pianomania

BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO

WITH LEONIDAS KAVAKOS

Singapore

Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (26 September 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 September 2015

Soloists who perform as well as conduct in the same evening are no longer a rarity at Singapore Symphony Orchestra concerts. The latest is Greek violin virtuoso Leonidas Kavakos, who opened with Beethoven's Violin Concerto from the floor and later stepped on the podium to conduct Dvorak's Seventh Symphony.

The Beethoven was a revelation, coming across as an ultimate piece of chamber music. The long orchestral tutti set the tone, directed by Kavakos on centrestage. The tempo he chose was comfortable, perfectly judged for his solo entry which brought out the sweetest sound one could possibly hope for.

His intonation was spot on throughout, and there was never that tension that usually exists between soloist and orchestra. He and the SSO were in one mind, and one heart together, his Stradivarius rising above the massed strings yet blending as one voice. Here was an arch-virtuoso, renowned for his pyrotechnics in Romantic and modern repertoire, tempering a soloistic instinct in service of this anti-virtuosic music.

With both hands occupied, a mere nod of the head or gesture in the face was enough for his partners to do his bidding, and the result was pure harmony. Things heated up in the first movement cadenza by Fritz Kreisler, taken with a nonchalant ease, and the result was warmth itself. Premature applause from the excitable audience was greeted with a friendly smile by Kavakos, and the feeling of bliss carried through to the Larghetto slow movement, where among the sublime moments included one where his violin was accompanied by pizzicato strings.

The rondo finale was a joyous romp, one so agreeable that a final cadenza thrown in to stir things up seemed only a concession for display for display's sake. Even this was in the true classical spirit, which was roundly applauded. The hair-raising stuff came in Kavakos' encore, a scarcely believable solo transcription of Tarrega's guitar classic Memories of the Alhambra.

Kavakos is less experienced as a conductor on the podium, but brought out an exciting reading of Dvorak's Seventh Symphony in D minor. The contrast could not have been greater, with the gentility of Beethoven giving way to the raw dramatics of the Bohemian. Even with a reduced sized band, Romantic repertoire invariably tests Victoria Concert Hall's acoustics to the limit. Dvorak, whose orchestration resembles that of Brahms, sounded plethoric especially in the loud climaxes.

Taking a broader than usual tempo, the first movement dragged a little and some of the nervous tension was lost. However potential for upping the ante existed, and that gradually proved the case. The slow movement provided a mellow spell, all but blown away by the vigourous Slavonic rhythm of the third movement. The symphony never looked back after that, with a return of the energy and drama in the finale.

This time, Kavakos with his shoulder-length locks was practically leaping from the podium, as if possessed. The final climax was an overwhelming one. Dvorak was to complete two further and more popular symphonies, but both would not come close to the sheer angst of the Seventh. SSO and Kavakos nailed this one firmly between the eyes.

SETTS #1

Southeastern Ensemble

for Today's and Tomorrow's Sounds

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (27 September 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 September 2015

SETTS is the acronym for Southeastern Ensemble for Today's and Tomorrow's Sounds, the latest new music ensemble in Singapore. Founded by violinist / educator Ruth Rodrigues and Singapore Symphony Orchestra bassoonist Christoph Wichert, its mission is to showcase the music of Southeast Asian composers, with performances by some of the nation's top professional musicians.

The small audience that gathered did not know what to expect when Hoh Chung Shih's Parts / Yuan began with eleven musicians dispersed throughout the hall playing seemingly random notes and sequences. The composer described this as a “sonic garden”, a sound installation with a combination of “fixed” or planted musicians playing from scores and “mobile” string players hovering around them and walking through the audience.

That piece of “surround sound” served as a bookend for the concert which also had more conventional ensemble pieces. The subject of sleep (or the lack of) occupied two young composers' works. Daniel Bonaventure Lim's Hold It Still was a scherzo-like piece scored for wind quintet and percussionist Iskandar Rashid, with Roberto Alvarez's flute and piccolo being the protagonist.

Here slumber gets interrupted by vivid and sometimes disturbing dreams, which was the case with Malaysian composer Chow Jun Yan's Ning III for piano, violin and flute. With Shane Thio stroking the insides of the piano, it was left for violinist Christina Zhou and Alvarez to conjure up harmonics and the most tinnitus-inducing sounds from their instruments, all guaranteed to result in insomnia.

In between were Quartre Pieces pour Hautbois et Piano by veteran Vietnamese composer Ton-That Thiet (born 1933), short and varied essays in the style of the French modernist school. Composers like Messiaen, Dutilleux and Jolivet came to mind. Dutch oboist Joost Flach negotiated its bed of brambles with aplomb, accompanied by Thio who also performed Chua Jon Lin's Seven Miniatures, interesting character pieces that displayed influences by Satie, Bartok and Ligeti among others.

Teenaged Bruneian composer Shilah Husaimee Ahmad's 6 Cities In Marchfor wind quintet was the most traditional work on show, but one displaying much maturity. Its theme was an Arabic lullaby prayer song heard as a child, subjected to six variations, each representing a city of spiritual significance including Brunei, Jeddah, Mecca, Medinah, Dubai and Singapore. Its performers were Alvarez, Flach, Wichert, Colin Tan (clarinet) and Alan Kartik (French horn).

The Indonesian Septian Dwi Cahyo's String Quartet No.1 comprised very short movements, much in the astringent manner of Viennese serialist Anton Webern. Its thorny pages brought out the virtuosity of violinists Zhou, Nanako Tanaka, violist Marietta Ku and cellist Lin Juan. This concert of three world premieres and three Singapore premieres was brought full circle with a reprise of Hoh's Parts / Yuan, this time with the added element of audience interaction.

Photo credit: Prof Bernard Tan

More incontrovertible proof that Esplanade
front-of-house is run by unthinking robots.
Amid the ongoing mayhem, this humanoid clone tried
to prevent people from taking photos.

Hoh requested the audience to mingle with the musicians and among themselves, to react, to imitate and to oppose whatever actions and sounds as they see fit. This was essentially a licence to a free-for-all, so cue the mayhem of the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring and whatever occurs when concert etiquette flies out of the window. It is hoped that SETTS#2 proves to be another riot.

All photographs by the kind permission of SETTS.

R IS FOR ROSES

Sing Song Club

Living Room at The Arts House

Sunday (27 September 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 September 2015

One of the best kept secrets in Singapore's musical scene has to be concerts by the Sing Song Club, the nation's premier exponent of the art song. Its annual Lieder Festival and Alphabet Series of song recitals deserve to be better attended, given the labour of love devoted to the curatorship of art songs and the actual performances.

