BRAHMS THE TWO PIANO CONCERTOS / Tedd Joselson & Asian Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

BRAHMS THE TWO PIANO CONCERTOS 

Tedd Joselson (Piano) 

Asian Symphony Orchestra 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Sunday (16 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 June 2024 with the title "Pianist Tedd Joselson plays Brahms with virtuosity".

A Herculean feat never previously attempted in Singapore is a concert bringing together both of German composer Johannes Brahms’ piano concertos. It had to be done sometime. That was left to Belgian-American pianist Tedd Joselson, resident here since 1999, and the Asian Symphony Orchestra under Belgian-Singaporean conductor Robert Casteels to do the honours. The concert was in aid of Heartware Network, a non-profit organisation that empowers youth. 

Brahms, young and old.

If one wondered if that was too much of a good thing, the reality was that one cannot get enough of it. Both concertos, running over 45 minutes each, were contrasted works coming from different periods of Brahms’ creative output. Both required different approaches, and all the performers came up with required musical responses to make the unwieldly tandem sound right. 

Photo: Benjamin Chiau

The First Piano Concerto in D minor (Op.15) was a creation of callow youth and exuberance from a 25-year-old. The opening orchestral tutti established the tone of almighty struggle, with Joselson’s mellow entry seemingly in direct opposition. The ensuing clash of titans, literally a tug-of-war between piano and orchestra, was at its most absorbing when Joselson piled on octave runs and chordal salvoes to stunning effect. 

Photo: Pianomaniac

Nothing fazed the 72-year-old veteran, whose sensitive touch shone in lyrical moments, such as the first movement’s second subject and the slow movement’s hymn-like theme bearing the inscription Benedictus, Qui Venit In Nomine Domini (Blessed, He Who Comes In The Name Of The Lord). 

For raw passion unleashed, the Rondo finale saw Joselson sprint out like a man possessed, and his ability to sustain that level of tension throughout was enviable for even someone half his age. That the orchestra’s winds were excellent following the fugato was testament to attention paid to fine details, and the work barrelled victoriously to a colossal close. 

Photo: Heartware Network

The Second Piano Concerto in B flat major (Op.83) was composed some 26 years later, a work of mature sobriety. Conceived more like a four-movement symphony than virtuoso vehicle, the demanding piano part becomes almost an integral part of the orchestra. The opening conversation between Alan Kartik’s French horn and Joselson set the tone before another battle royale began. 

Photo: Heartware Network

While not as note-perfect as the earlier concerto, Joselson still commanded the stage with an imperiousness which Casteels and his forces matched blow for blow. The mighty Scherzo continued without letting off, but the best was reserved for the slow movement. 

Photo: Pianomaniac

With cellist Hang-Oh Cho’s sublime solo leading the way and Joselson’s smoothest possible response, detente was at hand. Seldom has this Andante radiated so much sunshine and beauty, leaving behind earlier storms as distant memories. The light-hearted finale with its send-up to the Viennese waltz became the perfect send off, and the applause rained even before the last emphatic chord had ended. 

Photo: Pianomaniac

Photo: Heartware Network

There cannot be more than very few souls in attendance who have witnessed the great Ukrainian-American pianist Vladimir Horowitz in person, but Joselson’s volatile and mercurial brand of virtuosity is probably the closest thing to that.

Photo: Benjamin Chiau

MIKKEL STARS CHOPIN / Mikkel Myer Lee & Asian Symphony Orchestra / Review

MIKKEL STARS CHOPIN

Mikkel Myer Lee, Piano

Asian Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (6 June 2023)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 June 2023 with the title "Pianist Mikkel Myer Lee displays prodigious talent with Chopin's concertos".

 

Back in 1984, a 12-year-old Russian pianist with black tousled hair rocked the musical world by performing both piano concertos of Frederic Chopin in the Great Hall of Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory. His name was Evgeny Kissin. Singapore has found its own Kissin in Mikkel Myer Lee, who repeated the same Chopin feat at Esplanade Concert Hall on Tuesday evening. He was just three days short of his eleventh birthday.

 

Studying piano with American-Singaporean pianist Tedd Joselson and composition with Belgian-Singaporean composer-conductor Robert Casteels, the angelic pre-teen with a pageboy cut was so diminutive that his feet just reached the pedals of the piano. Displaying an innocence and guileless stage demeanour, he even had to be guided as to whom to greet and when to bow.  

