pianomania

Here's a concert not to be missed:

MAHLER'S SYMPHONY NO.2 "RESURRECTION"
Orchestra of the Music Makers
Chan Tze Law, Conductor
Siobhan Stagg, Soprano
Caitlin Hulcup, Mezzo-soprano
Combined Chorus
Toh Ban Sheng, Choral Director

Saturday 18 August 2018
7.30 pm, Esplanade Concert Hall
Tickets available at SISTIC
or click here:
https://www.sistic.com.sg/events/cmahler0818

Here are some photos taken at a rehearsal:

Soprano Siobhan Stagg in the finale.

Mezzo Caitlin Hulcup sings Urlicht.

A section of the choir sopranos:
Patricia Teng who masqueraded a nun in
Poulenc's Dialogues de Carmelites
now masquerades a Mondrian painting.

OMM's Mahler 2 in 2010.
Expect this year's concert to be even better!

FROM VIENNA

London Conchord Ensemble

Champs Hill Records 115 (2 CDs) / *****

This double-disc album is an illuminating two-and-half-hour musical tour of Vienna from the classical era of Mozart to the 20^thcentury iconoclasm of Schoenberg. Seen through the lenses of woodwinds, piano and strings, clarinettist Maximiliano Martin and pianist Julian Milford are ever-present in all seven works performed.

The first disc opens with Mozart's “Kegelstatt” Clarinet Trio K.498, delightfully scored for clarinet, viola and piano. Its congeniality and warmth continues into the famous pair of Piano Quintets (piano with winds, namely clarinet, oboe, bassoon and French horn) by Mozart and Beethoven, perfect partners heard alongside each other.

The SecondVienneseSchool occupies the second disc. But first listen to the Trioin D minor for clarinet, cello and piano by Alexander Zemlinsky, better known as teacher and brother-in-law of Arnold Schoenberg. Its late Romantic and Brahms-influenced idiom receives a shock to the system when followed by Schoenberg's compact Chamber Symphony No.1 (transcribed by his student Anton Webern) which openly flirts with atonalism.

The ground-breaking 12-tone idiom becomes established with the Adagio from Alban Berg's Chamber Symphony, but the music has vestiges of lushness and sentimentality. To close, Johann Strauss the Younger's Emperor Waltz, arranged for septet by Schoenberg, makes for a particularly delicious encore.

DÉNES VARJON Piano Recital

25^th Singapore International Piano Festival

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (8 June 2018)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 11 June 2018 with the title "Two halves blend harmoniously".

In its 25^th year of existence, the Singapore International Piano Festival still throws up surprises in the choice of artists and programmes. Very often, the lesser-known of pianists give the most interesting and satisfying recitals. Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon, perhaps better known for his chamber music collaborations, offered such a marvellous programme with two very different halves.

The first was filled with multiple short pieces, strung together like a pristine necklace. Among the pearls were Six Bagatelles (Op.126) by Beethoven, disparate and variegated miniatures which sounded lovely in Várjon's hands. His silken touch, aided by generous pedalling, ensured there was never a less than glowing moment. The fourth Bagatelle, with a rustic central section recalling the drone of bagpipes, provided a clue to the next group of pieces.

Várjon's selection of 13 shorts from Bartok's For Children was played with such disarming charm and acute sensitivity to colour and shade. Although simple in form and thematic material, these draw mostly from folk music and dances, thus filled with unexpected and piquant harmonies. Similarly, his eightImprovisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs opened with unadorned melodies, soon gained a life of their own with dissonances piling up progressively for a heady close.

In between these was a single extended work, the Elegy No.2 which revealed Bartok to be the rightful successor to the late music of Franz Liszt, and the logical continuation of his idiom. Built up from a sequence of chromatic notes, this astonishing 8-minute-long work – both impressionist and modernist - was the glittering, multi-faceted, gem-studded pendant of the said necklace.

The second half was devoted to the music of the night. And for the pianist, there are few works as terrifying as Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit. The hushed opening tremolandos in Ondine could have been more evenly spread. Perhaps this was to be the mythological water sprite's restless spirit and ultimately deadly intent being revealed early in the game.

More haunting were the incessant tolling of distant bells with repeated B flats in Le Gibet, a macabre scene from the gallows framed by the setting sun. The knocked-kneed scamperings of Scarbo completed the Gothic horror triptych, all wrapped up in a reading that was both outwardly virtuosic yet finely nuanced.

Two Chopin Nocturnes (Op.27 No.1 and Op.70 No.1) provided aural balm, contrasting the dark and smouldering with the melancholic and nostalgic. The concluding work was Chopin's Scherzo No.1 in B minor with its crashing opening chords and tumultuous upheavals, but where's the night music? A soothing Polish lullaby Sleep, Little Jesus was its soft centre, played with much affection and tenderness.

There were two encores, first with Bartok's Three Hungarian Folksongs from the Csik District, an offshoot of the first half's bucolic revelry, and Of Foreign Lands and Peoples from Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood). Simply delightful.

FROM VIENNA

London Conchord Ensemble

Champs Hill Records 115 (2 CDs) / *****

SATURDAY 21 JULY 2018

Waking to the sound of sheep has to be the best part of living in the country. For the first time in goodness only knows, a late wakening seems no longer a guilty pleasure but something well earned, Looking out through my loft window, for miles as the eye can see, there were no high rise buildings, telephone poles, no sound of railways or flying planes; this must be heaven on earth. Neil and Debbie, this beats Bukit Damai by far, you lucky devils!

Florian Mitrea Piano Recital

12 noon, Leconfield Hall

Neil has been receiving instruction from the young Romanian pianist Florian Mitrea, faculty member at the Royal Academy and multiple prizewinner at many international piano competitions. Despite the travails of the hall’s Boston grand piano (the hall really should invest in a proper Steinway), Florian does not disappoint.

