Thursday 29 October 2020

KADIATU KANNEH-MASON

@ The Petworth Festival

Interviewed by Stewart Collins

By now, anybody who professes a love for classical music but has not yet heard of the young British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason probably lives under a rock or some cave in Afghanistan. Winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician Award and star performer at the royal wedding of HRH Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Sheku has six siblings who are also seriously good musicians. How did the seven Kanneh-Masons become Britain’s First Family of Music? Matriarch Kadiatu was on hand at Petworth to share insights into her recently published book House Of Music: Raising The Kanneh-Masons. I can imagine this to be the antithesis of another book, one which will hopefully never be published: House of Horrors: Raising The Kardashians.

Straight off, my wife and I were touched by Kadiatu’s overall sense of groundedness and authenticity in telling her story. The secret of the Kanneh-Masons’ success was down to a generational legacy good upbringing, good values, good discipline and above all, the closeness and love within a family. It is astonishing to learn that the children were students in normal secondary schools and not hot-housed in petri dish environments of conservatoriums. Sheku, despite his celebrity status, is still a student at the Royal Academy of Music and intends to graduate.

Down to earth and highly personable was our impression of Mrs Kanneh-Mason.

There was also none of the patented hocus pocus of religiosity, praying hard to be gifted heavenly blessings, nor the self-entitled glorification of toil, self-flagellation or self-immolation. There were sacrifices made by Kadiatu and her husband Stuart, for certain, but these were in the contexts of ensuring that love was never in short supply within the family while the kids were growing up. One thing we’ve also learnt: you do not need to be a “Tiger mother” or “Helicopter parent” to produce geniuses.  

Coming from a multi-cultural background of Sierra Leonese, Welsh and Antiguan ancestry, the Kanneh-Masons would have faced multiple hurdles in making good in the White-European dominated classical music sphere. However their emergence was not the result of  “affirmative action” but rather pure talent given the right opportunities and platforms to take flight and soar. Running alongside them is Britain’s first mixed-ethnic professional orchestra Chineke!, which has also been an inspirational and aspirational journey.

Stewart says, "Go out and buy this book!"

Credit goes to Petworth Festival Director Stewart Collins for posing both pertinent and pointed questions, which Kadiatu replied with a disarming grace and charm. It would seem that this cultured and decorous responses are a million miles away from the anger and aggression of the BLM movement. Watching this interview (and we’ve also ordered the book, arriving within the week!), we are encouraged that there is hope yet in our troubled world of multicultural relations. Thank you, Mrs Kanneh-Mason for helping to make this happen. 

OMM PRESENTS 

WAGNER’S DIE WALKURE

Watch the opera on Youtube (below) 

and its totally FREE!

A piece of Singapore musical history was made on 5 January this year, when the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) led by its Music Director Chan Tze Law presented the first-ever Singapore production of a Wagner Ring Cycle opera. Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), the second opera of The Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy, was given a semi-staged concert production that would have been the pride of any of the world’s great opera houses. 

That it was accomplished by an orchestra of youthful volunteers, which engaged theatre director Edith Podesta and an international cast of opera singers, was a staggering achievement that would scarcely been thought possible, even in Singapore.

 

Given the Covid-19 global pandemic that came shortly after that, one wonders whether such an ambitious project could ever be undertaken again. So this might just be a once-in-a-lifetime event in Singapore history, although OMM has announced Das Rheingold to be produced in August 2021. Without such hopes and aspirations, there would not be any point to continued musical activity, or life for that matter.

 

So what was experience like? Watch it for yourself in OMM’s professionally produced video recording, all four hours of it, and be prepared to be awe-struck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBSp8qQiiiQ&t=289s

METAMORPHOSEN AND MOZART

WITH HANS GRAF

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Streamed online at Sistic Live

Friday (6 November 2020)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times print edition on 11 November 2020 

One unforeseen consequence of the present pandemic and social distancing measures has been the proliferation of chamber music performances. At a time when large-scaled symphonies, choral works and operas are not being performed, there has been a boon for the likes of Bach, Mozart, Haydn and composers whose output included works for chamber-sized forces.  

The latest Singapore Symphony Orchestra concerts have followed this trend, smartly juxtaposing classical composers with those from the 20^th century. Under Chief Conductor Hans Graf’s direction, Richard Strauss and Mozart became comfortable bed-fellows in a programme that contrasted grief and mourning with verve and jollity.

Strauss’ Metamorphosen (1945) was a late and autumnal work for 23 string musicians composed on the wake of the Second World War’s horrors. Germany, originally the aggressors, had been soundly defeated, with its cities laid to waste by Allied bombing. A far cry from his brash tone poems and opulent operas, its austere half-hour was served with the solemnity and decorum it deserved.

SSO strings were, as usual, sumptuous and richly sonorous without trivialising the requiem that was being delivering. The pacing of its narrative was expertly reined by Graf, with tempos which neither dragged nor became a caricature of its funereal message.

Varied textures were neatly layered, with solos by concertmaster Kong Zhao Hui emerging from the throng like a beacon through a mist of strings. The music gradually built up to a cathartic climax, before a quote from Funeral March from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony near the end reminded that this work marked a definitive end to a sorry epoch in history.       

Following this was Mozart’s Serenade in B flat major (K.361), also called the Gran Partita, scored for 12 winds and double bass. Its seven movements spelt pure delight from start to finish. The slow introduction to the opening movement provided a sense of sobriety before festivities were unleashed.

Playing was pin-point and precise, with clarity and nimbleness of articulation being enduring hallmarks. In the slow Adagio third movement, one might be reminded of a memorable scene from the movie Amadeus. Here Antonio Salieri’s vivid description of the oboe’s sublime entry, “a single note, hanging there, unwavering...” is relived. To this end, principal oboist Rachel Walker’s pristine solo seemed like the perfect embodiment of Mozart’s spirituality and divinely ordained gifts.

The ensuing movements were no less inspired, with performances to match. The jaunty Menuetto was well contrasted with the stately Romance and its animated central section, while the sixth movement’s inventive Theme and Variations provided a neat summation of the players’ responsiveness and proficiency. All was brought to bear in the fast and furious Rondo finale, milked for all its worth, and one heady romp bringing the chamber concert to a happy close. 

TOGETHER WE STAND, LIVE AGAIN!

Ding Yi Music Company

Black Box, Stamford Arts Centre

Sunday (15 November 2020)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 18 November 2020 with the title "Socially distanced concert with a surround-sound vibe".

As Singapore emerges from the circuit breaker, Chinese instrumental groups are taking the lead when it comes to performing live concerts. First it was the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in September, and now Ding Yi Music Company has given its first concert of the year. Admitting an audience of fifty socially distanced persons, the 16-member ensemble led by Dedric Wong and Quek Ling Kiong performed a pair of concerts fully masked, with wind players sequestered behind screens which resembled Covid-swabbing stations.

The audience was divided into two blocs, one seated in a gallery while the other onstage, surrounded on four sides by musicians and conductor. That made for a surround-sound atmosphere, which enhanced the experience by being in close proximity with the players, but not too close.

The 75-minute programme was a light one, including popular favourites of the repertoire while being cognizant of various musical origins. From Canton was Han Tian Lei (Thunder In Drought) which opened the concert with a lively bang, balanced by the more sentimental strains of the Hokkien song Wan Chun Feng (Spring Wind) which saw the melody lovingly shared by pipa and guzheng.

Lo Leung Fai’s Medley Of Hakka Folksongs highlighted the suona and percussion, while alternating between the joyous and the reflective. The late Min Hui Fen’s arrangement of Teochew favourite Winter Ducks Frolicking In The Water for erhu (with concertmaster Chin Yen Choong’s solo) and four percussionists was simplicity itself, beginning slowly but ending in a fast burst.