 

However, once ensconced on the piano stool, the mini-maestro of the keyboard took over. The Second Piano Concerto in F minor (Op.21), chronologically the earlier of two concertos, was performed first. This was absolutely the right choice, given its more intimate scale and feel. Straight off, one was struck by his sensitive and soulful approach to the music. Besides being impeccable in the most technically challenging passages, his musical phrasing was as natural as breathing itself.

 

While waxing lyrical on the perfectly-tuned C.Bechstein concert grand, what he lacked was power and projection. Listeners seated at the rear stalls and upper galleries would be hard-pressed to hear the fine details, despite the accompanying Asian Symphony Orchestra being exhorted by conductor Casteels to exercise maximum restraint.

 

This became more apparent in the First Piano Concerto in E minor (Op.11), a longer, grander and more imposing work calling for more orchestral winds and brass. Despite the odds, Lee held his own, exerting whatever heft available in big chords and octaves. Poetry was never in short supply, and he came into his own in the Larghetto slow movements, where transparent, lyrical nocturne-like qualities suited him to a tee.

 

With the orchestra silenced, the short solo cadenza in the Romanze of the First Concerto was taken at a broad and measured tempo. It was his way of saying, “now listen to me when I am not in a hurry”, its clear and crystalline ringing sonority being a clear sign he had ideas of his own. The Polish dance rhythm in the finale was a life-affirming romp. This made for a grandstanding close with a spontaneous standing ovation to match.

 

In a nation that has produced wunderkinds over the decades, with pianists Abigail Sin, Mervyn Lee and Toby Tan, violinists Lee Huei Min, Tang Tee Khoon and Chloe Chua coming to mind, Mikkel Myer Lee is the youngest. He might just be the most prodigious one of them all. 

RESONANCES: RESILIENCE & LOTUS FUGUE / Bellepoque / Review

RESONANCES:

RESILIENCE & LOTUS FUGUE

Bellepoque

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (10 July 2021)

An edited version of this review was published by The Straits Times on 14 July 2021 with the title "Seeking beauty in a time of ugliness". 

 

The Covid pandemic has inspired musical endeavours, not least the Compassion series of chamber concerts at this year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts. Resonances, a double bill by local musical theatre company Bellepoque, seemed like a logical extension but turned out radically different in its execution.

 

Rather than a concert proper of listed set pieces, the audience was treated to two separate and seemingly unconnected works of performance art. Multi-disciplinary in nature by combining music, movement, spoken word and film, the synergism derived in both formed an aesthetically pleasing whole.

 

The first part, Resilience, was a 20-minute long composition by Robert Casteels, who true to form defied conventions of concert music. If it is unclassifiable, it is likely to be by Casteels, who was himself part of a trio of live musicians. Operating on electronics and pre-recorded material, he was partnered by pianist Bertram Wee and violinist Kailin Yong who improvised for most part by not having any scores at hand.

Bellepoque founder-director Sabrina Zuber provided the element of dance movement, but eclipsing her in the memory were the lighting design by Yeo Hon Beng and stunning filmography of Tejas Ewing and Deepesh Vasudev. Theirs was a kaleidoscopic treatment of subjects including filmed musicians, nature and cityscapes, an allegory of healing and rejuvenation. This idea was further emphasised by the music centred on and firmly closing in the reaffirming key of E major.

 

If Resilience was virile and masculine in feel, the second part Lotus Fugue was to be its feminine counterpart. At almost double its length, excerpts from letters and lecture scripts of legendary local artist Georgette Chen were neatly wrapped up as a story engagingly told by veteran writer-playwright-actress Verena Tay.

 

The accompanying music was more traditional, with sung melodies by Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy (pre-recorded by Zuber, now doubling as soprano), piano solos of Erik Satie, Debussy and improvisations by pianist Tabitha Gan. These better reflected the impressionist lotus paintings of Chen, which merged Western techniques with Eastern sensibilities.

 

The more substantial dance segment was helmed by Mohd Sharul Muhd, exhibiting a rare grace and athleticism in a white frock. His moves were sometimes mirrored by the ubiquitous Zuber, who flitted on and off the floor in a subsidiary role. The accompanying visuals were again en point, but it was Chen’s own words that literally rang with the most resonance.

 

At a time when people question the role and value of artists in society, Chen provided the answers. Why do we do it? Art is “a labour of love,” she countered, and that alone was the “eternal driving force”. As a parting short, she also added, “When a lotus blooms, its beauty drives out all ugliness in the world.” It may be surmised that all the artists involved in Resonances strived for beauty in a time of ugliness.  

Final curtain call.
Photo by PianoManiac

 

All photos by Xavier Keutch Photography 

(unless otherwise stated).