In a programme consisting of all minor key works, Haydn provided a light start. His Sonata in E minor had both wit and seriousness in equal measure. Then came the more heavy-duty Mozart Sonata in A minor (K.310) and Mitrea took it at a less hectic pace which people are more accustomed to, and that was refreshing. The Rondo in A minor (K.511) was slightly faster than expected but in truth, one should not drag out this gem too much. Ironically this “simple” work gave him the most challenges, both technically and interpretively, but this was still a good reading.

As if to prove his virtuoso credentials, the Prokofiev Third Sonata in A minor showed he could mix it in with the best of them, but here the clattery and less-than-responsive piano let his brilliant finegrs down. His encore was marvelous: Schubert’s Hungarian Melody in B minor played with the right lilt and charm.

At lunch we were joined at the historic Angel Inn by the Chinese pianist Ji Liu and his family. Ji had just played a recital two nights ago at St Mary’s Church, and by all accounts, it was brilliant. I had hear his latest CD, titled Fire and Water, and there was much to recommend about it.

The lovely walk on cobbled road to
St Mar's Church in Petworth.

Come Sing With Abba

3 pm, St. Mary’s Church

This was a do-it-yourself Abba song concert featuring community singing, led by chorusmaster Ben Parry and his band. Imagine going to church and be handed a song sheet which had neither Amazing Grace, Abide With Me nor When I Survey The Wondrous Cross on it, but Dancing Queen, Money Money Money and Mamma Mia instead, this is what you get. The chorus, seated in the pews, had been earlier coached by Parry on the parts and this song concert was the result. The irrepressible Parry led the flock, with Freya Parry (his wife or sister?) providing the solo singing and touch of glamour.

So this is what the Church of England has come to. To pack the masses in, drop the liturgy and frocks, bring on the flair and Thank You For The Music. Needless to say, it was lively and upbeated, definitely helped by some sixty-somethings attired in sequinned outfits, bell-bottomed pants and blonde wigs. If you weren’t clapping along and transfixed with a wide smile, you’d be better off attending a Pollini or Perahia concert.

It's true that blondes have more fun!

Min Kym Violin Recital

with Ian Brown, Piano

7.30 pm, Champs Hill Music Room

Now I’ve been a huge fan of Champs Hill Records for some years (and have reviewed more of their recordings in the pages of The Straits Times than any other indie label besides Hyperion), and have always wanted to visit the famous Music Room of Champs Hill estate, which serves as both concert and recording venue. Its a small but intimate venue, with three walls plastered with classic paintings, the perfect setting for the enjoyment of great music. Its spacious grounds and gardens are littered with sculptures, surrounded by flowers and wooded greenery, and it already feelis inspiration by just being there.

Min Kym (or Min Jin Kim) is already well-known, having penned a best-selling book called Gone, about the trials and tribulations of growing up as a Korean child prodigy, and the added stress of having your Stradivarius nicked right under your nose. She produces a lovely sound in Brahms’ First Sonata in G major (Op.78) and truly comes into her own in Bartok’s First Rhapsodywhere she literally tears into the music without fear or trepidation. In Faure’s soaring First Sonata in A major, her lyricism and agility are in full flow, with pianist Brown scrambling to catch up. The reading was not perfect, but it had lot of heart.

Imagine the surprise when it came to autograph time. I had one CD (Gone the album) for Kym to sign and 23 sleeves for the vastly experienced Brown on those wonderful Nash Ensemble recordings collected over the decades. And I also got to meet Lady Mary Bowerman, the owner of Champs Hill itself. And there is no better place to buy Champs Hill recordings from Champs Hill itself!

Meeting Lady Bowerman,
owner of Champs Hall.

SUNDAY 22 JULY 2018

Les adieux

And there is no better way than to wake up to the sound of migratory geese. And they are right outside in the fields of Parkhurst House together with the sheep. Alas, two days were far too short to do justice to the treasures of the Petworth Festival. I had barely scratched the surface, and have not even stepped into the National Trust listed Petworth House, home of the Leconfields, nor ventured beyond the Petworth itself. More pleasures await. That means another visit, hopefully a longer one, is in order for the near future. As I return to London, my heartfelt thanks go to Neil Franks and his family for his hospitality, generosity and friendship.

TWO GLORIOUS DAYS

AT THE PETWORTH FESTIVAL

Preamble

It all began with my longtime piano-playing, chorus-singing and fellow Lyric Opera board-member Neil Franks retired and headed back to the home countries. Having served his due in Singapore for the previous thirty years, it was a glorious retirement to being a piano student once again, and amongst many other things becoming the Chairman of the Petworth Festival.

Neil Franks in his Aston Martin,
James Bond mobile without the red button!

“You must come!” he almost pleaded and the summer of 2018, which coincided with the festival’s 40^th anniversary, seemed the most opportune moment for me. A trip combining the BBC Proms, several concerts at Wigmore Hall and a weekend in the rolling downs of West Sussex was eminently do-able, and so I came. The Petworth Festival is a two-and-a-half week long summer music festival, held in various historical venues of a typically English town. The bright lights of London are far away, and there are no McDonalds or Starbucks (or tall buildings for that matter) to be found for miles, it was an ideal setting for great music and the arts within an intimate setting.

For the record, within two all-too-short days, I attended more concerts in the Petworth Festival than in five years of the music-impoverished Singapore Arts Festival or whatever its called these days.

FRIDAY 20 JULY 2018

Parkhurst House, near Lurgashall.

Its only an hour on British southwest rail from Wimbledon to Haslemere, Surrey which was my entry-point into West Sussex. Met by Neil in his James Bond convertible, we made to Parkhurst House, his manor home near Lurgashall, overlooking miles of undulating countryside – and flocks of sheep! Before long, it was time for the first concert, a lunchtime gig held at the 160-seat Leconfield Hall (the old town hall) in the old market square of Petworth itself.

Leconfield Hall is at the heart
of Petworth town itself.

Bloomsbury Quartet

12 noon, Leconfield Hall

Four young ladies in bright crimson gowns could not have given a more serious programme of music, something that would quite at home at Wigmore Hall itself. Beginning with Beethoven’s Quartet in F major (Op.95), nicknamed “Serioso”, that set the tone for the rest of the hour-long concert. They produced a robust tone and exhibited an immaculate togetherness. This was Beethoven with passion, oozing from every muscle and sinew. Then it switched to Stravinsky’s Three Pieces, alternating rhythmic vigour with strident discords, modernism without apology and a refreshing palate-cleanser from conventional Beethoven.