Building upon the theme of unity in crisis, Singaporean melodies were not forgotten. Malay song Lenggang Kangkong, Tamil hit Munnaeru Vaallibaa and Eurasian-Portuguese lovesong Jinkly Nona (Fair Maiden) were give slicked-up treatments, enhanced by audience participation with tambourines and jingles. Young local composer Phang Kok Jun’s arrangement of National Day Parade song Our Singapore provided the icing on the cake, without resisting the temptation of incorporating Dick Lee’s Home into the mix.

Another aspect of audience interaction was a pre-concert poll of works to be performed. The top votes went to Zai Na Yao Yuan De Di Fang (In That Distant Place) and Jiang Ying’s Dun Huang, both works resonating with Central Asian influences.

The encore was the world premiere of Cultural Medallion recipient Eric Watson’s Together We Stand. An ostinato bass provided by audience clapping was layered with snatches of local songs: Voices From The Heart, Di Tanjong Katong, Munnaeru Vaallibaa and Singapore Calypso. The result of which was a contrapuntal stew, a veritable musical rojak, but something we could proudly call our own.  

CHRISTMAS PIANO MUSIC

PETER FROUNDJIAN, Piano

Sony Classical 88985380162

The year-end holiday season is nigh and what better way to herald the festivities than to lounge in Christmas music? Here is an excellent anthology of rarely-heard piano music celebrating the Nativity from German pianist Peter Froundjian, truly befitting the artistic director of the Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum festival in North Germany.

Released in 2017, only one of its 33 tracks is remotely familiar. It is also the longest, most virtuosic and most modern sounding: Ferruccio Busoni’s Fourth Sonatina, with the subtitle “in diem Nativitatis Christi MCMXXVII”. Expect contrapuntal intricacies, quirky harmonies and bell sound, which also occupy its companion piece, Busoni’s somewhat shorter Nuit de Noël.

A true rarity is Polish composer Franciszek Brzezinski’s Noël en Pologne, a prelude and fugue based on a Polish carol. Incidentally, this carol is also quoted in Ignaz Friedman’s Noël. Still in the East, Sergei Lyupunov’s Nuit de Noël is the first piece of his four-movement Fêtes de Noël, which begins simply but threatens to become another of the Russian’s Transcendental Études before thankfully holding back.

There are three World Premiere recordings, all by Romantic Danish composers. J.P.E.Hartmann’s Juletrost (Christmas Consolation), Alfred Toftt’s Jule-Idyl and Gustav Helsted’s Pastorale are just lovely and deserve to be better know. Now these will finally be heard with some regularity. Top Dane Carl Nielsen also gets a look-in. His Drommen om Glade Jul (Dream of Silent Night) is premised on the opening of Franz Gruber’s beloved carol Stille Nacht. Still in the north, Finnish composer Selim Palmgren’s simple and enchanting  Snöflingor (Snowflakes) opens the whole recital in a sense of wonderment and fantasy.

French music occupies the final third of the programme. Charles Koechlin’s Pastorales (12 pieces) and Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht’s Pastourelles (7 pieces) are miniatures, most barely a minute long. The formulae is the combination of simple folk-like or hymn-like melodies, sicilienne-rhythmed pastorales and evocations of bell sounds. 

Inghelbrecht’s Berceuse du boeuf et de láne (Cradle Song of the Ox and Donkey) and La marche a l’étoile (March of the Stars) also quotes melodies like Il est né, le divin enfant and the Prelude from Bizet’s L’Arlesienne (itself a Provencal tune), and sets them in delightful juxtaposition. Also heard are André Jolivet’s Carillon and a sole English composer, Arnold Bax’s short set of variations O Dame Get Up And Bake Your Pies.

Peter Froundjian performs all of these with loving care and delicacy, a vivid advocacy without overplaying their value as lovely baubles and trinkets of the vast piano repertoire. Accompanying the totally enjoyable 82-minute programme are excellent well-researched programme notes, penned by Froundjian himself, and some classic illustrations.

Other Christmas listening on piano:

CHRISTMAS PIANO MUSIC

ETERI ANDJAPARIDZE, Piano

Naxos 8.553461

Here is a more traditional programme which includes the whole of Franz Liszt’s Weihnachtsbaum (Christmas Tree) suite and all four pieces of Lyapunov’s Fêtes de Noël. There are some popular favourites like the Bach-Hess Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, Bach’s Shepherd’s Pastorale from Christmas Oratorio (transcriber uncredited), Tchaikovsky’s December from The Seasons and Leroy Anderson’s own transcription of his Sleigh Ride.

TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker

STEWART GOODYEAR, 

Piano & Transcriber

Steinway & Sons 30040

Canadian virtuoso Stewart Goodyear has transcribed the entire ballet for piano, but in order to cram all the music into the space of a single disc, there is a lot of fast playing throughout. However, the key dances (Dance of the Flowers, Sugar Plum Fairy, Trepak etc.) and sequences (Pas de deux, Andante maestoso and finale) get their due. While not as outwardly virtuosic as Mikhail Pletnev’s transcriptions (which takes many liberties), Goodyear is more faithful to the source and the whole spiel hangs very well in one uninterrupted listen. In his capable hands, one simply does not miss the orchestra.   

No joke, that WAS the concert's title, evident in this ticket stub.

AWFULLY JOYFUL

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Friday (20 November 2020)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 November 2020

The title of Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s latest live concert must have been a misnomer. After all, how could the feeling of joy be described as awful? Unless one applied the informal or colloqial use of the word, such as in “awfully good” or “awfully nice”, it simply made no sense. Even the adjective “awesome” does not quite apply here.

Nonetheless, this chamber concert, attended by a socially-distanced audience now expanded to a hundred, was just the right antidote to the doom and gloom cast by the global Coronavirus pandemic. Every piece of music performed was simple in conception, light-hearted, happy, or a combination of all three. There was neither the need for plumbing of depths nor profound thoughts here.

 

Opening with Li Nixia’s Raindrops, bits of tones issued from four dizi players, seemingly random in sequence, but soon coalesced into a drizzle and later a torrential downpour. The illusion of counterpoint was quite a clever one, such is the nature of falling rain. Young local composer Wang Chenwei’s Childhood for six sheng players was a transcription of a work from his teenage years. Like a sage recounting the joys of simpler times, its catchy themes and fast-slow-fast form were easy to follow, thus making for a lasting impression.

 

Li Bochan’s Bows and Strings, for three erhus and three zhonghus, was a soothing serenade, with Ling Hock Siang’s erhu carrying the melodic line. It ended quietly with all strings communing in a hushed and beatific unison. Similarly, Bai Haoyu’s Reminiscence for plucked and strummed strings (pipa, ruan, liuqin and yangqin) was a sentimental love song, one imbued with the sensibilities of pop songs and romantic film music.  

 

Jiang Ying’s very popular Dunhuang for a mixed ensemble of eight players was led by SCO Resident Conductor Quek Ling Kiong who also doubled on drum and cymbals. This rhapsodic number was Central Asian in flavour, working its way from a slow beginning to a fast and raucous dance-like conclusion. On a quieter but similarly exhilarating note was Liu Xing’s Tuesday Gatherings, an evocation of nostalgia and camaraderie. This elegant work possessed the quality of elegant conversation between longtime friends, with the dizi being the protagonist.

To close was Zhang Yima’s Bu Yi Le Hu (Delight) performed by a tutti ensemble with instructors and alumni of the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra joining in. By now, one might have realised this to be the Chinese title of the concert. It also aptly described a happy-go-lucky, hang-loose kind of piece accompanied by finger-snapping by the audience, providing a satisfying end to an enjoyable evening. So should this concert have been titled “Simply Delightful” instead?    

