (1 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 April 2016 with the title "Strings shine in musical picture postcard".

Felix Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture might just be the best example of a musical picture postcard. It records his impressions of Fingal's Cave, a geographical phenomenon of basalt pillars amid crashing waves off Scotland's remote Staffa island. That the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by its Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu took a leisurely view to its opening came as a surprise.

Theirs was a vista of a calm sea with more than a hint of the sun, given its gently lapping rhythm. The strings shone with the geniality of a warm English summer, and it seemed a long while coming before a windswept spray arrived, and it did so with a welcome surge in pulse and volume.

If Mendelssohn was a portrait of politeness, Sergei Prokofiev struck like a serpent baring fangs in his iconoclastic Second Piano Concerto in G minor. This has become the signature piece of young piano virtuosos willing to hyperflex their muscles and raise the roof. Even among overwrought performances which are a norm, Hong Kong-born Chiyan Wong's account stood out for being vastly different and often revisionist.

How he stressed and stretched the opening movement's slow tempos, peppering it with ear-catching accents at unexpected places and dragging out the massive cadenza to almost eternity was certain to perk one up. His quickfire reflexes in the machine-gun-like Scherzo - concluded within all of two minutes - was almost a given. The rambunctious Intermezzo and tempestuous Finale gave him much opportunity to redefine the meaning of the word “grotesque”.

One suspects the enfant terrible in Prokofiev would not have minded at all. With excellent accounts on disc by youngsters Yuja Wang, Kirill Gerstein and Beatrice Rana available for reference, Wong is very much his own man with many things valid to say. His encore, Liszt's late and bleak Nuages Gris (Grey Clouds) – also in G minor – and the very antithesis of the concerto, was also proof of unique thought processes at work. 

More conventional was conductor Kamu's expansive leadership in Beethoven's Third Symphony, popularly known as the Eroica Symphony, yet it was anything but run of the mill. Two vehemently registered E flat major chords rang out his intent, and the life and death struggle of the 1^st movement unfolded with a magisterial directness.

The Funeral March slow movement meandered within its longeurs, coming across as stately and not doom-laden. Principal oboist Rachel Walker's fine solos lit up this sombre preocession, and patience was rewarded with a very personal view of tragedy, unfurling itself at the impassioned climax.

The rollicking Scherzo 3^rd movement skipped with a litheness that was disarming, but the best part was the French horn trio of Han Chang Chou, Marc-Antoine Robillard and Alan Kartik whose whooping triads leapt up unabashedly to steal the show. The finale's variations on a quirky theme from The Creatures of Prometheus provided that welcome bit of rowdy humour. Beethoven was all blood and guts, but it was his human side that was most heartwarming, as this performance amply demonstrated.

SSO CONCERT: METAMORPHOSEN / Review

METAMORPHOSEN

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (10 October 2014)          

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 October 2014 with the title "Sweet, intoxicating music on overdrive".

What a pleasure it is to return to the friendly and welcoming atmosphere of the newly renovated Victoria Concert Hall, the true home of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The historical venue holds fond memories for many who have attended concerts (and performed) here. A collegial air prevails where the audience feels close to the performers, and visitors are not subjected to intrusive and demeaning bag checks.

One thing that has not been completely fixed is the acoustics. With the carpeting removed and the stage extended, there has been a tendency for orchestral performances to sound over bright and hyper-brilliant. Romantic era symphonies are rendered plethoric and over-reverberant, hence the preference to perform chamber-sized works here becomes a priority.

  

The orchestra needed to perform Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No.3 is probably the largest outfit that can comfortably fit onto its stage. And what a big sound its opening note was, with a terrific thwack produced on the timpani. Listen further on and one becomes impressed with the full-bodied sonority drawn from the orchestra. Individual details such as Jin Ta’s flute solo or May Yue’s clarinet solo are clear as crystal, while Jon Paul Dante’s pivotal off-stage trumpet solo becomes the most memorable moment.   

