PHILIPPE QUINT: THE RED VIOLIN / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

PHILIPPE QUINT: THE RED VIOLIN

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (5 March 2020)

This review was published in Bachtrack on 9 March 2020 with the title "Litton, Quint and the Singapore Symphony provide light at the end of the tunnel".

The Covid-19 virus crisis has hit the world hard, and Singapore is short of going into complete shutdown. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has, however, bravely continued its subscription concerts, bringing semblance of normality and much-needed cheer to the beleaguered city-state. Healthcare and public transport workers were granted free admission to this concert of 20^th century music.

Led by SSO Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Litton, the evening opened with the high energy of Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, the 1956 operetta based on Voltaire’s satirical novella. Filled with Rossinian wit, champagne bubbles fizzed and sparks flew in its brief duration, bringing a smile to even the most jaded soul. It was simply the best start in the best of all possible worlds.

Smile turned into frown for John Corigliano’s The Red Violin, the four-movement violin concerto crafted from music for the 1997 movie directed by Francois Girard. Tragedy and tribulation follows the three-hundred-year journey of the violin varnished with blood from the luthier’s late wife Anna. Anna’s theme, wistful and melancholic, appears in the opening Chaconne and returns like an apparition in the ensuing three movements.

The grim introduction, carried by growling brass and bassoon, was gripping in intensity, heralding Russia-born American violinist Philippe Quint’s entry. The virtuosic solo part, highly characterised and fantasy-driven, found a perfect soulmate in Quint’s artistry. The 17-minute-long Chaconne (often performed as a stand-alone concert piece), while not strictly a baroque chaconne, was just the vehicle of moving pathos. The music was dirge-like in parts and escalated exorably to an explosive finish, representing the cruel hand of Fate and ultimately Death.

Quint revelled in ethereal and otherworldly pianissimo effects of the mercurial Scherzo, while some lyrical respite was provided by warm ensemble strings in the slow third movement. Through all of this, the spectre of Anna’s theme hovered ominously, continuing into the breakneck Accelerando finale. This was a hell-for-leather chase between violin and orchestra to its violently percussive close. Quint’s 1708 “Ruby” Stradivarius had become the living embodiment of the titular red violin in this ultimately depressing work. His encore was something else, a perfectly voiced take on Charlie Chaplin’s most popular melody, Smile from the movie Modern Times.  

It was back to darkness with a commanding performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony by the SSO. It was after the death of Stalin when this darkest of Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies saw light of day. From subterranean rumbles by low strings in the first movement, Litton coaxed from the orchestra one great arch of sound. The mysterious opening was broken by the lone voice of Ma Yue’s clarinet solo. Further solos from flautist Jin Ta, bassoonist Christoph Wichert and oboist Rachel Walker helped define its progression to a mighty climax, culminating with deafening brass and percussion.

Soon after the movement closed with just two piccolos, the second movement’s juggernaut was unleashed. This was a four-minute-long portrait of Stalinist malevolance and pure evil, its savagery heightened by Jonathan Fox’s snare drum. The third movement’s autobiographical agenda was underlined by the DSCH motif (D, E flat, C, B natural, spelling the composer’s initials in German), later insistently bandied about in a demented waltz. This was countered by another repeated motif (representing a sometime love interest) from Han Chang Chou’s French horn.

The apparent tug-of-war would resolve in the finale, which came like light at the end of a tunnel. This was a roller-coaster of mood and emotion, first reliving the opening movement’s doom and gloom, and later lapsing into actual satire and comedy. The tongue-in-cheek was resolutely defended, with pin-point and precise timing of punch lines, firmly driven by conductor Litton’s mini leaps into the air. The cheer that greeted its close was noisy and tumultuous. Trust Shostakovich (and music itself) to wangle out from a difficult situation some wry smiles.     

Star Rating: *****

This review was reproduced here with the kind permission of Bachtrack. Photographs by the kind permission of Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

THE RED VIOLIN with KAM NING / re:Sound / Review

THE RED VIOLIN

WITH KAM NING

re:Sound

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (2 July 2017)

When it comes to string music, Singapore’s first professional chamber ensemble re:Sound are the people to go to. Its fourth concert, which featured only strings and led by London-based Singaporean ace violinist Kam Ning, showed exactly what the fuss was all about.

Benjamin Britten’s Simple Symphony, comprising four neo-baroque movements crafted from his childhood compositions, opened the evening. From its outset, one is struck by the tautness of ensemble and homogeneity of its sound. Whether in the faster outer movements (Boisterous Bourée and Frolicsome Finale) or the nimble Playful Pizzicato, there was this togetherness that impressed. However it was in the Sentimental Sarabande with its more sustained lines where the richness of sonority became even more apparent.

The ensemble played standing throughout with Kam Ning in the lead violinist’s role. She took centrestage in the titular The Red Violin Suite, an extended “chaconne” crafted from the Oscar-winning score of the movie The Red Violin by John Corigliano. Her solo part was frighteningly virtuosic, requiring a Paganinian technique to surmount its myriad variations. This she accomplished with much poise, maintaining a nervous edge throughout the 25-minute-long piece.

Behind her, the backing strings were no mere accompanists, but equal partners in the mostly darkly-coloured and brooding endeavour. The opening was chilling, with strings capable of sounding both ethereal and eerie at the same time. There was also a battery of percussion which provided the desired startling effect to break the silences or as the tension mounted. 

The highly effective music, which accompanied the story of a centuries-old violin (painted red with the blood of the luthier’s late wife) through its turbulent history, was given the immediacy and violence it needed. In that respect, a “live” performance such as this one readily scores higher than any recording.

The second half had far more cheerful music, in the form of Richard Tognetti’s arrangement of Edvard Grieg’s First String Quartet in G minor. Again, Kam’s livewire and ebullient personality translated into a performance of energy and vigour. Playing for almost 35 minutes, it is filled with much of the folk and dance music associated with Grieg’s Norway. If the bounding second theme in the 1^st movement sounded familiar, that is because it also appears in his better-known Piano Concerto.

A “quartet within a quartet” featured in the delightfully rustic central movements, with Kam joined by violinist Loh Jun Hong, violist Jonathan Lee and cellist Robert Choi. Their folksy and playful repartee added much colour and charm to the proceedings. The finale was a fast saltarello, an Italian dance not too dissimilar with a tarantella, taken at a devil-may-care speed. The right impulse was to surge ahead, yet there was never a doubt that Kam and her charges were fully in control.

The exhilarating finish was capped by a sublime encore, The Last Spring from Grieg’s Two Elegiac Melodies, played with tenderness and poignancy. re:Sound’s next concert on 18 October (with Melvyn Tan) will be keenly awaited.