ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 80TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT / Review

ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

80TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (7 January 2016)

What a difference a year and a bit makes. When the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) under its Music Director for life Zubin Mehta made its Singapore debut on 11 November 2014, it had the misfortune of performing at the Marina Bay Sands Mastercard Theatre. The result was a concert marred by truly terrible acoustics and scandalously bad sound engineering, which led one to wonder what the orchestra would have sounded like in a proper concert venue.

This concert at Esplanade Concert Hall, which marks the orchestra and the maestro's 80^th birthday season, was exactly what it should have been. There was a straight-forward programme of purely orchestral works (no concertos in sight) with Tchaikovsky (as it was the last time) to close. First, the capacity-filled hall rose to greet both the national anthems of Singapore and Israel, Majulah Singapura and Hatikvah respectively, as it did in the previous outing.

Straight away, the difference in sound quality was apparent, and that continued into the first work, Beethoven's Leonore Overture No.3. The slow introduction highlighted the orchestra's discipline, and its homogeneously fine string sections, leading into the invigorating allegro which bristled with with energy and adrenaline. The offstage solo trumpet provided the work's pivotal moment, and it resounded clearly – not once but twice – signalling the arrival of the forces for good, and the overture barrelled its way to a triumphant conclusion.

Next up was Ravel's La Valse, an outright showcase of orchestral virtuosity. Double basses gave the pulse to its subterranean rumblings, and soon the swirling dancing couples came out in their glory. This was decadent and decaying Vienna as viewed through the Frenchman's eyes, an inexorable and fatal dance skirting and plunging into the abyss that was to be the First World War. 

The IPO gave a very polished account, which may have sounded a little safe in its outset, but Mehta soon cajoled it into more dangerous territory, giving the brief impression of losing control outright. But that is that very illusion that makes this work sound exciting, its uncertainty and the seemingly hazardous ride. Of course the piece was in good and safe hands throughout and  closed with brilliant aplomb.

After a long intermission, the orchestra returned with Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony “Pathetique”, the Russian composer's last work, which received its first performance just a week before his death (from suspected suicide, cholera or poisoning, who knows?) This is the final will and testament of a terminally depressive person, but all this was lost on an audience who was largely there for the occasion, with little clue as to what the music was all about.

How else would they have glibly and blithely applauded after every movement, including the shouting of bravos after the third movement's Scherzo? In the past, conductor Mehta would have raised a hand, as a kind of instructing “not yet”, but on this occasion, he let it pass, as if resigned to the futility of it all. A pity, because all this unwanted clapping disrupted the concentration and flow of thoughts that would have taken place between movements.

Despite all that, it was still an excellent and heartfelt performance. The first movement operated with the finesse of chamber music. The quiet and rapt opening with just basses and solo bassoon set the mood, and the strings shone yet again in the movement's obvious plaintive theme. There were wonderful solos from flute, clarinet and bassoon, and the balance between pathos and bombast was finely poised. The second movement's bittersweet waltz, taken with a slightly leisurely pace, belied the violence to come that was the Scherzo's imperious march. 

Here, orchestra's virtuosity came to bear, making light work of the movement's fast-unfolding triplets, and the tension was ratcheted to a seemingly unbearable level. And yet there was more to offer, until it came to its rapturous close, echoing the finales of both the Fourth and Fifth Symphonies. Where silence was a premium, and this would lead into the finale of extreme catharsis, what we got instead was loud, misplaced applause. No matter how well-meaning the gesture was, it still disrespected the music and the composer's intentions.

The finale was taken at a moderately broad tempo, which seemed right, and there was none of the protracted posturing that Bernstein imposed. The progression of descending notes makes this the most depressing of music, and that was what IPO delivered to the very end. There was a real pause for silence after the music ebbed away and before the applause and standing ovation took over. This was the least the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, who conducted the entire concert from memory, deserved.

There were two very enjoyable encores to lighten the mood. More Tchaikovsky, with the Waltz from Swan Lake being a more upbeat counterfoil to the waltz in the symphony.  And to close, the rumble-tumble of Johann Strauss the Younger's Donner und Blitzen (Thunder and Lightning) Polka had everybody in titters whenever the trombones stood up for their cue. A birthday cake was wheeled in just as everyone on stage took their final bow and departed. One question remains: who gets to eat the cake?

Happy 80th Birthday,
Maestro Zubin Mehta &
the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra!

A CHANCE TO WIN A PAIR OF $450 TICKETS to ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA'S 80TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) led by its Music Director for Life Zubin Mehta will be back in Singapore for a one-night only concert at Esplanade Concert Hall on Thursday 7 January 2016.