A different soundscape exists for Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, scored for 23 string instruments with individual parts. A requiem for the destruction of Germany’s cultural landmarks during the Second World War, its funereal pace was enhanced by the reverberation provided.

Few of the 23 perform at a given moment, but each stood out on their own right. When the individual layers coalesced leading to its feverish climax when all the players were at full tilt, the effect was simply awe-inspiring. The depth of catharsis yielded and the little quote of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony at its end sealed a thoroughly absorbing outing.

The concert led by SSO Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu closed with Mendelssohn’s youthful Concerto in D minor for Violin and Piano. Composed at a tender age of 14, it relies on an over-abundance of exuberant flourishes and multitudes of notes through its 40 minute duration. To this end, the soloists, violinist Kam Ning and pianist Albert Tiu, obliged with a whole-hearted generosity and quite stunning accuracy.  

Precocity does not necessarily equate with maturity in this work, as the music which strongly drew from Mozartian eloquence and grace soon went on hyper-drive. The perfumed melodies became over-scented while sweetness bordered on cloying in the slow movement. With both violinist and pianist revelling in scintillating high speeds in the outer movements, it seemed too much of a good thing.

The orchestra supported the venture well, and even with augmentation by winds in this version, it never came close to overwhelming the soloists. As if to further pat themselves on the back, Kam and Tiu gave an encore that was even faster: Intoxication, a rag by John Novacek. This count of drunk-driving was not awarded a ticket, but a fulsome round of applause. 

SSO CONCERT: STEPHEN HOUGH PLAYS DVORAK / Review

STEPHEN HOUGH PLAYS DVORAK

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (4 October 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 October 2014 with the title "Definitive Dvorak".

Of the piano concertos that are recorded with some frequency, the one that has long eluded the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s programmers is Antonin Dvorak’s Piano Concerto in G minor.  That is until now. The key has been to find a soloist that can make its music stand out beyond the mere notes. Its belated Singapore premiere was given by British pianist Stephen Hough, who joins an elite group of pianist like Sviatoslav Richter, Rudolf Firkusny and Andras Schiff to have championed and recorded it to much acclaim.

Its relative neglect is a mystery because the work is full of good melodies and bravura passages for the piano. The first movement is Beethovenian, down to its opening tutti and piano’s entry, reminiscent of the German’s Fourth Piano Concerto, and a demanding chord-laden cadenza. Hough musicality shone through like a beacon, with the orchestra sensitively supporting his every musing and flourish.

The slow movement had the quality of a nocturne based on folk song, which received subtle responses with every turn of phrase. This was before breaking out in the spirited and whimsical romp of the finale, where Hough’s steadiness, sense of rhythm and pulse were paramount. While this concerto still lags in popularity to the cello and violin concertos, an excellent reading such as this will certainly further its cause.

In keeping with the concert’s title, Hough’s two encores were also by Dvorak, his own delectable transcription of Songs My Mother Taught Me, and the ubiquitous Humoresque in G flat major (Op.101 No.8) in its original piano version.

The rest of the concert, conducted by SSO Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu, was decidedly Nordic. The Dane Carl Nielsen’s Helios Overture was an excellent curtain-raiser, a musical depiction of the sun rising and setting, with the Greek god Helios riding his chariot across the skies in between. The double basses opened with a just audible light hum, over which the brass warmed up and eventually took flight in full-throated fashion.

The brass was just as impressive in the Finn Jean Sibelius’s Second Symphony, for which Kamu’s authority in his compatriot’s music was absolute. The warmth radiated from the playing at its outset, palpably felt on the strings, could melt icebergs and glaciers. The pacing was broad with its intent, and one was made to feel that it was leading to something transcendent. No moment felt sluggish as the music made its way from furtive beginnings to nationalist flag-waving glory.

Like the tone poem Finlandia, this symphony was to inflame passions and patriotic fervour in the hearts of its first listeners, and so it was in this performance. The third movement’s agitation had a rallying voice in Rachel Walker’s excellent oboe solo, which was as pure and untainted as possibly imagined, and the build-up to the big tune of the finale was thrilling to say the least.

