SEIKA ISHIDA PLAYS CHOPIN
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Victoria Concert Hall
Friday (4 August 2023)
This review was first published in Bachtrack on 6 August 2023 with the title "Hans Graf's gripping Schubert's Ninth tops Chopin in Singapore".
Conducted by music director Hans Graf, this Singapore Symphony Orchestra programme was united by three early Romantic composers, with works composed around the time of Beethoven’s death in 1827. Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828) all died young themselves, and one wondered what if each of them had lived for several decades more.
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| SSO Music Director Hans Graf spoke briefly about how the three works in the concert were linked. |
Weber’s Oberon Overture began the concert, perfect opportunity to showcase the orchestra’s new principal horn Austin Larson, who handled the very exposed opening solo with much aplomb. After the slow introduction, the music then eloped into its world of fairies and elves, the lightness (also referenced in the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream) was well captured by the orchestra. If the piece sounded familiar to some listeners in Singapore, that was because of a washing detergent advertisement on television (remember UIC?) that was suitably soapy and sudsy.
Had Weber lived several years beyond the London premiere of Oberon (machinations of which precipitated his premature demise), he might have heard Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto in F minor, an early work (preceding the better-known First Piano Concerto) that owed a debt of influence to Mozart. Young Japanese pianist Seika Ishida was heard last November in the Sturm und Drang of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, and her Chopin was very similar, with clarity and restraint being hallmarks. Some degree of rubato was exercised, which distinguished Chopin from Mozart. When the chance came in the first movement development to catch fire, she remained steadfast and unflappable. One might have wished for a higher quotient of passion.
That was duly delivered in the Larghetto, where contrasts between its nocturne-like opening and the highly-strung central episode became more palpable. The concluding Rondo was more tasteful than exciting, and despite col legno (the wood of bows striking the strings) urgings from violins and violas, strict composure was maintained. The French horn’s wake-up call did the trick, with a rhythmic thrust propelling both soloist and orchestra through to the furious final furlong. Ishida’s lyrical encore showed where her persuasions belonged, a quasi-improvisation that joined Edvard Grieg’s first and last Lyric Pieces, Arietta (Op.12 No.1) and Remembrances (Op.71 No.7), at the hip. Totally charming.
As with the SSO's last concert (of Mozart and Richard Strauss), the highlight was the final work - a gripping performance of Schubert's Symphony No.9 in C major, also known as the "Great". Composed in his last year, premiered in 1839 under the baton of Mendelssohn no less, Schubert's four movements lived up to that favourite description, being of "heavenly length". Yet under Graf's tautly strung reading, its 51 minutes did not sound hectic or harried. It was Larson's French horn again that confidently set the stage for the music's ebb and flow. Even the opening movement sounded breezy and short-winded, while the second movement's brisk march built up to a climax, with an aftermath that paid ever more dividends.
The ensuing Scherzo was suitably rambunctious, and did anyone think that its Trio sounded like For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow? What was never in doubt, was the valedictory finale’s quote of the Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s own Ninth Symphony (composed several years before Schubert’s), which never sounded more blatant. Now here is a thought: had he not died at the tender age of 31, Franz Schubert’s future symphonies might suggest that he, rather than Gustav Mahler, would have become the Austrian symphonist most closely associated with Anton Bruckner.
Star Rating: ****