This year, the Israel Philharmonic celebrates its 80th anniversary. It was founded in 1936 as the Palestine Orchestra by famous violinist Bronislav Huberman and Jewish emigré musicians. It gave its first concert in Tel Aviv on 26 December 1936 under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. In 1961, the young Indian conductor Zubin Mehta substituted for Eugene Ormandy in concert and formed a life-long relationship with the orchestra. In 1977, he was named its first Music Director, which became Music Director for Life in 1981. 

An interview with Zubin Mehta on his professional life and relationship with the IPO from 2014 may be found here:
http://pianofortephilia.blogspot.sg/2014/10/a-few-words-with-zubin-mehta-music.html

The IPO gave its Singapore debut in November 2014, an event unfortunately marred by the poor acoustics and sound engineering at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre. This time, the IPO gets to perform at the Esplanade Concert Hall, where a really good sound awaits.

The programme is as follows:

BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.3
RAVEL La Valse
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.6 
"Pathetique"

As tickets are very short in supply, and only limited gallery seats ($150) are left, the organiser is proud to give away a pair of premium tickets worth $450 each.

Here's how to win these tickets:

Go to Zubin Mehta's IPO Singapore page: 
www.facebook.com/zubinmehtainsg 
and observe the following directions:

1. Like Zubin Mehta's IPO Facebook page. 
2. Write on "what music means to you".
3. Share the photo on your own Facebook page. 

Closing date: 4 January 2016.

All the best, and enjoy the music!

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2015)

NEW YEAR'S CONCERT 2015

Vienna Philharmonic / ZUBIN MEHTA

Sony Classical 88875035492 / ****1/2 

Another year passes, and another New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic thrills its well-heeled audiences and is recorded for posterity. The 2015 edition was Bombay-born conductor Zubin Mehta's fifth time on the podium, and the theme was programmed around the 200^th anniversary of the founding of the Imperial & Royal Polytechnic Institute in 1815. That explains the engineering-themed works including Johann Strauss the Younger's Accelerations Waltz (Op.234), Electromagnetic Polka (Op.110), Perpetuum Mobile (Perpetual Motion, Op.257), Explosions Polka (Op.43) and his younger brother Eduard's Mit Dampf (At Full Steam).

Studious keepers of the tradition, the orchestra performs with refinement, precision and energy. This concert also unveiled five first performances at the New Year's Concert, including the inevitable Student Polka (Op.263) and An Der Elbe (By The Elbe, Op.477), the last waltz to be premiered by Johann himself. A tribute to conductor Mehta's origins also takes the form of Fairy Tales From The Orient (Op.444), which hardly sounds exotic, to be honest. Traditions die hard, so the orchestra shouts its new year's greeting before finishing off with the Blue Danube Waltz and Radetzky March. Very enjoyable and entertaining, as usual.

BOOK IT:

ZUBIN MEHTA AND THE

ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

80TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

Esplanade Concert Hall

7 January 2016, 7.30 pm

Limited tickets available at SISTIC

ECHOES OF CHINA

SUSAN CHAN, Piano

Naxos 8.570616 / ****1/2

There are three World Premiere recordings in this survey of contemporary Chinese piano music by Hong Kong-born pianist Susan Chan. Zhou Long's Pianobells (2012) is a play on tintinnabulation, simulating the sound of bells in ceremony and nature. Bass strings of the piano struck by the hand make startling contrasts with the tinkling of high treble keys. His Mongolian Folk-Tune Variations (1980) are more conventional in idiom, employing traditional Chinese melodies as is his wife Chen Yi's Northern Scenes (2013).

Macau-born Doming Lam's Lamentations Of Lady Chiu-Jun (1964) is an arrangement of an ancient Lingnan melody in variation form with the piano mimicking Chinese instruments like the guzheng and pipa. Canadian-Chinese Alexina Louie's Music for Piano (1982) and Tan Dun's Eight Memories in Watercolor (1979) are already fairly well-known and regularly programmed. Both are suites of short character pieces that are engaging and ear-catching.

Louie's pieces are impressionistic in feel but with pedagogy in mind, while Tan's are childhood reminiscences based on folk songs and dances from his native Hunan, bringing to mind similar compositions by Bartok. Pianist Chan is a persuasive colourist who brings a wide range of nuances from the keyboard, and this anthology deserves to be heard for its variety.  

THE ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA / Review

THE ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands

Tuesday (11 November 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 November 2014 with the title "Terrific orchestra, terrible acoustics".

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s debut concert in Singapore was a late addition to its East Asian tour, and because of the unavailability of Esplanade Concert Hall, had to be held in the MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands. There are good reasons why symphony orchestra concerts are not held at this cavernous venue far better suited for Broadway musicals and pop concerts. This otherwise historic event may be summarised in four words: terrific orchestra, terrible acoustics.

