pianomania

IVO POGORELICH

Complete Recordings

Deutsche Grammophon 479 4350 (14CDs) / ****

It has been 36 years since the Belgrade-born pianist Ivo Pogorelich burst onto the scene after being eliminated in the semi-finals of the 1980 Chopin International Piano Competition.

Martha Argerich's famous walkout from the jury sealed his notoriety, which was further fuelled by his unconventional attire and provocative interpretations. He made 14 albums for the German yellow label from 1981 to 1995, all of which have been reissued here. A given with uncommon and unpredictable genius, his playing ranged from transcendental to outright perversity.

Begin with his “brave new world” debut all-Chopin recital, which includes a brisk, angular and unsentimental Second Sonata “Funeral March”. A must-listen is his Ravel Gaspard de la nuit, one of the best versions ever committed to disc, coupled with a blistering account of Prokofiev's Sixth Sonata, and excitable takes on Bach’s Secondand Third English Suites.

The downsides include an auto mechanic's view of Beethoven's last Sonata Op.111, a bloated Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, and a constipated Brahms recital. Also, how could anyone possibly make Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales sound this ponderous? In between there are illuminating views of Scarlatti, Haydn and more Chopin, which sound quirky at first but grows on one's further listening. Never boring for a second, here is an original from first to last.

PETER AND THE WOLF IN HOLLYWOOD

ALICE COOPER (Narrator)

National Youth Orchestra of Germany

Alexander Shelley (Conductor)

Deutsche Grammophon 479 4888 / ****1/2

In an effort to update Sergei Prokofiev's 1930s children's musical adventure to the present day, the American creative team of Giants Are Small have crafted a prequel set in Los Angeles of the 21^stcentury. Peter is an orphaned Russian boy who moves to America to live with his hippie grandfather who is a gardener in a once-famous actor's Beverly Hills mansion. A wolf escapes from the zoo, gobbles down a school of ducks and sets Peter on his big game hunt.

The prequel takes up half the disc and includes a redundant episode where Peter builds a giant robot for his quest which breaks down anyway. It contains no new music, instead cleverly splicing together music by Wagner, Elgar, Zemlinsky, Satie and others before seguing into Prokofiev's iconic score.

The narrator is rock icon Alice Cooper (of heavy metal Alice Cooper Band fame), who is engaging in an easy, avuncular manner, regularly dropping words like “dude” and “cool”. The hunters of the original story are replaced by camera-toting paparazzi, and there are also American-styled radio news commentaries.

The young German orchestra is excellent and this version can be safely recommended for children's enjoyment wherever one comes from.

XPERIENZ: IN C

Asian Contemporary Ensemble

University Cultural Centre Dance Studio

Friday (25 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 March 2016 with the title "Unusual experience of minimalist music".

The Asian Contemporary Ensemble (ACE) founded by young conductor Wong Kah Chun surprised once again, and in ways which one least expected. Its latest concert coupled Beethoven's evergreen Fifth Symphony with the Singaporean premiere of American minimalist Terry Riley's seminal score In C, in performances which confounded expectations and pre-conceived ideas.

The Dance Studio at UCC is a very small space, which meant that the audience numbering about 100 was seated within the orchestra's ranks. This closeness must have been unnerving for performer and listener, but within a friendly milieu of sharing space and feedback, both parties soon got used to each other.

Conductor Wong, informally attired in polo shirt and denim jeans, introduced the various instrumental groups to the audience and also briefly spoke about Beethoven's orchestration between the movements. Without further fanfare, the Beethoven symphony got underway with the familiar “da-da-da-dum” motif.

Shorn of opulence or bombast, the composer's ideas were laid bare on a plate. One soon discerned how he brought the disparate parts together, in consonance and dissonance. Just four each of first and second violins, three violas, two cellos, two basses and the minimum complement of winds, brass and percussion, meant that the sound was not going to be rich or fulsome.

That was not the idea in the first place, and depending on where one sat, the balance was also certain to be awry. However what the listener got was a truly organic feel of an overplayed masterpiece, and the power of raw emotions set into music. This pair of ears happened to be in the direct trajectory of the trio of trombones that announced themselves wholeheartedly in the finale, and shrill blast of the piccolo.

The Surround Sound effect worked better in Riley's 1964 classic that started an inexorable trend in musical minimalism. Its premise was both simple and primitive, a repeated rhythmic pattern of the C note over which various sequences from combinations of instruments could be grafted onto its unwavering linear structure.

The ensemble was further pared down, now led by percussionist Ramu Thiruyanam on the MalletKat Pro (an electronic xylophone) and drum, with significant contributions from cello and keyboard. Traditional instruments like guzheng, tabla, guitar and bamboo flute were added into the mix, and audience members armed with a single-paged score were encouraged to sing any of the 53 notated fragments during appropriate moments.

The result was a heady and serendipitous melange of sounds, dizzying and strangely hypnotic. Riley's work was in essence the basis of music itself, the very foundation upon which the sounds of African drumming and Javanese gamelan become possible. The Western forms of the canon, passacaglia, theme and variations and the more sophisticated fugue could all be derived from its basic pulse and momentum.

Every incarnation of In C would result in very different outcomes, and ACE'ss version which played for a good 37 minutes became a thrilling encounter with music at its most rudimentary grassroots. Little wonder that the many children in the audience sat quietly transfixed, clearly overawed by the experience. That is exactly how good music should move people.

Professor Ho Chee Kong was in the audience, and
took the opportunity for photos with the performers.

AN EVENING OF FIREWORKS

NORIKO OGAWA Piano Recital

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (26 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 March 2016 with the title "Piano playing that sparkles".

It has been 7 years since Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa last performed in Singapore, and 11 years since her solo recital in the 2005 Singapore International Piano Festival. She marked a welcome return to Victoria Concert Hall with a recital of familiar favourites.

Fireworks are not usually associated with Mozart's keyboard music, which were written for dainty and fragile instruments like the fortepiano. His audiences were more of the 18^th century drawing room variety rather those in vast concert halls, who would have been startled by sounds of a modern Steinway grand. Ogawa made no concessions for supposed authenticity by projecting a robust but crystal-clear sonority in Mozart's Sonata in A major K.331.

The opening Theme and Variationsmovement was crisply and lusciously articulated. While the central movement came across less like a courtly Minuet than an elaborately decorative study, it was the popular Rondo Alla Turca that romped home with a irrepressible gusto. Many students race through it with dizzying fingers but few understand its martial strides as Ogawa did.

More acute in colouring and tonal shadings was Ogawa's interpretations of Debussy, for which she is rightly renowned. In Images (Book I), the shimmering ripples of Reflets Dans L'Eau (Reflections In The Water) were down to her velvety touch and excellent control of pedalling. How the stately Hommage A Rameau (Homage To Rameau) rose to an impassioned climax and well-placed accents in the vertiginous Mouvement (Movement) all made for an indelibly memorable outing.

