The curious subtitle of this concert aside, "Handel Meets Tchaikovsky" (who thinks up these things, anyway?), the three works tonight actually have something much deeper in common. All of them were the result of associations between the composers and their respective patrons: Handel's Water Music and King George I, Mozart's Haffner for the eponymous noble family and Tchaikovsky's Fourth for Mme Nadezha von Meck.

The Water Music was performed only as recently as last season under Associate Conductor Bart Folse, albeit in its original Handelian version. Tonight's performance used a reorchestration prepared by Sir Hamilton Harty for six selected movements. This already-popular music was given a new orchestral dress with much-enriched sonorities and felicitous embellishments, adding harmonic colour to the baroque chiaroscuro of Handel's original orchestration.

Choo Hoey utilized this reworked suite to great effect, drawing a ripe, vivid sound from the orchestra. For once, the horn quartet dispatched their fanfares with great élan, although the the solo piccolo trumpet in the Phrygian cadence leading into the Alla hornpipe, was uncharacteristically slack.

Elsewhere, the tempo was generally well taken (with sensible application of rubato) and if the Bourrée could have had a bit more rhythmic sparkle to it, the playing overall was polished and enthusiastic. A diehard afficionado might have found Sir Harty's orchestral enhancements and "twiddly bits" too flamboyant, but it is perhaps more important to note here that it went down well with the audience, some of whom were spotted hand-tapping and head-nodding to the bounce of the Alla hornpipe.

The Haffner, which followed next, was equally satisfying. Choo Hoey sculpted the music excellently and the orchestra responded accordingly. The repeats in the Andante were not played. The strings (1st violins, in particular) in the final movement were simply virtuosic, even if the tempo just fell short of a steam-running presto.

One suspects that this isn't yet the SSO's last word on Haffner - nor any of the Mozart symphonic repertoire. On the basis of tonight's showing, which also brought to mind their Jupiter with Claudio Scimone from last season, the SSO is indubitably getting there. It would be good if the Artistic Committee will continue to put up one or two Mozart symphonies each season, not just for the sake of covering the repertoire, but also as a benchmark for the orchestra.

Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony followed after the intermission. It began with a highly-charged statement of the "fate" theme, which was held throughout the movement. Again, much credit to the brasses, save one wobble on the horns late on in the first movement, unfortunately prominent because it was in a restatement of the "fate" theme.

The slow movement was taken with finesse, and yet dramatically resilient without being aggressive. The pizzicato ostinato, with the strings en masse furiously plucking away at their fingerboards, must have come as a bit of novelty to some of the audience: there was some muffled giggling from the audience. But the interplay of the ostinato between the strings and the winds was compulsive, and to be sure, no laughing matter.

The last movement rocked, if one may be permitted to use a less highbrow adjective. There was a sense of drama coupled with plenty of drive, and the music was fearlessly wrung out with great pathos. Two kids in the front row, B 8-9, were happily bouncing away in their seats to the thumping apotheosis of the final movement and, you know what, from a certain perspective I don't think they missed the point at all. As Tchaikovsky himself so aptly described this music in a confidential letter to Mme. von Meck, his benefactor:

Go to the people. See how they can enjoy life and give themselves up entirely to festivity. How merry and glad they all are. All their feelings are so inconsequential, so simple. There still is happiness, simple, naive happiness.

One suspects that the composer himself would have approved. A pity that Maestro Choo did not prepare an encore for the end of the concert - the audience, judging from the shouts and tumultous applause that belied their size of five hundred (or just over half a full house), were clearly expecting more. Next time, perhaps.

WILLIAM BEH thinks that this concert would have sold more tickets as a "Familiar Favourites" rather than "Handel Meets Tchaikovsky".

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