pianomania

LENINGRAD SYMPHONY

Singapore

Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (26 February 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 February 2016

If one thought Shostakovich to be a box-office risk for a concert, that opinion might have to be revised following this all-Shostakovich programme by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by renowned Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky. This, if anything, was the best possible advertisement for the Soviet era Russian composer on the 110^thanniversary year of his birth.

The concert began with his First Piano Concerto, a youthful work scored for piano, obbligato trumpet and strings. Its appeal lies in an anarchic spirit, one born of the circus, vaudeville and popular sources, while cocking a snook at the musical conventions of Beethoven and Haydn. Equal to the task was pianist Viktoria Postnikova, wife of the conductor, who seemed to play it cool at the outset but soon unleashed its barrel-load of vitriol.

Droll understatement and surprises when one least expects were part of the game, and SSO Principal trumpeter Jon Paul Dante's entry was a surreptitious one. He was complicit in this musical joke too, interjecting at crucial points and having his own wallow in the slow movement, accompanied by languid waltzing strings.

A madcap finale pulled out all stops, with cheeky quotes and comedic repartee between piano and trumpet. This laugh-a-minute routine culminated in a cadenza that seemed to skirt off the edge of a precipice before closing in a perfectly punched-out series of C major chords.

C major was also the key of the Seventh Symphony, or the Leningrad Symphony as it was composed in the Russian city that was under siege by the Nazis in 1941. In the 900-day battle, over a million Russians perished, and this symphony was to be a universal symbol of Soviet resistance and courage. Shostakovich later revealed a different angle; it was “the Leningrad Stalin destroyed, and Hitler merely finished off”.

Interpretations of the work have been subject to controversy. Is this absolute music, programme music or hubristic propaganda? The programme booklet listed its playing time at an optimistic 69 minutes, but the actual performance was a distended 83 minutes. Despite that disparity, there was not a slow coach to be found in Rozhdestvensky's reading.

He conducted from the floor, but his economical beats conveyed volumes. The opening had suitable pomp and heft, with empty bombast left at the door. The infamous Fascist march sequence began as a wheeze from Roberto Alvarez's crystal-clear piccolo, interrupted by Mark Suter's obstinate snare-drum beat. The cycle of repetition, a bolero of death and destruction through a spiralling crescendo, built up inexorably to one which seemed nigh insupportable. At one point, the deafening drone of air-raid sirens could be imagined.

Survive and thrive it did, with the orchestra fully responsive to the conductor's seemingly minimal cues. In this 4-movement work of vasts contrasts, it was not just the blustery bits that impressed. Both central movements mirrored each other with gentle beginnings and violent upheavals in the middle, and much care was taken to colour and differentiate these shifts.

A chamber-like quality to the playing revealed an unexpected intimacy. Take the 3^rd movement for instance, with solos from Jin Ta's flute, Concertmaster Igor Yuzefovich's violin and a smiling melody from the violas. However it was the valedictory finale, rising heroically and majestically from the ashes, which cued the shouts of bravo and a standing ovation. For this was a great performance of a great symphony led by a great conductor.

Conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky
shows his Shostakovich score to the audience
and then goes home with it!

LAND WITH NO SUN II:

DANCE OF THE EARTH

TO Ensemble

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (27 February 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 February 2016

TO Ensemble is the new name of Tze n Looking Glass Orchestra (TLGO), a cross-over fusion group led by jazz pianist Tze Toh. Despite the name change, this latest concert carried on with the environmental concerns raised in previous instalments of his Land With No Sun cycle .

Just to recap: in the the near future, a post-apocalyptic earth now occupies cities in the sky, and its inhabitants wonder what it was like living in the old planet that had been ravaged by war and pollution. A young girl sees a holograph of a whale and makes a hazardous trip down to what is now terra incognito.

The Prologue titled Oscurita / Darkness was sung in Italian by soprano Yap Shin Min, simply because creator-composer Tze preferred the romanticism of the language. Its operatic quality recalled the film scores of Nino Rota and Ennio Morricone, and a concertante element was also provided by Christina Zhou's violin.

Moving into Chapter One:Lullaby Of The Machines, a world constricted by conformity, rules and regulations dictated the tone of the music. Tze's piano shifted within limited chordal sequences, minimalist in a Satiesque way, while Wong Wei Lung provided a mechanical rhythmic drumbeat. Etude-like piano passages and Wendy Phua's bass guitar figurations further contributed to this toccata of repetition.

Augmented by looped film footage, this chapter reminded one of installation art, those abstract scenarios that populate modern art museums the world over. A breakthrough was provided by Teo Boon Chye's tenor saxophone, whose marvelous role of improvising on the spot seemed to turn the music on its head.

Chapter Two: March Of Man thus became a watershed, with humans taking the initiative. Thus Lazar T. Sebastine's carnatic violin in The Surface / Desert was a breath of fresh air, his ragas finally getting the music into a more independent groove. This also heralded woodwinds to engage in a droll dance of their own in Mountains / Thilafushi (with visuals displaying heaps of rubbish), led by Yukari Blest's flute and more saxy improvs from Teo.

In The Submerged City, piano and alto sax sultrily dallied in E minor, which to these ears cleverly merged a Chopinesque nocturne with a Bachian prelude. Yap's wordless melismata simulated children's laughter in The Ruins / City Dawn, while violin accompanied by Miyata Masato's acoustic bass accounted for the melancholy of The Secret Forest.

Chapter Three: Dance Of The Earth saw further collaborations between soloists. In Protector / Vishnu, Sebastine was the protagonist, with the raga giving way to Teo's sax. Both did not play from notated scores, instead making up the music as they went. River was the confluence of both violin traditions, Western and Indian, the result being a mellifluous mix.

If there were an apotheosis, Organic Forest represented by an expanse of green forests and vegetation was a glorification of the G major chord. All the soloists, strings and offstage woodwinds came together for one long love-in, a celebration of what Gaia used to be before mankind's desecration. The Wind, a short music-less scene with Nadia Wheaton's quivering voice-over, later revealed that every good moment and feeling that transpired had been a dream, an illusion of paradise.

The Epilogue: Seed / Whale In The Sky gave the audience pause for hope and thought. We have the world in our hands, so how are we now going to treat it?

DOHNANYI & SHOSTAKOVICH

VCH Chamber Series

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (28 February 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 March 2016

The Victoria Concert Hall Chamber Series organised by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra often brings out and dusts off interesting corners of chamber repertoire not regularly heard in concert or on disc. This offering of Hungarian and Russian music was no exception.

The Hungarian composers Zoltan Kodaly and Erno Dohnanyi were contemporaries and colleagues. While the former espoused nationalism and revolutionised music education, the latter made his name as a piano virtuoso. As creators, both were conservatives beside their compatriot Bela Bartok.