The Debussy set closed with a true showpiece in L'Isle Joyeuse (The Happy Island), bacchanalian evocation of a famous Watteau painting of unbridled hedonism. Her prodigious fingerwork and enraptured senses became one in a multiply-hued brush-stroked canvas which brought the first half to a scintillating close.

Taking the fireworks theme to heart in the all-Chopin second half, it was a parade of popular hits beginning with the Minute Waltz Op.64 No.1. How often does one hear this trifle in concert, or played with such precision yet carefree abandon? This was followed by the Grande Valse Brillante in B flat major (Op.18), more super-charged glitter in three-quarter time.

A rare moment for quiet reflection took place in the nocturne-like Andante Spianato, with smooth legatosinging lines. This was before trumpeting fanfares which led to the swashbuckling Grande Polonaise Brillante, where all stops were pulled to live up to its title. Ogawa's faultless pianism meant that nary a note was dropped and this imperious show continued into the final two warhorses.

The First Ballade Op.23 and Second Scherzo Op.31 are such regularly-heard pieces that they risk becoming hackneyed, but surely there were first-time listeners among the many young people who attended. They would have been treated to how these works ought to sound, for Ogawa's blend of passion and poetry with no punches pulled made them ring out eternally fresh.

Prolonged applause yielded two encores. The Paganini-Liszt La Campanella brought out yet another facet of fireworks, and the sublime Schumann Traumerei to conclude was a signal it was close to bedtime.

Noriko Ogawa meets her former student,
the Kuala Lumpur-based pianist Tomonari Tsuchiya.

A meeting of old friends:
Noriko with violists Jiri Heger and Lionel Tan.

Boris Kraljevic, Jiri and the Pianomaniacs.

A FRENCH CONNECTION

Take 5 Piano Quintet

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (27 March 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 March 2016 with the title "Piano quintet has fun with diabolical diversion".

There was more than one French connection in this latest concert by Singapore's foremost piano quintet, Take 5. Firstly, all three French composers featured were much better-known as organists than pianists. Secondly, Camille Saint-Saëns was a teacher of Charles-Marie Widor, who in turn taught Olivier Messiaen. Thirdly, all the three works performed were receiving local premieres.

Saint-Saëns'Piano Quintet in A minor (1855), a conscientious work of a youngster, is virtually unknown for good reason: it is an awfully boring piece. More academic exercise than something truly inspired, its four movements seemed to tick off the boxes of technical accomplishments which all composition students strive for.

Piano chords and filigree from Lim Yan dominated the 1st movement, while a prayer-like slow movement presented Chan Yoong Han's viola and Chan Wei Shing's cello with some melodic interest. The Presto 3^rd movement gave the pianist frantic runs up and down the keyboard while the finale had the obligatory fugue, as inevitable as some tiresome graduation speech.

The quintet completed by violinists Foo Say Ming and Lim Shue Churn, were as expected, good servants to this pleasant and innocuous music, making the best case as they possibly could. The first half concluded with a little sting in its tale: Messiaen's unpretentiously titled Piece for Piano & String Quartet (1991).

Its pungent 4 minutes said far more than what Saint-Saëns accomplished in an entire half-hour. Four incisively-driven notes on strings were ear-catching, ushering in the purposeful dissonance of Lim's piano mimicry of birdsong, in this case the garden warbler (fauvette des jardins). Even before the ears could come to grips with its rarefied idiom, the same four notes emphatically ended the piece.

For those imagining Widor's Second Piano Quintet in D major (1894) to be much like his organ music, notably that Toccata of countless wedding services, they would be pleasantly surprised. His idiom is decidedly darker here, more aligned to the Cesar Franck and Richard Wagner axis.

The chromatic language in the opening movement occasionally lapsed into moments of lyricism and levity which were refreshing. There was even a short final flourish at the movement's end for violinist Foo to relive his re:mix ringmaster act as leading showman. Bare piano octaves heralded the 2^nd movement's passacaglia, which for all its austerity led to a heartwarming climax of rare beauty.

Short and exciting, the scherzo-like 3^rdmovement swept past like something out of The Flying Dutchman, filled with searing dissonances and malevolent intent. One suspects the players had the most fun with this diabolical diversion, somewhat reluctantly reverting to a more casual and lighter stance for the finale.

Themes from the 1^st movement were rehashed, but this time a salon-like charm took precedence, with some rhapsodic musing before a grandstanding close. Having clearly appreciated the experience, the audience applauded long after the quintet had taken its last bows, packed up and gone home.

7^TH LUCIEN WANG PIANO COMPETITION

Lee Foundation Theatre

Wednesday (30 March 2016)

It is to my discredit that I had missed attending the annual Lucien Wang Piano Competition for all these years, until this time around. The competition serves as a platform for piano students of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, and was named in memory of Lucien Wang, one of Singaporemost prominent piano teachers.

Lucien Wang (1909-2007), who was originally from Canton, served as a vital link between generations of Singaporean pianists and the French piano school. During the 1930s, she had studied with Alfred Cortot and Nicholas Tcherepnin in Paris, before settling in Singapore. She was widowed when her husband was murdered by the Japanese during their occupation of Singaporein 1942. She devoted her entire life to the teaching of the piano and lively humbly in an apartment on Loke Yew Street, off Armenian Street. Her prominent students included the late Ong Lip Tat, and the very much alive Benjamin Loh, Lim Jing Jing and many others.

There was very little publicity for this event, and the audience was a tiny one. I had hoped the organisers had written something about Lucien Wang in the programme leaflet, so as to initiate the listeners (and young pianists themselves) to the uncommonly rich heritage she had bestowed to Singapore. Also, piano students of all levels (including the NAFA School of Young Talents) could have been invited or coerced to attend, which would have made it less of a low key affair.

There were 14 candidates for this year’s competition, of which 5 were selected to perform in the final round. Each pianist had to play up to 20 minutes of solo repertoire, and was judged by a panel formed by Lim Yau (Dean of NAFA’s school of music) and Japanese concert pianist Noriko Ogawa.

The first to perform was Liu Qingqing who offered Schubert’s Sonata in A minor (D.537). She gave a technically accurate account of its three movements but kept within a rather limited dynamic range. Sounding brittle and clipped in her phrasing, the lack of aural allure and singing tone diminished the reading. The central movement in E major, which was later reworked in the finale of the great A major Sonata (D.959), came across as perfunctory. She sounded the best in the finale, which suggests a much better future performance is a real possibility.

The decision of Andren Koh to play piecesof Godowsky and Scriabin, both late Romantics, seemed unnecessarily narrow in the choice of repertoire. Nevertheless The Gardens of Buitenzorgfrom the former’s Java Suite was beautifully performed, with very well-phrased legato lines and excellent pedalling. The latter’s Fantasie Op.28 had colour and nuance, building up to a big chordal climax. Only a small lapse towards the end blotted his copybook somewhat.