Hundreds of origami and knitted roses greeted an audience of about 30 persons attending its latest recital in the Alphabet Series, an hour-long programme on the subject of roses. Limited to only songs in English, there was still an encyclopaedic dimension to the twenty on offer, sung by tenor Adrian Poon and soprano Rebecca Li, accompanied on piano by the ubiquitous Shane Thio.

The art of writing songs is an elusive one, as setting the right words to the right kind of music determines whether a song is memorable or not. A lyrical quality is essential for a vocal artist to realise a song's full potential, for it to make the “popular” list. All the songs, whether by English or American composer, had been a hit sometime or another.

Benjamin Britten's unusual harmonisations add something tangible to Sweeter Than Roses by baroque composer Henry Purcell and the Irish song The Last Rose Of Summer. These make the listener more keenly receptive to the actual melodies and words. Edward MacDowell's To A Wild Rose is better known in its original piano setting, but the added words flesh out the raw emotions within otherwise not revealed.

Tenor Poon has a fresh and youthful vitality, a natural ring to his voice that does not need to over-exert in order to communicate. The swing to be found in Joe Burke's Rambling Rose, the haunting melancholy of Marc Blitzstein's The Rose Song and Christopher Irvin's rapturous A Wedding Among Roses were well-suited to his crooner's temperament.

Soprano Li is more of a stage diva, judging by her regular operatic roles, who can carry songs to shattering climaxes. She comfortably hit the lofty reaches of Haydn Wood's well-known showpiece Roses Of Picardy, oozed sentimentality in Roger Quilter's A Last Year's Rose and hammed like a Broadway showgirl for James Hanley's Second Hand Rose.

There were unfortunately no duets for the two singers, but a thematic approach that linked the songs lent much coherence to the breezy hour that passed quickly. Roses in gardens, roses in the wild, roses of love, transient and sickly roses, girls named Rose and mankind's love of roses were sub-themes within this absorbing whole. Pianist Thio was reliable as always, supporting the vocalists to the hilt.

Three more recitals beckon from 16 to 18 October at The Arts House, in a Lieder Festival dedicated wholly to songs by Singaporean composers, in celebration of the nation's 50 years. The rarity factor ensures that this is a must-attend event. You read it here first!

All photographs by the kind permission of The Sing Song Club.

FANTASY TRIOS

Dimension Piano Trio

Champs Hill 060 / *****

In 1907, a philanthropist and amateur musician named Walter Cobbett held a competition for new compositions in the piano trio genre based on the subject of a one-movement “phantasie”. The 1^stprize of 50 pounds was awarded to Frank Bridge (1879-1941), who had composed his Phantasie in C minor. The work encompassed high passion and languidity, with a central section of scherzo-like playfulness. His style was influenced by the likes of Brahms, Fauré and Richard Strauss. Coming in second was John Ireland (1879-1962) whose Phantasie in A minor, more sanguine work with a most serene conclusion, was rewarded just 10 pounds.

Performing these in this highly rewarding album are the trio of violinist Rafal Zambrzycki-Payne, cellist Thomas Carroll and pianist Anthony Hewitt. Their vivid advocacy is second to none. The longest work is however Eduard Steuermann's highly idiomatic piano trio arrangement of Schoenberg's famous String Sextet, entitled Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), portraying the anguished emotions of an estranged couple on a midnight walk. The work however ends peaceably and with a reaffirmation of love. The filler is brief but no less fine: Josef Suk's Elegie deserves more than an occasional airing. The recorded sound is excellent, hence essential listening for chamber music aficionados.

THE CHOPIN PROJECT

OLAFUR ARNALDS & ALICE SARA OTT

Mercury Classics 0028948114863 / *

Purists, look away now as yet another crossover project attempts to breathe new life into the well-worn classics. Polish composer Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) is the victim here, as young Icelandic composer and multimedia artist Olafur Arnalds deconstructs his music with the help of a somewhat misguided German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott and an Icelandic string quartet. Five of nine tracks in this short 46-minute long album are Arnalds' meditations on short motifs and harmonic sequences to be found in Chopin's pieces. All these are slow and dreamy, including Verses and Written In Stone, based on a recurrent accompanying pattern in the 3^rd movement of Chopin's Third Sonata.

Ott plays the original version of the Largo, the Raindrop Prelude, the posthumous C sharp minor Nocturne (with violinist Mari Samuelsen in Nathan Milstein's transcription), and exasperatingly truncated versions of the G minor and C minor Nocturnes. But what is gained for some of these to be accompanied by deliberately added background sounds? Arnald's Eyes Shut / Nocturne In C Minorand Letters Of A Traveller (based on the Nocturne Op.27 No.2) hint at Chopin's genius but fail to deliver on his end. All of this is atmospheric aural wallpaper which might please New Agers, but do nothing for our understanding or enjoyment of the real Chopin. A waste of time, money and shelf-space, really.

ESSENCE OF NANYANG

Singapore

Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (2 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 October 2015

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra travels to Hong Kongin mid-October to perform two concerts. The first of its two pre-tour concerts displayed the orchestra's versatility that local audiences have come to know and expect. Although titled Essence of Nanyang, the concert conducted by Yeh Tsung offered more than just music inspired by Southeast Asian sources.

The first two works had a popular and rhythmic twist, beginning with Zhao Dong Sheng's arrangement of the 1920s Cantonese tune Han Tian Lei (Thunderstorm and Drought) which featured electric guitar, drum-set and Han Lei's guanzi in what may be described as in “Tempo di Hard Rock”.

Updated to 1960s and 70s sensibilities, it served as an overture to the divertissement by Eric Watson called Mahjong Kakis, which continued in a similar jazzy thread. Its buzzing, bustling percussive beat was infectious, like the enthusiasm displayed when four old friends get together to pit their wits on small stakes.

Altogether more serious was Tan Dun's Fire Ritual, where affairs of the ancient imperial courts are carried out like an elaborate piece of musical theatre. SCO Concertmaster Li Bao Shun was an impressive soloist on gaohu, erhu and zhonghusupported by orchestra and random soloists scattered throughout the hall. Percussion and ceremonial suonas led the way, punctuated by vocalisations from conductor Yeh, who took on a shaman-like role, as well as orchestral members.

Common to several Tan scores, the sound of paper flapping in the air, whistles and birdcalls were part of the musical fabric. The procession began dramatically but took on a more serene and sedate turn before the main themes were elucidated. Almost like a religious ceremony, the work closed with an impactful ritual silence.

The element of Nanyang came with a vengeance in the second half. First came an amuse-bouchein the form of Sabah-native Simon Kong's Rambutan, a rhythmically-driven movement from Izpirazione II, a suite based on East Malaysian fruits. Like the diminutive fruit itself, a single gulp and it was over.