My first live encounter with Benjamin Britten’s Second String Quartet was an illuminating experience. Whoever thought that the master of dissonance and grit himself could accomodate his idiom to yield music that felt vulnerable and so touchingly human? First on the to do list: listen it on recording again. My last encounter with Britten’s quartets dated to the late 1980s: Quartet No.3with the Chiligirian Quartet at Victoria Concert Hall, an unforgettable performance. This one came pretty close.

The quartet’s second violinist looked Asian, and she turned out to be Singapore’s Janell Yeo, some ten years after winning the $200K HSBC Youth Excellence Award. I had written about her in these pages ages ago and had wondered what happened with her. As her obviously proud mother regaled, Janell has since graduated from the Royal Academy of Music (the quartet was formed by its alumni) and gone on to philanthropic work alongside a busy music career. Giving back to society is something to be truly proud about.

Stained glass and altar piece
at St Mary The Virgin

Steven Isserlis and Tom Poster

7.30 pm, St Mary’s Church

The parish church of St.Mary the Virgin stands as the consecrated centre of Petworth, just beside the sprawling grounds of Petworth House. Its history date back to the 14^th century, and the faded gravestones littering its yard attest to its antiquity. It is over these gravestones that modern visitors traipse and enjoy drinks before the concert proper, one of the highlights of this festival.

Cellist Steven Isserlis needs no introduction having played many times in Singapore, his salt-and-pepper Rattlesque curls and their movements being almost as memorable as his performances themselves. The Canadian pianist Connie Shih had been replaced by young Briton Tom Poster but that made little difference. The programme of German and French music, headlined by Schumann, Faure and Franck, was to be a enjoyable and melody-filled one.

Notably, the music of two women composers – Clara Schumann and Augusta Holmes – were included. These are, of course, less familiar than those of their male counterparts (and main squeezes) but does gender make them any less worthy? The performances by Isserlis and Poster proved that there is no such thing as male or female music, only good music matters. The programme’s longest work was the Cesar Franck Sonata in A major, and it received a throroughly accomplished reading, not least in its ever-busy piano part. Reminded to self: better start practising!

BUTTERFLY LOVERS

Joshua Bell and

Singapore

Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (31 August 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 September 2018 with the title "A flight of beauty with Bell".

Superstar American violinist Joshua Bell’s much awaited return to Singapore culminated with two performances of Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s evergreen Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto partnering the Singapore Chinese Orchestra conducted by Yeh Tsung. Two separate audiences got to witness the spectacle, in Esplanade Concert Hall last Thursday and Singapore Conference Hall the evening after.

That he truly mastered the work, technically and idiomatically, was not unexpected. After all, the concerto was originally conceived for the Western violin and symphony orchestra in an attempt to create a piece that resembled Romantic era violin concertos audiences so yearn for. Although popular melodies from Beijing Opera were the basis of its themes, billions of listeners have enjoyed it as a Western-styled showpiece with Chinese characteristics.

Bellwas not even the first non-Asian violinist to attempt it here. Another American, Gil Shaham and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (directed by Shui Lan), recorded it more than a decade ago, with the coupling of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. The only difference here is the use of Chinese instruments as orchestral backing, in an arrangement by Yan Hui Chang and Ku Lap Man.

What stood out immediately was the beauty of Bell’s tone, gorgeously crafted and sonorously projected, contrasted against a backdrop of accompanying huqins. Every phrase was immaculately voiced and the feeling of fuzzy warmth, so typical in musical Romanticism, was gratefully lapped up. One can also be thankful that the temptation for excessive portamenti, or slides often heard or erhus in imitation of the opera voice, was resisted.

He even played in the tuttis, blending in with the orchestra, and the accompaniment was always discreet, allowing his voice to shine. In the tender duets with cellist Xu Zhong, there was much sympathy and synchronicity. A spontaneous standing ovation was the result, and an encore of Western art imitating the East in Fritz Kreisler’s tongue-in-cheek Tambourin Chinois.

Bellwas made to work hard earlier in the evening, with commanding solos in Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs, all staples in a virtuoso violinist’s repertoire. What truly touched the heart was a seamlessly gilded reading of Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs, accompanied by strings, light winds and harp.

Bringing this memorable concert to the two-hour mark were purely orchestral works which began each half. Three movements from Tan Dun’s Yellow Earth were a joyous but raucous celebration of the inhabitants from the Huangtu Plateau with percussion, solo suona, suona chorus and vocalisations from orchestral members leading the way. In Guo Wen Jing’s Ava Mountain from Dianxi Folk Tunes, a vigorous tribal beat from China’s Southwest ethnic minorities dominated, with the piquancy of zhonghus and dizis spicing up the mix.

Although the audience had been reminded that a live recording was taking place, there remained an inconsiderate minority who ignored the need to stifle coughs, and noisily unwrapping sweet wrappers to boot. One hopes that the Sony Classical album that results will have only sweet music, not noise.

INSTRUMENTAL CONCERT 2018

Association of Composers (

Singapore

)

Singapore

Chinese Cultural Centre
Recital Hall

Saturday (8 September 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 September 2018 with the title "12 composers, a myriad of styles".

Exactly how many composers are there in Singapore? The true figure will perhaps never be known. This chamber concert by the Association of Composers (Singapore) featured 12 of them, with none of the usual suspects patronised by the national orchestras. All belong to the Chinese-speaking community and many hail from the pioneer generation of citizens.

All the composers were seated in the
front row of the recital hall.

The works heard may be grouped as pieces for piano solo, erhu or violin accompanied by piano, and string quartet. These displayed a broad spectrum of influences, inspirations and styles, and one may surmise that there is no singular Singaporean way of composition. At least, not yet.