VLADIMIR MARTYNOV

Utopia Symphony

LOH JUN HONG, Violin

NEVILLE CREED, Speaker & Chorus Master

London Philharmonic Orchestra & Chorus

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI

LPO 0120 / TT: 47’21”

Russian composer Vladimir Martynov’s Utopia Symphony began as a commission in 2004 by Michael Tay, then-ambassador of Singapore to the Russian Federation. Its original title was Singapore: A Geopolitical Utopia, premised upon a week-long visit by the composer and his wife violinist Tatiana Grindenko to the island republic where they experienced the sights, sounds and tastes of the modern Southeast Asian city-state. First performances of Singapore took place in Moscow and Singapore in 2005, the latter involving the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lim Yau at Espanade Concert Hall.

Vladimir Martynov and Tatiana Grindenko.

The 2020 iteration of the work has less to do with geography or politics but rather the pursuit of a universal and ideal state of mind. Its new title Utopia does away with the somewhat cumbersome Singapore tagline,  focusing instead on what nation states and governments dream about, which is to create the ideal environment for their citizens and residents to inhabit.

Form wise, the two-movement choral symphony remains unchanged, except for a revision in libretto. The chants of “Singapore!” in the first part have been replaced by “Sky and Earth”, in an English translation of verses from Lao Tzu’s Tao De Jing (The Way of Tao). The Russian texts describing Singapore’s geography and national flag (from the Great Soviet Encyclopaedia) have also been expunged, in its place more verses from Tao De Jing.

The two Vladimirs, Jurowski & Martynov.

The 47-minute symphony is symmetrically split into two vastly different halves, as if representing the yin and yang. The first is minimalist, repetitive and kinetic, with rhythmic clapping and resonant chants. The music is reminiscent of Stravinsky’s primalism, contemporary American composer John Adams’ minimalism and at certain points, pop and rock influences heard in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. 

I remember hearing a recording of this segment accompanying moving images at the rotunda of the Singapore History Museum, suitably depicting the 24/7 hyperactivity and exuberance of modern Singapore. The Tao De Jing texts extol the virtues of a small nation state, loving one’s own community and the exhortation of people to “not visit each other until old age itself and death,” (as mouthed by speaker Neville Creed), the last seemingly prescient words given this Covid-19 global pandemic.    

The second part is a portrait of serenity and blissful repose. The chorus now channels the Russian Orthodox Church as its source of inspiration, rich and sumptuous are the harmonies. Here Martynov also quotes one of his favourite composers, Robert Schumann. The theme from the opening movement of Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood), Von fremden Länden und Menschen (Of Foreign Lands and Peoples), is heard on the piano verbatim and barely disguised. 

Less obvious is the quote from Beethoven’s song cycle An die Ferne Geliebte (To The Distant Beloved) which was in turn used in Schumann’s Fantasy in C major (Op.17). By now, the themes of love and curiosity of faraway lands become apparent. Add the entry of young Singaporean violinist Loh Jun Hong’s tender solo (performed by Grindenko aka Mrs Martynov in the premieres) and a chorus singing a hymn befitting any National Day Parade, all of which are congruent with the notion of a paradise on earth. So is this the essence of Utopia?

Singaporean violinist Loh Jun Hong played the solos in Part II of Utopia.

The excellent and committed performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus under Vladimir Jurowski is vividly captured in excellent sound on the LPO’s own label. Without quoting a single Malay, Chinese, Indian or Singaporean melody, Vladimir Martynov’s Utopia just be a truly quintessential Singaporean symphony.  

Utopia was the brainchild of Michael Tay, former Ambassador of Singapore to the Russian Federation.

Jo Anne Sukumaran,

Artistic Director & Producer

Online Concert

Recorded at Victoria Concert Hall

Premiered on 5 & 6 November 2020

This is the season when children write letters to Santa Claus. Young Singaporean bassoonist Jo Anne Sukumaran, inspired by a visit to Mozart’s grave/memorial at Vienna’s St Marx cemetery, has conceived an intimate chamber concert of Mozart’s music, with the call for viewers to pen their own letters to Mozart. This is a unique angle to present music in an informal and unstuffy manner. Aided by presenter Priscilla Foong’s smiling and friendly disposition, this made a fresh contrast to the arch-seriousness of usual classical concerts.

The first half opened with the String Quartet in C major (K.465), nicknamed “Dissonance” because of the sombre introduction to its first movement. Even the tonality sounds indeterminate, shifting uneasily between minor keys before emerging into the happy sunshine of C major. Mozart had his listeners spooked then, and he continues to surprise. The work in four movements received a lively and heartfelt reading from the young quartet of Joey Lau and Natalie Koh (violins), Jeremy Chiew (viola) and Tang Jia (cello), paying heed to the various nuances posed by the ever-witty and mercurial composer.

The second half saw highlights from Mozart operas transcribed by Franz Danzi for bassoon and cello, with Jo Anne doing the honours accompanied by cellist Tang. Included were Voi che sapete (The Marriage of Figaro) and the duet Ah perdona al primo affetto (La Clemenza di Tito). The soprano’s lyrical lines translated well for the avuncular and deeper registers of the bassoon, and the duet came off particularly well.  

For the closing act, the bassoon took the place of the flute in the Quartet No.1 in G major (K.285). Thus it became an altogether different work, the flute’s celestial chirpiness replaced by the bassoon’s earthy garrulousness. The musicians’ diligence and persuasiveness made it work, proving again that Mozart’s genius often transcended instrumental constraints.

Interspersed between movements and works were excerpts from letters by Mozart, read by SSO French hornist Jamie Hersch, music critic/lecturer Marc Rochester, arts impresario Lionel Choi, and Singapore’s grammy-nominated conductor Darrell Ang. All in all, this was an enjoyable and light-hearted way to appreciate Mozart’s music, and have you thought of your own letter to Mozart?    

You can view this digital concert at:

https://linktr.ee/jewelair2.0 

Here’s my humble personal letter to Mozart:

Why did you leave us so soon?

Thirty-five years was far too short,

fleeting like a fiery comet,

gone in a flash.

Had you stayed another twenty,

a mighty rivalry with Beethoven beckoned,

Amadean elegance alongside Ludwigean passion. 

Witness the sparks fly. 

Schubert should have been your student.

Inspiring each other,

your Lieder and his operas,

sees Vienna awash in song.

Past your sixty-fifth year,

what were your thoughts of the young Chopin?

On experiencing Lisztomania in full stride,

or pardoning the bombasts of Berlioz.

Time is a cruel master,

but we thank the Master,

that He even afforded us time

with your divine presence.   

Ding Yi Music Company

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday 13 December 2020

Chinese instrumental music has from time immemorial been associated with programmatic music. The music performed always tells a story, describes a scene or depicts some drama. The notion of absolute music, such as encountered in Western music (symphonies, concertos, sonatas and the like), is a relatively new phenomenon in Chinese music, and this World Premiere by Ding Yi Music Company was to be no exception.

Of Music And Sound, was an hour-long work comprising an introduction and five connected movements. Composed by Composer-in-Residence Phang Kok Jun and augmented with sound engineering/design by Zai Tang, the music followed the course of a single day in the tropics (presumably Singapore), from a nascent dawn to the rising sun of the next day. Unlike previous concept concerts, there were neither projected visuals nor verbal commentary, and the audience was invited to use just their ears and imbibe whatever transpired.

