Saturday, October 16, 2004
Apparently SSO has changed the programme at the last minute. The gala concert with Maxim Vengerov ought to have featured Britten's Four Seas Interludes and his Violin Concerto, as well as Ravel's Tzigane and the Suite No. 2 from Daphnis et Chloe. Instead, the programme has been changed to accommodate Beethoven's (fourth) Fidelio Overture, Violin Concerto and Bright Sheng's Nanking! Nanking!
Bearing the two classics in mind, I approach the concert hall with a slight tinge of apprehension that the SSO will screw them up, like how they screwed the Brahms (see the 28 November 2003 entry) and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Even the newspapers admit that the SSO seems to play much better the newly-commissioned works, the modern works and the rare greats. The usual works we've more or less heard of time and again - they play them terribly.
Shui Lan is conductor for tonight - hooray! I've always liked his conducting - lots of drive and passion. I love those pre-emptive strikes he makes - he always throws the cue at the instrument(s) or orchestra milliseconds before they are supposed to enter.
The Fidelio Overture is pretty well played, except for some discrepancies in the playing near the beginning, when the horns, thereafter the clarinets, fail to enter in unison. But they recover pretty quickly.
Next is Bright Sheng's work - hints of the book Rape of Nanking. On first thought it seems to be a pipa concerto, but after listening to the entire work, which lasts roughly half an hour, the pipa makes it entrance like three or four times. In fact, the quantity of passage given to the solo violin is sufficient to match that of the pipa.
The work opens so quietly that you probably don't realise it has started, unless you pay attention to the soft pounds on the temple blocks at intervals, and obviously, the swaying white conducting baton. The music stays like this for ages - until . . .
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!!!
I get a fright. The orchestra hits two-times fortissimo out of nowhere. The last time the orchestra ever shocked me was at an outdoor concert at the Woodlands Regional Centre, where the tam-tam player struck his instrument ever so loudly to mark the start of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. Even Mr Leong, whom I accompanied, jumped in his seat.
You might probably think you were listening to a film's soundtrack - or, to put it another way: a sonic movie. The screaming of the orchestra - especially the never-ending za-za-za-za-za of the rattle is enough to drive you crazy if this goes on for one hour. It's a garbage-full of noise all around.
The only contrast is the lush setting for strings somewhere in the middle of the piece. Just strings - those romantic kind of writing that you get in the old Hollywood movies, when lovers, all alone to themselves, smooch and touch each other all over: "Oh . . . Jake! I loooooooove you!"
*Pukes*
This playing of Beethoven's Violin Concerto is one of the better ones I've heard. Well done, Maxim, and well done, SSO! At least the latter doesn't screw it up. And the playing is more emotional, as compared to the stiffened and synthetic playing of the Brahms last year. Maxim composed his own cadenzas - I like that for the third movement - it lasts less than a minute, and then the orchestra returns. It doesn't interrupt the flow of the piece - rather, it carries the movement forward from the dominant chord that marks the beginning of the cadenza, to the coda.
Standing ovations and numerous curtain calls for Maxim - too many to remember. Maxim plays two encores - one is the ever-famous Meditation from Thais and the other, some piece with a narration telling a story. The first is played with much beauty of emotion - for once I don't feel it's clichéd, as I've always felt that piece has been, because of its association with those heart-wrenching moments, no matter on stage or on the screen. Once, a committee member from my House in JC asked me to look for a piece of music to represent an emotional scene in a drama. She had this particular piece in mind, but she didn't know the title. I asked her to sing it - in turn she sang the opening bars of Meditation. Immediately I knew what it was. I wasn't surprised at her choice. Neither was I surprised she knew the melody (but had no idea of the title). Since then I have never listened to the piece, because it's usage is too overwhelming. I've nothing against the composition; just that too many people use it for those moments when tissue paper is a must.
The second is cute and very funny. Maxim tells us he played this while visiting the underprivileged kids in Uganda and Thailand. He starts fiddling away - a very Spanish-sounding tune. Suddenly he stops, and comes to the microphone. He narrates the first lines of the story.
For a moment I wondered if I was listening to "Peter and the Wolf" - in a version for solo violin and set in Spain.