Chio Jia Le gave the most varied and interesting programme but one wished he had been better prepared. Beethoven’s Sonata in F sharp major Op.78 is far more difficult than it sounds or its two short movements suggest. His articulation was good in parts but the phrasing was prosaic, and a major lapse in the second movement did this reading in. Brahms’s playful Capriccio in B minor (Op.76 No.2) was an absolutely wrong piece for him given his plodding and cheerless reading, but the Prokofiev Suggestion Diabolique (Op.4 No.4) was more of his kind of thing. By this time, one wondered what the point of it all was.

Soh Wei Qi gave a most spirited account of the 1^stmovement of Mozart’s Sonata in C minor (K.457), full of robust stürm und drang and symphonic bluster, a portrait of rude health. This big-boned playing continued into Chopin’s Scherzo No.1 in B minor (Op.20) where its crashing chords and prestidigitation were well served. He was unafraid of mixing it in, however the slow central section based on a Polish cradle song should have been sung in a less matter of fact manner.

Donald Law was the most confident of the five finalists and his playing showed it. The 1^st movement of Beethoven’s Sonata in A flat major (Op.110) revealed playing of real stature, a warm sound, singing tone and meticulously crafted filigree. This was likely the most satisfying performance of the whole evening. His view of Debussy’s La plus que lent, the “slower than slow” waltz, is still unformed. He has not decided how to spread his rubato about, and was not helped by a stilted approach and several unintentional blues notes. York Bowen’s Toccata provided the final tour de force, in a breathless reading that closed the evening on a real high.

Donald Law receiving the First Prize
certificate from Maestro Lim Yau.

Personally I would not have awarded a First Prize, in a hope that the young piano continue to better themselves through inspired study, industrious application, and that axiom on how to get to Carnegie Hall: Practise, Practise and Practise. The judges were in a generous mood, awarding 2^ndprize to Andren Koh and 1^stprize to Donald Law. Hopefully this will spur them (and the others) on to further artistic heights. I am certain the spirit of Lucien Wang would have looked on fondly and lovingly.

Guest judge Noriko Ogawa spoke breifly
and encouragingly to all the finalists.

All the pianists, their teachers and judges.

GODOWSKY Walzermasken

KONSTANTIN SCHERBAKOV, Piano

Marco Polo 8.225276 / *****

The Polish-American virtuoso pianist Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938) is best remembered for his outlandishly contrapuntal rearrangements of Chopin's Etudes and various outrageous piano transcriptions, but his original music has been much neglected. Walzermasker(Waltz Masks) is a cycle of 24 pieces in three-quarter rhythm composed in 1912, essentially waltzes in elaborate costumes and disguises.

The tradition of waltz-cycles is not new, and Godowsky does let one in on his secrets. Each piece is teasingly titled (such as Momento Capriccioso, Valse Macabre and Orientale) and there are tributes to Schumann (the ecstatic opening is reminiscent of his Carnaval), Schubert (lilting and rustic), Brahms (jaunty and vigorous), Chopin (lyrical and coy), Liszt (naturally virtuosic) before closing with Johann Strauss II (with Viennese voluptuosness).

As if one were not done with waltzes, the album closes with Godowsky's Symphonic Metamorphosis on Johann Strauss' Artists Life, another of those seemingly unplayable paraphrases. Siberia-born super-virtuoso Konstantin Scherbakov makes light work of its digital excesses, and that is how it is supposed to sound: complex yet seemingly effortless.

FAURÉ Violin Sonata No.1

R.STRAUSS Violin Sonata

ITZHAK PERLMAN, Violin

EMANUEL AX, Piano

Deutsche Grammophon 481 17741 / *****

It is hard to believe that the celebrated Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman is now 70. A long-awaited return to the recording studio yields this lovely coupling of lyrical violin sonatas from the late Romantic period. His much-beloved sweet and singing violin tone is gloriously intact, undiminished by the intervening years. This is immediately apparent in the soaring opening melody of Frenchman Gabriel Fauré's First Violin Sonata in A major (1875), which is reciprocated by partner Emanuel Ax in the intricate and immensely taxing piano part.

A wide-eyed sense of fantasy occupies its four movements, which will touch even the most jaded of listeners. This same exalted state continues into Richard Strauss' early Violin Sonata in E flat major (1887), with its succession of flowing melodies finds the most sympathetic of interpretations. Has the slow movement, entitled Improvisation, sounded this beguiling or beautiful? Perlman and Ax are peerless in this repertoire, and this album is a welcome addition into an already crowded field of excellent recordings.

EROICA

Singapore

Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (1 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 April 2016 with the title "Strings shine in musical picture postcard".

Felix Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overturemight just be the best example of a musical picture postcard. It records his impressions of Fingal's Cave, a geographical phenomenon of basalt pillars amid crashing waves off Scotland's remote Staffa island. That the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by its Principal Guest Conductor Okko Kamu took a leisurely view to its opening came as a surprise.

Theirs was a vista of a calm sea with more than a hint of the sun, given its gently lapping rhythm. The strings shone with the geniality of a warm English summer, and it seemed a long while coming before a windswept spray arrived, and it did so with a welcome surge in pulse and volume.

If Mendelssohn was a portrait of politeness, Sergei Prokofiev struck like a serpent baring fangs in his iconoclastic Second Piano Concerto in G minor. This has become the signature piece of young piano virtuosos willing to hyperflex their muscles and raise the roof. Even among overwrought performances which are a norm, Hong Kong-born Chiyan Wong's account stood out for being vastly different and often revisionist.

How he stressed and stretched the opening movement's slow tempos, peppering it with ear-catching accents at unexpected places and dragging out the massive cadenza to almost eternity was certain to perk one up. His quickfire reflexes in the machine-gun-like Scherzo -concluded within all of two minutes - was almost a given. The rambunctious Intermezzoand tempestuous Finale gave him much opportunity to redefine the meaning of the word “grotesque”.

One suspects the enfant terrible in Prokofiev would not have minded at all. With excellent accounts on disc by youngsters Yuja Wang, Kirill Gerstein and Beatrice Rana available for reference, Wong is very much his own man with many things valid to say. His encore, Liszt's late and bleak Nuages Gris (Grey Clouds) – also in G minor – and the very antithesis of the concerto, was also proof of unique thought processes at work.

More conventional was conductor Kamu's expansive leadership in Beethoven's Third Symphony, popularly known as the Eroica Symphony, yet it was anything but run of the mill. Two vehemently registered E major chords rang out his intent, and the life and death struggle of the 1^st movement unfolded with a magisterial directness.

The Funeral March slow movement meandered within its longeurs, coming across as stately and not doom-laden. Principal oboist Rachel Walker's fine solos lit up this sombre preocession, and patience was rewarded with a very personal view of tragedy, unfurling itself at the impassioned climax.

The rollicking Scherzo 3^rdmovement skipped with a litheness that was disarming, but the best part was the French horn trio of Han Chang Chou, Marc-Antoine Robillard and Alan Kartik whose whooping triads leapt up unabashedly to steal the show. The finale's variations on a quirky theme from The Creatures of Prometheus provided that welcome bit of rowdy humour. Beethoven was all blood and guts, but it was his human side that was most heartwarming, as this performance amply demonstrated.