The concert opened and closed with works for erhu and piano, performed by Ng Rui Jun and Irene Law respectively. The huqin’s voice ensured a Chinese feel about them, while the accompanying piano sounded somewhat incongruent with Western harmonies and timbres. A guzheng or yangqin might have made more sense.

Lee Ngoh Wah’s My True Love was a short lyrical romance while Lee Chee Kung’s Erhu Capriccio was the most authentically Chinese-sounding work of the evening. Quek Yong Siu’s Garden Under The Morning Sun was an extended fantasy with the mimicry of birdsong, providing the original meaning to tweeting or twittering. The 3^rd movement of Toh Heng Guan’s First Erhu Concerto luxuriated in unusual harmonies and a virtuosic cadenza.

For violin and piano, violinist Siew Yi Li performed his brother Xiao Chun Yuan’s Homeland, which alternated between major and minor keys while engendering a sense of patriotism and nostalgia. Chiew Keng Hoon’s Little Creature delighted in dissonances and jagged rhythms, simulating some flitting stinging insect, while his Fantasy was a true study in the atonal idiom of the Second Viennese School.

Lian Sek Lin’s Moonlight Song had the hint of bel canto but with offbeat harmonies to unsettle and create tension. Lin Ah Leck’s A Wandering Lifewas a rhapsodic fantasy in the Chinese idiom culminating in a striding march. Tan Chan Boon’s Ostinatissimo was surprisingly gentle as he employed a slow chordal bass over which the violin fashioned a masterly passacaglia.

Pianist Nicholas Loh, who accompanied Siew, went solo in Xiao’s Tensions, built on an obstinate idee fixe, and hammered out Lian’s Hibiscus Variations, based ironically on a march theme, played fortissimo throughout with a Satiesque sense of irony.

The violin and piano duo of Mac Chang and Elaine Xu contributed Lee Yuk Chuan’s Remembrance and Rondo, contrasting sentimental lyricism with vigorous dance rhythms. Both works conjured the aroma of Central Asia, and the violinist was commended for spicing up the Rondo with Paganinian touches.

The cellist's score of
Frederick Ng's Dance In Harmony.

Two works played by the Melody String Quartet completed the programme. Lee Khiok Hua’s Autumn Scene was a Chinese-styled dance with alternating fast and slow sections, while Frederick Ng Eng Thong’s Dance In Harmony a heady mix of Malay motifs, minimalism, syncopation and counterpoint. Reliving a rowdy Chingay procession, this was arguably the most interesting work, a veritable rojak one might consider quintessentially Singaporean.

All the composers
and some of the performers.

Composer Tan Chan Boon with his students,
the next generation of Singaporean composers?

HERRMANN. GERSHWIN

WAXMAN. COPLAND

The Nash Ensemble

Hyperion 68094 / ****1/2

This anthology by crack British chamber group The Nash Ensemble features Jewish American composers who also happened to write for the silver screen. Although no film music is showcased, their accessible styles – highly tonal and assimilating popular and folk idioms – were ideal for the quintessentially 20^thcentury medium.

The longest work is Souvenirs de Voyage (1967) for clarinet and string quartet by Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975), who also wrote the music for Hitchcock thrillers Psycho, Vertigo and North By Northwest. The music is lyrical and lush in the best English pastoral tradition, with clarinettist Richard Hosford doing the honours.

George Gershwin (1898-1937) is represented by the 18 prelude-like numbers from The Gershwin Songbook (1932), with pianist Ian Brown putting the polish on I Got Rhythm, The Man I Love, Swanee and Strike Up The Band. Violinist Marianne Thorsen is the sensitive soul in Four Scenes from Childhood (1948) by Franz Waxman (1906-1967), Oscar-winning composer for Sunset Boulevard and A Place in the Sun. The music is surprisingly laid-back for a work dedicated to violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz.

Finally, the transcriptions for cello and piano by Aaron Copland (1900-1990) of the Waltz and Celebration from his ballet Billy the Kid, with cellist Rebecca Gilliver, complete 76 minutes of enjoyable listening. This is 20^thcentury music without tears.

FROM

RUSSIA

WITH LOVE

Yuri Bashmet &

Youth Symphony Orchestra of

Russia

University Cultural Centre Concert Hall

Wednesday (12 September 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 September 2018.

It is always interesting to hear a youth orchestra from the land that gave the world talents like Kissin, Vengerov and Volodos. Their last names alone will register a stir of recognition, as would Bashmet, founder-director and chief conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia, who also happens to be the world’s most famous violist.

Singapore was the first stop in the 100-strong orchestra’s Asian tour, where it gave a two-and-a-half hour concert. The exhausting programme opened with the Asian premiere of Kyrgyzstan-born Kuzma Bodrov’s Journey Through The Orchestra, a fancy set of variations on Paganini’s popular Caprice No.24. The music traversed through baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary styles with pastiches on Bach, Mozart, Grieg and Prokofiev trotted out like a primer of music history.

The young players were over-stretched by its elaborations, sounding raw and exposed at times, not helped by the venue’s dry and unflattering acoustics. Inexperience also hampered the ensemble while accompanying violinist Tatiana Samouil in Tchaikovsky’s indestructible Violin Concerto, where they were not always in sync.

A former prizewinner at the Tchaikovsky’s International Violin Competition, Samouil exuded a warm and sumptuous tone in a reading that was conducted at a broad and almost leisurely tempo. Only in the vivacious finale did sparks fly, but sounded like a mad scramble towards the end.

The brightest spark of the first half came in 11-year-old Singaporean violinist Chloe Chua’s partnership with Samouil in Vivaldi’s Concerto in A minor for two violins (RV.522). That the Menuhin Competition winner was able to hold her own, matching every move of a professional four times her age and two heads taller was just stunning. And she looked like enjoying every bit of the outing too.

All doubts about the orchestra’s prowess were dispelled in a stirring and heartfelt performance of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. This was the composer’s attempt at atonement after being criticised by Stalin for an earlier opera deemed decadent and anti-Soviet. Another failure would have meant the gulag, or worse.