The major work of the concert was three movements from Liu Yuan's Marco Polo and Princess Blue, a work commissioned for the Esplanade Opening Festival in 2002. Although titled a symphonic poem, it is more a cantata scored for two solo voices, mixed chorus and orchestra. It was based on Italian explorer Marco Polo's final mission for Kublai Khan, which was to escort his daughter from Cathay via the sea-route to an arranged marriage with the Prince of Persia. As one might have guessed, the two develop feelings for each other as the voyage passes a “little red dot” along the way.

Tristan And Isoldeit is not. Even the presence of two top Chinese opera stars, tenor Warren Mok and soprano Wu Bi Xia who sang with amplification, could not disguise its banalities. Eden In The East, a duet taking on the style of a Neapolitan serenade (Marco Polo was Venetian) accompanied by la-la-la's from the SYC Ensemble Singers, was merely one of many cringeworthy moments.

The eventual parting of the ways in Eternal Love was no Liebestod(love-death), but the poignant memory of a song which unites their spirits forever, and its tune is none other than... Singapura, O Singapura (that sunny island set in the sea). Energised with familiarity, the singers and orchestra then rightly whipped up an apotheosis worthy of a Shostakovich finale, which brought on the applause and no little cheers.

To be fair, Yeh and his charges gave this music an outing that is unlikely to be bettered anytime soon. It is hoped that Hongkongers respond favourably to its share of exoticisms and novelty value.

DAUSGAARD CONDUCTS MAHLER'S TENTH

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (3 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 October 2015 with the title "Getting the most from Mahler".

One of the great “What ifs?” in musical history is “What if Gustav Mahler did not die prematurely at the age of 51 in 1911?” His nine completed symphonies represented the last ebbing breath of Romanticism as music headed into an uncertain future in Second Viennese School atonalism and Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring of 1913. His Tenth Symphony was lest unfinished with only the opening Adagio movement fully scored.

Yet in that Adagio Mahler ws already moving in new and different directions. Many have attempted to complete the work based on Mahler's short score, sketches and inscribed notes, but it is British musicologist Deryck Cooke's performing version that is the most often performed. This evening, Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard helmed the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in its local premiere.

Local Mahlerites will remember Shui Lan leading the Clinton Carpenter version of the Tenth is 2009, a far denser and more opulent work than Cooke's. Other than the Adagio, neither is true Mahler but the world is poorer for not having a glimpse of what the Bohemian composer had envisaged before his untimely demise. Under Dausgaard, whose animated movements on the podium resembled a ballet, the Adagiowas given broad and expansive vistas to unfold. One could hear a pin drop when violas opened accounts with an evenness of sonority that was hard to match.

It was a little discomfiting for the brass in the initial entries but it got better very quickly, settling down to a superb performance that highlighted Mahler's obsession with sound. How more adventurous and dissonant he had become was epitomised by that screaming nine-note chord with Jon Paul Dante's trumpet hitting the high A and holding on with fully bared talons. That moment was reached with a gradual build-up that was just breathtaking.

The three fast middle movements took the form of two Scherzos sandwiching the brief and grotesque Purgatorio. Cooke's lighter orchestration meant that it was more easy-going on the ears than the Carpenter version. The Scherzos were contrasting, a bucolic and somewhat ungainly country dance facing off with a more urbane and sinister Viennese waltz. These mirrored Mahler's past lives and in between, harbingers of death where the chirping woodwinds and murmuring brass shone.

The most moving pages came in the finale, a funeral procession turned into a sublime declaration of love from the composer to his estranged wife. Mark Suter's earthshaking bass drum thuds and Hidehiro Fujita's tuba grabbed the listener by the lapels, bit it was Jin Ta's silvery flute solo that soothed the nerves. In the development, concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich and viola principal Zhang Manchin's fine solos paved the way to the inevitable reprise of the Adagio's primal scream.

This time around, the earlier agonising had dissipated, replaced by a fuzzy warmth from the lovely strings that permeated all through to the final note. The half-minute's silence that lapsed before the storm of applause that erupted was just as satisfying. With this show of appreciation and maturity, the audience that braved the haze to attend this one-work-only concert had clearly caught the message.

Thomas Dausgaard with his friend Lim Yau.
Both conductors had attended the same conducting course
at Siena under the famous pedagogue Franco Ferrara,

BRENDAN GOH Cello Recital

with KSENIIA VOKHMIANINA, Piano

Gallery, The Arts House

Sunday (4 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 October 2015 with the title "Young cellist wows with richly layered offerings".

Fact: 16-year-old Brendan Goh is the youngest Singaporean cellist to have recorded his own CD album. Actually he has two CD recordings; the first was made when he was 12. After receiving a very favourable review from the prestigious British discophile journal Gramophone, his hour-long solo recital, part of the Homecoming Series in the Singapore International Festival of Music, demonstrated all this was not just hype.

Beginning with Luigi Boccherini's Cello Sonata in A major, the Vienna-based student displayed all the hallmarks of sound musicality and good teaching. He produced a clean, clear and lush sound on his 1844 J.B.Vuillaume cello, which just sang in the slow opening movement before flexing the musculature in the fast movement that followed.

He was just warming up, and soon the cellist's full armamentarium was on show for Russian cello virtuoso Carl Davidoff's Allegro De Concerto, the sort of showpiece that gains entry into conservatories and wins competition prizes. The apparent nonchalance and unfazed manner in which the lanky youth picked up tempo and threw off all its thorny challenges revealed that technique comes naturally to him.

The work that proved interpretatively the most difficult was also the longest. Brahms'Second Cello Sonata in F major (Op.99) is a supreme test even for cellists double or triple his age, but the manner in which he launched into its passionate pages suggested that he had little to fear from its vaunted reputation. It is such a work that one begins to reveal a maturity of thought and expression that comes beyond the notes.

Interpretations will grow with time and repeated performances, but the moment to savour its richly layered offerings is now. With Ukrainian pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina, who lives in Singapore but brought in as a last-minute collaborator, Goh forged an immediate chemistry that was palpable in its four movements.

The slow movement was languorous in its long breathed lines, with which Goh thoughtfully luxuriated before pulling all stops in the fiery third movement. More rehearsal time would have reaped further dividends but the present result was still hugely impressive as the work wound to an ecstatic conclusion.

Without milking the applause, which was tempting enough, Goh performed three encores. The final two saw a cameo appearance by his former teacher Qin Li-Wei, linking a Vivaldi slow movement with Viva La Vida (part of the repertoire of the group 2 Cellos), in a show of cameraderie between cellists and an obvious joie de vivre.

Have we just witnessed the debut of who might possibly become Singapore finest cellist?