Ambient sounds of nature – exotic birdsong, amphibious croaks, whirring insects - ushered in the Introduction as musicians and conductor Quek Ling Kiong took to their places onstage. Near total darkness gradually gave way to light in the first movement Dawn, which quoted the Chinese song Gao Shan Liu Shui (Mountains and Flowing Water). The erhu sang, followed by sheng, pipa and dizi, as the day awakened. The music is serene and atmospheric, then segueing seamlessly into a more animated second movement Rain, a study on different kinds of precipitation. A storm erupted with suona in full tilt before calm was restored with a big tune.

The third and central movement Dusk was a kind of reverse John Cage 4’33”, as the entire orchestra downed instruments and donned eye-shades. This was a mirror of the audience which had already been primed, both masked and “blinded”. For the next few minutes, and in the dimmest of lighting (if one chose to peek), Zai’s vividly recorded soundscapes, collected from MacRitchie Reservoir, Bukit Brown cemetery and the rail corridor, took centrestage. Claustrophobia might have been an outcome if not for the hypnotic effect provided by Nature. So this is what the Gaia sounds like when all homo sapien activity has passed, temporarily or for all eternity.

The fourth movement Night was a scherzo of sorts, alive and buzzing with energy. Its exuberance almost suggested some of the land’s more risque nightspots, Geylang anybody? Darkness descended again, as sure as night followed day. But there was no silence, a solo erhu’s lament punctured the air before a New Dawn, the finale arrived. There was another big melody, an apotheosis, before the sound melted away. So did the musicians, as the ranks depopulated like in Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, leaving only Yvonne Tay and her guzheng the sole presence on stage.

In On Music and Sound, young Singaporean composer Phang Kok Jun had created his own personal version of the Pastoral Symphony. Given that this month marks the 250^th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth (16 December to be precise), this act of homage could not have been more apt.   

I DON’T HAVE A CHRISTMAS TREE BUT....

I don’t have a Christmas tree in my apartment but in the true spirit of the festive season, I have erected a shrine. This is an altar which no self-respecting pianophile should be without, one dedicated to the patron saints of the performing pianist.

They are none other than St Sviatoslav and St Martha, having recently been canonised by the Most Holy Pontiff of Piano Virtuosity, Pope Marc-André. Incidentally, Pope Marc-André is the first non-Italian Pope having come from Montreal, Canada. He succeeded a whole long line of Italian popes, who have included Pope Ferruccio Dante Michelangelo (died 1924), Pope Arturo Benedetti (died 1995) and Pope Maurizio (still alive but not in the best of health, or playing ability for that matter).

Anyway, back to the Saints. St Sviatoslav, originally from Ukraine, never came to Singapore. Having cancelled every single engagement to play at Victoria Concert Hall, he always preferred to perform in some barn in France before his ascension to the nether reaches. 

St Martha, originally from Argentina, is a living saint. She made two appearances at Esplanade Concert Hall in June 2018, her only visit to the island republic to date. No one has filled the hall like she did since other living saint St Lang (originally of Shenyang, China) and only the likes of St Yuja (Beijing), St Evgeny (Russia), St Leif Ove (Norway) or St Mitsuko (Japan) could possibly displace the greatness and hotness of St Martha. At the moment, they are minor living saints in comparison to the almighty St Martha.

Finally, it should be said that the shrine to St Sviatoslav and St Martha looks just about perfect at night and in dim lighting, much like of the former’s barn recitals. So here it is in the illumination of a single glowing candle, for the Debussyan effect of Les soirs illumines par l’ardeur du charbon, or something to that effect.  

So come on bended knee and worship. All hail...  

Don't you think this looks much better?

By the way, HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS & MAY THE NEXT YEAR 2021 BE A BETTER ONE. Frankly, it could not be any worse, except for maybe fans of Arsenal Football Club. 

LIM YAN Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Last Tuesday (15 December 2020)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 December 2020

There has not been a public piano recital in Singapore since 14 February, when Korean pianist Kun Woo Paik took to the stage of Victoria Concert Hall. Even the annual Singapore International Piano Festival had to be deferred. Thus it seemed like poetic justice that the festival’s artistic director, Lim Yan, became the first pianist to perform a recital since the lifting of the Covid circuit breaker.

In front of a socially-distanced and masked audience of 50, he offered a sparkling programme of mostly short pieces. The single-movement sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti made perfect starters, and Lim chose three less familiar numbers, all in the key of D major. It takes an imaginative artist to lend them freshness, and he succeeded by varying tonal colour, textures and mood.

Although originally conceived for harpsichord, feather-light digital brilliance was well translated into more sustained sonorities for the piano. His prodigious repeated note technique in the faster numbers simulated the guitar and castanets, while rapidly shifting chords evoked the pealing of bells.

In between two Scarlattis, Lim sneaked in the three movements of Haydn’s Sonata No.37 in D major. The baroque era merged almost imperceptibly into the classical age, as the Austrian master’s exuberant opening fanfares and grace notes recalled an earlier epoch. Light-hearted chatter and unceasing wit ruled, with only a more sombre slow movement providing contrast.  

There was no intermission for the recital. In its place was an engaging show-and-tell session which neatly linked the recital’s three composers, hosted by Yang Shuxiang, taking an unexpected academic excursion from his usual persona as violin virtuoso.

The recital concluded with Rachmaninov’s later Op.32 set of Préludes Lim astutely prefaced this with the Russian’s early and infamous C sharp minor Prélude (Op.3 No.2), sometimes called the “Bells of Moscow”, the wisdom of which would be later revealed. What followed was a kaleidoscopic show of the piano’s myriad possibilities in some of the repertoire’s most technically challenging pieces.

Lim’s grasp of the idiom was faultless, conquering the thorny mini masterpieces with an almost nonchalant aplomb, while always attuned to undercurrents of Slavic brooding and melancholy. A reference to the earlier pieces came in the skittish A minor Prélude (No.8), its fleet-fingered figurations and crossing of hands were reminiscent of Scarlatti.

The two preludes better-known to casual listeners, in G major and G sharp minor (Nos.5 and 12), were handled with love and care, their limpid lyricism shining through. The set would reach a climax in the B minor Prélude (No.10), with impassioned passages of chiming carillons which also characterised the lucky No.13. This valedictory piece completed a full circle which began with C sharp minor and closed in D flat major, both enharmonic related keys. Theory aside, these considerations are why a well-planned programme of music sounds so pleasing - and harmonious - to our ears.  

VIENNA TO LINZ WITH MOZART

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Wednesday (6 January 2021)

Witty and ebullient Mozart from the Singapore Symphony

This review was first published on the international music review website Bachtrack (www.bachtrack.com) on 11 January 2021.

Live concerts with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra began with a pair of Christmas concerts on 15 and 16 December of last year, bringing festive cheer to an otherwise gloomy close of an annus horribilus. The new year’s first concerts were to have been a trio of evenings with Krystian Zimerman playing all five Beethoven piano concertos, but that had to be cancelled.

In their place was a single hour-long concert, retaining its Viennese flavour with the music of Mozart led by the orchestra’s Austrian chief conductor Hans Graf. What could have been crushing disappointment was dispelled when the familiar figure of Philippines-born pianist Albert Tiu strode onstage to perform Mozart’s congenial Piano Concerto No.23 in A major (K.488). The Juilliard-schooled Tiu has been a regular and well-loved fixture in the Singapore concert scene since assuming the position of Associate Professor of piano performance at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in 2003.

Although he is better known for performing Romantic repertoire such as Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Chopin and Godowsky, Tiu’s Mozart is every bit worth the attention. To its rococo sensibilities, he offered tonal clarity, limpid fingerwork and a singing seamlessness. Accompanied discreetly and attentively by chamber forces, his solo part became an epitome of good taste and utmost decorum.