The slashing discords that opened the four-movement work were played with conviction and unanimity of purpose. Soon decibels piled on with a juggernaut of a march, whose sheer volume and stridency was potentiated by the hall. With eardrums pricked and pinned to the wall, one’s full attention was gotten but the pain was certainly worth the effort. The 2^nd movement’s irony was less than subtle, deliberately so, but what truly tugged at the heart was the Largo slow movement.

Bashmet yielded a feast of catharsis from the strings, and when one thought the level of pathos could not be bested, a new high was attained. Even the banality of the finale, described in the programme notes as a “triumphal march”, could not disguise the passion displayed all around. True depth of emotion and artistry shines through, especially at knife-point and the threat of death.

THE PHILHARMONIC WINDS

AND TIMOTHY REYNISH IN CONCERT

The Philharmonic Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (17 June 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 19 June 2018 with the title "Musical birthday party for an octogenarian"

For two evenings last week, the 77-year-old pianist Martha Argerich lit up the stage of Esplanade Concert Hall. On Sunday evening, it was the turn of octogenarian British conductor Timothy Reynish to dominate the proceedings, leading The Philharmonic Winds in an invigorating concert which celebrated his 80^th birthday.

Some of the works were commissioned by or dedicated to the wind orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor, and included two local premieres. The concert opened with Kenneth Hesketh's Masque, a light-hearted scherzo-like movement showcasing pinpoint articulation from the woodwinds and a big melody from the sonorous brass.

Its pomp and pageantry continued into Guy Woolfenden's Illyrian Dances, a neo-baroque suite of dance movements distinguished by flights of fancy. Sounding like film music of popular appeal, it was well played, such as in the finale's tricky jig-rhythms which closed with good humour.

A sterner test was provided by Derek Bourgeois'Symphony for William, the first of two extended works. Written in memory of Reynish's third son William, who was only 34 when he perished in a mountaineering accident, its three movements encapsulated the young man's free spirit.

The opening Will-o-the-Wisp displayed an elfin lightness and mordant wit not unlike scores by Prokofiev or Walton. A warm French horn solo provided a bittersweet tinge to the slow movement Dianthus Barbatus (Sweet William), answered by an oboe's plaint in calm moments of reflection and contemplation. The finale, Will Power, bristled with anger and discord before racing off in a wild chase which brought to mind Khachaturian's Sabre Dance, but it closed on a quiet note.

The other big work was Yasuhide Ito's As Time Is Passing On, a symphonic poem which featured the 65-strong Philharmonic Winds Festival Chorus (Zechariah Goh, choirmaster). Mortality and impermanence were delved in its four linked sections, opening with a sombre Lamento before erupting into a lively Marcia, striding with Elgarian swagger.

Japanese composer Yasuhide Ito
receives the applause for his works.

The voices entered in Dies Irae, all dissonance and apocalyptic visions, and followed up mostly a cappella in the final part singing in Japanese. The accompaniment was light, with isolated percussion, pared-down woodwinds and harp. Closing in Latin with Requiem Aeternam, this brought to mind Benjamin Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, originally dedicated to the Empire of Japan but rejected because of its religious content. Ito was just returning the favour here.

Receiving its world premiere was Ito's Time-Into-Music, written for Reynish's seven score and ten. A chirpy woodwind chorale gave way to a busy fugue, quoting from Verdi's opera Falstaff (composed when the Italian was 80), before returning to the earlier celebration. Another birthday greeting was Spaniard Luis Alarcon's Tim, A British Pasodoble, a bull-fighting dance dressed in English garb with a cheeky quote from Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance March No.1.

The concert concluded with Adam Gorb's Bohemian Revelry, four movements of Slavonic-styled dances taking Smetana and Dvorak as inspiration. Rustic, comedic and colourful, it was an excellent way to end a musical birthday party.

FROM

RUSSIA

WITH LOVE

Yuri Bashmet &

Youth Symphony Orchestra of

Russia

University Cultural Centre Concert Hall

Wednesday (12 September 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 September 2018 with the title "Singapore violinist a bright spark".

Review: Concert

TOY TOY TOY!

re:Sound with Margaret Leng Tan

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (14 September 2018)

This review was published by The Straits Times on 17 September 2018 with the title "Riotous fun with toy pianos".

After feasting on Baroque, Classical and Romantic repertoire in its first two years, Singapore’s only professional chamber ensemble re:Sound dived headlong into 20^th and 21^st century music with a vengeance. This season’s opener saw the participation of Cultural Medallion recipient Margaret Leng Tan, hailed “Queen of the Toy Piano”.

It however opened with Leopold Mozart’s Toy Symphony, a 10-minute banality that delighted in gimmicky effects of rattle, bird whistle, cuckoo call, tambourine and jingles played over the strings. That nonetheless whetted the appetite for mayhem to come, with Tan’s entry to plink on her Schoenhut toy pianos for the rest of the show. She sat on a low stool but still towered over her instruments.

Opening with solo pieces by UK-based American composer Stephen Montague, she showed what the fuss was all about. It takes a consummate virtuoso to get around the driving tarantella rhythm of Mirabella, and with the help of tape, a gamelan-like orchestral sonority was created in Raga Capriccio, a work based on the repetition of just a few notes.

With four arrangements for toy piano and string quartet by Milos Raickovich, some of avant-garde and new music’s big names were celebrated. Most familiar were the drolleries of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No.3. Tan then played on two pianos simultaneously in Philip Glass’s Modern Love Waltz, carousing to a Spanish-like rhythm. John Cage’s Dream was haunting, building up seamlessly like Barber’s famous Adagio For Strings. Toby Twining’s Nightmare Ragconjured a haunted house feel and with its tribute to The Addams Family theme music, had the audience finger-snapping on cue.

The music got denser with a combo of string, wind instruments and percussion in Erik Griswold’s Gossamer Wings. Its three movements had lightness in texture with the marimba’s timbre complementing that of the toy piano. The final movement saw percussionist Michael Tan thumping it out on a toy drum-set of his own. Michael Wookey’s Coney Island Sous L’Eau employed a bigger ensemble, with a heady reliving of fairground music. The use of siren and thunder effects reminded one of Satie’s surrealist ballet Parade.