The trio of violinist Lillian Wang, violist Tan Wee-Hsin and cellist Chan Wei Shing made no secret that their selection of music by both Hungarians was little more than delightful lollipops. Kodaly's Intermezzo (1905) was infused with rustic charm, led by a folksy violin melody gliding over rocking rhythmic accompaniment, with contrasts provided by a bucolic drone in its central section.

More substantial was Dohnanyi's 5-movement Serenade in C major. Ever the academic, he included a lyrical Romanza, a furious fugal Scherzo and Variations on a chorale theme, bookended by two march-like outer movements. There was much to enjoy in the fine interplay and balance achieved by the threesome, with all voices sharing equal honours.

These were pleasant diversions, distressingly slight next to the imposing Piano Quintet in G minor by Dmitri Shostakovich. The original pianist, the Russian Viktoria Postnikova, was indisposed for undisclosed reasons, and her place filled by Filipino pianist and conservatory don Albert Tiu.

Any hint of disappointment was immediately dispelled as Tiu was as rock-solid as they come, registering an earth-shaking G minor chord and opening flourish that was to set the tone of the work. The first two movements comprised a Prelude and Fugue, looking forward to his monumental set of 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano in homage to Bach.

Alongside Tiu was the excellent string quartet of violinists Ye Lin and Cao Can, violist Zhang Manchin and cellist Wang Zihao, all of whom have or had conservatory ties. One would be hard put to find the elegiac Fugue played with such utmost clarity, building from the first violin's simple line and rising to an impassioned climax before gently receding.

The jesting Scherzo had a bounding and bumptious quality that was to catch listeners by surprise. After so much seriousness, was this brief punch-drunk detour meant to be a tongue-in-cheek riposte? The music sobered up again in the Intermezzo and here was an outpouring of grief that only strings know how. Its sobbing quality was perfectly captured by the players, which led directly to a most puzzling of finales.

Was its apparent light-heartedness a sly dig against Stalinist authoritarianism? The wry humour and quiet ending was played straight and without irony by the quintet, which left its ambiguous conclusion all the more teasing. The hearty applause garnered suggested that nobody in the audience was going to ask for their money back.

CONCERTO, CONCERTO!

The Chamber Players

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Sunday (28 February 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 1 March 2016

The Chamber Players has been in existence since the early 1980s, which makes it an ensemble almost as old as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Besides providing working adults and non-career musicians chances to perform at a high level alongside professionals, it also fills in gaping lacunae in listening repertoire for the concert-goer.

After all, how often does one get to hear concerto grossi by Pietro Locatelli or Arcangelo Corelli? This concert of concertos traced the early development of the concerto form and the rise of leaders and soloists among musicians. The ensemble for a concerto grosso already makes a differentiation between soloists in the concertino group and the general ripieno group.

In Locatelli's Concerto Grosso(Op.1 No.9), one could discern violinists Lee Shi Mei and Una Lauw having parts of their own separate from their string colleagues, even as the ensemble gelled together as one whole. Alternating slow and fast movements provided contrasts in this cheerful music which not so much taxed the players but spurred them on.

For Corelli's Concerto Grosso(Op.6 No.1), the concertino group of Lee, Lauw and cellist Wendy Stimpson became better defined in their roles. The general ensemble took their cues from Lee, who acted like a concertmaster of sorts. Three of the movements opened with slow introductions and that was where the rough patches laid. When it came to faster music, the pulse became easier to follow and the playing tidied itself accordingly.

After the intermission, violinist Lee and violist Jonathan Lee took centrestage as outright soloists in Mozart's popular Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major (K.364), a curious hybrid between symphony and concerto. The opening tutti was energetically driven, with both Lees playing in unison with the strings before branching into their own demanding solos.

Their chemistry was a joy to behold, blending together as one with razor-sharp synchrony and spot-on intonation. The violist was the more physically expressive of the two, with animated bodily movements and all-eyes on the violinist who was a steadfast anchor throughout. In her free moments, Shi Mei also took to conduct the ensemble with her bow.

Two oboes and two French horns were scored for added textural colour. While the former were chaste and restrained, the latter came across as a touch exuberant, clearly enjoying their moments in the fray. Nevertheless, a fine balance was achieved between strings and winds allowing for the soloists to shine.

The Andante slow movement yielded the achingly beautiful lines while the Presto finale had its share of harried and hashed spots. However it was a common passion that propelled the joyous music to its ecstatic close, and that camaraderie – the sine qua nonof good chamber music-making itself - was clearly palpable.

A BEETHOVEN ODYSSEY Volumes 3&4

JAMES BRAWN, Piano

MSR Classics 1467 & 1468 / ****1/2

British pianist James Brawn continues on his labour of love with the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas and reaches the halfway mark. While keeping the mature and more profound utterances to later instalments, the earlier sonatas and “nicknamed” sonatas benefit from his direct approach, that of Beethoven as a fearless and unabashed communicator.

Volume 3 begins with the Sonata in A major (Op.2 No.2) and continues with the “Tempest” Sonatain D minor (Op.31 No.2). Both are possessed with stürm und drang (storm and stress) temperament that was to make Beethoven such a rudely fascinating character. The “Les Adieux” Sonata in E flat major (Op.81a) was his only programmatic sonata, with an abundance of joy, sorrow and exhilaration thrown into the mix.

The longest sonata in Volume 4 is the “Pastoral” Sonata in D major (Op.28), so-named because of its bucolic quality and movements recalling country dances. Its counterpart is the “simple” Sonata in G major (Op.79), another work with German folk influences.

The balance is filled with short sonatas: the early E major (Op.14 No.1), the deceptively difficult F sharp major (Op.78) and the late E minor (Op.90) with its glorious Schubertian song-like finale which ends all too soon. Brawn plays all of these beautifully, imbued with the quintessential Beethovenian spirit that is hard to resist. More please.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

EMMA JOHNSON, Clarinet

JOHN LENEHAN, Piano

Champs Hill 084 / ****1/2

Music in the 20^th century saw a multiplicity of styles and -isms. Atonalism and serialism were embraced by the academic and compositional establishment but alienated casual listeners. This survey of 20^th century clarinet music written during the 1930s to 50s by British clarinettist Emma Johnson steers clear of those, keeping tonality close to her heart. Already familiar to listeners is the music of Sergei Prokofiev's Flute Sonata (1943, also his Violin Sonata No.2), which sounds totally idiomatic and lyrical for the clarinet in her arrangement.

There are fascinating contrasts to be found in the Sonatas of Paul Hindemith (1939)and Nino Rota (1945), the astringency and counterpoint of the German juxtaposed with the more melodious and commercial style of the Italian, better known for his film music.

Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski's Dances Preludes (1955) make the best case for folk-inspired modernism, while the spirituality of Olivier Messiaen's Abyss Of The Birds from Quartet For The End Of Time (1941) and Vocalise-Etude(1935) elevate music to a higher and more ethereal plain. Johnson has a rich, mellow sound and performs with true feeling and sympathy, which are well-captured in the marvelous recording.

HAGEN QUARTET Recital

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Tuesday (1 March 2016)

How lucky we are in Singapore to have the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory which presents class classical acts in its Visiting Artist Series, almost for next to nothing. We got to hear Masaaki Suzuki conduct Bach cantatas (January) and Konstantin Scherbakov play Beethoven (February) for free, and tickets for the renowned Hagen Quartet's recital sold for a nominal $20 ($10 for seniors and students). One has to pinch oneself that all this is indeed happening in Singapore, and not in Tokyo or London (which would have cost many pretty pennies).

The Salzburg-based Hagen Quartet performed an all-Austrian programme of string quartets, indeed fitting as they come from the land that is the cradle of the string quartet form. Even the Haydn and Mozart quartets chosen for their Singapore debut were not exactly the most popular ones, which made this very intimate recital all the more intriguing.

Haydn's String Quartet in C major (Op.54 No.2) immediately revealed the tightness of ensemble from violinists Lukas Hagen and Rainer Schmidt, violist Iris Hagen-Juda (Lukas' wife, substituting for his sib Veronika) and cellist Clemens Hagen. Theirs was one of unspoken chemistry, developed through years of working together. There were no histrionics or superficially outward display, just four disparate parts merging into one, every entry carefully weighted and voiced.

Haydn's craftsmanship and wit was allowed to shine through. Quite unusual for the composer, the finale was a slow movement with a more animated central section to liven things up. The contrasts played up were fascinating, bringing the work to a quiet and sublime close.

There was a softly-shaded dramatic intensity to Mozart's String Quartet in D minor (K.421), one work that does not hit one in the face but instead sizzles quietly under its tonal expositions. Again the ensemble was immaculate, and the inner tension gets under one's skin purely by suggestion rather than directly stating the obvious.

Both central movements brooded like before, but the first violin's jaunty dance in the Trio section of the 3^rd movement, wonderfully 'danced' by Lukas, seemed like a ray of sunshine. The finale's Theme and Variations on a lilting dance was actually cheerful, and would have been an inspiration for the next generation's composing great, Franz Schubert.

Quite appropriately, the big work was Schubert's String Quartet in A minor (D.804) “Rosamunde”, which begins with a 1st movement built upon the three notes of the A minor triad (a descending E-C-A). Its sheer repetitiveness could have been tiresome if not for the way the quartet built up its case and the subsequent eventful development. The serenade-like 2nd movement uses the popular Entractefrom Schubert's incidental music to Rosamunde, thus giving the quartet its nickname.

Despite its familiarity, it was never allowed to sound trite or hackneyed. This Biedermeier era beauty continued into the Menuetto, which did not initially sound like a dance but gradually got into its rhythm. The lively finale with Hungarian influence closed the concert on a high, for which the quartet was vociferously received.

There was time for one encore, the Andante slow movement from Mozart's String Quartet in D major (K.575), the first of the “Prussian Quartets”. No flashy fireworks lit up the stage, but the intense musicianship that shone through the evening was illumination enough.

ERIK T. TAWASTSTJERNA Piano Recital

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Wednesday (2 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 March 2016 with the title "Perfect Finnish to a memorable outing".

If the name Erik Tawaststjerna sounded familiar, that is because he was the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' most important biographer. Erik T. Tawaststjerna is his pianist son, who is Head of Piano Studies in Helsinki's Sibelius Academy. Very appropriately, the first half of the younger Tawaststjerna's piano recital was devoted wholly to Finnish music.

Two of Magnus Lindberg's six Jubileesopened the evening, immersing the ears with plangent chords and sequences of fluid running notes. Although atonal in conception, there was an unusual warmth to the 6^thJubilee, which dissolved into the fidgety triplets of the 3rd Jubilee, almost a study of virtuosic fingerwork.

The survey of miniatures continued into Sibelius' five Esquisses (Sketches), his last works for the piano, contemporaneous with the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies. If the 1^st and 5^th of these resembled bagatelles, it was three central pieces – titled Winter Scene, Forest Lake and Forest Song– that came across like granite-like fragments hewn from his mighty symphonies and tone poems. The austere harmonies and chilling demeanour of themes were classic Sibelius, persuasively brought out by a specialist who has recorded the composer's complete piano output.

Altogether lighter was Sibelius' own transcription of his popular strings hit, Valse Triste from incidental music to the play Kuolema. A gentle waltz rhythm, melancholic melody and spectral swirling figures contributed to its sickly sweet scent. Far from being the unwitting salon favourite, this was a work about death. Despite Tawaststjerna's ardent advocacy on the keyboard, one somehow misses those sobbing strings.

The first half concluded with Einojuhani Rautavaara's Second Sonata (1970), also known as the Fire Sermon. Its three movements were tonal. Aggressive ostinatos in the 1^stmovement were reminiscent of Bartok even if hints of melody were allowed to escape from the cauldron, contrasted with the lyricism of the slow movement which had acerbic stings of its own. A furious fugue completed the 10-minute piece, distinguished by striking chordal resonances by allowing the strings to go undampered for a few more seconds.

Familiar music occupied the second half, beginning with the Six Musical Moments of Franz Schubert. Within these short intimate pieces, the Austrian composer invested a whole world of moods and emotions, which Tawaststjerna keenly brought out.

The tensions and inner angst of his Liederwere never far away from the song-like numbers, contrasted by the polka-rhythm of No.3 (a popular encore), Bach-like figurations of No.4 and the outright fury of No.5. It was the longing nostalgia of the final piece, wonderfully captured, which made this outing memorable.

The Fireworks in Chopin's “Heroic” Polonaise (Op.53) were the sonorous antidote to too much pensiveness, and Tawaststjerna's stunning control in the stampeding octave sequence as the music threatened to boil over was one to be remembered.

His encore of Sibelius'Finlandia, in a gratifyingly blustery transcription by the composer, full of chords, octaves and tremolos - provided the perfect Finnish finish.

Post concert: Tawaststjerna meets with YST piano students
and the piano duo of Low Shao Ying & Shao Suan.

TRANSFIGURED NIGHT

NAFA Project Strings

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (3 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 March 2016

The subject of a man's love for a woman superimposed on a canvas of late Austro-Germanic musical Romanticism was the theme for this all-strings concert. It was also a showcase of the impressive Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts' Project Strings, formed and led by Singapore Symphony Orchestra first violinist Foo Say Ming since 2012.