NORDIC TRUMPET CONCERTS

OLE EDVARD ANTONSEN, Trumpet

Nordic Chamber Orchestra

Christian Lindberg (Conductor)

BIS 1548 / ****1/2

Do not let the title of Nordic Trumpet Concertos deter you the listener, as Norwegian virtuoso trumpeter Ole Edvard Antonsen's anthology does not contain a single atonal work, but rather an eclectic mix of different modern styles which are both accessible and engaging. The Finn Harri Wessman's Trumpet Concerto (1987) is both congenial and melancolic, with a main theme that recurs in the finale, heightening the trumpet's ability to sing the moody blues. This is contrasted with Swede Britta Bystrom’s Forvillelser(Delusions, 2005), a more dissonant work that is an unsettling portrait of social isolation and psychosis set in the urban landscape of Stockholm.

The cornet features in Alfred Janson's Norwegian Dance (1996), which has elements of minimalism, with a single theme repeated through cycles of varying tempos, from slow to fast and back to slow again. A manic kind of waltz results, dedicated to the memory of Rikard Nordraak, the short-lived nationalist composer and close friend of Edvard Grieg. Celebrated Swedish trombonist and conductor Christian Lindberg's jazzy Akbank Bunka (2004) is the most extroverted work in the collection, derived from Turkish and Japanese inspirations. Antonsen's exuberant yet sensitive playing is recommended listening for all brass enthusiasts.

BOOK IT:

THE SOUND OF THE NORDIC WITH

OLE EDVARD ANTONSEN AND BAND

Tuesday 13 October 2015

Victoria Concert Hall at 8 pm

Tickets available at SISTIC

SHOSTAKOVICH Cantatas

Soloists & Estonian Concert Choir

Estonian National Symphony

PAAVO JÄRVI

Erato 0825646166664 / ****1/2

This year marks the 40^th death anniversary of Soviet era Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), which will account for the rush of new recordings of his music. This disc of three rarely performed cantatas demonstrates how a composer's art may be compromised by the political and social milieu he occupies. While Stalin was alive, composers' works were to glorify the State and party policies, Hence the blissful optimism and lack of irony of The Sun Shines Over Our Motherland (1952), which sounds like an extended national anthem at 14 minutes. A longer pot-boiler, The Song Of The Forests (1949) praising USSR's reforestation programme, won Shostakovich the Stalin Prize First Class and 100 thousand roubles despite having been denounced as a formalist and enemy-of-the-people merely a year before.

Contrast these with The Execution Of Stepan Razin (1964), with texts by Yevgeny Yetuvshenko, a mightily serious work which decries political persecution and totalitarianism. Stalin had died in 1953 and his legacy was thrashed by Krushchev shortly after that. Its dark and bitter subject makes this work the one of three most likely to be performed in concert outside of Russia. The performances by Paavo Jarvi's Estonian forces are examplary and are vividly recorded. The only drawback is the absence of texts and translations, which would have enhanced the appreciation of this period-specific music. Recommended listening, nonetheless.

SINGAPURA

Singapore

International Festival of Music

Gallery, The Arts House

Wednesday (7 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 October 2015

At first acquaintance, Singapura, the only concert segment of the Singapore International Festival of Music (SIFOM) to feature local music, appeared to be an excuse to bring together works from Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. After sitting through its hour-long duration, the concert became greater than the sum of its parts.

Phoon Yew Tien's Separation Of The Newly Wed (1987) was a setting of Tang dynasty poet Du Fu's poem about a couple torn by the onset of war. Soprano Ashley Chua's Chinese words played equal partner to Audi Goh's oboe, Adrian Wee's erhu and Chua Yew Kok's pipa in an intensely moving work where fraught emotions were matched by the imaginative playing. The drum-like rhythms struck by the pipa provided the necessary dramatics.

The symbolism of the forcible separation of Singapore in 1965 from the newly formed Malaysia before any meaningful consummation became all the more relevant. War and conflict was the theme of this Festival, and even though the late Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) was pacifist by nature, his gentle work Rain Spell (1982) provided voices of contention.

Flute (played by Cheryl Lim) and harp (Lee Yun Chai) were among his favourite compositional instruments. Their dreamy tones, joined by the mellowness of the vibraphone (Iskandar Rashid) and clarinet (Vincent Goh), were sharply contrasted with Chenna Lu's piano, where metallic chords were augmented by the strumming of its strings. With Takemitsu, sound textures often trumped thematic cohesion.

Tan Chan Boon's Conversation for Horn & Piano (1993) was a fantasy on Taiwanese tunes in three movements. The virtuosic solo was expertly helmed by Alexander Oon, with the piano part (Lu again) given the freedom of playful asides and surprising harmonies. The lightest work on the programme was followed by the densest, Malaysian composer Chong Kee Yong's Yellow Dust (1994, revised 2015) for string quartet.

Its title refers to the loess storms that bury ancient cities like Xi'an, in turn concealing and revealing historical findings through the millennia. Its highly dissonant language, interspersed with shards and fragments of melody, carries on the legacy of string quartets by Bartok and Ligeti. These extremes were handled with total discipline and much conviction by violinists Seah Huan Yuh and Liu Yi Retallick, violist Jonathan Lee and cellist Chan Si Han.

Three choral works by Leong Yoon Pin (1931-2011), performed sympathetically by Schola Cantorum led by Albert Tay, completed the concert. Dragon Dance, one of his most-performed works, is a quasi-fugal chant of the onomatopoeic “qiang-dong-qiang” of the drums, punctuated by the rolled R's in the flight of silk balls. His arrangement of the Javanese tune Bengawan Solo remains popular as always.

In between was his unpublished Nightmare (1988), with texts by Angeline Yap, which ranks as the soft-spoken composer's most controversial work. It is prefaced by the disclaimer, “To care for a country / Is not always to be seen to praise / To scold (and to laugh at oneself) is also to love,” proclaimed by the conductor. Although garbed in the English choral tradition, it warns against a culture of complacency, apathy and blind obeisance.

No names or political parties were cited, but one soon recognises who are “the led” and who are the “men of straw”. In this prescient protest song, the patriotic Leong had prophetically predicted the result of the 2015 General Elections.

HOLOCAUST

Singapore International Festival of Music

Play Den, The Arts House

Saturday (10 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 October 2015

The final evening of the Singapore International Festival of Music was reserved for just one work, Russian composer Grigory Frid's 1968 chamber opera The Dairy Of Anne Frank. The subject of a teenaged Jewish girl's plight (and that of her people) during the horrors of the Second World War needs little introduction. The hour-long opera in 21 short scenes for soprano and nine instrumentalists drew on excerpts of her preserved writings and made absolutely absorbing drama.

The darkened Play Den was a perfect setting for the secret annex of the Franks, claustrophobic and intimate, sparsely filled with just a writing desk, bed and a small pile of books. The musicians conducted by Marlon Chen were tucked at one end where their important but unobstrusive presence laid the foundation for Japanese soprano Akiko Otao's one-woman tour de force.