The criticism that the SSO reserves its best by performing well only in overseas concerts must be countered with vigour, and this was a concert that honestly and truly silences the naysayers and their little idle notions.

CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (20 November 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 November 2013 with the title "Twittering in the night music".

The title of this concert was rather apt. Other than referring to Bela Bartok’s 1944 masterpiece that was on the programme, it also reminded the listener that every piece of music performed was a virtuoso act, and each member of the orchestra was a soloist in his or her own right. 

The true concerto of the evening was Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, which showcased the outsized talents of Chinese-Australian cellist Qin Li-Wei. Head of cello studies at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, he made light work of its ferocious demands. Whether waxing ironical on the work’s insistent four-note motif, bringing out the bittersweet lyricism in the slow movement, or battling demons in the extended cadenza, his grasp was never in doubt.

Equal to the task was principal French horn Han Chang Chou, whose echoing of that motif and pitching of counter-melodies against the cello provided a trenchant response. The orchestra led by Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu gave subtle accompaniment while exerting itself when it mattered. As a tribute, Qin’s gesture of taking curtain calls sans cello (which meant no encore) was a gallant one. He was not going steal the thunder from his partners.

The subject of an orchestra of virtuosos was apparent in the first piece, Jean Sibelius’s early tone poem En Saga.  There was an ethereal hush in the opening, created by quiet violin tremolos. Not everyone was playing, and when they did, players were bowing in opposing motions. This effect was to create a mystique from which the non-programmatic work germinated and grew to mighty proportions, as a legend (or saga as the title implied) would.

The very assured viola solo from Zhang Manchin singing the principal theme came like a bard of ancient times recounting tales of fantasy while Li Xin’s clarinet solo at the close was the hero surviving another day to spin his yarn for eternity later. With such vivid music-making, conjuring up imagery became almost second nature.

Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra was the orchestra’s calling card in its early concert tours during the early 1990s. The reason is simple: the five movements gave musicians more than ample opportunities to flex their solo abilities besides sounding terrific as a massed body. This performance did not disappoint, with the strings and woodwinds in particularly impressive form.

The second movement’s Game of Couples was a good indication of the prowess of bassoons, oboes, clarinets, flutes, and trumpets playing in paired tandems. The brass faltering for a few steps in the central chorale did little to dampen the ardour. The Elegy had flute and piccolo twinkling and twittering in the night music, and the Interrupted Intermezzo, with its parody on Shostakovich, had the best jokes cracked by the rollicking brass.

The finale was an excellent show of ensemble and togetherness, cemented by tautness of the playing and razor-fine reflexes, truly living up to the title of the concert.     

SSO Concert: BRAHMS DOUBLED / Review

BRAHMS DOUBLED

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (1 March 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 March 2013 with the title "A perfect love match".

Concerts of all-German music are nothing unusual, but this one conducted by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu was of music that cast a backward glance to musical traditions of the past.

The 20^th century German composer Paul Hindemith should no longer strike fear in the hearts of concert-goers, as his primary preoccupation was to emulate J.S.Bach. Thus his ballet suite Nobilissma Visione, inspired by the life of Francis of Assisi, had a ring of the familiar despite its mild dissonances.

Mellow strings, always a pride of the orchestra, shaded the Introduction with a lustrous patina. The mock-military March with Roberto Alvarez’s perky piccolo soon culminated in a busy fugue, while there was no disguising the passacaglia form in the striding finale which brought the work to a satisfying close.

Johannes Brahms was innovative in using the passacaglia to conclude his Fourth Symphony, but the Third Symphony in F major heard this evening was a little more traditional. His model was Beethoven, but with less angst and more objectivity.

There are reasons why this symphony is less popular than his other three. It is his least emotionally-wrought utterance, has two slow movements played in succession, and ends on a quiet note with a retiring variation of the virile opening theme.

Kamu refused to overplay its qualities, instead coaxing his forces to stay close to the middle of the road. The final outcome, while not boring its listeners, was one of overall safety. There were moments, however, in the central slow movements that genuinely touched.