Then came a most unexpected surprise from left of field. Instead of the usual Mozart cadenza, which is not particularly virtuosic and decidedly short-winded, he served up Leopold Godowsky’s lushly (and decadently) harmonised cadenza. Those familiar with the Pole’s grandiloquent takes on Chopin’s Études might have guessed from the contrapuntal quirks, outlandish sleights of hand and generally unabashed chutzpah.

After this cheeky sojourn to the early 20^th century, all returned to the 1780s for the slow movement’s lilting sicilienne. Tiu’s aria-like musings on the keyboard held sway, with melancoly and nostalgia balanced against feather-light string pizzicatos in its sublime last pages. The final rondo had an irrepressible joie de vivre, bringing the concerto to a lively close. Tiu was not done yet, the encore being his own transcription of the selfsame Adagio. Now sans orchestra, little harmonic intricacies were gently teased out, revealing yet more of Mozart’s genius.

The concert continued without intermission into Mozart’s “Linz” Symphony. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has never been renowned as a Mozart or Haydn orchestra, having prioritised Romantic and 20^th century repertoire in programming through its 42-year history. This looks to change under Salzburg-resident Hans Graf’s directorship. The performance of the symphony simply sparkled with a champagne-like ebullience. His mustering of small forces at hand lent the ensemble a buoyancy and litheness through its four movements. At no point was its overall architecture or thematic integrety sacrificed for outward display or superficial effect.

The opening introduction was direct and plain-speaking, leading to the Allegro proper with its cheeky appropriation of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus motif. Repeating it like some kind of mantra, the music spelt pure unadulterated joy continuing into the slow movement. While not taken at a particularly slow tempo, there were nevertheless contrasts between light and shade in its alternating major and minor modes. The courtly Minuetto with its gently lilting Trio section saw oboist Rachel Walker and bassoonist Christoph Wichert with delightful repartee. The earlier liveliness returned in the spirited finale, blazing a brilliant path to the concert’s close.

Concert life in Singapore following a gradual lifting of circuit breaker measures has begun to pick up with a combination of live and streamed events. This concert, attended by a socially distanced audience, bodes well for a hopeful but somewhat uncertain future.    

Star Rating: *****

Singapore Lyric Opera

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (15 January 2021)

A GRAND TOUR FOR WINDS

re:Sound

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (16 January 2021)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 January 2021 

As the Covid circuit breaker is gradually lifted, local arts groups have been gearing up for live performances. One might not have guessed that last weekend, Victoria Concert Hall was filled with the sound of music for two consecutive evenings for the first time in months.

What a pleasure it was to witness live vocal music again, with the Singapore Lyric Opera (SLO) in a rare foray into baroque repertoire. Arias from five of Georg Friderick Handel’s operas and one oratorio (with no Messiah within earshot) were thrillingly delivered by two exciting young voices, soprano Joyce Lee Tung and baritone Alvin Tan.

Familiar favourites included Lascia Ch’io Pianga (from Rinaldo) and Ombra Mai Fu (the ubiquitous Largo, Xerxes), slow numbers with both singers exhibiting fine tonal control, varied colours and emotive qualities. There were also ample opportunities for outright virtuosity, such as in Tornami A Vagheggiar (Alcina) and Da Tempeste Il Legno Infranto (Giulio Cesare), with coloratura flourishes and stratospheric leaps from Lee, or Tan’s vehemence and rage displayed in Piangi Pur (Tolomeo).

Together in the celebratory duet Caro! Bella! Piu Amabile Belta (Giulio Cesare), the duo still managed to find sparks of chemistry despite the social distance of five metres between them. The 13-member SLO Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joshua Kangming Tan provided keen and responsive accompaniment, besides striking out on their own in the Overture To Alcina and the bustling Arrival Of The Queen Of Sheba from Solomon.

Not to be outdone, chamber collective re:Sound offered an evening of wind music from five of its woodwind and brass members. The quintet formed by Goh Tiong Eng (flute), Tay Kai Tze (oboe), Ralph Emmanuel Lim (clarinet), Chester Kang (bassoon) and Alexander Oon (French horn) generated an outsized sonority that easily filled the upper reaches of the hall.

The programme, while not so familiar to general audiences, comprised wind ensemble staples that was both varied and eclectic. After opening cheerfully with Jacques Ibert’s Three Short Pieces, Franz Danzi’s Wind Quintet in D minor provided some sobriety but still raised smiles for the articulate artistry involved.

Two players became soloists themselves, joined by members of re:Sound’s elite string group, the Concordia Quartet. The first movements of Mozart’s Oboe Quartet and Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet contrasted chirpy light-heartedness with autumnal nostalgia. In the latter, Lim’s mellow and long-breathed clarinet part, backed by violinists Edward Tan and Kim Kyu Ri, violist Matthias Oestringer and cellist Theophilus Tan proved the high point of the evening.

The concert concluded with a rare outing for Carl Nielsen’s quirky Wind Quintet. Its three movements combined spiky themes, piquant harmonies and folk influences that both surprised and delighted. The playing was alert to the music’s unusual twists and and turns, even if the finale’s Theme and Variations came across as somewhat disjointed. Nonetheless, these were two evenings well spent with some of Singapore’s finest young musicians.   

ESPLANADE CONCERT WEEKEND

Saturday – Monday (30 Jan – 1 Feb 2021)

Concert life is slowly but surely coming back to life in Singapore. Earlier in January, there were two consecutive evenings of concerts at Victoria Concert Hall, featuring the likes of Singapore Lyric Opera and re:Sound’s chamber groups. The last weekend went one better with three varied concerts at the three iconic spaces of Esplanade Theatres On The Bay. While social distancing, face-masking and Trace-Togethering have become par for the course, a sense of normality has returned. So let us see what transpired.

OF COURAGE AND HOPE

QIN LI-WEI Solo Cello Recital

presented by Altenburg Arts

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday 30 January 2021

Make no mistake about it, Australian-Chinese cellist Qin Li-Wei, presently an Associate Professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, is the greatest cellist ever to make his home in Singapore. His various concerto performances and recitals, supplemented by superb recordings of wide-ranging repertoire on compact disc, attest to that notion. This one man solo show, with three of J.S.Bach’s unaccompanied Cello Suites, confirmed that as plain fact.

Quite unusually, he performed these in reverse published order, beginning with the ultra-serious and sombre Suite No.5 in C minor (BWV.1011), also the longest of the three. Straight off, one is struck by the intent and intensity of Qin’s musings. His tone is voluminous, filling the capacious hall with an immediacy of clarity and purity. Never mistake this with loudness, and nothing he does is brash or vulgar. With his kind of playing, the music does not shout into the face but speaks directly to the heart. This continued all through the suite’s six movement schema (Prelude – Allemande – Courante – Sarabande - Dance Doubles - Gigue), alternating fast and slow dance numbers, which was further repeated in the other suites.

Even if Bach originally meant these to be übung (exercises) for his cello or gamba friends, the movements transcended mere technical execution to attain spiritual sublimity in Qin’s  interpretation. As he continued without intermission into Suites No.4 in E flat major (BWV.1010) and No.1 in G major (BWV.1007, also the most familiar of the six), the works get progressively shorter and definitely cheerier. This was, without a doubt, a journey from grim darkness to shining light, with each long-breathed Sarabande in the three suites being focal points for reflection and contemplation.

This was fittingly allegorical to the current Covid pandemic, a gradual but optimistic trudge towards the light at the end of the tunnel. There were surprisingly many children in the hall, and judging by their stillness and relative silence, some of the messages must have gotten through. There was a sole encore, an unaccompanied and truncated version of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise (Op.34 No.14). Needless to say, Qin’s tone and lyricism was simply ravishing.