TEDD JOSELSON'S GOLDEN JUBILEE / Review

TEDD JOSELSON'S GOLDEN JUBILEE

with ROBERT CASTEELS, Conductor

Reuben Manasseh Meyer Concert Hall

Sunday (2 July 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 July 2017 with the title "Outstanding piano concertos".

The occasion was sold as the 50^th anniversary of American pianist Tedd Joselson's concert debut, but this concert was more like an offshoot of the annual piano concerto festival organised by young Singaporean pianist Leslie Theseira. Three piano concertos were performed by Joselson and two of his former students, almost constituting a concise history of the form. They were accompanied by the ADDO Chamber Orchestra conducted by Robert Casteels.

The baroque era was represented by J.S.Bach's Keyboard Concerto in A major (BWV.1055), created at the infancy of the genre. Originally conceived for harpsichord, Theseira crafted a gentle, mincing timbre, which sounded initially like part of the orchestra (strings only) but soon developed a voice of its own. Not yet a vehicle of virtuosity, the concerto sounded pretty, with simple ornamentation and general understatement as its highlights.

The World Premiere of Robert Casteels' Piano Concerto came next, impressively articulated by Nicholas Ho. Casteels explained this was based on a much earlier solo piece, orchestrated and completed within just three days. Its gestation was more like three decades, with the free use of atonality and angry dissonances more commonly encountered in the 1980s.

Playing for some 15 minutes, both piano and orchestra (strings and winds) probed and ruminated over a plethora of thematic ideas, with the ostensible aim of finding its home key of E flat major. Eventful, inventive and quasi-improvisatory, there were alternating moments of serenity and violence, several false dawns and vocalisations of that elusive E flat by orchestral members.

The end finally came with an emphatic and abrupt succession of E flat major chords, closing with the pianist plucking an E flat string in the innards of the piano. Beethoven's Emperor this is not, but a worthy addition to the small canon of Singaporean piano concertos.

Tedd Joselson, now a Singapore permanent resident, closed the concerto segment with Mozart's Piano Concerto No.23 in A major (K.488), a work he first performed as a teenager with the English Chamber Orchestra. Concerto performances by Joselson are a rarity these days, but this outing was a treat because he still possesses that wherewithal and authority to pull it off.

Confidence, fine control and sensitivity marked the first movement, culminating with Mozart's own cadenza. Although the orchestra sounded thin in parts, it supported the endeavour well. Joselson's solo sicilienne which opened the slow movement was a thing of beauty, and this continued dream-like through its entire course.

The exultant finale literally caught fire in Joselson's mercurial fingers, and the outcome was a thrilling adrenaline-filled affair. His was an unfaltering, no-holds-barred view, leaving one with no doubt of an undimmed prowess and artistry.

After the concertos, there was solo recitals by four of Joselson's students which continued into the early evening. There was a lot of music, but as posterity goes, it was Casteels' premiere and Joselson's Mozart that stood out.  

Leslie Theseira and Nicholas Ho presented a
"birthday" ditty in honour of their teacher Tedd Joselson.

SCENTS OF JOSEPHINE / Bellepoque / Review

SCENTS OF JOSEPHINE

Bellepoque

Black Box @ Drama Centre

Thursday (27 April 2017)

To do justice to a well-loved historical personality within a production of 90 minutes is a tall order. All the more if that happened to be the multi-faceted artist that was America-born singer-dancer Josephine Baker (1906-1975) who made her fame and fortune in France.

Part of the Voilah! French Festival, Scents Of Josephine was not a musical, but a play by Singapore-based French playwright Marc Goldberg with musical pieces running through its thread. Baker does not appear as a character, instead her life and legacy were mirrored by four women in the form of a backstage discussion.

Reflections of Josephine might also have been an apt title, but the audience got many whiffs and wafts of Baker, which made much sense of Scents. While none of the women remotely resembled the sexy and seductive African-American waif in her prime, but their totally riveting story-telling hit the mark.

An air of informality presided over Samzy Jo's stage direction, and the audience unsuspectingly becoming eavesdroppers on the foursome. British Afro-Caribbean actress Sharon Frese had the only non-singing part, and she immediately broke the ice by raising the topic of race, illustrated by the irony of black women straightening their hair and lightening their skin to appear whiter.

With race out in the open, there was scope to discuss gender, sexual orientation, social status, equality, human rights and other seemingly contentious subjects. Baker was a woman ahead of her time, breaking all barriers in her performances, dances, costumes and alternative lifestyles. She was an icon like today's Madonna, Britney Spears, Rihanna and Kardashians all rolled into one.