The concert closed with the full orchestra in Montague’s A Toy Symphony(1999), conducted by the composer himself. This was the world premiere of its 2018 version, specially scored for toy piano part alongside six guest artists deployed to the kitchen department. Joining the fray were the British high commissioner and his wife, several orchestral general managers and community musicians, and veteran comedienne-broadcaster Koh Chieng Mun.

The three movement symphony was premised upon the nostalgia of playing with one’s childhood toys in a musty attic. Highly dramatic horror movie effects ruled the Noisy Toys, Slow Afternoon opening movement, and the audience got a chance to hiss, shush and bird-whistle in the subsequent movements before the procession of Ghost March, Tin Soldiers At Dawn which closed the work with a terrific din. Serious work or not, it completed a smashing evening of riotous fun.

THE STORY OF

SINGAPORE

Singapore

Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (15 September 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 September 2018 with the title "Music that tells the Singapore story".

What is Singaporean music? That question begged to be answered again at this Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) concert conducted by Yeh Tsung, commemorating the 95^th anniversary of Chinese newspapers in Singapore with the founding of Nanyang Siang Pau in 1923.

Opening the evening was Wang Chen Wei’s The Sisters’ Islands, which has become a classic example of Nanyang music. Employing the pelog scale, the sumptuously orchestrated symphonic poem based on an old Malay legend was highly narrative, with significant solos for dizi, zhonghu and at its climax, the blast of a giant conch shell blown as a wind instrument.

There were two world premieres from SCO’s two most recent composers-in-residence. Both were played to projected montages of Singapore history from Singapore Press Holdings’ vast photograph archive. Eric Watson’s As The River Flows mused on the history of the Singapore River, from idyllic beginnings to pollution and grime, its clean-up and eventual gentrification. The music followed that trajectory as visuals transformed from black and white to brilliant colour.

Law Wai Lun’s The Stories Of Singapore – Singapore’s Press History delved on Chinese headline news, including the Japanese Occupation, independence from Malaysia, the SARS outbreak, to swimmer Joseph Schooling and violinist Chloe Chua’s world-beating triumphs. Dramatic music gave way to a gliding waltz before a valedictory march closed the proceedings.

To lighten things up, there were two medleys of Xinyao (Singaporean mandopop) by Chen Jiaming, orchestrated by Phang Kok Jun, and sung very idiomatically by Chriz Tong and Allan Moo. The projected accompanying lyrics gave the feeling of the audience eavesdropping on some high class karaoke session with songs like Like A Swallow, Moonlight In The City, Gone Too Far and Foolish Hearts.

The evening’s big work was Law’s Ode To Singapore, a choral symphony composed for the SG50 celebration in 2015. Featuring the Singapore Press Holdings Chinese Choir and SOKA Chorus, it was more eclectic than its Beethovenian title suggested. Following an stirring a cappella choral Prelude, Fight And Strive sounded like a highly dramatic confluence of the Yellow River Cantata, Carmina Burana and Lord Of The Rings music, sung in Chinese.

The Song Of Singapore that followed was a happy hymn with a big melody, extolling the nation’s inexorably progress into the First World. However the lyrics by Pan Cheng Lui, despite their honest intention, were banal and laughable in its English translation. Take for example, “HDB dwellings beckoning us home / NEWater offering peace of mind / The aroma of Kopi warms the hearts / Raise our cups to peace and prosperity for one and all,” and one gets the drift.

The finale was a sung recitation of the National Pledge, concluding with a rousing, “Sing,

Singapore

! / Majulah Singapura / Sing to our brighter tomorrow!” So lusty and proud was the performance by the choirs and orchestra that it was hard to doubt their graft and commitment. Good or bad, inspired or indifferent, Singaporean music needs to be heard.

GEOFFREY SABA Piano Recital

Churchill Room @ Tanglin Club

Saturday (1 September 2018)

The Tanglin Club off Scotts Road was an unusual place to hold a piano recital, but it was good to have some culture at a swanky venue where privileged people go to see and be seen. The hour-long recital was given by the London-based Australian pianist Geoffrey Saba, who is no stranger in these parts. Over the decades, he has performed piano recitals at the National University of Singapore Cultural Centre, besides giving the Singapore premieres of Bartok’s First Piano Concerto (with the SSO) and Peter Sculthorpe’s Piano Concerto(with NUSSO).

A small of audience of mostly children, their parents and retirees were treated to the music of Claude Debussy (1862-1918), whose death centenary is being observed this year. Sabaopened the recital with English pianist Leonard Borwick’s transcription of Prélude a l’aprés midi dun faune. This was a mostly literal and bare-bones look at one of classical music’s most exotic and sensuous scores. Although Sabatried to add as much colour, shade and nuance to the music, he was hampered by a rather deadpan Steinway baby grand which was not responsive to his variegated touches. There were a few slips here and there but at least the instrument was in tune.

More satisfying was the First Book of Préludes, which was performed with a penchant for mood, variation and fantasy. From the opening Danseuses de Delphes (Dancers of Delphi) to the final Minstrels, there was an effort to impart a spirit of vivid imagery to the 12 vastly contrasted pieces. Debussy first wrote out the preludes, and then added their evocative titles, hence the notion of the music being impressionist. He actually hated the term, which he felt was derogatory, and preferred to called “symbolist”.

There was a remarkable sequence of music from numbers five to eight, from the lively tarantella rhythms of Les collines d’Anacapri (The Hills of Anacapri), bleakness and desolation in Des pas sur la neige (Footsteps in the Snow), pummelling violence of Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest (What the West Wind Saw) to the gentle ministrations of La fille aux cheveux de lin (Girl with the Flaxen Hair). The vast contrasts were brought out as best as possible from the limited piano, one where the full dynamic range could not be fully realised. Nonetheless, the playing was evocative (particularly La Cathedrale Engloutie or The Engulfed Cathedral), lively and animated in the final dance-like numbers La serenade interrompue (Interrupted Serenade), La Danse de Puck (Dance of Puck), and Minstrels.