HONESTLY! 3 OPERAS, ONE HOUR

L'arietta

10 Square, Orchard Central

Saturday (2 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 April 2016 with the title "Tapestry of life revealed in mini operas".

Say hello to L'arietta, Singapore's newest opera company. L'arietta, which means “little song” in Italian, was formed by local tenor Reuben Lai and Japanese soprano Akiko Otao to promote the niche genre of chamber opera. Both profess that opera is relevant to today's cultures and mores even in its most diminutive form, far removed from the grand spectacles of Wagner and Verdi. Its debut production showcased three such mini-operas in a single sitting, each refreshingly different and moving in their own way.

British composer Joseph Horovitz's The Gentleman's Island was a dark comedy about two stuffy Englishmen stranded on a desert island. They are initially distant because they have not been previously introduced, but readily bond when they know of a mutual friend Robinson. Jameson Soh's eloquent and effective stage direction had the gentleman marooned on separate wooden blocks but joined by a physical and metaphorical umbilical cord.

Tenor Lai and baritone Brent Allcock were excellent in their characterisations of self-consciousness and overriding pride. Their clear dulcet tones meant that the audience could catch their every single word and nuance. Even when rescue arrives in the form of Robinson, they reject him because he comes in a convict ship. The folly of death by pride is their ultimate comeuppance.

The second opera was Singaporean Chen Zhangyi's Window Shopping, about diametrically opposing reactions of two women when they enter a high-end shoe shop. Mezzo-soprano Angela Hodgins' older lady sings of regret and soured memories while soprano Otao's young waif is ecstatic on the choice of heels available to her.

Chen's score cleverly used a ground bass, which represented plodding footsteps people make when they go shopping, also symbolic of the trudges in life itself. While Hodgins' part was elegiac, Otao's was whimsical and jazzy. Ultimately both come to the realisation that life was not about acquiring assets (such as new shoes replacing old ones) but how to look after them.

The final opera brought back all four singers in Samuel Barber's A Hand of Bridge. What lurks in the minds of those who pit their wits in a game of small stakes? The scenario of failed marriages and dysfunctional characters revealing their innermost desires and fears were neatly encapsulated in four ariettas.

Angela longs for a hat of peacock feathers, while Reuben lusts after an extramarital affair. Akiko frets on her mother's frail health, and Brent craves for power and riches. Such is the flawed fabric and tapestry of life, where each individual has to come to terms with his or her own foibles and realities.

Accompanying this production was young pianist Wayne Teo, who more than coped with the disparate styles and complexities thrown at him. That the filled-to-capacity audience, with many children in attendance, sat in quiet and rapt attention throughout was ample testimony to the performers.

Clock watchers might like to note the durations of each opera: 28 minutes (Horovitz) + 21 minutes (Chen) + 10 minutes (Barber) = 59 minutes. Three operas in one hour? Mission accomplished.

SAMUEL TAN Violin Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Saturday (2 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 April 2016 with the title "Violin gem is only 10".

A little known fact: Singaporeans have had a good track record in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. Way back in the 1990s, a first prize was awarded to Kam Ning, who went on to win 2^nd prize at the even more prestigious Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition in 2002.

This year, Samuel Tan Yek Hee, a former Goh Soon Tioe Excellence Award laureate and youngest winner of Italy's Postacchini Competition, has the distinction of representing the nation at the Menuhin Competition to be held in England later this month.

His debut recital revealed a mastery of different styles and genres required in a competitor's repertoire. Beginning with the 1^st movement of J.S.Bach's Violin Concerto in E major (BWV.1042), he displayed a sure-fingered assuredness that immediately asserted an unnerving control on his listeners. It was not just an uncanny technical achievement that astounded, but his deft ability to acutely alter his dynamics to suit the music, as with the contrasting subjects in the 1^stmovement of Grieg's Violin Sonata No.1.

His mature restraint in the slow and noble music of Enesco's Ballade was also admirable, and when the time came to let it rip, he did so with the most enviable of ease. The unaccompanied Wieniawski Etude-Caprice in A minor, which just about tops any of Paganini's Caprices, was a case in point.

In Sarasate's popular Gypsy Airs, the freedom in which he ornamented the first air suggested he could improvise at will, an art more often associated with concert veterans. All sweetness in the lyrical second air, this turned into instant fireworks on a snap in the riproaring final air.

Graduating to more hallowed territory, his limpid singing tone in the 1^st movement of Beethoven's “Spring” Sonata (Op.24) reconfirmed that this was not some faceless play-by-numbers technician. Through all this, he was ably partnered by pianist Albert Lin, who did not allow himself to be overawed by the occasion.

Two string players, violinist Lee Huei Min and violist Marietta Ku, joined the party in two movements of Dvorak's folksy Terzetto (Op.74), where Tan showed he was able to take the lead and listen to his partners as well. Former child prodigy Lee, who is Tan's teacher, was all eyes on him and responding to all his non-verbal cues.

The final piece in the jigsaw was the entire Summer concerto from Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, arguably the most tempestuous segment, and one exhibiting the greatest dynamic range. Tan was now accompanied by eight string players of the Wolfgang Ensemble, whose combined volume did little to faze him. Instead, his instinctual and elemental approach to the music easily rose above the throng with a jaw-dropping aplomb.

In the centenary year of Lord Menuhin's birth, Singapore can be proud to have contributed a worthy successor to his illustrious musical legacy. All the above suggests this experienced pair of ears was hailing and raving about some special teenage conservatory-trained talent. Wrong. Samuel Tan is just ten years old. Go figure that one out.

FUN WITH MUSIC!

The Philharmonic Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (3 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 April 2016 with the title "Blown away by fun tunes".

Every arts group knows it is vital to build audiences and future supporters for its cause, which is why light music is often programmed with that aim in mind. Although this concert by The Philharmonic Winds was not billed as a young people's concert, it was attended by many families and children who knew that the titular “Fun” was not to be resisted.

Conducted by its founding artist director Robert Casteels, the 80-minute long afternoon concert opened with Eric Coates'London Bridge March, a rousing curtain-raiser that also introduced that master of Masters of Ceremonies, William Ledbetter, who played the role of circus ringmaster and agent provocateur as only he knows how. Following which, Michael Markowski's arrangement of Turkey In The Straw was so luxuriantly and jazzily orchestrated in the form of variations that the original melody was almost completed masked.

The first soloist to appear was 12-year-old Chen Xinyu, whose breathtaking pipa solo in the Chinese classic Ambush From All Sides (arranged by Ong Jiin Joo for wind orchestra) was literally a showstopper. There was a section when conductor Casteels stepped off the podium and the orchestra silenced as she evoked the raucous sounds of furious battle, later joined by shouts from the players.

Not to be outdone was clarinettist Ralph Emmanuel Lim in Adolf Schreiner's Immer Kleiner (Always Smaller), who had his instrument dissembled joint by joint until he was left with its mouthpiece. As the pitch got progressively higher, so did his playing get faster, capping off this virtuoso vehicle with a shrieking squeak.