No stranger to the stage, Otao has already helmed important parts in John Sharpley's Fencesand Kannagi, and this even more exposed role was to top them all. For all her girlish charm, her portrayal of 13-year-old Annelies was a multi-faceted one. Her identification with the personality of Frank was complete, encompassing all her fears and anxieties, hopes and dreams, and ultimately her humanity in the face of extreme duress.

Samantha Scott-Blackhall's direction was also spot on, enabling Otao to be the riveting centre of attention from start to finish. The singing part was devilishly difficult, atonal for most part and with the sprech-gesang (speech-song) technique of Schoenberg's Second Viennese School as the narrative. This was greatly aided by the projected texts on the walls and precision timing from both singer and musicians.

There were many young people, including children, in the audience, and it was not difficult for them to follow the thread of Frank's thoughts. From the joy of receiving a birthday gift, the terror of hearing knocks on the door, the onset of infatuation with a boy, to a hope of seeing the world in the open again, this was the essence of life itself. There was even a brief spot for humour, in the squabbling of the Van Daans, which was accompanied by jazzy strains.

The festival's programme notes makes one glaring error. Anne Frank died in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, one of six million Holocaust victims, and not in Amsterdam. Amid all of this tragedy, it is amazing that Frank maintained her faith in God, which by now seems frightfully unrequited. If she were still alive (and she would be 86 this year), what would she have thought of our world today?

The Singapore International Festival of Music (SIFOM) was presented by Opera Viva Singapore and The Arts House. This performance of The Diary of Anne Frank was dedicated to the memory of Mr Leow Siak Fah, founder of Opera Viva Singapore and the Singapore Lyric Opera.

The results of the Second Round of the Chopin International Piano Competition 2015 in Warsaw have been announced. One of the 20 pianists selected for the Third Round is the Singapore-born American pianist Kate Liu.

Her bio is available here, as well as several archived performances:

http://chopincompetition2015.com/competitor/fc9cd18c-c850-4923-8409-bec0829d1e38

Having gotten over the disappointment of Singapore's Shaun Choo not making the First Round, here is someone to root for. Go for it, Kate, Go!

The full list of pianists for the Third Round, which starts tomorrow, is as follows:

Mr Luigi Carroccia (Italy)

Ms Galina Chistiakova (Russia)
Mr Seong-Jin Cho (South Korea)
Mr Chi Ho Han (South Korea)
Mr Aljoša Jurinić (Croatia)
Ms Su Yeon Kim (South Korea)
Ms Dinara Klinton (Ukraine)
Ms Aimi Kobayashi (Japan)
Mr Marek Kozák (Czech Republic)
Mr Łukasz Krupiński (Poland)
Mr Krzysztof Książek (Poland)
Ms Kate Liu (United States)
Mr Eric Lu (United States)
Mr Szymon Nehring (Poland)
Mr Georgijs Osokins (Latvia)
Mr Charles Richard-Hamelin (Canada)
Mr Dmitry Shishkin (Russia)
Mr Alexei Tartakovsky (United States)
Mr Zi Xu (China)

Mr Yike (Tony) Yang (Canada)

The competition may be followed here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSTXol20Q01Uj-U5Yp3IqFg

RUBINSTEIN. ARRAU. HEIFETZ. SZIGETI. PIATIGORSKY. SERKIN. FRIEDMAN. ELMAN. THIBAUD. FEUERMANN.

A veritable Who's Who's of classical music.

Besides all being dead white men,

what else do they have in common?

FIND OUT on 18 October 2015 (Sunday).

RARITIES OF PIANO MUSIC

AT SCHLOSS VOR HUSUM 2014

Danacord 749 / *****

The week-long annual piano festival held every August in the northern German town of Husum has to be the world's most unique. It highlights piano works of obscurity and those of unjustly neglected composers. The pianists who get invited are excellent artists although not household names.

This disc of highlights and encores from the 2014 festival is intriguing as it is wide-ranging. Even the Beethoven performed is hardly well-known: his Fantasia Op.77, spoofed by Shostakovich in his First Piano Concerto, is performed with flair by young German Joseph Moog. Resourceful Japanese pianist Hiroaki Takenouchi chips in with the Nostalgia Waltz by Wim Muller and Prelude for Left Hand by Ernest Walker, both getting elegant readings.

Pierre Zimmerman's Variations on a Favourite Romance by Blangini could be better known if not for its cumbersome title, as is Elie Delaborde's Etude after a Petite Waltz of Dolmetsch, which fazes not the Italian firebrand Vincenzo Maltempo. Andrew Zolinski plays ragtime, but who could have suspected Stravinsky and modernist Stefan Wolpe as the composers?

One gem not to be missed is Nikolai Medtner's Primavera, a lesser-known of his Forgotten Melodies Op.39, from British pianist Mark Viner. To close, Cuban virtuoso Jorge Luis Prats offers Villa-Lobos' delightful Broken Little Music Box, infectious toe-tapping music in Felix Guerrero's Suite Havanaise and dance miniatures by compatriot Ernesto Lecuona. Now does this what one's appetite for something completely different?

KAPUSTIN Piano Works

SUKYEON KIM, Piano

Piano Classics 0082 / ****1/2

The jazz-influenced pianist works of Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin (born 1937) are beginning to appear with regularity in concert and recital programmes, not just because of their novelty value. These are in fact some of the most sophisticated efforts in a genuine synthesis of classical forms and the jazz idiom.

Like J.S.Bach, every piece of Kapustin's is carefully notated and there is no room for improvisation, even though much of it sounds improvised. This hour-long recital disc by young Korean pianist Sukyeon Kim distils some of his most popular pieces, and makes an excellent introduction to Kapustin's style.

His free-wheeling Variations Op.41, based on the opening bassoon theme from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, is an ideal starting point. For contrasts between slow and fast, the Andante Op.58 resembles an aria improvised, a musical striptease underway in a smoky nightclub while the Toccatina Op.36 is a tightly-woven encore-like showpiece. For sheer fireworks, a selection from the Etudes Op.40 rivals those straight-laced numbers by Chopin.

The longest work in this programme is the four-movement Second Sonata Op.54, the best known of Kapustin's 20-something sonatas, while his transcription of the popular Aquarela Do Brasil (or simply Brasil) by Ary Bartoso is simply delicious. Kim performs with a light and nimble touch, which adds to the sheer spontaneity of these exciting performances.

MUSICAL LANDSCAPES:
THE SOUND OF THE NORDIC
Ole Edvard Antonsen & Band
Victoria Concert Hall
Tuesday (13 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 October 2015

While pianophiles converged upon the Conservatory to attend Jean-Yves Thibaudet's piano recital, a smaller band of brass and wind fanciers gathered at Victoria Concert Hall to hear one of the world's great trumpeters in concert: Ole Edvard Antonsen. The Norwegian virtuoso did not perform a fully-classical programme, which would have been too strait-jacketed, but mixed and crossover fare, including his original compositions.