The theme of negroid dances continued into Saba’s sole encore, which was Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s Le Bananier (The Banana Tree), a short and delightful number. With the recital ended, the audience then dispersed for high tea, a Saturday afternoon ritual that is de rigeuer for The Tanglin Club.

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC

AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2017

Danacord 799 / *****

The annual festival of piano rarities at the northern German seaside town of Husumgrows from strength to strength in its 31^st year. An aural snapshot of last year’s festival is vividly captured in this 79-minute-long album. The works of 24 composers and transcribers are heard and it is tantalising to imagine what has not been included here.

There are complete performances of two works: Carl Czerny’s Variations On A Theme By Carl Rode “La Ricordanza”, with its florid elaborations fluently rendered by Italian pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi, and Russian Dmitri Blagoy’s three-movement Fairy Tale Sonata, lovingly related by Vincenzo Maltempo, another Italian. Both play up to 12 minutes each, and are the longest tracks.

From celebrated French-Canadian virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin comes his completion of an unpublished Chopin-Godowsky Etude (Nouvelle Etude No.1), never previously recorded, and his own Toccata On L’Homme Armé, his thorny set-piece written for the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

There are short tracks, excerpts from works by Gabriel Dupont, Leonid Desyatnikov, Fikret Amirov, Abram Chasins and Paul Hindemith, not exactly household names. This year’s highlights also have a popular slant with transcriptions of songs by Poulenc (Les Chemins D’Amour), Grainger (Londonderry Air), Donizetti (Casta Diva from Norma) and John Green (Body And Soul).

The other pianists include Daniel Berman, Nadezhda Vlaeva, Lukas Geniusas, Emile Naoumoff, Satu Paavola and Misha Dacic, all of whom are compelling artists. The enjoyment quotient is very high, and the recorded sound close to excellent.

GRAND RUSSIAN

ALBERT TIU, Piano

Centaur 3661 / *****

In his latest recording, Singapore-based Filipino pianist Albert Tiu eschews the miniatures of past albums and goes for the big picture. This appears to be a first ever recording coupling the two mammoth piano sonatas of the great Russians composers Piotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninov.

Tchaikovsky’s Grand Sonata in G major and Rachmaninov’s First Sonata in D minor play for well over half-an-hour each, and serve as preparatory works for two massive concertos (Tchaikovsky’s Second and Rachmaninov’s Third, also in the same keys) to come.

Their sprawling opening movements run the risk of being stodgy and protracted, but Tiu paces each very well, building up arch-like to thrilling climaxes. The further contrasts provided in the subsequent slow movements (and a mercurial Scherzo in the Tchaikovsky) are brought out with idiomatic feeling and unfailing imagination. Tiu is a born Romantic at heart, and the Faustian inspiration to the three movements of the Rachmaninov is unlikely to be missed.

Adding to the excellent recorded sound are interesting personal anecdotes and programme notes by the pianist himself, and aptly humourous artwork. All in all, this is a proud production of Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory that can stand up to scrutiny with the best recordings of the classical catalogue.

SINGAPORE

TRILOGY

L’arietta

The Arts House

Friday (12 October 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 October 2018 with the title "Realising the dream of Singaporean opera".

In opera parlance, Il Trittico refers to three one-act operas by the Italian Giacomo Puccini, namely Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. Singapore has been bestowed a Trittico of her own by young composer Chen Zhangyi and librettist Jack Lin, whose A Singapore Trilogywas performed complete for the first time in a single sitting at a single venue.

Composer Chen Zhangyi and
librettist Jack Lin (inset)

All three operas, sung in English and directed by veteran thespian Nora Samosir, had typically Singaporean settings with characters and inter-personal relationships one would readily identify with. Opera company L’arietta spared little effort in creating an immersive experience by staging the performances simultaneously in two different spaces within The Arts House, with the audience up close and featuring some of the local vocal scene’s finest voices.

Receiving its world premiere in The Blue Room was Kopi For One (2018), centred on an estranged father-daughter relationship within a neighbourhood kopitiam. Soprano Akiko Otao and tenor Jonathan Charles Tay played protagonists who seemed remote despite the familial connection. Their disparate personalities were brought together by the levity of soprano Yee Ee-Ping’s cleaning auntie, she of unabashed Singlish and spouted colloquialisms.

This emotional distance, although initially jarring, was well-founded. It was in the opera’s final minutes when the twist was only revealed: the father we saw and heard was a ghost. The music was modern yet tonal, accompanied by an ensemble of violin, cello, flute, clarinet and piano, conducted by the composer himself. As if to complete the experience, the audience was also treated to coffee, tea, Milo and a selection of nyonya kueh during the intermission.

They were later ushered to The Living Room for the far more light-hearted Laksa Cantata (2013), a Singaporean update on the story in J.S.Bach’s Coffee Cantata. Soon-to-wed Stephen (tenor Samuel Ng) and Leah (soprano Ng Jingyun) fuss over whether laksa lemak should be served at their nuptials. What appeared to be sure recipe for a split soon resolved in a steaming hot bowl of compromise. Here the dreamy Stephen and feisty Leah were well-characterised by both Ngs, helped by witty dialogue, and their final waltz of blissful truce eventually sealed the deal.

Finally, reminiscence and reflection dominated Window Shopping (2014), where sopranos Felicia Teo and Phoebe Chee held sway. Engaging in a favourite local pastime, both ladies elicit different reactions after stepping into a high end shoe boutique. The wistfulness of Teo’s older woman contrasted starkly with Chee’s ecstatic young girl, but both were essentially the same person separated by the passage of time. Youthful exuberance of youth gives way to wizened experience, with the unifying factor being Chen’s jazz-inflected score played by the same instrumental combination led by Aloysius Foong.

Two decades ago, Singaporean opera seemed a distant dream. Today, it has become par for the course. With this excellent trilogy, Chen Zhangyi should no longer be referred to as a composer of promise, but one of stature.