Actually it's a story about a bull (those bulls bred for fighting) who likes flowers and doesn't like sparring. Very soon, into the piece, the mere mention of "But not Ferdinand" and "Smell the flowers" - as well as that merry little tune, which is the idée fix for this aspect of the story - suffices to tickle our ribs. Maxim also impresses with Paganini-like playing - although no broken strings (Paganini would loosen the D, A and E strings so that they would break mid-performance and then he could heroically show off his skills by continuing to play unperturbed on the G-string) or upside-down playing (which people like Franz Clement did). He plays a stylish tango, coupled with a cry of "Ole!" halfway. There is also one part of the piece where he dances a little while fiddling simultaneously. After that performance, everybody is reluctant to let him go.
* * *
Some things from the programme:
Next year (2005)
8 Jan: Lee Huei Min plays Butterfly Lovers (oh no! Not again!)
15 & 16 April: Vladimir Feltsman plays Beethoven's Emperor Concerto (yes! Yes!)
SSO touring USA, France and Spain from 1 to 17 March
Shlomo Mintz and Hilary Hahn (Hahn-hahn) are returning in May!
. . .
Beethoven is not widely thought of as having a great sense of humour, but in 1825, he sent a spoof biography of one Tobias Haslinger, a fellow composer and close friend, to the publishers Schott. Unfortunately for Beethoven, Schott's published it!
Sigmund Steiner was Beethoven's first Vienna publisher. In all his dealings with Steiner, Beethoven used military terminology describing Steiner as the "Lieutenant-General", Haslinger (whose music Steiner also published) as the "Adjutant" and the money they received as the "Fighting Men". Beethoven reserved for himself the title "Generalissimo".
Although he never married, Beethoven was not immune to a young woman's charms. In May 1799 two sisters, Therese (24) and Josephine (20) von Brunsvik, went to Beethoven for piano lessons. He adored both of them to such an extent he allowed each lesson to overrun by as much as four hours.
Two years later, Beethoven was in love again, this time with one a cousin of the von Brunsvik sisters, Giulietta Guicciardi. She boasted that Beethoven would "promise me anything", but when he asked to marry her she turned tail and ran. It was for Guiulietta that Beethoven composed his famous "Moonlight" Sonata.
* * *
Oh no, where is Timothy Buzz-Bee? He wasn't on the programme today . . .
Well we saw Shane at the piano today during the Nanking piece.
And Jonathan Fox at the timpani for the first half of the concert.
¶ 10/16/2004 01:21:00 am Bearing the two classics in mind, I approach the concert hall with a slight tinge of apprehension that the SSO will screw them up, like how they screwed the Brahms (see the 28 November 2003 entry) and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Even the newspapers admit that the SSO seems to play much better the newly-commissioned works, the modern works and the rare greats. The usual works we've more or less heard of time and again - they play them terribly.
Shui Lan is conductor for tonight - hooray! I've always liked his conducting - lots of drive and passion. I love those pre-emptive strikes he makes - he always throws the cue at the instrument(s) or orchestra milliseconds before they are supposed to enter.
The Fidelio Overture is pretty well played, except for some discrepancies in the playing near the beginning, when the horns, thereafter the clarinets, fail to enter in unison. But they recover pretty quickly.
Next is Bright Sheng's work - hints of the book Rape of Nanking. On first thought it seems to be a pipa concerto, but after listening to the entire work, which lasts roughly half an hour, the pipa makes it entrance like three or four times. In fact, the quantity of passage given to the solo violin is sufficient to match that of the pipa.
The work opens so quietly that you probably don't realise it has started, unless you pay attention to the soft pounds on the temple blocks at intervals, and obviously, the swaying white conducting baton. The music stays like this for ages - until . . .
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!!!
I get a fright. The orchestra hits two-times fortissimo out of nowhere. The last time the orchestra ever shocked me was at an outdoor concert at the Woodlands Regional Centre, where the tam-tam player struck his instrument ever so loudly to mark the start of Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. Even Mr Leong, whom I accompanied, jumped in his seat.
You might probably think you were listening to a film's soundtrack - or, to put it another way: a sonic movie. The screaming of the orchestra - especially the never-ending za-za-za-za-za of the rattle is enough to drive you crazy if this goes on for one hour. It's a garbage-full of noise all around.
