NO AUTOGRAPHS PLEASE, We're from Berlin

Four hopeful young people, including two music students and a local composer (obviously fans of the great Sir Simon Rattle), had waited some 30 minutes outside the Esplanade stage door and loading bay in the hope of meeting the Music Director of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

As soon as that famous silver mop came into view, they were stopped by the Maestro’s manager and handler. “No autographs, no photographs, in order to avoid embarrassment,” said the German stuffed suit to the Esplanade staff on duty, and further added that “these people” should stay clear from the driveway when the official BPO limousine drove through. He was not rude but the officious tone sent a clear message: no one should even come close to or within presence of the grey eminence. Being in Sir Simon Rattle’s breathing space is verboten. So clear off, scram and be gone!

Twenty one years after the events of 9 November 1989, a Brit has successfully re-erected the Berlin Wall.

Perhaps some day, all public concerts by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker should be issued with this advisory:

ACHTUNG!

Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker seek your understanding that as an extremely important and busy man, and conductor of “one of the world’s best orchestras”, His Musical Highness does not wish to be in the company of riffraff, hoi polloi, paparazzi, H5N1 supercarriers, lepers und Untermensch. Therefore your chance of getting an autograph is as remote as Madalena Kozena bearing your children. Vielen dank.

Auf Wiedersehen, Herr Rattle

Berliner Philharmoniker with Sir Simon Rattle / Review

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER
WITH SIR SIMON RATTLE
Esplanade Concert Hall
Tuesday & Wednesday (23 & 24 November 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 November 2010.

Few orchestras have come to perform in Singapore with such a burden of expectation as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, that any pre-concert hyperbole would have a hollow ring to it. Epithets such as “one of the world’s best orchestras” just does not seem to do any justice, and with at $680 a pop (the top-priced ticket), it had better be brilliant.

In its final leg of an Australasian tour, the German orchestra under chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle performed a mostly-Viennese programme on two sold-out evenings. Having no concertos on the programme was a bonus; good money was paid not to hear the orchestra accompany soloists. These precious minutes could not have been better spent on purely orchestral fare.

Haydn was the juicy opener on the first evening. Listeners might have lost count on his Symphony No.99 in E flat major, but this was no makeweight. The sound generated from a scaled-down band was full and beefy from the outset, an emphatic Beethovenian chord ushering in playing of both delicacy and refinement. This might sound paradoxical, but the music’s dynamics demanded playing from both ends of the spectrum, to which the orchestra duly obliged. Grace and humour, lightness and drive, were all part of the palette that made its Haydn alive and kicking.

Three Orchestral Pieces (revised 1929) by Alban Berg provided extremes of contrasts. Fast forward Mahler’s sound world by some twenty years and a world war, and one gets is angst compacted into unseeming angular forms. Bare percussion, a whiff of brass and woodwind, greeted a new world order of chaos and nihilism. Alternating between lushness and violence, the ensuing Reigen (Round Dance) and March built up in terrifying intensity, inexorably leading up to that most Mahlerian of dramatic devices, the hammer-blows of Fate.

Brahms’ sunny Second Symphony provided much familiarity but no contempt. Should one ever tire of old warhorses, the antidote was this performance. Perfection never seeks diversions, and it was a pleasure to behold a reading that simply had no weaknesses. From svelte strings, pristine woodwinds (with solo oboe as the shining standout) to brassy chorales, everything sounded as it was meant to be.

The gloom of the slow movement soon made way for the symphony’s most cathartic minutes, all judged to maximum impact. Yet neither exaggeration nor overstatement was necessary. Even in the finale’s rousing throes, the orchestra delighted shifting from sotto voce (a muted whisper) to full-throated roar in a matter of measures, making for an aural experience which the greatest of recordings can never hope to replicate.

Superlatives continued into Wednesday, the second evening. Although Russian music was never the Berlin Philharmonic’s strongest suit, its view of Rachmaninov’s late Symphonic Dances was polished to such a fine sheen as to defy most doubters. Exiled from his homeland, Rachmaninov’s aching nostalgia came through unequivocally. The first movement’s saxophone solo and quote from the First Symphony were delivered superbly, as was the second movement’s ghostly waltz. The most Slavic-coloured finale was stretched close to breaking point, and the clangourous close left several questions hanging. Did this music depict an outright triumph or a pyrrhic victory?