The highlight of the evening was the performance of Brahms’s Double Concerto for violin and cello, featuring two SSO musicians. Violinist and Co-Leader Lynnette Seah is the orchestra’s longest serving player (since 1978), while cellist Ng Pei Sian is the orchestra’s youngest ever principal (born 1984). Age and experience were not an issue, as they blended beautifully together.

After the emphatic opening orchestral tutti, Ng’s big solo, weighty but delicately poised and possessed with a freedom as if improvised, set the tone. Despite awry intonation from French horns attempting to crash the party, Seah’s sweet-toned violin rose to meet the challenge. It was not so much a gauntlet, but a love-match.

Their interplay was delightful throughout, with neither seeking to outdo each other. In the slow movement, the even unison of its hymn-like melody was so wondrously weaved as to be nigh inseparable. It was left to the Hungarian-flavoured Rondo finale for both to bring out the fireworks. Their two encores together – Londonderry Air and Faure’s Pavane – were a testament to the art of listening to each other. That was just the perfect send-off.  

          

SSO Concert: THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS / Review

THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (2 November 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 November 2012 with the title "Orchestral colours in four moods".

Some 33 years ago, this reviewer heard a two-dollar pirated cassette recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto by Gary Graffman and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein. The romantic, opulent and heart-wrenching music, rendered in an honest-to-goodness yet viscerally thrilling performance, proved to be a life-changing event. The tape was played so often that the reel soon unravelled, chewed up and spat out by the player’s mechanism. In short, I was hooked.

Cassette tapes have gone the way of the typewriter, but the octogenarian Graffman still goes strong as a pedagogue. His students at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute have included Lang Lang, Yuja Wang and this evening’s soloist Zhang Haochen. Zhang, the first Chinese pianist to win First Prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, relived many of those cherished moments in the very same concerto.

Zhang does not come across as a barnstorming pianist, but rather a thinker who instinctively knows the tide, ebb and flow of the music, and how to build up to the big moment. The opening chords gave a clue, beginning with a sigh and closing with a roar. Unfailingly musical, he breathed the same air as the orchestra, never surging unimpeded but always listening to his partners.

The second movement brought out these qualities best, playing the ever-sensitive accompanist as flautist Evgueni Brokmiller and clarinettist Li Xin sang out their solos. And when his turn came, Zhang accepted the gauntlet gratefully, his impeccable technique ever in service of the music. The finale’s tricky interplay of finger-twisting virtuosity and arch-lyricism fell easily within his hands, as pianist and orchestra raced to an exciting photo-finish.

Ever modest and self-effacing, his encore of Debussy’s little prelude The Girl With The Flaxen Hair was the perfect antidote to the surfeit of loud notes that came before.

The concert began with Hindemith’s Concert Music For Strings And Brass, its title typical of the 20^th century German composer’s idea of utility music, compositions crafted for the sake of pedagogy and practice. The dissonance and somewhat astringent themes fell on fertile soil in its two movements, as the orchestra’s brass chorales and busy string counterpoint rang out an enthralling, and even entertaining performance. 

After the Rachmaninov, the audience had significantly thinned in its ranks. Those who left missed an excellent showing of Carl Nielsen’s Second Symphony under the baton of SSO’s Finnish Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu. The Dane Nielsen, like his contemporary Sibelius, saw the symphony as his greatest vehicle of musical expression.    

Its four varied movements took the Four Temperaments as their inspirations, beginning with the Choleric, with short tempered and volatile outbursts colouring the first movement. Orchestral colours were on vivid display, even in the Phlegmatic second movement’s leisurely and good natured waltz, aided by a tottering pair of bassoons. A degree of gravitas was injected into the Melancholic, as Brucknerian strings built up to a dead serious and tragic climax.

Even if the joyous outpourings of the Sanguine finale did not fully dispel the earlier gloom, it was the sheer range of emotions covered in its eventful half-hour that impressed, not least by an orchestra that plays like it really means it.