The music had previously been heard in separate concerts by Foo's elite string band re:mix. However, this evening's coupling of Mahler and Schoenberg's music had a strong synergism because of their shared compositional idioms and estranged relationships with their respective spouses, all set in fin de siecle Vienna This was highlighted in helpful programme notes written by students rather than their lecturers.

Narrator Angel Cortez set the tone by reading a love letter and the strings took off with Adagietto, the 4^thmovement from Mahler's Fifth Symphony. One of his most serene creations, it began with the gentlest of whispers and a hint of rhythm provided by Tan Li Shan's harp. This finesse of control, of hushed voices and tender caresses, spoke volumes of Foo's charges, as the music wound its way to a yearning passionate climax before ebbing into silence.

This movement was merely a third of the length of the next work, Arnold Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht, or Transfigured Night. Originally scored for string sextet (two each of violins, violas and cellos), its amplification for string orchestra is the modernist composer's most performed work. Youthful and tonally based, it far outstrips all of his atonal compositions in terms of popularity by a long chalk.

It was inspired by Richard Dehmel's poem in German about a man and woman who take an evening walk. She reveals that she is with child, but not by him. Instead of rejection, he offers love and warmth, with the promise he will regard the unborn infant as his own. The work is thus a rollercoaster of emotion, from tension and uncertainty, to overwhelming feelings and finally love and acceptance.

English transliterations were projected on a screen above as the music unfolded, with gentle violas making the first statement. Foo's leadership was one of directness and honesty, never one for histrionics nor superficial effect for its own sake. He coaxed a rich homogeneous sonority from his 35 players, which moved as one co-dependent entity through its half-hour duration.

The music mirrored the poem's narrative, traversing from darkness to illumination, and encompassing a whole spectrum of shadows and half-lights. There were occasional episodes of thinness in string sound but these were merely transitional. The frenzied development, tension-laden and angst-filled, provided some this performance's most gripping moments.

The final denouement, amounting to a lengthy musical sigh of relief, returned the massed strings to the calm of perfect equanamity. Expect more from this dynamic group of string players, and the many future orchestras they will populate in years to come.

RECITAL by

QIN LI-WEI, Cello

BERNARD LANSKEY, Piano

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (4 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 March 2016 with the title "Mesmerising mentors".

If one wishes to know how conservatory students get to be so good in what they do, just attend a recital by their teachers and mentors. Without exception, faculty concerts at the Conservatory draw big audiences, especially when star quality is on display. Chinese-Australian cellist Qin Li-Wei, head of cello studies, is the closest thing this nation has to the likes of Yo-Yo Ma living and playing on campus.

His recital with pianist Bernard Lanskey, Conservatory Director, was the kind that would not look out of place in the world's eminent concert venues. The first half comprised two 20^thcentury cello sonatas, both in the key of D minor. Debussy's Sonata was a late work composed as part of a chamber cycle to consciously espouse French musical styles and values, as opposed to time-honoured Germanic ones.

In its three movements, the idiom was free and fantasy-like, one which gave Qin's voice on his 1780 Guadagnini cello the air of wonderment and mystique. His tone was lovingly burnished, flexible in nuances and ever sensitive to the music's constantly shifting dynamics. While the outer movements had brief lyrical moments, the central Serenadeplayed with pizzicatos and comedic simulations of drums and percussion.

Lanskey was a most accomodating partner, always attuned to the action, varying his responses exactingly to the note. His task was made more onerous in Shostakovich's Sonata, which had the surface appearance of a traditional sonata but one loaded with thorns and barbs. The lyrical opening was but a ploy, soon revealing a heart of darkness and turmoil within.

The searing 2^nd movement revolved like a spinning-wheel of death, leading to a long-breathed melody of desolation in the ensuing Largo. Both cellist and pianist made the most of its pathos and then gamely launched into a Rondo of schizophrenic mood swings, an impish and mock-playful dance alternating with violent interjections.

The second half began with Schubert's famous “Arpeggione” Sonata (so named after an obsolete bowed guitar-like instrument), three movements of his sunniest music, close to the Austrian composer's intimate world of lieder. Quite appropriately, the Conservatory's Bosendorfer grand was wheeled in to replace the Steinway. The result was a mellower tone, with less of a metallic sheen.

Qin really knows the meaning of cantabile, and rarely has the work's unimpeded flow of melody been made to sound so natural, and never to the point of being cloying. To close with congenial Schubert would have been perfection by itself, but fireworks were thrown in for good measure with Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs).

Unabashedly appropriated from the violinist's repertoire, he made the showpiece his own, with breath-taking cadenzas and a healthy helping of vibrato. The much-welcomed encore to an encore was Elgar's Salut D'Amour, with its honeyed sweetness milked to the very last drop.

DAZZLING STRINGS

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (5 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 March 2016 with the title "Dazzled by skilled musicians".

This concert's title did not tell the full picture of Singapore Chinese Orchestra's outing with well-known Chinese conductor Tang Muhai, once a protege of Herbert von Karajan. Although string concertos hogged the limelight, a big impression was made by the other works, beginning with Guo Wen Jing's Dianxi Folk Tunes.

Despite an unpretentious title, its three movements were ambitious in recounting the history and culture of the rugged tribes that inhabited remote mountainous regions of Yunnan. Vigorously punched-out percussion beats and strident choruses of suonas (onstage and offstage) sounded out in the opening Ava Mountain. This was contrasted with mellower marimba and xylophone textures in the gentler but animated Jino Dance, which had a trio of dongxiao (flutes) conjure up a pastoral atmosphere in its central section.

It was all thunder and bluster in the final Sacrifices.Fire.Spirits movement which had a similar raucous and primal energy as the close of Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring. This epic score which merged ancient Chinese, modern Western and film music influences was tautly held together by Tang's magisterial control, which never flagged for a single moment.

More convivial was young composer Qi Hao Di's single-movement Dazzle Of Fantasy with SCO's Zhu Lin as erhu soloist. His concertante part was stand-out virtuosic yet allowed to blend with the orchestra's string textures. The music was impressionist in style, as if crafted by a Chinese Delius, culminating with a cadenza and an ebullient flourish to close.

The second half began with Hongkonger Stephen Yip's Nine Actors, a winning entry in the 2011 Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition. The most avant-garde work on show, its expression of ceremonial and dramatic aspects of Chinese theatre was purely musical, with a narrative flowing in seven linked sections. The work's incorporation into SCO's Nanyang music canon was by virtue of its clever use of Hokkien, Teochew and Hakka themes woven into an elaborate embroidery.