But first, the audience stood to attention for the opening works conducted by the IPO’s Music Director for life, Zubin Mehta. Zubir Said’s Majulah Singapura in Phoon Yew Tien’s arrangement was followed by Hatikvah (The Hope), the national anthem of Israel. Contrasts could not be greater, Singapore’s extroverted major-key march with Israel’s melancholic minor-key plaint. Both were greeted with heartfelt applause.  

Vivaldi’s popular Concerto for Four Violins in B minor featured four of the orchestra’s lady violinists as soloists. Electrical amplification was apparent from the outset, and while all four were evenly highlighted, it was curious to hear one player ornamenting her part far more than the others. A case of one-upwomanship was beginning to upset the balance.

By the time Mozart’s Symphony No.36, nicknamed the Linz (after the Austrian city), came on, the artificial boosting of certain sections of the orchestra started to play havoc on the ears. This was no fault of the players or the conductor who strived to give an honest and committed account. Instead of hearing a homogeneous sound, amplified woodwind and brass with added reverberation emanated from the giant speakers on either side of the stage.

Depending where one sat in the hall, the perspective of sound was glaringly off centre, and this got worse when the orchestra played louder. As much as one tried to enjoy the playing, the unfortunate distortions were both trying and distracting. The audience also did not help by clapping in between movements, and conductor Mehta had to raise his hand to stop premature applause in order for the finale to begin. This alone raised ripples of laughter, rather than outright embarrassment.   

Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony is an ideal showcase for touring orchestras, and in terms of sheer passion and virtuosity, the IPO did not disappoint. The sense of cohesion, tightness of ensemble, and the 78-year-old conductor’s magisterial approach to tempos and dynamics all contributed to a stirring performance. In the slow movement, the principal French horn’s solo was a thing of lingering beauty. The 3^rd movement lilted with rare grace before the finale’s hell-for-leather development section and grand apotheosis.

All this had, of course, to be filtered through the morass of unnatural sonority, which included extraneous noises of microphones being accidentally knocked and other indignities. At least the audience saw fit the orchestra’s valour in this field of battle to be accorded an instant standing ovation. Their reward was an encore, the Intermezzo from Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, with its gorgeous string playing.

At a post-concert reception, conductor Mehta thanked his hosts and expressed the hope of IPO returning to play in a “better hall”. Although the event to commemorate SG50 was well-meaning, this humiliation of sorts was a corollary to the state of the pitch in the Sports Hub, another big question mark as to whether we know the true meaning of being “world class”.

To add insult to injury, concert programmes were sold at a ridiculously inflated price of $30. Classical concerts in Marina Bay Sands should not be like shopping for mobile phones in Sim Lim Square, where one is likely to be short-changed.   

Conductor Zubin Mehta at the post-concert reception,
with Israel's ambassador to Singapore
H.E.Yael Rubinstein fondly looking on.

A FEW WORDS WITH ZUBIN MEHTA, Music Director For Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

A FEW WORDS WITH 

MAESTRO ZUBIN MEHTA

MUSIC DIRECTOR FOR LIFE, 

ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

On 11 November 2014, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) gives its Singapore début in a concert at the Mastercard Theatre of Marina Bay Sands. Leading the orchestra is its Music Director for life, the eminent India-born conductor ZUBIN MEHTA, who has distinguished himself in the world’s great concert stages, including The Three Tenors concert in Rome and Los Angeles, and Zhang Yimou’s spectacular production of Puccini’s Turandot in the Forbidden City, Beijing.

I had a chance to speak with the Maestro speaks for a short telephone interview for THE PEAK (below).

As lifestyle magazines go, there is little space for details which music-lovers are interested in, but here is a transcript of the full interview.

You had originally planned to study medicine but then switched to music. How did this come about?

My parents wanted me to be a doctor, but I defaulted! I attended pre-medical classes in Bombay, but chose to be a musician instead. My parents were very supportive. My father Mehli Mehta (left) was a violinist, founder of the Bombay String Quartet and Bombay Symphony Orchestra, and for 35 years the conductor of the American Youth Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles. He was a most important influence, and arranged for me to study at the Vienna Academy of Music in 1954.

Vienna had a compact and closely knit community of musicians which was conducive for the pursuit of music. I studied piano and double bass, and orchestral conducting in the class of Hans Swarowsky.

Being an Asian studying music in Vienna during the 1950s, essentially a world community dominated by Europeans, must have been a daunting prospect. Did you face any obstacles being accepted as a musical equal, coming from a different culture?

There were not many Asians in Vienna during those days - only a few Japanese students - and I was the only one from India. I felt no anxiety or discrimination, and was accepted whole-heartedly by the Viennese musical community.