The three vocalists provided different vistas to Baker's personality. French jazz singer Andayoma portrayed strength and resilience, Singaporean musical theatre singer Caitanya Tan oozed youthfulness and sexuality, while Italian operatic soprano Sabrina Zuber exposed frailty and vulnerability.

  

The songs, well-chosen and neatly dovetailed ino the script, ran the gamut from American musical theatre (Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin), Latino hits (Besame Mucho, Brasil) to French chansons (Trenet, Scotto, Misraki). The “orchestra” provided by Robert Casteels (piano), Viviane Salin (violin) and Balraj Gopal (synthesiser guitar) also included a segment of Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring to depict Baker shocking her German audiences.

An attempt to include Singapore into the framework was mercifully limited to few Singlish phrases, but there was a comical scene when 1930s news snippets on Baker in The Straits Times were quoted. The audience also learns that a 1938 world tour (including Singapore) was unfortunately cancelled just before the outbreak of war.

The singularly most gripping scene was Frese reliving Baker's 1963 speech alongside Martin Luther King in his Civil Rights Movement march on Washington D.C., a veritable showstopper. What about Baker's infamously skimpy “skirt of bananas”? It finally made an appearance in the final ensemble song Feeling Like A Million, on a more than adequately covered Caitanya Tan. Was this a case of “less flesh please, we're Singaporeans”?

Playwright Marc Goldberg speaks.

 Photographs by the kind permission of Bellepoque.

FUN WITH MUSIC! / The Philharmonic Winds / Review

FUN WITH MUSIC!

The Philharmonic Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (3 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 April 2016 with the title "Blown away by fun tunes".

Every arts group knows it is vital to build audiences and future supporters for its cause, which is why light music is often programmed with that aim in mind. Although this concert by The Philharmonic Winds was not billed as a young people's concert, it was attended by many families and children who knew that the titular “Fun” was not to be resisted.

Conducted by its founding artist director Robert Casteels, the 80-minute long afternoon concert opened with Eric Coates' London Bridge March, a rousing curtain-raiser that also introduced that master of Masters of Ceremonies, William Ledbetter, who played the role of circus ringmaster and agent provocateur as only he knows how. Following which, Michael Markowski's arrangement of Turkey In The Straw was so luxuriantly and jazzily orchestrated in the form of variations that the original melody was almost completed masked.

The first soloist to appear was 12-year-old Chen Xinyu, whose breathtaking pipa solo in the Chinese classic Ambush From All Sides (arranged by Ong Jiin Joo for wind orchestra) was literally a showstopper. There was a section when conductor Casteels stepped off the podium and the orchestra silenced as she evoked the raucous sounds of furious battle, later joined by shouts from the players. 

Not to be outdone was clarinettist Ralph Emmanuel Lim in Adolf Schreiner's Immer Kleiner (Always Smaller), who had his instrument dissembled joint by joint until he was left with its mouthpiece. As the pitch got progressively higher, so did his playing get faster, capping off this virtuoso vehicle with a shrieking squeak.

Three percussionists. Dennis Sim, Yeow Ching Shiong and Sng Yiang Shan, then took centrestage in a hilariously choreographed version of Leroy Anderson's Sandpaper Ballet, where three pairs of sandpaper blocks jostled and scraped for their place in the spotlight. Judging from the delighted audience response, they were obviously rubbed the right way.

Sand artist Lawrence Koh gave a masterclass in his rare skill of projected animation, with a sequence of African motifs set to Robert Smith's Africa: Ceremony, Song And Ritual. Visions of tribal art, savannah flora and fauna miraculously surfaced to the strains of indigenous song and drumming.

The final soloist was Singapore Symphony Orchestra tuba player Hidehiro Fujita who proved that his ungainly instrument, the largest in the brass family, was anything but clumsy. The story of Three Billy Goats Gruff was narrated by Ledbetter to outlandish effects in Fredrik Hogberg's Trolltuba, a nifty act that was only exceeded by lots of horseplay and lung power in Vittorio Monti's Csardas, a work usually associated with the gypsy violin.

Shouts for an encore were rewarded with an elaborately dressed version of Do-Re-Mi from the musical The Sound Of Music, which prompted a clap-along and an avalanche of balloons that used to be de rigeuer at SSO's Christmas Concerts. It is another eight months till the Yuletide season, but The Philharmonic Winds was not going to deprive anybody of their quota of fun.