3 Best Classical Concerts of 2010

As published in The Straits Times on 29 December 2010, here are my picks for the 3 best classical concerts in Singapore for 2010. Indeed we were spoilt for choice, which is why I have included more than three top concerts. The true winners, however, are the lucky concert-goers who get to experience classical music as it should be performed - with unwavering commitment and passion.

Orchestral
MAHLER Resurrection Symphony
Orchestra of the Music Makers 

& Combined Choruses
10 July 2010, Esplanade Concert Hall

The Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) has been well-served in his anniversary year, with memorable performances of symphonies by the Singapore Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Pride of place however goes to the young musicians of the Orchestra of Music Makers, joined by the Singapore and Queensland Festival Choruses, with their stupendous showing in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony.

Conducted by Chan Tze Law, this blockbuster not only demonstrated an amazing maturity for the barely 2-year-old ensemble, but also a wealth of prodigious talent among the musicians, whose average age was 20-21 years old. The vocal soloists were locals too – mezzo-soprano Rebecca Chellappah and soprano Jeong AeRee – making this a truly Singaporean affair.

Besides being feted in the pages of The Straits Times, this concert also received high praise from music critics from Japan, Canada and UK.

Vocal / Choral
VERDI Requiem
Singapore Symphony Chorus 

& Combined Choruses
with Singapore Symphony Orchestra

17 April 2010, Esplanade Concert Hall

The Singapore Symphony Chorus marked its 30th year with one of the great masterpieces of the symphonic choral repertoire – Verdi’s Requiem with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra

These days, this venerable institution is augmented by voices from three other choirs, and the combined strength of 180-200 singers led by Lim Yau is a force to be reckoned with. The fearsome Dies Irae, delivered with awe-inspiring magnificence and with brass resonating from different parts of the hall, provided genuine spine-tingling moments that will remain long in the memory.

Honorable mention also go to The Philharmonic Chamber Chorus’ A Bridge Of Silk (18 September 2010 / Esplanade Recital Studio), an a cappella recital of contemporary Asian songs conducted by Lim Yau, and the superb artsong recital Night Songs by young tenor Melvin Tan (20 August 2010, Esplanade Recital Studio), accompanied by pianist Shane Thio, which showcased rarities by Korngold, Berg, Rachmaninov and Debussy.

Chamber Music
LIM HUI Violin Recital

  20 June 2010 

  Esplanade Recital Studio
TAKE 5 Chausson Concert

  1 September 2010 

  Esplanade Recital Studio
ZARA Schumann Fantasies

  28 November 2010 

  Esplanade Recital Studio

There was so much good chamber music on show that honours were evenly divided. Lim Hui, 2nd prize winner in the 2003 National Violin Competition, has blossomed to become a very fine virtuoso, one combining poise and purpose in her playing. Her demanding recital of Beethoven, Brahms, Pärt and Prokofiev, partnered by her cousin pianist Lim Yan, was a joy to behold.

Lim Yan and violinist Chan Yoong Han helmed their piano quintet Take 5 to give the Singapore premiere of Ernest Chausson’s Concert for violin, piano & string quartet, a monumental work of light, shade and overwrought emotions. A more passionate yet sensitive performance would be hard to find.

Zara is the international chamber group formed by former violin prodigy Tang Tee Khoon, playing on the National Arts Council’s 1750 J.B.Guadagnini violin. Their tribute to Robert Schumann and his circle was both moving and technically impeccable.

SCHUMANN FANTASIES / Zara / Review

SCHUMANN FANTASIES
Zara
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (28 November 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 November 2010.

In a year of music dominated by Chopin and Mahler, it is always gratifying to note that the underrated Robert Schumann (1810-1856) receiving due recognition by chamber music circles. After all, he wrote the best chamber music among the three composers whose anniversaries are being celebrated.

Zara is a young international chamber group formed by Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon and her friends from Korea, Israel, Belgium and Britain. They have only performed together for one year but already sound like seasoned veterans. Every member is a true virtuoso, and it was immediately apparent in the opening work, Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A minor (Op.13). Mendelssohn was a close member of Schumann’s inner circle, which merited his inclusion.

The members of ZARA:

Tang Tee Khoon, Dimitri Murrath, Adi Tal,

Sam Armstrong & Julianne Lee (from L)

Refined playing, ultimate control and the ability to listen to each other distinguished its slow introduction, and that remained a hallmark and constant for the whole concert. Four string players breathed as one, led by Korean first violinist Julianne Lee, as they launched the Allegro with Beethovenian vigour. Commanding the full gamut of emotions and colours, the performance sang and sighed, contrasting declamatory salvoes with gossamer lightness, before closing in sublime stillness.

It was all Schumann after that. More passion flowed in the Piano Trio No.3 In G minor (Op.110), where British pianist Sam Armstrong partnered Tang and Israeli cellist Adi Tal. Here the tragically short-lived German’s Romantic heart and soul was laid bare, where its dark desires and impetuous surges gradually underwent a transformation to the sunny G major daylight of the joyous finale.

After the interval, Belgian violist Dimitri Murrath (with pianist Armstrong) than polished off the Adagio & Allegro (Op.70), with aching lyricism so typical of the composer giving way to ecstatic rapture. Such authority and conviction followed into the final offering, the rarely heard Piano Quartet in E flat major (Op.47).

It was Schumann’s heart-on-sleeve vulnerability that made his music so appealing and memorable. From Beethoven-influenced fist shaking gestures of the opening, the restless perpetual motion of the Scherzo, that lovely song without words with each of the string instruments taking turns on the melody, to the busy counterpoint of the finale, Zara’s performance showed what it meant to be alive and in love with life itself.

The audience in attendance must rank as one of the least initiated ever encountered for chamber music. It clapped inappropriately in between movements for all the works, trooped off after the first work thinking it was the intermission, leaving the hall half-filled for the second piece, and then re-entering in dribs and drabs with the music already in progress, in full view of the performers. Our international guests must think us a bunch of yokels and bumpkins. Pearls before swine come to mind, but one must not be unkind. Did they have any clue that they had just witnessed (and almost spoiled) easily the best chamber concert of the year?

Zara performs more Schumann on Tuesday (Tonight!) at 8pm in Esplanade Recital Studio. Do not miss it.

The members of Zara at their Youth Interactive event.