My first concert as a conductor was organised by the Jeunnese Musicales, which had started in Belgium. The first professional engagement was with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Vienna, which paid me a little bit. It was an all-Brahms concert with the First Piano Concerto and First Symphony.  The soloist was Alfred Brendel. I met him in a bookshop and asked him if he would like to play.

The next concert was all-Schoenberg: the First Chamber Symphony and Pierrot Lunaire.  If you had talent, you will be engaged again. I conducted that orchestra for two seasons before being asked to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. About (the late Italian conductor) Claudio Abbado, we spent two years in Vienna and became friends for life. We never had an ugly word with each other.

Your close relationship with Israel and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra dates from the 1960s, a period of uncertainty when the existence of Israel as a nation was under threat. Could you describe how this bond was formed?

I first conducted the IPO in 1961. I had been asked to substitute for the great Hungarian-American conductor Eugene Ormandy. Apparently the orchestra had heard of me, and I immediately accepted! The concert programme included Kodaly’s Dances of Galanta, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements and Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony, and that was how it all started. In 1967, my close friends Daniel Barenboim and his wife Jacqueline Du Pré (left) were there for the Victory Concert at the end of the Six Day War which I conducted. Barenboim performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto on the piano, Du Pré played Schumann’s Cello Concerto, and we finished off with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

In 1969, I was made Music Director and later Music Director for life. This is not a contract, but an honour. I could be terminated next week!

You have conducted in Singapore on at least three occasions, with the New York Philharmonic at the National Stadium (1984) and in front of the City Hall steps (1989), and more recently with the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino at the Esplanade (2005). What sort of memories does Singapore hold for you?

Only very good and positive ones!  I love your city for its order, organisation, discipline and cleanliness. My dear friend Shalom Ronly-Riklis, former Associate Conductor of the IPO, had conducted in Singapore on many occasions and told me all about Singapore. When I finally came, and coming from India, I could not believe this was Asia!

My first concert in 1984 was at a small hall, I think the Victoria Concert Hall. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew attended that concert, and I told him to please build a really big concert hall for Singapore. Now you have the Esplanade Concert Hall, and conducting there in 2005 was a wonderful experience.   

Q: China has now accepted Western classical music with open arms, with the formation of symphony orchestras, new concert halls and millions of students studying music. Do you think that same “revolution” will take place in India, the world’s second most populous nation?

It is slowly happening now in India. We have a professional symphony orchestra (Symphony Orchestra of India) in Bombay and the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation (founded in 1995, above) that teaches young children to play Western instruments. We will see the results in the next generation.

Q: Music and the arts can be a force of change for the better in world affairs. Does the Israel Philharmonic have a role to play in helping to resolve present Israel and Palestine conflict?      

We have to try our best. My hope is for the orchestra to play in Ramallah, Palestine when it becomes a country, which will be very soon. We will go and perform as a sign of friendship and peace.

CD Review (The Straits Times, October 2010)

THE ORIGINAL THREE TENORS
The Rome Concert 1990
Decca 2738173 (CD & DVD)
****1/2

One of best-selling opera discs of all time was the first ever Three Tenors Concert, held on a July evening at the Caracalla Baths in Rome, on the eve of the 1990 World Cup finals. While the football was rubbish, the music soared. The abiding memory was that of José Carreras, Placido Domingo and the late Luciano Pavarotti belting out Puccini’s Nessun Dorma from Turandot, preceded by playful vocal jousting as to who could sing the longest trill in the Neapolitan favourite O Sole Mio.

This iconic concert helped demystify opera, making it accessible to millions who would otherwise not step into an opera house or concert hall. The downside was a proliferation of copycats (The Three Chinese Tenors, The Three Countertenors) and the rise of pseudo-opera singers.

Watch the DVD of the concert as well as The Impossible Dream, a documentary of the making of the concert, to get the experience of what the fuss was all about. The CD, which includes all the arias and medleys, may be popped into the car stereo. The tenors and their agents, who once remarked that they were not paid handsomely enough for the concert, can now live on its royalties.

AUTOGRAPHS: Music Directors of the New York Philharmonic

Fact: The New York Philharmonic Orchestra is the American orchestra that has performed the most times in Singapore, led by its four most recent Music Directors. Here are what their autographs look like:

ALAN GILBERT (Music Director 2009 onwards)

conducted the NYPO at Esplanade Concert Hall

in his first season and Asian tour.

LORIN MAAZEL (Music Director 2002-2009)

visited Singapore twice, conducting the NYPO

at the Esplanade Opening Festival (2002)

and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (2006).

KURT MASUR (Music Director 1991-2002)
had a single visit with the NYPO in 1998

with a concert in the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

ZUBIN MEHTA (Music Director 1979-1991)
led the NYPO to Singapore in 1984 and 1990,
with concerts at Victoria Concert Hall,
National Stadium and on the Padang.