There was little to guess in Mahler’s First Symphony, that most exportable of showpieces of visiting orchestras. One marvelled at the fine degree of control in the audible opening, and its journey from a buzz of pianissimo to the gleam of a bright morning sun. The country dance of the second movement was suitably earthy, and if there were a minor quibble, the Klezmer-like episodes of the third movement’s funeral march could have been more unbuttoned, and less bloodless.

The finale’s trudge from the depths of despair to blazing redemption was deliberate, but one well worth waiting for. The brass had a field day, with the French horns holding court. The standing ovation and chorus of bravos that greeted its conclusion was the most spontaneous ever witnessed in this hall. On the strengths of what transpired over two glorious evenings, it was wholly and well-deserved.

Photographs courtesy of Esplanade Theatres on the Bay (close-up shots), Vincent Wang (sky shots) & PianoManiac (cheap shots).

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2010)

BRAHMS The Symphonies
Berliner Philharmoniker / SIR SIMON RATTLE
EMI Classics 2672542 (3 CDs)
*****

Listening through this cycle of four symphonies by Brahms, one pondered if there was actually a “golden age” of the Berlin Philharmonic. Older cognoscenti swear by Wilhelm Furtwängler of the 1940-50s. Others hail Herbert von Karajan’s discipline and pristine clarity, a partnership of longevity which ushered in the digital era of the compact disc. The present incarnation with Briton Rattle at the helm is not overawed by the weight of history and tradition.

The performances of these familiar works are strong and authoritative, as one might expect. The First Symphony in C minor (Op.68) projects tautness and urgency, turning tragedy into triumph, contrasted with the more breezy and pastoral Second Symphony in D major (Op.73) which has its own dark clouds. Rattle and company takes a broader view of the elusive Third Symphony in F major (Op.90), sympathetic to the fact it is the only one that ends on a quiet. Arguably the best reading goes to the Fourth Symphony in E minor (Op.98), where autumnal repose gives way to a passionate final hurrah. The closing Passacaglia gets a tour de force of great trenchancy.

More than ample consolation for those without Esplanade tickets, this splendid box-set retails at a very affordable budget price (just $29.95 at HMV).

Great Recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic

GREAT RECORDINGS
BY THE BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER

I was asked by The Straits Times to come up with a list of top recordings by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra which will be performing in Singapore next week. Here was my shortlist, and much as I would have liked to include others, I was limited to 3 recordings by Sir Simon Rattle and 3 from his predecessors. This list (obviously highly contentious) was published in the 4 November edition of Life! (as a sidebow to Akshita Nanda's main article).

It will be a cliché to restate that the Berlin Philharmonic and great audio recordings were made for each other. Under Herbert von Karajan, its chief conductor from 1955 to 1989, the orchestra became the world’s leading recording orchestra. Its recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon label were synonymous with instrumental perfection, crystal clarity and interpretive authority, reproduced on state-of-the-art sound equipment, bringing the concert hall experience into the living room. Karajan’s recorded legacy with the Berliner Philharmoniker was continued by his successors Claudio Abbado (also on Deutsche Grammophon) and Sir Simon Rattle (on EMI Records).

3 Top Recordings from BPO & Sir Simon Rattle
(All on EMI Classics)

SCHOENBERG Gurrelieder (2001)

The Songs of Gurre, Arnold Schoenberg’s fin de siècle early symphonic choral masterpiece, calls for over 400 performers. This recording achieves the near perfect fusion of orchestral opulence and vocal magnificence, marshalled with unerring sense of drama and pacing.

MAHLER Symphony No.9 (2007)

Mahler’s swansong symphony, full of nostalgia and bittersweet regret, receives a moving performance that piques, stirs and ultimately overwhelms the senses.

BRAHMS Four Symphonies (2008)

As common as recorded Brahms symphony cycles are, this ranks at the summit. Recorded in concert, the spontaneity of a live event is never sacrificed in the quest for note-perfection. It retails at budget-price too.