The only contrast is the lush setting for strings somewhere in the middle of the piece. Just strings - those romantic kind of writing that you get in the old Hollywood movies, when lovers, all alone to themselves, smooch and touch each other all over: "Oh . . . Jake! I loooooooove you!"
*Pukes*
This playing of Beethoven's Violin Concerto is one of the better ones I've heard. Well done, Maxim, and well done, SSO! At least the latter doesn't screw it up. And the playing is more emotional, as compared to the stiffened and synthetic playing of the Brahms last year. Maxim composed his own cadenzas - I like that for the third movement - it lasts less than a minute, and then the orchestra returns. It doesn't interrupt the flow of the piece - rather, it carries the movement forward from the dominant chord that marks the beginning of the cadenza, to the coda.
Standing ovations and numerous curtain calls for Maxim - too many to remember. Maxim plays two encores - one is the ever-famous Meditation from Thais and the other, some piece with a narration telling a story. The first is played with much beauty of emotion - for once I don't feel it's clichéd, as I've always felt that piece has been, because of its association with those heart-wrenching moments, no matter on stage or on the screen. Once, a committee member from my House in JC asked me to look for a piece of music to represent an emotional scene in a drama. She had this particular piece in mind, but she didn't know the title. I asked her to sing it - in turn she sang the opening bars of Meditation. Immediately I knew what it was. I wasn't surprised at her choice. Neither was I surprised she knew the melody (but had no idea of the title). Since then I have never listened to the piece, because it's usage is too overwhelming. I've nothing against the composition; just that too many people use it for those moments when tissue paper is a must.
The second is cute and very funny. Maxim tells us he played this while visiting the underprivileged kids in Uganda and Thailand. He starts fiddling away - a very Spanish-sounding tune. Suddenly he stops, and comes to the microphone. He narrates the first lines of the story.
For a moment I wondered if I was listening to "Peter and the Wolf" - in a version for solo violin and set in Spain.
Actually it's a story about a bull (those bulls bred for fighting) who likes flowers and doesn't like sparring. Very soon, into the piece, the mere mention of "But not Ferdinand" and "Smell the flowers" - as well as that merry little tune, which is the idée fix for this aspect of the story - suffices to tickle our ribs. Maxim also impresses with Paganini-like playing - although no broken strings (Paganini would loosen the D, A and E strings so that they would break mid-performance and then he could heroically show off his skills by continuing to play unperturbed on the G-string) or upside-down playing (which people like Franz Clement did). He plays a stylish tango, coupled with a cry of "Ole!" halfway. There is also one part of the piece where he dances a little while fiddling simultaneously. After that performance, everybody is reluctant to let him go.
* * *
Some things from the programme:
Next year (2005)
8 Jan: Lee Huei Min plays Butterfly Lovers (oh no! Not again!)
15 & 16 April: Vladimir Feltsman plays Beethoven's Emperor Concerto (yes! Yes!)
SSO touring USA, France and Spain from 1 to 17 March
Shlomo Mintz and Hilary Hahn (Hahn-hahn) are returning in May!
. . .
Beethoven is not widely thought of as having a great sense of humour, but in 1825, he sent a spoof biography of one Tobias Haslinger, a fellow composer and close friend, to the publishers Schott. Unfortunately for Beethoven, Schott's published it!
Sigmund Steiner was Beethoven's first Vienna publisher. In all his dealings with Steiner, Beethoven used military terminology describing Steiner as the "Lieutenant-General", Haslinger (whose music Steiner also published) as the "Adjutant" and the money they received as the "Fighting Men". Beethoven reserved for himself the title "Generalissimo".
Although he never married, Beethoven was not immune to a young woman's charms. In May 1799 two sisters, Therese (24) and Josephine (20) von Brunsvik, went to Beethoven for piano lessons. He adored both of them to such an extent he allowed each lesson to overrun by as much as four hours.
Two years later, Beethoven was in love again, this time with one a cousin of the von Brunsvik sisters, Giulietta Guicciardi. She boasted that Beethoven would "promise me anything", but when he asked to marry her she turned tail and ran. It was for Guiulietta that Beethoven composed his famous "Moonlight" Sonata.
* * *
Oh no, where is Timothy Buzz-Bee? He wasn't on the programme today . . .
Well we saw Shane at the piano today during the Nanking piece.
And Jonathan Fox at the timpani for the first half of the concert.