The populist element of this concert was surely Chen Gang and He Zhanhao's Butterfly Lovers Concerto, featuring the conductor's prodigious 11-year-old daughter Susan Tang. Her diminutive presence was compensated by a big and confidently projected sound, despite being placed right smack in the orchestra's ranks, between Principal Cellist Xu Zhong and harpist Ma Xiao Lan.

A distinctive advantage was to be had by her close proximity with Xu, as their duo passages were symbolic of the forbidden love between Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. Conductor Tang conducted from the floor, so he did not stand over his soloist, besides allowing him to walk around on stage unimpeded as he waved his baton.

The younger Tang's solo effort was an extremely promising one rather than the finished article, and she will surely blossom with time, like her former-prodigy mother, the Korean pianist Ju Hee Suh who performed the uncredited piano part. The concert closed with the popular encore Hua Hao Yue Yuan, surely the quintessential Chinese work to represent happiness and contentment.

EARL WILD

Complete RCA Album Collection

Sony Classical 88875030742 (5 CDs) / *****

The long-lived Earl Wild (1915-2010) carved a patchy concert career that awkwardly straddled between the dying embers of “Golden Age” piano-playing and an era of objectivity and an obeisant approach to musical scores.

The epithet of “the last Romantic” applied to him as well as contemporaries Jorge Bolet and Shura Cherkassky, major artists whose careers were sidelined for decades before being finally recognised in their old age for uniqueness and individuality. Wild recorded for many labels but never received a sustained contract, and this box-set of RCA Victor recordings dating mostly between 1959 and 1973 showed what might have been.

All five discs house virtuoso works for piano and orchestra. The piano concertos by Xaver Scharwenka (No.1 in B flat minor) and Ignace Paderewski (A minor) must simply not be missed for their over-the-top romanticism and luscious melodies which Wild simply revelled in. His takes from 1969-1970 are still considered the gold standard for this under-performed repertoire, as are his 1959-1961 recordings of Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, Piano Concerto In F and I Got Rhythm Variations with the Boston Pops Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler.

One will also not find a more outlandish account of Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy. Here he adds his own flourishes and embellishments, which one suspects the composer would have heartily encouraged. Wild was an outsized maverick talent who will be sadly missed.

GREAT CHOPIN PIANISTS

Deutsche Grammophon 479 5404 (11 CDs)

****1/2

This is a collaboration between the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw and the German yellow label to reissue performances of Chopin's piano music by past winners of the Chopin International Piano Competition. The 18 selected pianists date from the first competition in 1927, won by the Russian Lev Oborin, all the way to 2010, when another Russian Yulianna Avdeeva was crowned.

In between are the famous likes of Maurizio Pollini (1960), Martha Argerich (1965), Garrick Ohlsson (1970) and Krystian Zimerman (1975), together with Dang Thai Son (1980), Stanislav Bunin (1985), Li Yundi (2000) and Rafal Blechacz (2005) among others.

Here the Deutsche Grammophon archive is mined and handily rehashed, which makes for an excellent introduction to first-time listeners of Chopin’s concertos, Études, Préludes, Ballades, Scherzos, Polonaises and Sonatas. The notes make no mention whatsoever that no first prize was awarded in 1990 and 1995, so performances by second-placed artists (Kevin Kenner, Philippe Giusiano and the late Alexei Sultanov, by no means second-rate pianists) are also included.

Here is a true feast of piano's favourite composer, which include rare historical performances from Alexander Uninsky (1932), Yakov Zak (1937), Bella Davidovich and Halina Czerny-Stefanska (Joint 1st Prize, 1949) and Adam Harasiewicz (1955). Only a few performances were recorded from the competition's actual rounds, but that should not be a deterrent.

FOR LOVERS OF CHORAL MUSIC,

A CONCERT NOT TO BE MISSED!

THE SILENT REALM IN MAJESTY

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Manfred Schreier, Guest Conductor

Sunday 13 March 2016

Victoria Concert Hall, 5 pm

Tickets at $28 & $38, available at SISTIC

The award-winning and highly acclaimed The Philharmonic Chamber Choir performs a programme of German sacred and secular a cappella music, from Romantic to the modern era, exploring the theme of Chaos and Divine Rest, under the direction of German choral conductor Manfred Schreier of the Hochschule fur Musik Freiburg.

Works include:

KODALYJesus und die Krämer

RHEINBERGERBleibe bei uns

& Ich liebe, weil erhöret

HAYDN-GOTTWALDRepresentation of Chaos

From Die Schöpfung (The Creation)

WOLF Sechs Geistliche Lieder (Six Sacred Songs)

MAHLERIch bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

(I Am Lost To The World) fromRückert Lieder

MANTYJÄRVI Die stimme des kinde

J.S.BACH-NYSTEDTKomm, süsser tod

J.S.BACH-SCHNEBEL Contrapunctus

BRAHMSZum Ende from Op.104

Don’t miss this concert of truly spiritual inspiration.

DREAMS AND MIRAGES

ROBERTO ALVAREZ, Flute et al

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (8 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 March 2016

In the nine years Spanish flautist Roberto Alvarez has lived in Singapore, he has garnered a reputation of being the keenest advocate of new flute music. Responsible for innumerable commissions and premieres, his outsized talent and modest personality has won many friends among composers, performers and listeners.

Alvarez's latest concert was typical of his catholic tastes and wide-ranging repertoire. Singaporean Zechariah Goh Toh Chai's Images My Dream Saw were three studies in merging disparate timbres of flute and piano. The opening Alone In A Bamboo Forest was an elaborate solo played against the grand piano's open strings.

Reflected sounds and shimmering echoes provided a haunting effect, contrasted with stark piano chords from Shane Thio in Rustling In The Pine Trees, over which the flute provided a more flowing narrative. Portamentos (sliding tones) simulated the style of the bamboo flute, and in Phoenix's Dance. Falling Petals, the imaginary birdsong took swift flight before closing in sedate piano chords.

German composer Gisbert Nather's Jokewas more light-hearted, with Yang Tien's harpsichord providing a comedic edge with clattery chatter and treadmill-exercise accompaniments. A slow pastoral opening soon gave way to fast cheerful music resembling that of cartoon chases, with percussive outbursts from Alvarez's sputtering flute.

Also with harpsichord was Canadian R.Murray Schafer's neo-baroque Sonatina, with Bachian counterpoint and astringent themes reminiscent of Hindemith and other modernists. There was a manic edge to the music, which saw keyboard note-clusters and flutter tonguing among the effects that lit up the score to its schizophrenic end.