The 75-minute concert opened with the solo fanfare composed for the 1994 Winter Olympics (in Lillehammer, Norway), which showcased a breathtaking array of trumpeter's tricks, including echo effects and alternating tones from mouthpiece and bell. He was shortly joined by keyboardist Eirik Berge in the song Sved Rondane by Norwegian nationalist Edvard Grieg, which poetically describes mountains, valleys and scenes from childhood.

Antonsen used a number of trumpets for his acts. The diminutive cornet, favourite of brass bands, was the star in a set of variations on the Neapolitan song Funiculi Funicula, which got faster and more virtuosic as the piece progressed. Barely catching a breath or missing a note, he fearlessly embodied the exuberant spirit of the “Golden Age of the Trumpet”.

Bass guitarist Tom Erik Antonsen, drummer Per Hillestad and sound engineer Dag Stephen Solberg formed the rest of the band, which performed to the end of the evening. A low-pitched rumble vibrated through the hall for Svalbard, an atmospheric recollection of Norway's Arctic islands with shimmering aurora borealis and midnight sun. Here, long-breathed melodies were punctuated by birdsong and whistling wind, all amplified effects of Antonsen's playing.

A number of works were inspired by his life experiences and family members. A lullaby for his first son took the form of a lively rocking rhythm, while a more improvisatory piece was based on his second son's pointing actions and movements. Just as exhilarating was his ride on a F16 fighter jet, with thrills, spills and a splendiferous melody on the gift of flight.

All too soon, the band which completed its Asian tour in Singapore signed off with a medley of typically Scandinavian tunes, which conjured a nostalgic brew of simplicity and melancholy. Antonsen's Landscape, the Swedish melody Men Gar Jag Over Engarna (As I Walked Across The Field) and Vitae Lux, also included a guitar solo and vocalisations from the musicians, which provided for a haunting and mysterious touch.

The sole encore, Bosphorus, was an East meets West number that relived scenes from exotic Istanbul. The amplified trumpet and voices simulated the muezzin's call to prayer in a quite unforgettable melange of sound and musical incense. It was a short concert, but a class act of pure quality such as this is reward enough for one's precious time.

Here was the original question we posed:

Q: RUBINSTEIN. ARRAU. HEIFETZ. SZIGETI. PIATIGORSKY. SERKIN. FRIEDMAN. ELMAN. THIBAUD. FEUERMANN. What did these men have in common?

A: They all performed in

Singapore

, at the Victoria Memorial Hall and Theatre.

Today, 18 October 2015, is the 110^th anniversary of the opening of Victoria Memorial Hall.

Singaporean cellist LOKE HOE KIT will present a two-part write-up on the Hall’s history over the next few weeks.

A HISTORY OF

VICTORIA MEMORIAL HALL

By LOKE HOE KIT

Introduction

Since January, we have been inundated with SG50 events and commemorations, but here’s one more commemoration that may change your mind about classical music in Singapore.

Today, we commemorate the 110^thanniversary of the opening of Victoria Memorial Hall on 18 October 1905 by Governor Sir John Anderson. What dud this event mean for Singaporeand Singaporeans?

The names of Arthur Rubinstein, Claudio Arrau, Benjamin Britten, Joseph Szigeti, Jacques Thibaud, Emanuel Feuermann abd Gregor Piatigorsky will be familiar with music lovers strolling through the aisles of the historical recordings section of record shops. But did you know these very people, the greatest musical legends of all time, actually performed concerts in Singapore– at Victoria Memorial Hall? Unfortunately, most contemporary sources have routinely presented an incomplete version of the Vic’s illustrious history. Consequently, hardly anyone today, even within music circles, is aware of such a heritage.

Imagine, hearing Rubinstein playing Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata, not on the RCA CD box-set, but in the flesh on the stage of Victoria Memorial Hall in 1935!

What this certainly does is to quash the myth that the Singaporeof old was a “cultural desert”. It was a bustling metropolis. Its arts calendar regularly featured concerts of stellar quality. Local audiences were constantly exposed to the finest music making one could possibly hear around the world.

Over the next few weeks, I will be presenting a 2-part write-up on the musical history of VMH – who went through its doors, and why the Vic is so special.

OSWALD & NAPOLEAO

Piano Concertos

ARTUR PIZARRO, Piano

BBC National Orchestra of Wales

Martyn Brabbins

Hyperion 67984 / ****1/2

The Brazilian Henrique Oswald (1852-1931) and Portuguese Alfredo Napoleao (1852-1917) were close contemporaries who led parallel lives as piano virtuosos. Oswald travelled to Europe while Napoleao went to Brazil to seek their respective fortunes, and both returned to their homelands to spend their final years.

Both Oswald's Piano Concerto and Napoleao's Second Piano Concerto were products of the 1880's, heavily influenced by Lisztian virtuosity, Continental grand theatre and healthy doses of over-the-top showmanship.

Oswald's G minor concerto recalls Schumann and Chopin in the first two movements, but is let down by an empty and frivolous finale that is up there with Saint-Saens and Gottschalk's fripperies. Napoleao's E flat minor concerto is more unusual by opening with a slow movement of operatic intensity, the bel canto variety which later gives way to a scintillating scherzo and a light-hearted finale.

This is the slightly longer but better work, and the wait is well worth the time. Portuguese pianist Artur Pizarro lavishes his charm on these minor masterpieces, and it is interesting to note that his childhood piano teacher Evaristo de Campos Coelho had given the premiere of the Napoleao. Lovers of Romantic pianism for its whimsicality and excesses should not pass this by.

CHOPIN Préludes

YUNDI, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 481 1910 / ****

This year marks the 15^thanniversary of Chinese pianist Li Yundi winning First Prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. After making a handful of discs for Deutsche Grammophon, he left for EMI Classics, purportedly to record the complete piano works of Chopin.

He never got beyond the Nocturnes and a recital programme, but a return to the German yellow label has rekindled his love for the Polish composer's music. This disc includes all of Chopin's Préludes, including the 24 pieces from Op.28, the stand-alone Prélude Op.45 and the under-a-minute-long posthumous number.

Yundi is back at his fluid best in an idiom he clearly identifies with, and it is an enjoyable listen from start to end. Lyricism rules in the popular slower Préludesin D flat major (No.15), A flat major (No.17) and C sharp minor (Op.45), and his technique holds up well in the most trying ones, namely the B flat minor (No.16) and D minor (No.24) pieces. His next project should be the 27 Études, if anything to trump his Chinese rival Lang Lang.

