Friday 14 January 2000 Victoria Concert Hall	MASTERS SERIES SSO 21st Anniversary Concert/Beethoven Symphony Cycle
	Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Overture to Fidelio, Op.72b Concerto for Violin, Cello, Piano & Orchestra in C major, Op 56 "Triple Concerto" Symphony No.3 in E-flat Major, Op.55 "Eroica" SIOW Lee Chin violin Eszter MIKES-LIU cello KOH Joo Ann piano SHUI Lan conductor

OVERALL NOISE RATING: 3 (An appreciative audience which was quiet and attentive until the Symphony started; then a pager went off at full throttle for a full 15 seconds)

The Noise Rating Index is a partially-objective measurement of pager and handphone blasts, 9pm and 10pm watch beeps, coughing-during-the-pianissimo-bits, intra-audience conversation and other mind-bogglingly inept noises emitted in the concert hall during actual performance of music. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 5, in increasing annoyance.

The new season for the year 2000 kicked off with an all-Beethoven concert, a programme which you can't really go wrong because at least half of the concert-going crowd would have heard at least one of the pieces. The soloists featured in this concert have one thing in common - they are all born in Singapore. All three have now chosen to reside overseas – Siow Lee Chin in USA, Koh Joo Ann and Eszter Mikes-Liu in Germany.

The concert witnessed a packed house. The Fidelio Overture began with a strong and balanced tutti only for it to be marred by a muffled horn intro, which as the notes (courtesy of Benjamin Chee) stated, should have sounded more "pensive with a romantic mood". This unfortunately did not happen. Shui Lan was quick to restrain the orchestra as it began to take off at a pace which I felt was rather quick. In recent years, I have noticed that he has this tendency to rush through most of the Beethoven repertoire at breakneck speed, especially when the score is one familiar to the orchestra. The initial setback with the horns only made them more cautious, thus never actually providing the vital balance in the score. The 1st Violins were in fine form as note for note was dished out with a fervour and enthusiasm; this helped to redeem the performance.

A Second Opinion by William Beh The last time the SSO performed an all-Beethoven concert was Lan Shui's inaugural concert in January 1997. This proved to be an opportunity for us to see how far they have come together. The opening of the Fidelio Overture was let down by a wobble from the horns, but otherwise the work passed without much mishap. The featured soloists of the evening have been showered by the local papers with clichés like "touch base with roots" and "homegrown talent", but let's not get sidetracked. They were not the best-matched team in performance, certainly not as a trio of equals. There was a lack of incisiveness in their approach: the cello did not claim with any sense of conviction the thematic subjects which it introduced, the solo violin had a tendency to dominate, and the pianist contributed a competent but otherwise pedestrian performance. The SSO has sometimes been accused of being a "one-half orchestra", and this was again true in this concert. After the break, we saw Lan Shui mounting the pedestal with a determined sense of purpose, and then launching into a dramatic, hard-driven reading of the "Eroica". There was very good shaping of detail in the woodwinds, and the strings were responsive. The Scherzo was untidier than the preceding movements, but Lan Shui carried the music - almost without a pause - into the last movement without letting the tension ebb. The Prometheus variations were excellently played. There was more untidiness in the horns, which does not bode well for the Seventh Symphony to be performed later in the season. The second of the 12 German Dances of the encore was just icing on the cake. Overall, this was a promising start of an eight-hour odyssey through the nine Beethoven Symphonies. The orchestra and its director have shown they have got what it takes. Now, if only the soloists can get their act together...

The "Triple Concerto" was unfortunately the disappointment of the night. The three soloists produced a rather lacklustre performance: Koh Joo Ann seemed rather unresponsive in the first movement and didn’t seem to produce any verve or excitement. While all three soloists had elected to play by score, one could tell that they seem to be still struggling with the work.

Eszter Mikes-Liu was the only one who seemed confident and her solo passage work clearly demonstrated this (I would love to hear her in a performance of any one of the Haydn Concertos which I feel would suit her style). However what I was looking for was some co-ordination between her partners who seemed so far and wide.

Siow Lee Chin’s grappling with the piece was also evidenced by her slight intonation problems and some temperamental playing. Perhaps she needs to get used to her new violin in order bring out a more matured tone from the instrument. Koh did redeem himself in the second and third movements where exerted himself more during prominent piano parts. Somehow the balance of sound on Friday for this concerto seemed rather lacking. I feel that the soloists have not paid enough attention to the projection of sound which could be one reason why the piano seemed so distant.

I was told by one of the backstage staff that for this concert the soloists had three 3-hour practice sessions on each occasion before rehearsing with the orchestra for two days.

The second half of the programme was a tremendous metamorphosis from the first half. It was as if a new orchestra was performing. Shui Lan admirably led the SSO all the way from start to finish and this time every single section of the orchestra was responsive to his conducting. The strings have to be particularly congratulated for this. Difficult and presto passage work, including the divisi between the string sections were always balanced except in the Marcia funebre where I felt that the "Adagio assai" could have been followed closely to tempo and not pulled off like a freight train, Lan Shui style.

Special mention has to go to the woodwind section, particularly the oboes and clarinet which produced not only spirited readings on their parts but showed that the SSO is capable of beautiful music. The horns that started the night shakily also recovered and by the third and fourth movements they seemed to have recovered to their more usual splendour we often see when the orchestra is truly inspired. I just hope that the SSO will be able to replicate this standard in the other eight symphonies which we will be listening to over the course of this season.

Johann D'Souza is glued to watching at least five hours of wrestling on TV each week and insists that it is his sporting ambition to back supplex the Macho Man off the top turnbuckle.

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633: 18.1.2000. up.25.1.2000 ©Johann D'Souza

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