Three percussionists. Dennis Sim, Yeow Ching Shiong and Sng Yiang Shan, then took centrestage in a hilariously choreographed version of Leroy Anderson's Sandpaper Ballet, where three pairs of sandpaper blocks jostled and scraped for their place in the spotlight. Judging from the delighted audience response, they were obviously rubbed the right way.

Sand artist Lawrence Koh gave a masterclass in his rare skill of projected animation, with a sequence of African motifs set to Robert Smith's Africa: Ceremony, Song And Ritual. Visions of tribal art, savannah flora and fauna miraculously surfaced to the strains of indigenous song and drumming.

The final soloist was Singapore Symphony Orchestra tuba player Hidehiro Fujita who proved that his ungainly instrument, the largest in the brass family, was anything but clumsy. The story of Three Billy Goats Gruff was narrated by Ledbetter to outlandish effects in Fredrik Hogberg's Trolltuba, a nifty act that was only exceeded by lots of horseplay and lung power in Vittorio Monti's Csardas, a work usually associated with the gypsy violin.

Shouts for an encore were rewarded with an elaborately dressed version of Do-Re-Mi from the musical The Sound Of Music, which prompted a clap-along and an avalanche of balloons that used to be de rigeuer at SSO's Christmas Concerts. It is another eight months till the Yuletide season, but The Philharmonic Winds was not going to deprive anybody of their quota of fun.

LISTENING TO TAIWAN

National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (3 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 April 2016 with the title "Dazzling musical treat ... with joyous finale".

The National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (NTSO), based in Taichung, is a proud ambassador of Taiwanese musical heritage. What else would explain the fact that four out of six works performed in its two-day Singapore tour were by Taiwanese composers. Conducted by its former Music Director Chien Wen-Pin, Taiwan's oldest orchestra (founded in 1945) gave an excellent account of its pedigree.

The evening opened rowdily with Chung Yiu-Kwong's Festive Celebration, originally a work for percussion but later arranged for wind band, and orchestra. Raucously rhythmic, drums and brass went on overdrive but retaining the essence of the popular Wild Dance Of Golden Snakesby Nie Er, who also composed the Chinese National Anthem, March Of The Volunteers.

Putting politics aside, this was a impressive display of orchestral cohesion in a frenetic piece of music, but this soon cooled down for Tyzen Hsiao's Violin Concerto in D major with Tseng Yu-Chien (1^st Prizewinner of the 1^st Singapore International Violin Competition in 2015) as soloist. Composed in the late 1980s and premiered by Lin Cho-Liang, it hardly sounds more modern than anything written a century before.

Hsiao's idiom is unapologetically Romantic, using melodies of faintly Chinese countenance and minimal pentatonics. Lovers of concertos by Bruch, Glazunov and Wieniawski would have much to enjoy here, not least in the virtuosic 1^st movement cadenza and movie music-like slow movement.

The busy finale owes much to the corresponding movement of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto and a brief but curious episode pairing violin and solo harp which reminded one of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Tseng's expressive and virtuoso qualities provided a prime outing for the work, and the string wallow continued in his encore, the slow movement from Bach's Unaccompanied Second Sonata.

Further proof of the orchestra's prowess came in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, with an unfussed and breezy account. The 1^st movement's slow introduction was arresting in its delivery, paving the way for the unbridled vigour of the ensuing Vivace. A full-bodied sonority filled the hall, dominated by lushness in the strings, and the taut pacing of the symphony carried through its four movements.

Without a true slow movement, the Allegrettoserved as a surrogate by being only less brisk. Its variations and fugue were very clearly rolled out and there was to be no lingering about. Quick reflexes and pin-point accuracy accounted for the bounding dance of the 3^rdmovement's Presto, while all stops were pulled for the joyous finale.

Deemed the “apotheosis of the dance”, there was no way one could take that too literally unless seriously punch-drunk. The furious pace was upped, and then some more; the orchestra responded brilliantly, with a vivid incisiveness matching Chien's unerringly exacting beat.

This life-affirming account was heartily received, garnering a standing ovation from segments of the audience. The encore was a Taiwanese cradle song, sumptuously arranged for strings, providing a fitting send-off by a gleaming gem of an orchestra.

RACHMANINOV & CHOPIN

Cello Sonatas

ALISA WEILERSTEIN, Cello

INON BARNATAN, Piano

Decca 478 8416 / *****

Here are two cello sonatas written by composers whose main instrument was the piano, and both are coincidentally in the key of G minor. Rachmaninov's sonata (composed in 1901) is the better known, written at around the same time as his Second Piano Concerto and Second Suite for two pianos, which share a wealth of melody and luscious harmonies.

Chopin's sonata (1847) was his last published work, filled with mellowness and a rich vein of lyricism. Both are in 4 movements, including achingly beautiful slow movements which have become hits in their own right.

American cellist Alisa Weilerstein coaxes a luxuriant and gorgeous tone, complemented by Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan's virtuosic yet sensitive partnership. The fill-ups are also well-chosen. Rachmaninov's mellifluous Vocalise is soulfully rendered.

A transcription by Auguste Franchomme (Chopin's close friend and favourite cellist) of the Etude in C sharp minor (Op.25 No.7), which sometimes carries the nickname “Cello”, seems like a natural choice. Finally, Chopin's early Introduction & Polonaise Brillante (Op.3) closes the recital in a blaze of fireworks. Here are 81 minutes of hugely enjoying listening.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

TAMSIN WALEY-COHEN, Violin

HUW WATKINS, Piano

Champs Hill 059 / ****1/2

The 1920s ushered in a new era of music in which European composers readily embraced the influence of music from the New World, namely African-American jazz. This interesting anthology by young British violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen explores both sides of the Atlantic, American composers making their mark in this home-grown musical language and French composers intoxicated by the blues and syncopated rhythms.

The two main works are the Violin Sonatas of Francis Poulenc (1943) and Maurice Ravel (1927). Poulenc's bittersweet idiom was in this instance inspired by the murder of poet Federico Garcia Lorca during the Spanish Civil War, while Ravel's includes a toe-tapping Blues as its slow movement.

The Americans are represented by Charles Ives and George Gershwin. Ives'Decoration Day was a movement from his Holidays Symphony, where distant memories of old band tunes were being reheard through the prism of time.

Six popular songs from Gershwin's Afro-American folk opera Porgy And Bess benefit from Jascha Heifetz's slick arrangements, and the rarity is Heifetz's last transcription, a 6-minute distillation of tunes from An American In Paris (and completed by his Indonesia-born assistant Ayke Agus), which seems all too short. The performances here are marked by an infectious vitality, and deserve repeated listening.

MOZART AND SHOSTAKOVICH

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (5 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 7 April 2016 with the title "Irrepressible and unflinching playing".

It was a peculiar sight to behold conductor Shui Lan on the podium conducting an ensemble that is not the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. However it is totally natural for a Music Director of a national orchestra to be invited to conduct the orchestra of a national music conservatory. This first-time marriage of roles turned out to be a total treat.

In Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major (K.364), the soloists were the conservatory's heads of string faculties, namely violinist Qian Zhou and violist Zhang Manchin. Instead of waiting their turn, they joined their students in tutti sections as members of the orchestral body itself. And when it came to their turn, their unison entry soared above the throng.

For much of the score, Qian's violin had the leading voice, which was answered by Zhang's viola. However this was a duet of equals, not a duel, and they melded as one harmonious whole. Fitting like hand-in-glove, the tandem lit up the work from the intricate 1^st movement cadenza, through the melancholic Andante (one of Mozart's most heartrending melodies) to the ebullient Presto finale.

The orchestra under firm Shui's guiding hand provided unobstrusive support, the strings shining with timely interjections from pairs of oboes and French horns. This was ultimately chamber music, and when far larger forces congregated for Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony, the orchestra's full might became evident.

The opening's quiet subterranean rumbling from cellos and basses was very well handled, conjuring an atmosphere of ominous foreboding and dread. This was to escalate, with layer by layer of grief sewn into the seams, before the ultimate gnashing of teeth which took some time in coming. Solo clarinet, flute and bassoon were excellent, and while the brass had shaky moments in its chorale, there was no denying their commitment.

The slashing Scherzo, a portrait of Stalin that could only be revealed after his death, was well characterised – all malevolence and spewing vitriol. The enigmatic Allegretto that followed, filled with cryptic clues and insider messages, was delivered with irony. Shostakovich's own initials, the recurrent motif D-E flat-C-B and an obsessive French horn call (representing some secret lover and sounded 12 times to perfection) made this droll movement all the more personal.

The best was reserved for the finale, where solo instrumental prowess and communal forces played to their strengths. A sinuous quasi-oriental oboe solo, later joined by flute and piccolo, underpinned the movement's wry humour and ambiguously victorious rally. Miss a cue or exhibit less than precise timing, the joke would be lost, thus the players responded magnificently to conductor Shui's energetic beat wielded at a blinding pace.

Did the music display an in-your-face triumph upon the demise of a much-hated autocrat, or was it merely celebrating a moment's respite before the next dictator takes over? It was difficult to say, but the playing was irrepressible and unflinching to the very end, prompting a loud outburst of applause and cheers.

Post-concert reception:
Cellist Ng Pei-Sian, Conductor Adrian Chiang,
Ms Tang I Shyan, Prof Craig de Wilde
& Prof Ho Chee Kong (L to R)

TRADITIONAL MODERNITY

NanyangAcademy of Fine Arts

Chinese Orchestra

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (7 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 April 2016

The oxymoron in the title of this concert by the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Chinese Orchestra arises from the fact that Chinese orchestras of today do not just perform the classics. They have to adapt to performing new music and non-Chinese compositions. This versatility has enabled an ancient art to survive, thrive and remain relevant to today's audiences.

The concert's first half, conducted by Moses Gay, opened with two jazzy numbers. Law Wai Lun's Old Shanghai was specially composed as the prelude to music for the 1930s silent movie The Goddess starring the tragically short-lived Ruan Lingyu. Infectiously rhythmic winds were the highlight, contrasted with the rigourous beat of percussion that dominated Law and Tan Kah Yong's more sultry arrangement of One Night in Beijing.

Three familiar American numbers allowed the orchestra to relive the “big band” era. Eric Watson's arrangement of Gershwin's Strike Up The Band unfortunately saw the melody submerged beneath an overzealous march rhythm, but it got better for Law's arrangement of W.C.Handy's St Louis Blues with a piano part added, and the more relaxed trot of Leroy Anderson's Horse and Buggy, arranged by Sim Boon Yew.

The big work was an abridged version of Law's The Celestial Web, with confident drama students Lei Jian and Kang Ying Yu narrating poetry by Cultural Medallion recipient Tan Swie Hian, with subject matter relating to the goddesses Vasumitra and Gaia, brotherhood of man and the eternal cosmos. The recitations were crisply delivered amid celebratory music, and only non-Sinophones need fret about the absence of English translations.

The second half was conducted Quek Ling Kiong, who exuded the same exuberant energy as Yeo Puay Hian's Hard Rock 2002, which basked in a drum set and electric bass. He also introduced the familiar strains of Watson's Mahjong Kakis, a most congenial original work about friends indulging in a favourite pastime which evoked no little memories of 1980s television series themes.

Almost an overdose of nostalgia arrived in Sim's arrangement of Jim Lim's music for the short film Xiao Zhi Tiao(Little Note) by Royston Tan. The orchestra accompanied a screening of the movie about the mutual love of mother and child through the years, a tearjerker that invariably gets viewers clutching onto their Kleenex.

This concert of variety closed with Wang Dan Hong's Colours of Jiangnan, a single-movement triple concerto featuring soloists Sunny Wong (Head of Chinese Instrumental Studies, on erhu), Yu Jia (pipa) and Yin Zhi Yang (dizi). Arguably the most traditional of the works, it was veritable showcase for the varied timbres and techniques of all three instruments in solo and not too complicated polyphony.

The orchestra's accompaniment was both sensitive and non-intrusive, allowing the soloists to stand out in the limelight. Its most important achievement, however, was its mastery of different styles and genres, which will stand the players in good stead for future performing careers.

JOSHUA BELL WITH SCO

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (9 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 April 2016 with the title "Brilliant musical blend".

One of the major fixtures of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's 20th Anniversary celebrations was this Gala Concert with renowned American violinist Joshua Bell as soloist. Getting him to Singapore was a coup in itself, but the question that ran through the minds of many was how he would fare in a first-ever collaboration with an orchestra of Chinese instruments.

This would be non sequitur, as Bell just needed to be his usual virtuosic self in standard fare like Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns and Sarasate. So the more pertinent question would be how the SCO led by Music Director Yeh Tsung does in repertoire that was the reserve of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The results could be summed up as thus: very well indeed.

This was helped by very sympathetic arrangements by Eric Watson, Phoon Yew Tien and Law Wai Lun. Take Watson's take on Vivaldi's Spring from The Four Seasons with a much reduced ensemble for example. The accompanying huqins were exemplary in lightness and transparency of textures, while Xu Zhong's cello and Qu Jian Qing's yangqin(Chinese dulcimer) served perfectly as modified basso continuo.

Equally idiomatic was Phoon's transcription of Saint-Saëns'Introduction & Rondo Capriccioso. Bell's effortless playing and sumptuous tone were, of course, the highlights, and yangqinand harp were up there with him in the slow section. But who would have thought the sheng running away with the melody with Bell's violin spinning arpeggios at full tilt in the brilliant conclusion?

The concert also presented several non-concertante works, which was a veritable showcase of the orchestra's strengths. Ruan Kun Shen's Da Ge opened the evening with an impressive parade of percussion, climaxing in Jin Shi Yi's pungent suona cadenza. Liu Xing's Invisible Sword simulated the digital dexterity of electronic music with chirpy dizis colouring the jovial mood in this scherzo-like piece.