At just 39 minutes of playing time, this new release however represents very poor value for money. Excepting Yundi fanatics, other listeners are directed to excellent accounts by Martha Argerich and Maurizio Pollini (both also on Deutsche Grammophon), Nikolai Demidenko (Onyx Classics) and Vladimir Ashkenazy (Decca), who offer far more substantial couplings.

ANDREAS HENKEL Piano Recital

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

Wednesday (21 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 October 2015 with the title "Virtuoso who kept calm and carried on".

Every so often, the Conservatory holds recitals by visiting musicians who may not be household names but the attendances at these concerts are invariably encouraging, because the artistry on show is generally excellent. A nearly-full Orchestral Hall greeted German pianist Andreas Henkel, who teaches at the Dresden Hochschüle, for his mostly Teutonic programme of piano music.

J.S.Bach's music for the clavier is contentious business. Should it be only played on harpsichord, the instrument of the day, or is piano permissible? Henkel showed that one have could have it both ways on the latter in the Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue.

For the running notes, he used minimal pedal and the fingerwork was crisp and limpid. In the slower chordal sections, pedal was applied generously but judiciously, and a sustained organ-like sonority resulted. In the complex fugue, clarity of voices ruled supreme and it was in many ways a very convincing performance.

In Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata (Op.53), Henkel's view was a model of restraint. Belying the Allegro con briodirective of the opening movement, he kept emotions in check through the succession of C major chords and subsequent development. His trajectory was a slow-to-boil long arc that traversed all three movements, with the contemplative slow movement finally giving way to the flowing lyricism of the finale.

Here he was given free rein to pile on the passion and volume, culminating in a series of right hand glissandi. These sleights of hand were achieved with much fluidity, and without the cheating like some pianists are wont to do. The late Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau took great pride in achieving this sound, and would have been pleased with Henkel, who was a student of his student.

The three Mendelssohn pieces that came after the interval were sheer delight. The Capriccioin A minor contrasted between slow and fast, and Henkel's technique held up well in the note-spinning that was in vogue for the early-Romantics. The Venetian Boat Song showcased a seamless cantabile in this lilting barcarolle, which then morphed to the light-fingered staccatos for the Song Without Words in F sharp minor.

Salon music made way for the out-and-out barnstormer that is Liszt's Spanish Rhapsody. Here Henkel pulled all the stops for a virtuosic but characteristically unshowy reading. As if fearing lapses into vulgarity à la Cziffra (or Lang Lang for today's tastes), he kept an even keel throughout, unruffled by its multitudes of flying notes, octaves and chords.

There is a spirituality to keeping calm and carrying on in the face of adversity, and he embodied all that. The unusual choice of encore, Henkel's own transcription of the gospel hymn Morning Has Broken, which would not feel out of place in a Sunday worship service, perhaps said it all.

JINSANG LEE Piano Recital

The Joy of Music Festival

Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall

Friday (16 October 2015)

Korean pianist Jinsang Lee, 1^st Prize Winner of the 2008 Hong Kong International Piano Competition, is one for unusual repertoire in his recitals. This year his programme connected pianist-composers spanning the East-West divide of the Atlantic during the so-called “Golden Age of the Piano”. The composers included Mischa Levitzki, George Gershwin and Sergei Rachmaninov, all of whom had a Russian or Ukrainian heritage but plied their glorious trade in the West.

Levitzki and Gershwin were exact contemporaries, and both died prematurely from natural causes during the height of their careers. The former wrote only a handful of pieces, mostly in the waltz rhythm, and recycling a little melody which he milked to its max in several pieces. Why not, since its the charming one to be found in his Waltzin A major Op.2.

Lee played this with much love and tenderness, clearly bringing out the left hand melody amid the right hand filigree. The Arabesque-Valsanteand Valse-Tzigane had their moments, but both will have to give way to The Enchanted Nymph, undoubtedly Levitzki's finest confection. Its shimmering opening gradually leads into a waltz (what else could it do?), luxuriating in the ballroom before closing in an enveloping sea of bliss. Charm was kept on high in Lee's delectable performances.

The George Gershwin Songbook contains 18 short prelude-like pieces based on his popular song hits. Lee played all of them, starting with The Man I Love and concluding with I Got Rhythm. Space forbids a detailed description of the performances, but suffice to say, Lee tried to inject some of his own inviduality and ideas into a number of them. Highlighting certain harmonies or melodic lines helped vary the overall tone colour of the sequence. It was difficult to find any routine or boring moment in his treatments of these little gems.

The Rachmaninov transcriptions of Fritz Kreisler's Liebesleid and Liebesfreud are relatively well-known, but how often does one hear them performed in recital? As much as both violin pieces are contrasting, the transcriptions are even more so. There is an improvisatory air to the melancholic Love's Sorrow, which Lee very much took in his stride. Love's Joywas an all-out showpiece, and here he dug in for a virtuosic showing, which despite the vulgarity of the transcription, did not fail to impress.

Giuseppe Andaloro (1^stPrize Winner of the 2011 Hong Kong International Piano Competition) and Ilya Rashkovskiy then joined Lee for the eight Slavonic Dances Op.46 by Antonin Dvorak. These are wonderful salon pieces which make effective Hausmusikfor skilled amateurs. Even piano pros are not immune to its delightful charm. Here the concert took on a more informal air, as two pianist played on one keyboard while the third turned the pages.

For the first five pieces, it was Lee and Andaloro doing the honours, and Rashkovskiy joined Lee for the 6^thand 7^th dances. The performances were unrehearsed, rough and ready but lots of fun and camaraderie between the pianists. Over the years, they have become good friends and this was reflected in the performances. Who cares about the odd stumble, re-start or wrong notes, it was the spirit that truly mattered.

As an encore, all six hands descended for an impromptu performance of Brahms'Hungarian Dance No.1. Its a squeeze when three grown men converge on a single keyboard, and it was a delight to see them cross hands, switch parts, and generally try not to get in each other's way. If this outing, which got the audience roaring in stitches, did not reflect “The Joy of Music”, the name of this festival, I do not known what does.

ILYA RASHKOVSKIY Piano Recital

The Joy of Music Festival

Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall

Wednesday (14 October 2015)

It is hard to believe that ten years ago, in 2005, 20-year-old Russian pianist Ilya Rashkovskiy was awarded First Prize at the First Hong Kong International Piano Competition. Then I predicted he would go on on win furtherprizes in further major competitions. This he duly obliged, garnering First Prize at the 2012 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, and coming close at the Queen Elisabeth (Brussels), Vianna da Motta (Lisbon), Enesco (Bucharest) and Arthur Rubinstein (Tel Aviv) competitions. At 30, he's all done with concours, but what a journey! Listening to his latest recital, he has also matured. Mere technical proficiency has given way to a certain fearlessness and the ability to “mix it in” with the music, without fearing what the jury might think.

