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So I've finally made it here, at the to-be-historical
"Last Night of the KL Proms" - the first of its kind outside Ye
Merrie England and the most talked-about junket on the MPO calendar.
In this day of economic and artistic convergence, everything, it
seems, can be an export product, even cultural exchange and intercourse
in the form of the BBC Proms.
But seriously, this evening was the culmination
of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's week-long residency at the Dewan
Filharmonik PETRONAS, in which the BBCSO and the Malaysian Philharmonic
gave a total of eight concerts in as many days, not to mention not
to mention an equally remarkable number of talks, lectures and interviews.
Look - the concert was telecast live to a crowd in KLCC Park, that's
how big the deal was. (And that's not saying anything about the
MPO's regular weekly lineup, which itself resembles a smörgåsbord
of musical delicacies).
October Babies
I think this was more coincidence than anything
else, but a fair number of the works at the Proms were premiered
in October:
Britten Premiered Oct 15, 1946.
Debussy Premiered Oct 15, 1905.
Elgar Premiered Oct 19, 1901.
Wood Premiered Oct 21, 1905.
It's just one of those things which I noticed
reading through the notes. (You'd be amazed how many times
you can read a programme book from cover to cover in a three-hour
concert.) En passant, Dr Marc Rochester's notes also
mention the premiere of Ravel as Jan 5, 1932, although other
sources give Nov 27, 1931.
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I can't remember the last time I heard Britten's
Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, but it was an apropos
curtain raiser to the night's festivities, spotlighting, as it were,
each of the instrumental sections in turn by way of introduction.
As usual, the hall's splendid acoustics brought out the clarity
of the BBCSO's textured contours of symphonic timbre - especially
the brasses. After introducing and welcoming everyone ("including
those in the park"), Sir Andrew Davis ran through the music with
feckless efficacy, saving his mojo for the remainder of the
evening.
Louis Lortie joined the orchestra to perform the
Ravel Left-Hand Concerto, which began with Ravel's inimitable
use of low instruments in their deep ranges, with more instruments
joining in, building into a swollen climax from which the piano
emerged. Lortie played with fetishistic amounts of pedal in the
initial section, yet his reading was alternately coolly melancholy
and sweetly lyrical. There was no doubt this was a virtuosic showpiece
for Lortie: his scalar runs and octave jumps had to be heard (and
seen) to be believed.
Togther, Lortie and the symphony broached the goose-stepping
theme with lots of relish, with Davis keenly highlighting the jazz
elements with a surprising litheness of touch. More amazingly, the
orchestral timbre softened somewhat around the edges from hard-edged
Britten into French-impressionistic brittleness. Interplay between
soloist and orchestra was feliticious - I haven't heard Ravel exegesized
so delightfully in a long while.
Concluding the first half was Debussy's La Mer.
It was here that the BBCSO completed the near-magical transformation
of its timbre into a palette of pastel tones. The brass, for want
of a better phrase, became more velvety, softer around the edges,
as strident and muted as was necessary (e.g. the wind in the last
movement).
Intelligently, Davis concentrated less on the melody
than in bringing together the interwoven fragments of rhythm and
harmony, vividly rendering to the mind's eye a kaleidoscopic montage
of sky, clouds, water and sunlight. Adopting a slower tempi than
usual, he essayed forth on Debussy with ebullience and subtlety
that brought the composer's music to life, and then some: the opening
of the first movement, with the reeds playing over pianissimo
cellos and doublebasses was totally wizard, as was the apocalyptic
conclusion of the last movement.
Time and Again
As a semi-regular denizen of the MPO, I could
not help but compare the length of its performances with the
trend of SSO's offerings in recent seasons. An examination of
the SSO current season's concerts (based on paper timing given
in the programme books) showed:
17 May 74 mins
10 May 76 mins
3 May 67 mins
26 Apr 58 mins
A quick calculations shows an average of just
under 70 minutes of playing time. On the other hand, the numbers
from the MPO and especially the DFP Music Festival (eight
concerts in eight days) show something else:
23 Mar 88 mins
14 May 88 mins
15 May 82 mins
16 May 98 mins
Or nearly a full ninety-minute programme's
offering, and note the three consecutive performances for
three nights. Are we weaning our audiences differently?
It'd be interesting to see how this turns out in the long-term.
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At this point, by my watch it was eighty minutes
since the concert began. After meeting some friends (and making
some new ones) in the lobby over the intermission, including familiar
faces from Singapore, we went back in for the tie-loosened second
half. It began with three concert arias performed by the radiant
soprano, Janice Watson, in a teal-green Oscar de la Rentaish-looking
gown.
The first aria Ch'io mi scordi di te ?... Non
temer, amato bene was a Mozart composition for his student Nancy
Storace (for whom he also created the role of Susanna). Lortie accompanied
on the obbligato piano part (originally included by you-know-who
to accompany the dedicatee), and a convivial rendition it was, too.
Ms Watson followed this with Bella mia fiamma,
sans piano this time, but with no less conviction. Rounding
off her vocal bits was the sopranic confection: Mein herr marquis
from Die Fledermaus. Her laughing song had more lilt and
felicity to it than I remember from the Singapore
Symphony's concert last christmas.
Up to this point, the concert had still been rather
straight-laced, pretty much (I think) the "Proms-style snobbery"
that the self-effacing quasi-classical quartet Bond have vowed to end. Not this Proms, as Davis addressed the audience
again to introduce Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance No.1. Meanwhile,
the timpanist in the back row changed into a suit which looked like
it had been made out of the Union Jack, to great hilarity all round.
It was like a switch had been flipped, as the BBCSO
embarked on the fun portion of the programme (and it was well past
two hours by my watch now). The first iteration of the "Hope and
Glory" theme was taken, rather sensibly, with more nobilissimente
and stiff-upper-lip-ness, than any outrageous chauvinism. The audience
response was also fairly lukewarm, but you could tell they were
perceptibly starting to get into the mood. In the second round of
"Hope and Glory", the hall erupted into a mass of flag waving, and
there was some really wonderful brass-playing (although if you were
listening carefully, you could also detect small slips creeping
in.)
Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs
was next on the menu - as much to pay tribute to the Father of the
Proms as to carry on the Proms tradition. Again, minor instances
of slippage occured. The euphonium (making a rare symphonic appearance)
sounded uncomfortable in Saucy Arethusa, although principal
cellist Susan Monks's gorgeous solo anthem for Tom Bowling
made up for it. Jack the Lad found lots of foot stamping
to the beat, another tradition reenacted, as was the audience quietly
humming along in Home Sweet Home.
Local flavour was not to be omitted: an arrangement
of Tanah Pusaka by Vivian Chua, recycled from MPO's Education
and Outreach Programme, was well-received by the audience. Her arrangements
put me in the mind of 80s-style television themes, such as Iskandar Ismail might have
done. Ms Chua was commissioned to produce another arrangement of
medleys for the evening, which I think that makes it a world premiere.
Not unexpectedly, it was a hit with the audience, a grand paean
to nationalism.
Sir Davis and the BBCSO, despite repeated curtain
calls, did not oblige with an encore. Disappointing, to be sure,
but they could hardly be faulted - at this point, the concert had
crossed well past the three-hour mark. An eye-opener, and a really
great time was to be had by all.
On
this trip, BENJAMIN
CHEE found a better yong tau foo stall
in USJ than the one at Ampang
11.4.2002
© Benjamin Chee
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