The first of three world premieres was Spaniard Jose Nieto's Angelasia, composed for his niece Angela who had moved to Asia (Singapore to be precise). A tour de force of solo playing, it obliged Alvarez to intermittently tap out flamenco rhythms on his right foot while maintaining legato lines on the flute. The flute had its percussive movements, with tones spat out vehemently. To cap it all, passages of bitonal playing were produced by humming and low groaning, the flautist's version of throat singing.

More traditional was the world premiere of Luis Serrano Alarcon's La Flute De La Lune (The Flute Of The Moon), a straight-forward romantic nocturne, a dreamy melody with spots of passion and agitation (and more flutter-tonguing) at its centre.

Singaporean Daniel Lim's Fata Morganawas a most ambitious work, scored for alto flute, piccolo, piano and harpsichord. Its title has to do with visual and aural mirages, a kind of perceptional deception with themes heard on the reeds and mimicked by keyboards, as if heard through a musical distorting mirror.

The piano and harpsichord initially coalesced like water and oil in its slow introduction, but as the tempo picked up in the fast minimalist development, their respective timbres merged in a strangely harmonious way, enlivened by the flutes' darting interjections. A fascinating world premiere, delivered by the most sympathetic of performers, was met with the warmest of receptions.

And here is the Angela
who inspired Jose Nieto's Angelasia!

A NIGHT OF CABARET

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts

Vocal Studies

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (10 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 March 2016 with the title "Risque cabaret display".

Cabaret songs form a very specific genre of artsongs, with origins in 1880s Paris at the legendary Le Chat Noir (The Black Cat) nightclub of Montmartre. Its clientele included artists, intellectuals and bohemians, and the music spawned was a sophisticated variety of comedy and satire, with double entendres and social commentary as essentials in the mix.

This 80-minute concert by the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts' Vocal Studies Department headed by Jessica Chen was an entertaining and educational survey, presenting 18 songs by 17 singers and 8 pianists. Two co-hosts provided context and commentary via corny jokes while visuals and song translations were projected on a screen above.

The journey began in France with two songs by Erik Satie, Je Te Veux (I Want You) sung sentimentally by tenor Kevin Lee, a waltz-song followed by the frivolities of La Diva De L'Empire which had soprano Tan Hui Yen hamming up the part. Theatricality and wit played a large part in the success of cabaret songs, and there were hits and misses along the way.

Soprano Angela Cortez coped with very high registers needed for Francis Poulenc's Violon and was more successful than Liu Gelin in the well-known Les Chemins De L'Amour (The Pathways Of Love), which proved elusive for her studied demeanour and lack of abandon.

Arnold Schoenberg wrote eight Brettl-Lieder for Ernst von Wolzogen's Berlin-based cabaret theatre Überbrettl, five of which were sung here. Take away the suggestive and saucy German lyrics, and one gets some of the atonalist's most melodious music. Cortez fared better in Galathea(which shockingly had paedophilic lines), and two cross-dressing sopranos Cherie Tse and Sim Weiyang quite convincingly accounted for Gigerletteand Der Genügsame Liebhaber (The Contented Suitor). They were, after all, singing from a gentleman's viewpoint.

Tenor Kee Chun Kiat recounted the “boom boom boom” palpitations of an insatiable lover in Aria from Dem Spiegel Von Arcadien (The Mirror Of Arcadia), while mezzo-soprano Chong Lee Khim had more than she could handle in Einfaltiges Lieder (Simple Song), a misnomer if any.

Benjamin Britten's Tell Me The Truth About Love and Calypso were settings to words by W.H.Auden. The former yielded one of evening's best performances from soprano Siti Hasia bte Abdul Hakeem, who had a most natural way with words and movements to match. The lightning speed at which soprano Gladys Seow tackled the latter was simply breathless.

The least satisfying segment of the show came in songs by American Dominick Argento, revealing the singers' lack of sympathy for the idiom, unintelligible English pronunciation, lack of confidence and experience or both.

Leaving best for last, William Bolcom's very difficult songs more or less met their match in three male singers. Baritone David Tao had a suitably smarmy way with Black Max, the personification of vice and prostitution. Tenor Reginald Jalleh had the audience in his hands with play of the word Amor, while tenor Daniel Yap brought down the house with George, a tribute to a most amicable murdered transvestite. Really, who needs to watch R-rated movies when more fun could be had in cabaret songs?

For the record, the pianists who performed were: Nicholas Loh, Song Yuexuan, Chang Xiaoting, Soh Wei Qi, Chen Yue, Vincent Chen, Liu Qingqing and Li Qianhui,

BEETHOVEN LAST YEARS

Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (12 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 March 2016 with the title "Unveiling Beethoven's secrets".

Other than the regular airing of his Choral Symphony, Ludwig van Beethoven's late works are hardly ever performed in Singapore. His visionary musical ideas and profundity of thought make these utterances demanding for both performers and audiences alike. But trust Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon to bring together musical colleagues from around the world and devote two concerts for this just cause.

Despite steep ticket prices, a full-house was achieved on the second night, which opened with Beethoven two Cello Sonatas Op.102. These are comparatively compact works which encompassed a wealth of emotion within economical time spans, and British cellist Colin Carr and American pianist Thomas Sauer were in the same wavelength throughout.

From the opening solo in the C major Sonata, the singing voice of Carr's cello shone out like an illuminating source. Never forced or strained, his warmth of tone was a distinguishing feature, and together with Sauer's steadfast and never overpowering partnership, the music soared through Allegro Vivace sections of both movements like a sabre through butter.

After the abrupt and dramatic start to the D major Sonata, the Adagio slow movement breathed with the long, heavy air of an elegy, which like most good things passed all too soon. The busy finale was balanced on a knife-edge with its fugue of scalic runs from both instruments. Like in his late piano sonatas, Beethoven's penchant for counterpoint was a conscious salute to Bach, and it was with this glorious fugal flourish that the first half concluded.

Tang, who plays on the National Arts Council's 1750 J.B.Guadagnini violin, appeared in the second half with Yuki Kasai (2^nd violin, Japan), Jessica Thompson (viola, USA) and Olivia Jeremias (cello, Germany) for Beethoven's String Quartet in E flat major Op. 127. Like his others works in the same key, the opening chord was robust and purposeful, and the chemistry between the four ladies in the stirring music became immediately palpable.

A fine balance was achieved between the foursome, and the quiet beginning of the sublime 2^nd movement was a case in point. Each individual voice came in clearly and without clamour for limelight; cello, followed by viola, 2^nd violin and 1^stviolin in that order. In the ensuing variations, it was Tang's exquisite solos and leadership that lit the way. Yet hers was an intimately wielded authority, to which the group responded with seeming telepathy and utmost musicality.