Just to put things in perspective: in Hamatmatsu where he so convincingly triumphed, 4^thplacing went to the fellow Russian Anna Tcybuleva. Today, Tcybeuleva is the latest winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition, which just concluded last month.

Rashkovskiy's present repertoire has begun to reflect the inner musician in him. The Russian warhorses still remain, but he has been able to include works that bring out qualities other than outright virtuosity. In a selection of five Rachmaninov Preludesfrom Op.23, it was the slower ones – Nos.1 (F sharp minor), E flat major (No.6) and G flat major (No.10) – that shone out with an innate lumincescence. Of course, he could still barnstorm in the popular G minor (No.5) and C minor (Op.7) Preludes like before.

Ravel's slender Sonatinewas a curious choice, but that was prime opportunity to display restraint and plain good taste. This finely-honed musicality was balanced by the whirlwind of a finale, which showed he could summon the fireworks at will. Even better was Georges Enesco's First Sonata, a rarity if any, which deserves to be heard more often than his First Romanian Rhapsody. It is a three- movement masterpiece of colour and myriad shades, about 18 minutes long, once likened to Dante's Purgatorio, Inferno and Paradiso in miniature.

The nocturnal mood of the opening movement was captured most beautifully, with flickering half-lights amid long shadows, punctuated with violent asides, and the skittish scherzo-like middle movement, which flitted about like the mysterious wisp o' the wisp. The final slow movement, gripping in its intensity and alive with expectancy, capped the finest performance of the evening.

There were two obligatory showpieces in single movements, Scriabin's Fifth Sonata and Prokofiev's Third Sonata. No recording quite matches live performances of the Scriabin, and this listener would gladly experience Rashkovskiy's volatile and highly-charged reading in a concert hall than sit in front of the stereo for Horowitz or Richter. Never has the right hand's chords flown with such mercurial speed and lightness, but being there in person was the price of believing such sleights of hand were indeed possible. Similarly, the Prokofiev was given a thunderous outing, where the abrupt shifts between motoric drive and smooth lyricism where made possible by a superior technique.

Rashkovskiy was joined by fellow Hong Kong winner Jinsang Lee (the 2008 edition of the competition) in Arno Babadjanian's Armenian Rhapsody, which was an enjoyable romp from its melancholic opening to a riproaring dance-like finale. The applause had barely died down, when Rashkovskiy's encore silenced them completely. In the face of such overwhelming virtuosity, it was refreshing to hear some “simple” Chopin, the gentle lilt of his Waltz in C sharp minor (Op.64 No.2). Simply ravishing too.

SINGAPORE

COMPOSE! SG50

The Philharmonic Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (24 October 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 26 October 2015 with the title "Remembering legacy of LKY".

Singapore's jubilee year has been open season for a raft of new works inspired by nationhood, nostalgia and the demise of the State's founding father Lee Kuan Yew. This concert by The Philharmonic Winds conducted by Leonard Tan featured no less than five world premieres by established and rising local composers.

Terrence Wong Fei Yang's Foundation began with a timpani roll and brass chorale, from which a passacaglia unfolded with a steady march-like rhythm. This is an antique compositional form with short variations built over a foundation of repeated rhythmic measures. With flourishes from woodwinds and brass, the work gained momentum and speed before closing abruptly.

While the opener pondered about the fate of civilisations, the next two works, selected from an open call for compositions, delved on the wonders of nature. Gregory Gu Wei's Meditation Under The Midnight Sun, composed following a trip to the Norwegian Arctic, had a pastoral feel with prominent piccolo, clarinet and oboe solos. There was a progression to a warmth of real splendour and a serene ending.

Oh Jin Yong's A Glance Upon The Silver River was a contemplation of the celestial. The contrabassoon's drone, tinkling percussion and piano created an aural haze for this piece of dynamic extremes and abrupt shifts. There was a glorious melody for the solo euphonium, leading to an outbreak of sound before dissipating to the murky and mysterious void as it had began with.

As promising as the three young composers were, it was the veterans who dominated the show. Belgium-born Robert Casteels's symphonic poem HangingGardens was the most abstract work, but had the advantage of sound engineering by Dirk Stromberg and a projected film of natural images manned by Andrew Thomas.

Its Wagnerian scope was a breathtaking one, one massive canvas of sound which referenced the loss of the fabled Babylonian ancient wonder with the world today which risks being destroyed by mankind's greed and indifference to nature. Its gravitation to the key of G major provided the work's pivot, which suggests that there is hope for humanity after all.

Zechariah Goh Toh Chai's three-movement L.K.Y.-Legacy was probably the Lee Kuan Yew symphony everybody was waiting for. Thankfully, it was not an ultra-nationalistic paean but a sympathetic view tempered by the loss of the composer's own father in January. The first two movements were prefaced by quotes from the late leader.

The first, Herald, dealt with Singapore's separation from Malaysia, a movement of dissonance and chromaticism reflecting Lee's anguish on 9 August 1965with a trumpet solo resounding from the hall's Circle. The second, Romanza, was lighter and a tender tribute to the pre-deceased Mrs Lee, his pillar of strength for many decades. Its key of G minor however projected a pervading sense of loss.

The finale, Monumentum, quoted Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the State Funeral and the epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren in St Paul's Cathedral, Si monumentum requiris, circumspice (If you seek his monument, look around you). The melody, resembling that of Faure's Pavane, was sung by members of the orchestra and the work closed with a conspicuous lack of pomp or bombast. That would have been exactly how Mr Lee would have liked it.

SSO CONCERT: BEETHOVEN VIOLIN CONCERTO WITH LEONIDAS KAVAKOS / Review

SETTS #1 / Southeastern Ensemble of Today's & Tomorrow's Sounds / Review

THE ALPHABET SERIES: R IS FOR ROSES / Sing Song Club / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, September 2015)

ESSENCE OF NANYANG / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

SSO CONCERT: DAUSGAARD CONDUCTS MAHLER'S TENTH / Review

BRENDAN GOH Cello Recital / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2015)

SINGAPURA / Singapore International Festival of Music / Review

HOLOCAUST / Singapore International Festival of Music / Review

SINGAPORE-BORN PIANIST REACHES THIRD ROUND OF 2015 CHOPIN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION!

WHAT DO THESE MUSICAL LUMINARIES HAVE IN COMMON?

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2015)

MUSICAL LANDSCAPES: THE SOUND OF THE NORDIC / Ole Edvard Antonsen & Band / Review

THE ANSWER TO THE "DEAD WHITE MEN" QUESTION

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, October 2015)

ANDREAS HENKEL Piano Recital / Review

JINSANG LEE Piano Recital / The Joy of Music Festival / Review

ILYA RASHKOVSKIY Piano Recital / The Joy of Music Festival 2015 / Review

SINGAPORE COMPOSE! SG50 / The Philharmonic Winds / Review