THE SKIES BEYOND

TO ENSEMBLE

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday 31 January 2021

It’s been almost two years since TO Ensemble last performed a public concert. In the meantime, jazz pianist Tze Toh and his merry band produced a compact disc recording, besides preparing for this concert which saw a smaller and more compact group of players. Missing in action was saxophonist Teo Boon Chye but returning after a hiatus of ten years is erhu exponent Dai Da. With Carnatic violinist Lazar T.Sebastine and Toh being the constants, this was to a more string-based sound to the programme titled The Skies Beyond.

The premise is a multi-millennia history of mankind, from the violence of primal tribes to modern inventions of man which reach for the sky, with references made to Leonardo da Vinci, Amelia Earhart and Stephen Hawking.

One should probably best forget all the titles of the multi-movement concert, for each piece does not conform to any classical form. These are probably best described as fantasies with programmatic inspirations, where initial ideas inputed on piano, electronic keyboard or pre-recorded tape, are later improvised upon by the musicians. There were only few moments when all three performed together, and the play of counterpoint would have been nice but these opportunities were not fully exploited.

Heavy bass chords and clusters occupied the episode entitled War, where the influence of Bartok or Messiaen may be cited. The mood shifted from darkness toward light (an unconscious echo of the previous evening’s Bach cello suites) and there was even a waltz movement for erhu and piano which afforded some sentimentality and nostalgia. With Lazar’s inimitably nonchalant fiddling stealing the show (as he invariably does), eighty pleasurable minutes passed like a flash. Was this easy listening, jazz, classical, crossover, World Music, or a heady conflation of all these? As before, TO Ensemble defies any form of pigeon-holing or classification, yet sounds different at every outing. Tze and Co roll on, and we the listeners are all the richer for it. 

DONALD LAW Piano Recital

Esplanade Concourse

Monday 1 February 2021 

Young local pianist Donald Law performed two short recitals at the Esplanade Concourse, featuring favourites of his repertoire. Beginning with Mozart’s Rondo in D major (K.485), he revelled in its light-heartedness while providing adequate contrasts within the shifts between major and minor keys. In Debussy’s La plus que lente, one of his pet party pieces, he exercised liberties in rubato. Turning its sentimental slow waltz into a series of episodes, there was a sense of dislocation from the Belle Époque, instead looking ahead to the cataclysm that is Ravel’s La Valse, its final fruition. Hopefully he’ll play that someday.    

Moving into serious territory was Janacek’s Sonata I.X.1905 “From The Street”, two movements that revealed a more sober side to the artist. He explained the premise and underlying tragedy of the work in a short preamble, and then showed he meant every word of it. Its narrative arc from expectation (the first movement is titled Premonition) to ultimate violence (Death) and its denouement was well brought out. The catharsis afforded by the sonata might have affected his final selection, the finale of Chopin’s Third Sonata in B minor (Op.58). He started confidently but almost got derailed near the rondo theme’s final statement. Nerves are most probably the reason, but he valiantly weathered the storm till its heroic close.

So that was three concerts in three days as Singapore emerges from the Covid circuit breaker. It’s a start and there are more events, both live and streamed, to come. That is something worth being patient for.

A GIFT TO THE UNIVERSE

CELEBRATING BACH III

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (4 February 2021)

This was the third concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra celebrating the legacy of J.S.Bach, utilising chamber forces that have become a norm as Singapore gradually emerges from the Covid circuit breaker period. Conducted by Darrell Ang, the hour-long concert attended by a socially-distanced and masked audience, featured three familiar works.

Bach’s diverse set of six Brandenburg Concertos was the closest he came to the baroque concerto grosso form, featuring soloists (concertino group) playing separately from the general ensemble (ripieno group). As such, selected players from within the orchestra were highlighted and given their chance to shine in their solo parts.

Issues of balance resulted however cropped up in the popular Second Brandenburg Concerto, when violinist Kong Xianlong was stood front of stage while flautist Evgueni Brokmiller, oboist Pan Yun and trumpeter Lau Wen Rong (substituting for Principal Jon Paul Dante) sat playing in the rear. Given the prominence and volume of brass, this seemed a logical move, but the overall balance of sonorities did not fully gel.

The violin barely stood out, the woodwinds often receded into the background while the trumpet - most prominent of them all – stole the show. Playing at the highest possible register, this extremely demanding part was also fraught with difficulties. Although Lau has a pleasant and striking clarion tone, the articulation was not always immaculate.

As the ensemble settled into the concert, the Fourth Brandenburg Concerto fared much better. Both flautists Brokmiller and Miao Shanshan played from the back and were as one throughout the three movements. Violinist Zhao Tian played at the front and fully relished his part, with virtuosic flourishes that would not look out of place in a Vivaldi concerto. This was arguably the best ensemble performance of the evening, and closed the concert on a high.

Wedged in between the Brandenburgs was the evergreen Concerto in D minor for two violins (BWV.1043), with Ye Lin and guest soloist Chloe Chua doing the honours. Fences were rushed in the opening few bars, resulting in some untidiness but eventually cooler minds prevailed. Once again, one cannot overstate the miracle that is Chloe, joint winner of the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition (Junior category), who partnered relative veteran Ye (close to three times her age) to near perfection. The slow movement sung with an aria-like seamlessness and the busy counterpoint of the outer movements were dispatched with spirit and verve.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has never sold itself as a baroque specialist, but it is encouraged to continue exploring this repertoire, not just the familiar favourites but to forge out further afield.                

OMM RESTARTS! 

LI-WEI PLAYS HAYDN

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Conducted by Chan Tze Law

Recorded at Esplanade Concert Hall

Released online on 7 February 2021

https://youtu.be/0-xJSqOJ14U 

(Please click on link above to view concert) 

As Singapore emerges from the Covid-19 circuit breaker, local arts groups have been busy producing concerts, both live and digital for online viewing. The Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) has been no exception, with concerts that even rival the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s for quality of content and delivery.

While one might suggest that youthful OMM is the amateur or junior counterpart of SSO, certain factors suggest that the pro-am divide is much narrower than most imagine. For starters, which orchestra is the first in Singapore to present a Wagner Ring Cycle opera? Alright, that’s somewhat unfair to the SSO. However when one compares like with like, as in the concerts featuring chamber-sized ensembles playing chamber-sized repertoire, there is often little to separate seasoned professionals with the enthusiasm of fresh-faced youth. This recently released concert, conducted by its Music Director, master orchestra-builder Chan Tze Law (once of the SSO), is a good case in point.

Judging by the crispness and incisive quality of the opening chords for Beethoven’s Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, this was going to be crackling reading, and one was not disappointed. The strings and woodwinds were also en point, rendering this briefest of Beethoven overtures an excellent curtain raiser. 

The orchestra also played sensitive accompanist to Australian-Chinese cellist Qin Li-Wei in Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D major, a totally lyrical outing where issues of period performance or authenticity became irrelevant. Rich and wide vibratos from both soloist and orchestral strings are the way to go, and there should be no timidity in bringing out a sumptuous sonority for fear of offending academics or pedants.

This was a performance of vigour and virtuosity, not least in young Singaporean Jonathan Shin’s  romanticised but idiomatic cadenzas. No harm in stretching Qin’s technique to the limit, and he nailed these with stunning aplomb. The slow movement was one lovely aria, Mozartean in its song-like seamlessness, providing a calming respite before the finale’s romp of fireworks. Again the sheer musicality displayed by both soloist and orchestra were impressive, as one could just wallow in the music’s joie de vivre without worrying too much about technical details. The encore in Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No.5, arranged for cello and orchestra by another young local Lee Jin Jun, was a delicious and welcome tidbit.

Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.4 in A major, also known as the Italian, received a brisk and lively reading. Brimming with agreeable sunshine, the music was allowed to smile in its fast outer movements. The second movement’s Andante con moto was not dragged out, instead taken in a fair lick underpinned by a quiet and gently chugging rhythm that did not outstay its welcome. Similarly the third movement flowed unimpeded, with the all-important French horn duo acquitting themselves very well.

The finale’s Saltarello upped the ante several notches, and despite its rapid quickfire pace, the ensemble held its shape and form without sacrificing accuracy in the process. Kudos go to the woodwinds and hardworking strings, and the build up to the final climax was thrilling. One might expect that in a Tchaikovsky symphony, but for Mendelssohn, this was no mean feat. Passion is what matters, and there was plenty to go around. It was a fitting close to an hour of good music well spent in the company of OMM.      

 

LISZT Piano Music

An Introduction to

the Complete Recordings

Leslie Howard, Piano

Hyperion LISZT1 / 2 CDs / TT: 2hr 38’54”

From 1985 to 1998, one of the greatest recording projects of all time was undertaken by a single pianist, the Australia-born Leslie Howard. Over 57 volumes and 95 compact discs released by the Hyperion label, he recorded the complete music for piano solo of Franz Liszt (1811-1886). The Hungary-born piano virtuoso revolutionised performance and piano literature of the 19^th century, which in turn defined the cult of the modern day performing virtuoso. Without Liszt, there would simply be no Horowitz or Lang Lang. Although derided by certain quarters of the critical fraternity, his contribution to the piano, however, is incalculable.

Howard’s recordings defined the length, breadth and depth of Liszt’s creative output and was very much a labour of love. He was however not finished post-1998, having unearthed another few more hours of unpublished, unedited and possibly suppressed works, later recorded on Hyperion, as well as all the two-piano transcriptions of Liszt’s symphonic poems on the Brilliant Classics label.

I had the fortune of witnessing Howard perform and meeting him on no less than four occasions (in London, Singapore and Bangkok) over a stretch of almost 30 years, and can attest that he is still a formidable Lisztian, undaunted by his septuagenarian status. One year ago (before Covid-19 struck) in a basement concert venue at a Bangkok shopping centre, his readings of Two Legends, Reminiscences de Norma and Un Sopiro still had the capacity to provoke the shock and awe that Liszt once inspired.

While the world gradually recovers from the pandemic aftershock, I plan (ever so optimistically) to listen to all these recordings in my free time and record my impressions and observations on this blog. These are not meant to be serious or scholarly reviews, but the musings by an enthusiastic listener with hopefully something to share. So why listen to over 120 hours of Liszt? Because it’s there? Because I’ve got nothing better to do? Because it’s great music or is it just pure curiosity? Perhaps a little bit of everything.

Back in 1998 when Howard first performed at the Singapore International Piano Festival, he recoiled at the sight of the CD sleeves (by no means the complete set, yet) which I whipped out for him to autograph, exclaiming, “You must be crazy to have all these!” My reply then should have been, “Who’s the crazier one, having recorded them all?”, but I kept my counsel.

So here goes.

The Introduction to the complete set (listed by Hyperion as LISZT1) is an excellent sampler with 39 separate pieces covering various aspects of Liszt’s inspiration and output. Howard’s pithy selections mixes familiar favourites with some totally obscure pieces, capped off with a performance of Totentanz with the Budapest Symphony conducted by Karl Anton Rickenbacher.

The programme was subdivided into six chapters over two discs, each with a different theme. Liszt The Poet celebrated the lyrical side of the composer, with works like Un Sospiro and Consolation No.5. Liszt The Patriot saw him at his most nationalistic, represented by Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 (with a short cadenza ad libitum), Csardas Obstinée and shorter folk-inspired pieces. Liszt The Magician plumbed the virtuoso aspect, typified by Rigoletto Paraphrase, Gnomenreigen and the Grand Galop Chromatique (possibly his most vulgar number).

Liszt The Franciscan probed the spiritual realms with St Francis Walking On The Waves and some of his more arcane shorts. Liszt The Romantic returned to some degree of familiarity, like Liebestraume No.3, and transcriptions of Schumann’s Widmung and Chopin’s My Joys. Liszt The Prophet portrayed a visionary in late works like Nuages Gris, Bagatelle sans Tonalité, En Reve, before closing with an imperious Totentanz. Each of its variations are also individually tracked, which is most helpful. With each performance nothing less than first rate, supplemented by excellent and authoritative sleeve notes, this is a most satisfying introduction to the legacy of Franz Liszt.

Rating: *****

LISZT Complete Solo Piano Music Vol.1:Waltzes

Leslie Howard, Piano

Hyperion 66201 / TT: 74’40”

Contrary to popular belief, there is more than one Mephisto Waltz. There are actually four, but only the first (which everyone knows as the Mephisto Waltz, which also exists in orchestral form) is ever performed in concert and piano competitions ad nauseum. Of devilish inspiration, these play on the premise of tritones (the diabolus in musicus) and similar intervals and discords that grate on 19^th century sensibilities. Similarly, there are also four Valses Oubliées (Forgotten Waltzes), of which the first is well-known as a popular encore.

Leslie Howard cleverly alternates between Valses Oubliées and Mephisto Waltzes, working through Nos.2, 3 and 4 (late works all), before closing with the familiar Firsts. This makes for an excellent sequence of listening and he throws in the once popular Valse-Impromptu and several less-known shorts into the mix. The famous Mephisto Waltz (No.1) is heard in an interesting version with extra bars which are invariably never played simply because nobody (except Howard) knows about it. Recorded in 1985, this was an auspicious start to the complete edition.  

Discovery of the Album:

Valse de Bravoure S.214 No.1 is a rare gem, delightfully playful and skittish, vulgar in a nice salon-like way, with the obvious emphasis on bravura.

Rating: *****

LISZT Complete Solo Piano Music Vol.2:

Ballades, Legends & Polonaises

Leslie Howard, Piano

Hyperion 66301 / TT: 72’32”

This was the first CD of the edition which I acquired, way back in 1989 at a Sunday brunchtime recital by Leslie Howard (with cellist Steven Isserlis) in Wigmore Hall, London. It cost me a princely GBP11 (then 3.3 Singdollars to 1 Sterling), but it was well worth the outlay. Of the paired works designated Ballades, Legends and Polonaises, only the second of each genre is performed with any regularity in recital, especially the Ballade No.2 in B minor.

It is a true classic, representative of Liszt’s brooding manner allied with the requisite fireworks. Howard performs the version with the quiet, reflective and frankly better ending, without the Horowitzian histrionics. Also included are the Berceuse and the short but quite lovely Impromptu (Nocturne) in F sharp major, the latter famous recorded by Horowitz in his late years.  

Discovery of the Album:

Polonaise Melancolique in C minor (S.223) is the unheralded First Polonaise (the Second in E major, is the famous one), imbued with a strong sense of tragedy but unjustifiably neglected. Some one should try this one out, a substitute for the overplayed Chopin polonaises.   

Rating: ****1/2

CELEBRATING BACH II

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

4 December 2020 

(Streamed on SISTIC Live from 26 February 2021)

This review was published on Bachtrack on 1 March 2021.

With Covid-19 precautions in force, concerts in Singapore are still limited to chamber groups performing hour-long programmes for small and socially-distanced audiences. In the second of three concerts celebrating the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) continued on this thread but shifted the focus from Brandenburg Concertos and Orchestral Suites to his violin concertos.