The light-hearted scherzo jaunted with the sprightliest of pizzicatos, before giving way to an even more animated central section. The finale which began in an unhurried pace again exhibited all the qualities that make great chamber music-making, with all four listening intently, reacting and gelling as one. As the tempo quickened towards its final pages, the more acutely these factors came into being.

The secrets of late Beethoven were laid bare and lapped up by the most attentive and receptive of audiences. The Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series returns in 2 and 4 December with the works of the young Beethoven, which should not be missed on the strength of this latest showing,

Cellist Colin Carr suggests what he would
play for Beethoven should he be living today.

All the musicians returned
for a lively post-concert chat.

THE SILENT REALM IN MAJESTY

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (13 March 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 March 2016 with the title "Choral concert focuses on longing for spiritual peace".

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir, founded by conductor Lim Yau, is now in its 22^nd year. The choir's greatest strength lies in its programming of concerts with specific themes. This concert of German a cappella choral music, guest-conducted by Manfred Schreier from the Freiburg Hochschule fur Musik, was centred on man's longing for spiritual peace.

Opening the afternoon was Hungarian Zoltan Kodaly's Jesus und die Krämer (Jesus and the Traders), a narration of Christ's display of righteous indignation at the Temple of Jerusalem. After an opening fanfare, massed voices and a fugue represented the hubbub of commerce that had defiled the holy place. The repeated chant of “Gottloss” (Godless) was the serious warning which Jesus issued to all present, essentially a call for repentence.

The choir then settled into two songs by Josef Rheinberger, the soft cushioned harmonies of Abendlied (Evensong) and Ich liebe, weil erhöret der Herr (I Love the Lord, because He hath heard), both of which provided a calming sense of solace. The choir's sensitivity to words and music made these sound totally convincing.

Genesis, Clytus Gottwald's choral arrangement of the orchestral prelude to Haydn's The Creation, known as TheRepresentation of Chaos, with words by Moses Mendelssohn based on the Torah, then taxed the 26-strong ensemble. A deliberate absence of melodic line and unstable tonal centres were to throw off any semblance of order. Were the singers in pitch and in sync, or not? Or was that the general idea of the work that closed calmly in C minor?

A better depiction of heavenly bliss than Finn Jaako Mantyjärvi's Die Stimme des Kindes (The Voice of the Child) would be hard to find. Over a gently rocking rhythm, the music portrayed the sleep of innocents with hosts of angels, before melting into a soft peal of bells. This aural balm continued into Gottwald's transcription of Mahler's Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the World) from the Ruckert-Liedersong cycle.

Was this an improvement over the original for solo voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment? It certainly sounded more fussy, with voices sharing both solo part and orchestral details, which included a mellifluous soprano line that soared towards the celestial realm.

There were two Bach transcriptions, beginning with Knut Nystedt's revisionist look at the well-known chorale Komm, Susser Tod (Come, Sweet Death) which had eight singers planted in the stalls. The antiphonal bending of pitches and off-phase entries provided a brief haunting sense of disorientation, with order restored in Dieter Schnebel's more conventional transcription of Contrapunctus I from The Art of Fugue.

Completing each half of the concert were Hugo Wolf's Sechs Geistliche Lieder (6 Sacred Songs) and Johannes Brahms' late Fünf Gesänge (5 Songs). The first probed man's uneasy quest for solace, where Eichendorff's words Herrlich ein im Stillen Reich (Silent Realm In Majesty) provided the concert's title. The second was an autumnal reflection at the end of life's journey, one rewarded with eternal peace. The choir's response was one of quiet rejoicing and radiant equanimity, and given their demanding programme, also for a job well done.

Manfred Schreier receives his applause.

Two Sibelius aficionados meet:
Lim Yau, Singapore's foremost Sibelius conductor
with Erik T.Tawaststjerna, Head of Piano
at Helsinki's Sibelius Academy and son of
Erik Tawaststjerna, Sibelius' biographer.

PARTY OF FIVE

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Sunday (13 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 March 2016 with the title "A close-knit quintet impresses".

After the superlative showing by cellist Qin Li-Wei and pianist Bernard Lanskey in their recital just a week ago, this concert by five other conservatory professors and heads of department was a follow-up of sorts. It was in fact a celebration of the familiar adage, that a family that plays together stays together.

The combo of piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass is an unusual one, based loosely on what talents of a group of musical friends can throw up, rather than the conventional piano and string quartet configuration. The archetypal work was Franz Schubert's Piano Quintet in A, popularly known as the Trout Quintet, but a far more recent addition was Englishman Ralph Vaughan Williams'Piano Quintet in C minor, which opened the evening.

First performed in 1905, it was withdrawn by the composer but permission was given by his estate for a revival in 1999. The influence of Brahms informs the richly-textured first movement, with Albert Tiu obliged to play big piano chords, while melodies for Zhang Manchin's viola and Ng Pei-Sian's cello ensured the music be dabbed with darker hues.

If one sought RVW's trademark folksong pastoralism, the wait would be a long one. His choral-arrangement skills could however be found in the piano solo for the slow movement, which gave way to fluid lyricism in the strings led by Zuo Jun's violin, supported by Guennadi's Mouzyka's double-bass.

After a reverie-like wallow with sedate tempos, the variations on a folksong-like theme in the finale perked things up before concluding in a quiet calm. A fascinating if not great or representative work, the five players made it sound better than it actually is.

Schubert's Trout Quintet was first heard at intimate Viennese house soirees (or Schubertiades), but only published after his death. Now his most popular chamber work, one wonders what he would have thought of it being performed in front of large concert-hall audiences.

Regardless of who is listening, the closely-knit work of five musicians remains key. Despite the piano having the biggest part, it was difficult to see who was the obvious leader here. Nonetheless the team worked well together, with the sonata-form 1st movement setting the tone. This was an energised and brisk performance, even if the 2nd movement displayed stretches of gemutlichkeit, or the state of being carefree.

The leading chords of the Scherzo were punched out with purpose, as homespun rusticity took precedence over politeness. And if there were concessions to virtuoso playing, that would be in the 4^th movement's Theme and Variations, based on Schubert's lied Die Forelle (The Trout, hence the nickname). Tiu was kept ever busy, while his string partners tooks turns to sing out its jaunty and catchy melody.

There was good reason to perform Schubert last, simply because the feel-good factor encompassed the entire work. Even if the party of five had performed close to 75 minutes of music, there was no sense of fatigue as the Allegro giusto finale romped to a joyous conclusion.

MUSIC DIARIES

LOW SHAO SUAN &

LOW SHAO YING et al

Nightberry 4260157020160 / ****1/2

The Low twins, Shao Suan and Shao Ying, are Singapore's premier piano duo, having performed Saint-Saens'Carnival Of The Animals the most times with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in its history. They are also composers of popular music including Mandopop songs and light concert music, the variety that usually accompanies animated movies and Asian romantic comedies. Think Joe Hisaishi or Ennio Morricone, and one is not far off the mark.

