THE PIANOMANIA AWARDS 2013: Best Concerts of the Year

The year 2013 was a good one for classical music in Singapore, and there were many highly satisfying concerts vying for top honours in my final list for The Pianomania Awards. Too bad that The Straits Times did not carry its usual Best and Worst of the year column, but that has given me the chance to include more concerts in my list of favourites.

Here they are in no particular order:

BRITTEN War Requiem

Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Choruses and soloists

conducted by SHUI LAN

Esplanade Concert Hall (5 April 2013)

The Singapore Premiere of Benjamin Britten's anti-war classic that brought out the best of the SSO, Singapore's choral community and three soloists representing Britain, Germany and Russia. A spectacular blockbuster that rivalled Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand in 2004. 

The Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra, just 10 years in the making, has gone from strength to strength, and its consistency of delivering top notch performances of varied symphonic repertoire under different conductors has greatly impressed. These are the three great performances of this year:

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring

conducted by Eiji Oue

Esplanade Concert Hall (18 April 2013)

Sibelius's Symphony No.7

conducted by Robert Spano

Esplanade Concert Hall (4 September 2013)

Mendelssohn's Symphony No.3 "Scottish"

conducted by Jason Lai

Conservatory Concert Hall (9 November 2013)

MODERN VOICES - CLASS OF 1978

Ding Yi Music Company

conducted by Lim Yau

Esplanade Recital Studio (3 August 2013)

The traditional Chinese chamber ensemble has distinguished itself with concerts of excellent programming, diversity and instrumental virtuosity. The pick of the crop was its concert of music contemporary Chinese composers Zhou Long, Tan Dun, Chen Yi and Chen Qigang, which showed that the ensemble was far more than a folk music group but one with serious artistic intentions. 

  

PUCCINI'S MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Singapore Lyric Opera and soloists

directed by Andrew Sinclair

conducted by Joshua Tang Kangming

Esplanade Theatre (1 February 2013)

Despite the paucity of opera productions in Singapore, the Singapore Lyric Opera pulled out one of its finest productions in its 22 year history. This Butterfly evoked true pathos, not least in the casting of Japanese soprano Mako Nishimoto in the title role, who was a revelation. Tenor Israel Lozano as Pinkerton was so convincing that he was actually booed. 

MY NIGHTS WITH DIDO 

AND MY DAYS WITH AENEAS

New Opera Singapore

directed by Mathias Behrends

conducted by Chan Wei Shing

SOTA Drama Theatre (26 & 27 July 2013)

Singapore's second opera company should not be ignored, because of the vibrant and modern way it stages traditional classical opera. Its production of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas was not perfect but the updating of its tragedy to modern-day Singaporean middle class aspirations was totally believable. Soprano Teng Xiang Ting as Dido was in imperious form, and the juxtaposition of English baroque music and Charles Ives songs was inspired. 

STEVE REICH'S DRUMMING

Roberto Alvarez and Friends

Esplanade Recital Studio (13 September 2013)

There were many wonderful chamber concerts this year, but the most unique one featured the Singapore premiere of Steve Reich's iconic masterpiece Drumming. Nine percussionists, two singers and flautist Roberto Alvarez brought from this 75-minute rhythmically complex work a wealth of nuances and sonorities. Ten years ago, this would not be possible simply because there were not so many percussionists then. 

THE PIANOMANIA AWARDS 2013: Best CDs of The Year

The Straits Times is not having its yearly round-up of Best Classical Concerts and Best Classical CDs for 2013, so I have taken upon myself to create The Pianomania Awards to identify the best of the best in a good year for classical music in Singapore.

Here are my three Best Classical Recordings of the year 2013, with an obviously and unashamedly Singaporean bias:

ELGAR Violin Concerto

GABRIEL NG, Violin

Orchestra of the Music Makers / Chan Tze Law

OMM Live! / *****

In 1932, Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) conducted and recorded for His Master’s Voice his Violin Concerto in B minor, now considered one of the great recordings of the last century. The soloist was the 16-year-old prodigy Yehudi Menuhin, on his way to becoming one of violin’s immortals. In 2011, 16-year-old Singaporean Gabriel Ng, a student of the Menuhin School, repeated the feat in a concert performance that has been captured in this recording. While it is pointless to compare note-for-note the merits of the two, Ng more than holds his own in a crowded field.

What is astonishing is not just the instrumental achievement, but the sensitivity, sheer warmth and depth of expression he brings to this sprawling work. Just listen to his entry in the 1^st movement, or the hush of the accompanied cadenza in the finale. Playing at 47 minutes, he is only slightly faster than Menuhin’s 50 minutes. All the superlatives showered on Menuhin at the time also firmly apply to Ng. Other points of spiritual connection: conductor Chan Tze Law, a committed Elgarian, was a student of Hugh Bean, who in turn was taught by Albert Sammons, the first violinist to record this concerto. The splendid Orchestra of the Music Makers which plays like professionals is, of course, named after Elgar’s choral masterpiece The Music Makers. This is a candidate for Record of the Year, without a doubt.

ROAD MOVIES

KAM NING, Violin

ALBERT TIU, Piano

Meridien 84619 / *****

The music of America in the 20^th century was distinguished by a plethora of styles, including serialism, minimalism and a movement that advocated a return to tonality by assimilating and re-adapting popular idioms. It is the latter two that are explored in this highly accessible anthology of Americana. John Adams’s Road Movies is the highlight, the outer two movements – Relaxed Groove and 40% Swing - depart from the mind-numbing repetitiveness of pioneer minimalists, instead delighting in its expert dovetailing of rhythmic precision and melodic interest. The Violin Sonata of John Corigliano (who composed the score of The Red Violin) is more traditional; its four movements retracing the well-worn path treaded by American icons Copland and Barber.

On the subject of film music, Charlie Chaplin’s Smile from Modern Times gets a sensuous and slicked-up treatment. John Novacek’s Four Rags are highly enjoyable, an update on Scott Joplin’s ragtime fantasies and equal to William Bolcom’s sophisticated classics. Both violinist Kam Ning and pianist Albert Tiu, with studies in America well behind them, closely identify with these works, bringing a stunning panache, infectious elan and zeal. Kam Ning’s own country-inspired solo improvisation of the church hall favourite Amazing Grace, both soulful and exuberant, brings the disc to a brilliant close. A small point in nomenclature: reformed English slave-trader John Newton only wrote the words, the actual composer of the hymn remains unknown. Here is an hour more than well spent.

DVORAK Cello Concerto

BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture

LI-WEI QIN, Cello

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 
LAN SHUI

Decca 889 8529 / *****

Perhaps the greatest performance in Singapore of Antonin Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor took place on 10 February 2012 at the Esplanade Concert Hall. This is the live recording from that concert, one that highlights not just the virtuosity of Chinese-Australian cellist Li-Wei Qin but also how well the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by Lan Shui responds as a sympathetic and sensitive accompanist. Very often one is drawn to the quality of the orchestral playing, especially the marvellous woodwind and brass contributions. These rapt moments complement Qin’s gorgeous tone and long-breathed passages on his 1780 J.B.Guadagnini cello. 

A most apt encore was Dvorak’s Silent Woods (known in Czech as Klid), a short but breathtakingly lyrical piece for cello and orchestra transcribed from the suite for piano duet From The Bohemian Forest. Also from the same concert was Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, no mean makeweight that brings together a collection of student songs, closing with the rowdy paean to drink Gaudeamus Igitur. Applause from the concert has been edited out and the audience is remarkably silent, a considerable feat in itself. This disc represents excellence all around.        

Next to Come: Best Classical Concerts of 2013!