3 Top Recordings from BPO & other conductors
(All on Deutsche Grammophon)

BEETHOVEN Symphony Cycle (Karajan, 1961-62)

Many collectors consider this to be Karajan’s finest of three recorded cycles with his beloved orchestra. Beethoven’s brio and fist-shaking angst are indelibly captured, unhindered by the slower speeds adopted in later cycles.

SECOND VIENNESE SCHOOL (Karajan, 1972-74)

The music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern still represents to some an insurmountable hurdle, the triumph of musical objectivity over emotions and feelings. These recordings uncannily fuse unimpeachable intellect with aural beauty.

MAHLER Symphony No.6 (Abbado, 2005)

The choice pick from a crop that that reinforces the Berlin Philharmonic as the ultimate Mahler orchestra. The inexorable drive and sheer vehemence of tragic fate has seldom been better portrayed in this earth-shaking reading.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, January 2009)

TCHEREPNIN
Symphonies / Piano Concertos
NORIKO OGAWA, Piano
Singapore Symphony / LAN SHUI
BIS 1717/18 (4 CDs) / Rating *****

Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977) may be said to be the first truly cosmopolitan composer. Born in Tsarist Russia, he lived for varying periods in Paris, the Caucasus, China and Japan before settling in America. He was married to a Chinese pianist, and his music suitably reflects his eclecticism, encompassing late Romanticism, Stravinsky’s iconoclasm and neoclassicism, popular idioms, tinged with a modernist outlook and generous helpings of Orientalism. The ten major works in this budget boxset (retailing at under $30) include four symphonies and six piano concertos. The shorter pieces include Magna Mater, Symphonic March, Symphonic Prayer, and Festmusik (a 4-movement suite from opera The Wedding of Sobeide).

Arguably the best among these are the Chinese influenced works – the Third Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto, subtitled “Fantaisie”. The latter’s movements have descriptive titles – Eastern Chamber Dream portraying Wu Song’s vanquishing of the killer tiger, royal concubine Yan Kuei Fei’s Sacrifice, and the rondo-like Road To Yunnan – and are so accessible as to make one wonder why it isn’t more regularly heard or performed. Pianist Noriko Ogawa is the fearless and swashbuckling soloist in these highly demanding concertos, while SSO in its first project with BIS (dating from 1999) performs with total conviction. Lan Shui and our national orchestra have the field to themselves, and are unlikely to be challenged in this repertoire for decades to come.

STRAVINSKY Symphonies
Berlin Philharmonic / SIR SIMON RATTLE
EMI Classics 2076300
Rating ****1/2

The three symphonies by Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) on this disc date from the 1930s and 40s, and are in his neo-classical style of composition. Gone are the lush sounds of his early ballets, in its place one finds sparer and astringent textures, and complex contrapuntal set pieces. The music nevertheless retains Stravinsky’s love of syncopation and the idea of multiple rhythms going on simultaneously. 

The best known is the choral Symphony of Psalms (1930), which finds the Berlin Broadcasting Chorus hale and hearty of voice, alternating reverence with exuberance. The orchestra is the undoubted star throughout, driving the kinetically charged music, especially the outer thirds of the Symphony in Three Movements (1942-45), and making the underrated Symphony in C (1940) sound like a true masterpiece. These “live” performances are well worth catching.

NEW YEAR’S CONCERT 2008
Vienna Philharmonic
GEORGES PRETRE
Deutsche Grammophon 478 0034
Rating ****1/2

There is a French angle to this quintessential Viennese event helmed by veteran conductor Georges Pretre, the first-ever Frenchmen to direct its proceedings. No French composers here but the Strauss waltz family’s French-themed works. Johann the Younger’s Napoleon March opens the festivities with pomp; his father’s Paris Waltz and Versailles Gallop adding to the merriment, with the former slyly quoting La Marseillaise, then outlawed in Austria. The Orpheus-Quadrille is a potpourri of melodies from Jacques Offenbach’s hit operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, which begins and ends inevitably with the ubiquitous cancan. 

Not everything is French, as the son and father try their hands in a Russian March and Chinese Gallop, although one will be hard pressed to tell one from the other! The usual favourites Emperor Waltz, Tritsch Tratsch Polka, Blue Danube Waltz and Radetzky March give a familiar ring and rousing close. Happy New Year!