It so happened that SSO had quite recently lost the services of two first violinists beloved and familiar to local audiences. Co-Leader Lynnette Seah, ever-present since the orchestra’s inaugural season in 1979, retired last year, while Concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich left to join the BBC Symphony Orchestra the year before. The performances of Bach’s two solo violin concertos were however in good and steady hands.

Chan Yoong-Han was the elegant soloist in the A minor concerto, exuding a warm tone and  healthy vibrato. Known as an accomplished chamber musician, he blended seamlessly within the ensemble in the tuttis, and illuminated his solo with ear-catching ornamentations. Exercising his right in all three movements, these were tastefully rendered and unobstrusive.    

Acting Concertmaster Kong Zhao Hui gave a more straight-forward account of the E major concerto, without adornments of his own device. Playing from a score, his was also a highly musical reading that revelled in the vigour and athleticism of the outer movements. It was the central Adagio with its songlike repose that lingered most in the memory.   

It was a stroke of programming pique to include music by Bach’s older compatriot Georg Philipp Telemann, which is rarely heard in Singapore. His seven-movement Don Quixote Suite or  Burlesque de Quichotte provided an early example of programmatic music. Depicting scenes from Miguel de Cervantes’ epic novel, the art of story-telling by varied orchestral effects was vividly unveiled by the ensemble. The Overture’s busy play of counterpoint was followed by a series of most amusing vignettes.

A delicious sense of irony dripped from its pages, such as the Don strirring from his slumber in a lilting rhythm resembling a cradle song, to tilting at windmills with octave leaps from the strings. Dulcinea’s sighs punctuated by the knight’s incessant laughter, Sancho Panza being roughly tossed, and his donkey’s stop-start forward motion were also sharply characterised. Even Don Quixote at Rest, which concluded the suite, was unusually animated, hinting at imagined misadventures to come. All these movements were possessed with a playful zest, performed tongue firmly in cheek, under SSO Associate Conductor Joshua Tan’s flexible guiding hand. Providing a cheery close to the concert, whoever said that the hyper-prolific Telemann had to be boring?  

Star Rating: ****

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR CONCERT 2021

Ding Yi Music Company

China Cultural Centre

Saturday (27 February 2021)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 3 March 2021

There has been no live classical music during this Lunar New Year period, but trust Ding Yi Music Company to mount four sold-out concerts in the space of two evenings. The chamber outfit’s well-received programmes of festive fare at the China Cultural Centre have been de rigueur but after last year’s cancelled gigs, it rebounded with a vengeance.

Conducted by Dedric Wong De Li, the concert opened to the raucous strains of Li Bo Chan’s Festive Overture, where a celebratory dance of Central Asian flavour jostled for attention with a soothing serenade. This was followed by a procession of works based on popular Chinese oldies but updated to the present day.  

Ding Yi composer-in-residence Phang Kok Jun dressed up Liangxiao in the blues, with Chia Wan Hua’s erhu accompanied by an ensemble with electronic keyboard, bass and drum-set. There was some improvisation in this Liangxiao Jazz Ballad before the sentimental number revved up its pace to close emphatically.

Sulwyn Lok’s Eternal Shanghai Divas was a medley in tribute to legendary chanteuses like Zhou Xuan and Bai Guang, with melodies Shanghai Nights, Rose Rose I Love You and Ja Jambo paraded quite unabashedly. Upping the ante was Eric Watson’s Hard Rock Fight, based on Li Minxiong’s A Well-Matched Fight, pitting Chinese and Western drums in a take-no-prisoners duel. Percussionists Low Yik Hang and Cheong Kah Yiong did the honours with smashing aplomb.

Quite different in mood was Qi Hao Di’s Tunes Of Zhejiang, a rhapsodic concertino for yangqin (Chinese dulcimer). Here, Tan Jie Qing’s mastery of rippling effects and piquant harmonies held sway in a substantial work that explored modernist idioms alongside the traditional.

It was no secret that singer-songwriter Nathan Hartono, Singapore’s star finalist of Sing! China 2016, was the big sell of the event with three songs. His own Insomnia began with a yawn and the trademark crooning that has made his name, in a Mandarin song that expressed his ennui in lockdown. Oozing charm from every pore, he made a cover of the Bee Gees’ How Deep Is Your Love his own, while displaying wide emotional range in The Longest Movie, arranged by Edmund Song.

The finale was a poignant short film Yu Sheng Mo Yu (A Silent Toss) directed by Jet Ho with music by Yvonne Teo. Set in the HDB heartland, its premise was a celebration of “lohei” in pandemic times, about how tradition may transcend constraints of social distancing and health precautions in a socially responsible way. When cheers and salutations fall silent, kindness, considerations and good thoughts take over.

No seasonal concert would be complete without the obligatory CNY songs, and Hartono returned to lead the proceedings. However, there was to be no communal singing but simply clapping along to the familiar music made the day.      

MARK CHENG IN RECITAL

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (3 March 2021)

THE TROUT QUINTET

Andrew Litton & SSO Musicians

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (5 March 2021)

More pianists are venturing off the beaten path to perform works outside the core repertoire. Bored of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, why not build a programme around sonatas by Czech composers Jan Dussek and Leos Janacek, or the Russian Nikolai Myaskovsky? That was the mandate of Mark Cheng, piano teacher and Singapore Dance Theatre’s Company Pianist, whose recital dwelled on the theme of mortality.

Within 90 minutes of simmering melancholy, brooding catharsis and violent death throes, Cheng emoted with a wealth of shades and emotions, even if these ranged from dark grey to jet black. The Sonata No.24 in F sharp minor or Elegie Harmonique by Dussek, a contemporary of Mozart, sounded so modern and decadent that it could have come from late Romantics.

Dies Irae, medieval chant of the Day of Judgement, possessed two works; reclusive Frenchman Charles-Valentin Alkan’s Morte and Myaskovsky’s Second Sonata. While done to death in Liszt’s Totentanz and Rachmaninov’s Paganini Rhapsody, this ubiquitous theme still insinuated itself into fraught situations which Cheng handled with utter self-confidence and understated virtuosity.

Some familiarity came in Enrique Granados’ Love And Death from Goyescas, inspired by Francisco Goya’s paintings, and Janacek’s Sonata I.X.1905, a powerful work that memorialised a worker’s murder at a demonstration. Cheng’s recital became acutely relevant given two million lives lost to Covid and more needless deaths in Myanmar’s civil unrest. His majesterial encore, the Funeral March from Chopin’s Second Sonata, said it all.          

Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Litton took centrestage as pianist alongside the orchestra’s principal string players in an hour-long programme of Viennese chamber music. Gustav Mahler’s very early Piano Quartet, a single-movement teenaged effort, received a rare hearing.

It relived idioms of older composers Schumann and Brahms, with the morose subject from Litton’s solo setting the tone. Beneath its veneer of serenity laid a hotbed of neuroses gradually came to bear. After the piano’s outburst of octaves, tension and rage inexorably surfaced before Chan Yoong Han’s violin settled the nerves for a disquieting end. Little wonder this was used in the psycho-thriller Shutter Island starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Dark clouds gave way for the sunshine of Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major, popularly known as the Trout Quintet. The quartet of Litton, Chan, violist Guan Qi and cellist Ng Pei-Sian were joined by bassist Yang Zhengyi for this perennial favourite. Its five movements radiated a congenial warmth, led by Litton’s ever-busy part. While supporting the strings’ lyrical lines, it also had a fair share of outward virtuosity.

Particularly enjoyable was the fourth movement’s Theme and Variations, based on Schubert’s song Die Forelle (The Trout), hence the work’s nickname. Despite being familiar, the music never outlived its charm, boosted by five players who relished the sense of occasion, bringing the concert to a gemutlich (the Viennese adjective for being carefree) and delightful close.