SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL VIOLIN COMPETITION 2018: FINALS / Review

FINALS, SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL

VIOLIN COMPETITION 2018

with Yong Siew Toh 
Conservatory Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Monday & Tuesday (5 & 6 February 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 February 2018 with the title "Talent galore at violin competition".

The 2^nd Singapore International Violin Competition has reached its Finals round. Twenty-nine international competitors were whittled down to just six, each performing a violin concerto by Mozart with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra conducted by the competition's Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, the Israeli violinist-conductor Shlomo Mintz.

Held over two evenings, there were four performances of the Third Violin Concerto in G major (K.216) and two of the Fourth Violin Concerto in D major (K.218).  Mozart's concertos are small-scaled early works that call for sensitivity and musicianship rather than mere outright display, and it was very interesting to see how these young virtuosos responded.

The petite physical stature of Chisa Kitagawa (Japan) did little to deter a highly confident showing of Concerto No.4, which projected an outsized sonority that was both incisive yet musical. Its cantabile lines were gracefully delineated, especially in the stately slow movement, and the outer movement cadenzas tastefully crafted to suite the Rococo style.

In contrast, the burly Sergei Dogadin (Russia) was more of a showman in Concerto No.3, totally comfortable with his sleights of hand. He skilfully kept emotional excesses in check except during the outsized cadenzas which sounded almost disproportionate. His was otherwise a highly nuanced performance with lots of character.

Closing the first evening was another Concerto No.3, from Laurel Gagnon (USA) who was a towering physical presence. Her violin looked puny in her hands but she made it sing with a naturalness that was both disarming and distinctive. Her show of delicacy and restraint was admirable, and so were the very idiomatic cadenzas as she proved that less was more.

Two Third Concertos bookended a Fourth Concerto on the second evening. Oleksandr Korniev (Ukraine) and Shi Xiaoxuan (China), both alumni of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, did their alma mater proud with rather different but equally valid showings in the G major concerto.

Korniev, attired in just plain shirtsleeves, was as cool as they come. He matched Dogadin's flair with a deep and penetrating sonority of his own, and had equally showy cadenzas on offer. Other than a momentary straying of intonation in the slow movement, there was little to dislike in his outing.

Shi struck an even finer balance in the same concerto. An epitome of grace and refinement, her slow movement was one to be savoured over and over. Lisa Yasuda (Japan), the youngest finalist at 19, put on a virtuosic twist to the D major concerto, standing out for its resoluteness and slickness when tenderness and warmth would have been preferred.  

The international jury of nine members voted to advance Kitagawa, Dogadin and Korniev to the Grand Final with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joshua Tan. To be held on Thursday evening at Esplanade Concert Hall, the great concertos by Sibelius and Tchaikovsky await. A surfeit of violin pyrotechnics beckons.  

And the finalists are:
Chisa Kitagawa (Japan),
Sergei Dogadin (Russia) &
Oleksandr Korniev (Ukraine)

SCANDINAVIAN SOIRÉE / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

SCANDINAVIAN SOIRÉE

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (21 February 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 February 2014 with the title "Sublime pleasure with fireworks".

It is always a pleasure to see young orchestras tackle blockbusters of the repertoire, like the Conservatory Orchestra in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben in recent years. However young musicians also need to learn doing the less glamourous work, such as accompanying soloists and playing short pieces. All this is part and parcel of a holistic education for an orchestral and ensemble player.

This concert with a Scandinavian slant began with two concertante works featuring two winners of the conservatory’s concerto competitions. First was bassoonist Liang Geng in Swedish composer Franz Berwald’s Concert Piece, a virtuoso work in the early Romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber’s showpieces.

The soloist’s range was immediately put to the test in the opening bars, having to make leaps to both extremes of the instrument’s reach. Stunts of adroitness aside, Liang’s brought out a warm and full sound from the gentle giant of woodwinds, in a physically taxing piece which also had passages of true lyricism. A pleasant surprise was in the centre, where a series of variations on the popular song Home, Sweet Home held sway. 

Loud cheers also greeted second soloist Shi Xiaoxuan who made Saint-Saens’s popular Third Violin Concerto very much her own. Having won 1^st Prize in the Artist Category of the 2013 National Violin Competition, here was a joyous rerun. Her lush and often gorgeous tone on the 1729 Montagnana was a joy to behold, especially in the lilting Andantino slow movement, where interplay with the orchestra was both intimate and subtle.   

When it came to unleashing the fireworks, there was no let-up in her delivery. This was tempered by an acute awareness of an inner pulse, adjusting ever so sensitively to the ebb and flow of the music’s dynamics. Such an instinctual approach is what makes a true musician.

The concert’s second half was devoted to all 8 short movements from both Peer Gynt Suites by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. Guest conductor Joshua Kangming Tan, Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, had the orchestra perform the incidental music in the running sequence of Henrik Ibsen’s melodrama.

Chronologically this made a whole lot of sense, and the players were more than up to the task. There was plenty of drama in The Hall of the Mountain King, where the split-second timing was close to perfect. The muted string sonority in The Death of Aase was homogeneous and evoked much poignancy. The familiar Morning Mood, depicting sunrise over the Sahara Desert, could have been a shade more ethereal.

The Arabian Dance, more like a Nordic wedding dance with piccolos, and Anitra’s Dance leapt to life, and the best was reserved for the final number, Solvieg’s Song. The strings again were a singular pleasure in the main melody, and how that gently glided into a lilting lullaby. It is a rare concert that ends on a quiet note, but only one word can describe the feeling: sublime.