This 70-minute anthology comprises wholly instrumental pieces, pleasing and likeable miniatures that are undemanding to the ears. The longest is the breezy 4-movement On Vacation by Ying, performed with freshness and clarity by the T'ang Quartet.

Their style is unpretentious and eclectic, and it is a fun pastime to spot the influences. Ying's Crossroadsfor four cellos conjures the bittersweet mood of Cinema Paradiso, and being French-schooled, her Valse De Printemps for two pianos could have come from the pen of Poulenc or Satie. Suan's Against All Odds for bassoon, vibraphone and piano is a clear tribute to Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo Alla Turk, while Springtime In Munich is a quasi-Alpine romp in fast ländler rhythm.

There is only one joint effort, Souvenir De Paris for two pianos, which captures the city's eternal lights by way of a quote from Bach's Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring. The sisters accompany an impressive list of local musicians in their own pieces, and the recorded performances are excellent.

GOTTLIEB WALLISCH Piano Recital

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Tuesday (15 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 March 2016

Austro-German compositions are the cornerstone of Western music, especially in the development of classical forms like the sonata, symphony and concerto. Its keyboard music is also an essential part of the repertoire, as amply demonstrated in the recital by Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch.

Where would we be without Beethoven? His early Sonata in B flat major (Op.22) opened the evening with a short flurry and resounding chords. Pianists often refer to this as his “little” B flat sonata, distinguishing it from the later and monumental Hammerklavier Sonata (Op.106), but there was little to suggest that in Wallisch's approach.

He crafted a big-boned and sonorous timbre, as the 1^st movement was symphonic in scope, filled with bold and brassy effects. Yet this was not one of those loud single-dimensional readings, but filled with nuances and shadings in every phrase. The slow movement sang out like a lied, followed by the folksy Minuet of the 3^rdmovement, which had its own stormy central section. The finale's melody flowed unabated yet built up to a tempestuous high. Such abrupt dynamic upheavals are par for the course for Beethoven.

More diminutive in scope were his Bagatelles, the late Op.126 set of six being best examples of the German composer as a miniaturist. Each piece was varied in mood and colour, which Wallisch brought out with much care and detail. The contrasts between the chorale-like harmonies of No.3 and the roughhouse rumbles of No.4 were marked, the latter with its own interlude filled with bagpipe effects and hurdy-gurdy drones.

The musical and spiritual kinships between Beethoven's Bagatelles and Schubert's Musical Moments are plain to see, but those could also be extended to the Austrian's Impromptus, which are slightly more extended essays on similar pithy ideas.

Wallisch brought a sense of freshness to the Four Impromptus Op.142, arguably the more technically demanding of two sets. His playing is of a cultivated kind, melding Viennese decorum with song-like countenance. The crossing over of hands in No.1, creating two separate voices, was like an intimate conversation between two lovers. Ice and hearts melted in the hymn-like chords of No.2, its familiar melody being one of Schubert's finest.

Fond memories of Salzburg's Hagen Quartet (which performed at this same venue exactly two weeks ago) returned in the Theme and Variations of No.3, based on the lovely entr'acte from Rosamunde. Far more difficult than it sounds, Wallisch made light of its tricky challenges, and this thread of virtuosity continued into the Hungarian-flavoured No.4, filled with repetitive rhythmic figurations and difficult scales.

That is what all those boring student exercises were for, and it was a pity that this excellent recital of how Viennese classics ought to be performed was not swamped with exam-obsessed piano students and their teachers. Wallisch's encore was Liszt's soulful transcription of Schubert's achingly beautiful Der Müller und der Bach from the song-cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. More exalted musicianship of this kind would be hard to find.

Every two years, the National Arts Council (NAC) holds a Thank You Dinner for the members of its multiple arts resource and advisory committees. I have sat on several of these, the longest being the committee for the National Piano and Violin Competition. The stand-up dinner was held at the Gilman Arts Hub, well-known for its many art galleries, which had recently received some stick for its relevance in local art consumption scene.

Nevertheless, the NAC has done much work and dished out much lucre for the many arts groups in Singapore over the years, without which our arts scene would be in a much poorer state. My personal stand has been that Western opera has not been helped enough, and our three local opera companies are barely scraping to produce one major production a year. That is something which our nation - and the powers that be - should address.

Anyway, here are some photos to see who turned up for dinner this year:

A night time view of Gilman's Block 7.

NAC Chairman Prof Chan Heng Chee
gave a short speech so that people could
get to the chow pretty quick.

Expat composers now naturalised:
Robert Casteels & Eric Watson

Conductor Joshua Kangming Tan
with jazz pianist supremo Jeremy Monteiro.

Elaine Ng (NAC) & Andrea Teo (Former MediaCorp
and now Resorts World)

Pianomaniac with Grace Ng (NAC) &
Terence Ho (CEO, Singapore Chiense Orchestra)

A cappella group Vocaluptuous
was invited to provide the evening's entertainment.

Quek Yeng Yeng (NAC) &
Julie Tan (President, Singapore Music Teachers Association)

Rebecca Li (NAC) & Kon Mei Leen
(Former Principal, Methodist Girls School)

Fancy being asked to add to the graffiti!

NAC staffers mug for a photo.

SSO CONCERT: LENINGRAD SYMPHONY / Review

LAND WITH NO SUN II: DANCE OF THE EARTH / TO Ensemble / Review

DOHNANYI & SHOSTAKOVICH / VCH Chamber Series / Review

CONCERTO, CONCERTO! / The Chamber Players / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2016)

HAGEN QUARTET Recital / Review

ERIK T. TAWASTSTJERNA Piano Recital / Review

TRANSFIGURED NIGHT / NAFA Project Strings / Review

RECITAL by QIN LI-WEI & BERNARD LANSKEY / Review

DAZZLING STRINGS / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2016)

DON'T MISS THIS CHORAL SPECTACULAR: THE PHILHARMONIC CHAMBER CHOIR in THE SILENT REALM IN MAJESTY

DREAMS AND MIRAGES / ROBERTO ALVAREZ and Friends / Review

A NIGHT OF CABARET / NAFA Vocal Studies / Review

BEETHOVEN LAST YEARS / Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series / Review

THE SILENT REALM IN MAJESTY / The Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Review

PARTY OF FIVE / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Faculty Concert / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2016)

GOTTLIEB WALLISCH Piano Recital / Review

Photographs from NATIONAL ARTS COUNCIL'S THANK YOU DINNER 2016