After the interval, Wu Hou Yuan's Yu Tang Chun skilfully melded Beijing opera themes with the Western prelude and fugue, with plucked strings (pipas, liuqins and ruans), yangqins and percussion as the protagonists. Liu Tian Hua's Song of Birds in a Desolate Mountain presented bowed huqins with an open season for the mimicry of birdsong.

Bell returned with an authentic Chinese work, Mao Yuan's Xin Chun Le (A Joyous New Year) in an arrangement by Chuan Joon Hee, and how he captured its festive feeling with a spirited spiel complete with portamentos truly resounded with the audience. The applause rang louder, after which the orchestra reciprocated by playing Western music, in Watson's highland-inspired The Ceilidh, which has folksong O Waly Waly (sometimes sung as The Water is Wide) as its centrepiece.

The concert concluded with Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen(Gypsy Airs) in Law's orchestration. Again Bell's mastery of this warhorse was unquestionable, with the orchestra supporting his every note and phrase to the hilt.

A standing ovation was the immediate response, and although Bell came for his curtain call sans violin at the first instance, he had to return for an encore. “Derived from American music,” he announced to chortles from the audience, and that turned out to be Variations on Yankee Doodle (his version of Henri Vieuxtemps'Souvenir d'Amérique) which brought down the house.

RACHMANINOFF'S SECOND CONCERTO

The Young Musicians'

Foundation Orchestra

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Sunday (10 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 April 2016 with the title "Promising public debut by young orchestra".

It is always exciting to greet the appearance of yet another new orchestra in Singapore, a city-state already filled with young orchestras. The Young Musicians' Foundation Orchestra (TYMFO) was founded by Darrell Ang several years ago, but this evening marked its first public concert under the leadership of present Music Director Alvin Seville Arumugam.

Regular concert-goers might recognise several familiar faces in Concertmaster Lim Shue Churn on violin, viola principal Siew Yi Li and cello principal Lin Juan, all of whom are experienced hands. Their mentorship of the young musicians was to provide the much-needed stability for the demanding enterprise of performing a live concert.

The programme opened with Morning Moodfrom Grieg's Peer Gynt. This was a very clean and fresly minted reading, evocative of the Sahara Desert at dawn (rather than the cliched vision of Norwegian fjords) lit up by confident showings from flautists Rachel Ho and Shaun Leoi. The tonal colour brought out by the orchestra was also close to perfection in this short curtain-raiser.

The less said about the titular Second Piano Concerto by Rachmaninoff, the better. The soloist was Charles Cousins, a mature amateur with far more enthusiasm than experience. A highly uneven performance with some sublime spots marred by many mistakes, lapses and an outright collapse (necessitating an emergency page-turner, not for the first time at this venue) showed that public performances of Rachmaninoff concertos should be best left for professional concert pianists.

There was nothing amateurish about the performance of Beethoven's Symphony No.5 in C minor that took place after the intermission. In reality, it was a very good one, in terms of overall ensemble, projection and the realisation of that most Beethovenian of commands – con brio. The familiar 4-note opening motif was launched with precision and verve, and the first movement brimmed with a palpable vitality that was hard to resist.

As if to prove that was no fluke, the opening of the slow movement with violas and cellos was beautifully sung, almost weightless in its delivery. The Andante thus unfolded with grace and purpose, rising to a ecstatic climax. If there were any quibbles, the tricky changing metre of the 3^rd movement gave the ensemble a few problems, the sort which could be ironed out with time and experience.

Leaving best for last, the Finaleblazed with an incandescence of white heat that was totally memorable. Conductor Arumugam's secure and steady beat which kept the ensemble focussed at such high speeds seemed almost implausible. The trombones, first heard in this symphony, were excellent, blasting off with great aplomb. Always in pitch, they never came close to hogging the show.

Although urgent in feel, this did not feel like a hard-driven performance. That is the rare skill of a good conductor, one always sensitive to the music and ensemble, but directing with a single-minded vision according to an innate sense of aesthetics. This life-affirming outing bodes well for a young orchestra with very much to offer.

PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.2

TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1

BEATRICE RANA, Piano

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

ANTONIO PAPPANO, Conductor

Warner Classics 0825646009091 / *****

The 22-year-old Italian pianist Beatrice Rana shot into the limelight after winning the Silver Medal at the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Her highly impressive debut concerto recording features the same concerto she played in Fort Worth, Texas: Sergei Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto.

In four movements, it is gradually eclipsing the popularity of his Third Piano Concerto, simply because more young pianists are now able to cope with its immense technical demands. Take for example the 1^st movement's massive cadenza which also doubles up as its development. Or the 2^nd movement's motor-like scurry of semi-quavers which never lets up for a second.

Rana takes these in her stride, wallows in the grotesqueries of the balletic 3^rd movement and finishes off the tempestuous finale with breathtaking aplomb. She is less excitable or volatile than her closest rival, the flashier Yuja Wang (on Deutsche Grammophone) who was recorded live, but this reading stands multiple listens.

Just as brilliant is her reading of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto, which in terms of visceral thrills, equals that of Martha Argerich's famous recordings. If Rana is the future of the piano, listeners have a lot to look forward to.

SHOSTAKOVICH PLAYS SHOSTAKOVICH

Warner Classics 0825646155019 (2CDs) / ****1/2

It may not be common knowledge that the great Soviet era Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) once harboured thoughts of being a virtuoso pianist. He even won a diploma at the 1927 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, which came as a bitter disappointment for him.

Thankfully he turned to composition thereafter and never looked back. These recordings of Shostakovich playing his own music date mostly from 1958 when he was already a famous and established composer.

His playing is best exemplified in the two Piano Concertos (with Andre Cluytens conducting) and the Three Fantastic Dances, which shows him to be skittish, mercurial and almost improvisational, very unlike the more studied and disciplined accounts of modern-day pianists. More sober but equally persuasive is a selection of the Preludes and Fugues (Op.87), where his clarity in voicing of individual contrapuntal threads becomes paramount.

Also priceless is hearing him accompany the great Mstislav Rostropovich in the lyrical Cello Sonata in D major. The date and venue of this rarity remains unknown, but the performance is a diamond among assorted gems.

DONIZETTI'S RITA

New Opera Singapore

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (13 April 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 April 2016 with the title "Spousal abuse Punch and Judy way".

This seems to be the month for chamber opera in Singapore, as so soon after L'arietta's debut with three operas in a hour, New Opera Singapore has unearthed bel canto master Gaetano Donizetti's one-act comic opera Rita, or Le Mari Battu (The Beaten Husband).

Created in 1841, it was not performed until 1860, well after the composer's death. Comprising a cast of only three singers and running for just 50 minutes, its farcical plot centred on one taboo subject: spousal abuse.

Rita (sung by soprano Felicia Teo Kaixin) takes perverse delight in berating and slapping her timid and ineffectual husband Pepé (tenor Jonathan Charles Tay), but the table is turned when Rita's abusive first husband Gasparo (baritone Sangchul Jea), orginally thought to have died, unexpectedly returns. Pepe sees this as a chance for bailing out, but learns a thing or two from Gasparo on how to love but keep a wife under control.