BORODIN QUARTET – ELEGY

BORODIN QUARTET – EPILOGUE

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday & Sunday

(13 & 14 October 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 October 2018 with the title "A full measure of what chamber music is about".

Longevity is the enduring quality of Russia’s Borodin Quartet, founded in 1945 and still going strong for over 70 years. Its players have come and gone, with the last founding member cellist Valentin Berlinsky retiring in 2007. Of the Borodin Quartet that last performed in Singapore in 1996, only violist Igor Naidin remains.

Its two concerts, part of the SSO Chamber and VCH Presents series, gave listeners the full measure of what chamber music was all about. Three of its members partnered with Singapore Symphony Orchestra players for two popular quintets on the first evening. Violist Naidin and cellist Vladimir Balshin were joined by violinists Chan Yoong Han and Chikako Sasaki and cellist Ng Pei-Sian for Schubert’s late String Quintet in C major.

Despite the “heavenly length” of nearly 55 minutes, it was a superbly paced performance that breathed freshness, revealing the intimacy of close cooperation all through its four movements. There was nothing to separate Russians and locals in the seamless music-making, from the opening movements’ lyrical musings to more vigorous exertions of the Scherzo and Rondo finale.

Oneness of ensemble also inhabited Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in G minor, where violinist Sergei Lomovsky and violist Naidin played alongside pianist Lim Yan, violinist Margit Saur and cellist Wang Yan. In this music of emotional and dynamic extremes, the temptation to lapse into caricature was resisted. While playing the score straight, the result was a catharsis borne of extreme duress while keeping a straight face. This irony was clearly appreciated by the audience.

The Borodin Quartet, led by first violinist Ruben Aharonian, was on its own in the second concert, which presented diametrically contrasting halves. Musical sunshine lit up Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet, with its very familiar Andante Cantabile slow movement, where Aharonian’s melodic line soaring above quiet pizzicatos from Balshin’s cello could not have been more tender.

The rest of the work showcased immaculate ensemble, sensitive to myriads of nuances, and finely balanced by an understated virtuosity. The four players could easily have played this, their musical heritage, blind-folded. Hugo Wolf’s brief and jolly Italian Serenade, filled with Mediterranean warmth, was served like an enjoyable encore.

Dmitri Shostakovich with the
original members of the Borodin Quartet

A sugar-coated first half would scarcely have prepared one for the bile of Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.15, his final embittered work in this medium. The hall was plunged into near darkness, with the players barely visible through dim lights illuminating their scores. This seemed like the only way to experience the work’s six continuous slow movements, highlighted by painful pauses, pregnant silences and interjected dissonances. One could hear a pin drop amid this blanket of unnerving stillness and unease, so grippingly negotiated by the quartet.

There was nearly a minute of silence before house lights came on with the ensuing applause. Two short Tchaikovsky encores seemed trite and inconsequential, as all present knew all through the music’s unremitting bleakness, they had attended a requiem.

SSO violinist Chan Yoong Han
and his daughter Chantal meet the Borodins.

SSO violinist Chikako Sasaki
is ecstatic she got to play with the legendary quartet.

The Borodin Quartet also performs at
The Joy of Music Festival 2018
Hong Kong

Wednesday (17 October 2018):
Tchaikovsky String Quartet No.1
Wolf Italian Serenade
Shostakovich String Quartet No.15

Friday (19 October 2018):
Haydn String Quartet Op.33 No.1
Shostakovich String Quartet No.9
Shostakovich Piano Quintet
(with Ilya Rashkovskiy, Piano)

8 pm, City Hall Concert Hall
Tickets available at URBTIX
https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/music/programs_620.html

CLAIR DE LUNE

MENAHEM PRESSLER, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 479 8756 / **1/2

The Germany-born Menahem Pressler (born 1923) is the “grand old man” of the piano. He was a founding member of the world-renowned Beaux Arts Trio in 1953 and helmed it till 2008. He still pursues an active solo performing and teaching career at the age of 94. This solo album of French piano music, recorded last year, unfortunately does his legacy scant justice.

Almost every item is played at a funereal and lugubrious tempo. Although his touch and pedalling are often exquisite, Claude Debussy’s First Arabesque, Reverie and the titular Clair de lune (from Suite Bergamasque) are so dragged out that one’s patience is tested.

The same stolidity applies to the selection of five Préludes. In Danseuses de Delphes, the sonorous chords sound strangely detached. Only in the slower-than-slow waltz La plus que lentedoes his expansive pacing makes perfect sense.

The recital is completed by a Gabriel Fauré Barcarolle, easily the album’s best track, and two pieces by Maurice Ravel. When Ravel quipped that the princess of his Pavane pour une infante défunte was dead, and not the pavane, he was probably to such a reading which stretches to nearly 8 minutes. A dispiriting showing from a great pianist.

NOT TO BE MISSED: MAHLER 2 BY OMM 18 August 2018

CD Review (The Straits Times, August 2018)

DÉNES VARJON Piano Recital / 25th Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

CD Review (The Straits Times, August 2018)

TWO GLORIOUS DAYS AT THE PETWORTH FESTIVAL / Part II

TWO GLORIOUS DAYS AT THE PETWORTH FESTIVAL / Part I

BUTTERFLY LOVERS / Joshua Bell and Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

INSTRUMENTAL CONCERT 2018 / Association of Composers (Singapore) / Review

CD Review (The Straits Times, August 2018)

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE / Yuri Bashmet & Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia / Review

THE PHILHARMONIC WINDS AND TIMOTHY REYNISH IN CONCERT / The Philharmonic Winds / Review

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE / Yuri Bashmet & Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia / Review

TOY TOY TOY! / re:Sound with Margaret Leng Tan / Review

THE STORY OF SINGAPORE / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

GEOFFREY SABA Piano Recital @ The Tanglin Club

CD Review (The Straits Times, September 2018)

CD Review (The Straits Times, October 2018)

A SINGAPORE TRILOGY / L'arietta / Review

BORODIN QUARTET - ELEGY & EPILOGUE / Review

CD Review (The Straits Times, October 2018)