Rita provides a new definition
to the term "ballistic".

All this sounds almost sado-masochistic in a Punch and Judy way, and that was ironically what kept the audience mostly in stitches despite the grim subject matter. Large credit has to go to director Stefanos Rassios' simple yet brilliant staging, which saw spoken dialogue trimmed off but retaining all the music. Gaustave Vaëz's French libretto was sung with projected English surtitles which greatly enhanced the experience.

The classic bel canto singing to be found in Lucia Di Lammermoor or La Favorita was not on show here, but the short arias, duets and the final trio still needed agile and expressive voices to pull off the dark comedy.

Teo's taunt of “When it comes to husbands, simpletons are the best” came off as funny rather than cynical. Jea's brash and booming counsel, “You can beat your wife, but don't knock her out” seemed almost good advice in the self-confident way he put it. Even Tay's declaration of glee in his aria when he thought he had seen the last of Rita was genuinely sincere.

What equalled or even surpassed the singing was the actual acting. Every singer rose to the test, particularly New Opera debutant Teo, whose transformation from bored stage prop (she sat on stage throughout all the preliminaries before any music began) to sadistic husband-beater and ultimately submissive spouse was remarkable.

The casting of actress Carina McWhinnie as the silent Cynthia seemed a luxury, but she added a further dimension to the story by acting out the inner thoughts of each singer. Besides delivering an excellent accompaniment, the casually outfitted pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina also had a minor role, spouting phrases in Ukrainian, probably swear words.

Like all comic operas, all's well that end's well. Or is it? Rita is rid of Gasparo (who wants to marry someone else anyway) but gets to keep a “reformed” Pepé (who has been well taught by Gasparo). A husband-and-wife detente is re-established, but like many a workable or peaceable marriage, tensions still exist. But who has the upper hand now?

The cast takes its bow together with
New Opera Singapore founder Jeong Ae Ree
and director Stefanos Rassios (centre).

CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW Piano Recital

VCH Chamber Series

Victoria Concert Hall

Friday (15 April 2016)

The British pianist Christian Blackshaw's first piano recital in Singapore consisted of works “that are better than they could be performed,” to borrow the words of a certain Artur Schnabel. Austro-Germanic, that was probably what he meant, thus excluding all Slavic, French and contemporary repertoire. So no Chopin, Liszt or Rachmaninov, the usual crowd-pleasers.

Nevertheless, a good house greeted Mozart's Sonata in C minor (K.457), one of two sonatas (from 18 sonatas in total) written in the minor key. The first movement was muscular and tension-laden, brought out in a crisp and sprightly manner by Blackshaw, fully aware of its symphonic possibilities. The cantabile he crafted in the slow movement outlined the the music's simplicity and beauty. The finale returned to the earlier storm and stress, but this time it felt leaner and with a meanness that provided little comfort.

This was Mozart at his most gaunt and unsmiling, and kudos to Blackshaw for not trying to gilt-edge its overall sombre mood. However C minor gave way to C major for Schumann's FantasieOp.17, one of his most glorious piano creations. The full flush of Romanticism would hit one in the face, and Blackshaw's generous account stirred up feelings of love and warmth through its surging pages, notwithstanding a few mishit notes.

The central movement's march strode with purpose and passion, and even the treacherous octave leaps nears its conclusion did little to faze him. These were committed whole-heartedly with no diminution of speed or power. The slow movement that was the finale unfolded majestically with the valedictory chordal climax arriving not once but twice, each time rising to an almost undescribable high, before resigning to sublime quiet C major chords.

After the interval, the sermon at the Vic continued with Schubert's final Sonata in B flat major (D.960). This, again, was a wonderfully nuanced reading, with the gravity of the first two movements balanced by the levity of the last two.

Again the warmth of sound enveloped the hall in the 1^st movement's longeurs. Blackshaw omitted the exposition repeart, thus averted those uncharacteristic hiccuping bars that might have disrupted the music's inexorable flow. Neither did the music sound short-winded as a result, such was Blackshaw's mastery of exposition and development.

The opening of the timeless slow movement was marvellously weighted, its echoes resounded as if emanating from some distant valley. The life-affirming central section in A major was also built up with purpose, providing much needed contrast. Time stood still for what I consider the true heart of this masterpiece, one that reflects Schubert's inner sorrow and torment.

The last two movements seemed almost inconsequential after the first two, but what is Schubert without his humour and gaiety? The Scherzo was dainty, even skittish, but fingered with a lightness that was hard to dislike. The Hungarian-flavoured finale that followed doubled the delight, but tempered by a passionate outburst, as if trying to shake off the earlier frolicking. The all too short and abrupt ending to the sonata (contrast this with the “Great” C major Symphony) sounded as if Schubert was anxiously trying to close accounts with little more to add.

Nevetheless, Blackshaw gave an enthralling and moving account of Schubert's greatest sonata, which to be honest has not been performed much on this stage. This listener remembers great readings by Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich (1986, before he became just Stephen Kovacevich) and Nikolai Demidenko (2003), and Christian Blackshaw joins this small but illustrious list. What could possibly follow this as an encore? Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major (Op.90 No.3), played with the same grace and beauty that had distinguished all that came before.

No photographs of the concert were available, as the artist had instructed that the house-lights be dimmed to near semi-darkness for the entire duration of the concert.

DON'T MISS:
CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW
& SSO musicians in
SCHUBERT'S Trout Quintet
Victoria Concert Hall
Sunday 17 April 2016, 4 pm
Tickets available at SISTIC

As of this morning, PIANOMANIA has just received its 1 millionth read! To be honest, the view counter came into effect in 2010 although the blog was started in 2008, so its millionth view was probably some years ago. But this landmark is still worth a celebration of sorts.

THANK YOU FOR VISITING, READINGS, AND SHARING YOUR COMMENTS!

CD Reviews (The Straits Times / March 2016)

XPERIENZ: IN C / Asian Contemporary Ensemble / Review

AN EVENING OF FIREWORKS / NORIKO OGAWA Piano Recital / Review

A FRENCH CONNECTION / Take 5 Piano Quintet / Review

7TH LUCIEN WANG PIANO COMPETITION 2016 FINALS / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2016)

SSO CONCERT: EROICA / Review

HONESTLY! 3 OPERAS, 1 HOUR / L'arietta / Review

SAMUEL TAN Violin Recital / Review

FUN WITH MUSIC! / The Philharmonic Winds / Review

LISTENING TO TAIWAN / National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2016)

MOZART AND SHOSTAKOVICH / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

TRADITIONAL MODERNITY / NAFA Chinese Orchestra / Review

JOSHUA BELL WITH SCO / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

RACHMANINOFF'S SECOND CONCERTO / The Young Musicians' Foundation Orchestra / Review

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, April 2016)

DONIZETTI'S RITA / New Opera Singapore / Review

CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW Piano Recital / Review

PIANOMANIA HITS 1 MILLIONTH READ! THANK YOU FOR VISITING!