Friday 12 May 2000 Victoria Concert Hall |
Singapore Symphony Chorus 20th Ann. Concert/Beethoven Symphony Cycle |
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Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791) Divertimento in F major, K138 Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Symphony No.9 in D minor, op.125 "Choral"
Singapore Symphony Chorus |
OVERALL NOISE RATING: 2 (One handphone right at the start of the Mozart. The Chorus on stage flipping pages more noisily than usual. Not too bad
considering the sold-out audience.)
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.
by William Beh
The big question of the night, I think, must have been:
On the face of it, this is quite unconventional programming in that
we have been offered a nine-minute Mozart divertimento as
curtain-raiser to Beethoven's hour-long magnum opus, the
Choral Symphony. The answer was given in the pre-concert
announcement that yes, there would be a fifteen-minute break between
the two pieces. Probably as a kindness for late-comers, I suppose; it
was a full house on the night.
Cleve conducted the Mozart (and later, more impressively, the
Beethoven) from memory. The tone texture of the strings, as expected
from the size of the ensemble, came across as a somewhat much thicker
veneer than necessary. Also, all the repeats were observed, which
belied the litheness of the music; certainly, the considerable
lengthening of performance time did no favours for the flabbiness in
the string-tone.
But that's not to take anything away from the sparkle and
expressiveness of the playing. It was a convincing account, even if,
in the final analysis, it was made to sound more heavyweight than
usual. Still, the SSO has indeed taken yet another step, albeit small,
towards becoming a fine classical orchestra.
If a Divertimento is a small step, what mighty strides then
would the Beethoven symphonies count for? We have almost completed
the traversal of the entire symphonic cycle - after tonight, there's
only Pastoral left to go, at the end of the month. With a full
chorus, four soloists and more than an hour of music, this has
promised to be one of the highlights of the season.
And what a mighty, joyous noise it was! The first two movements
were clinically dispatched with taut phrasing and nicely sprung
rhythms. The woodwinds and brasses were magnificent (save for some
moments of insecurity in the horns), as was the timpani - it was
visually thrilling to watch the Principal Timpanist banging away in
the second movement.
I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso. The mysterious
open fifths of the introduction are like the darkness and void before
creation. They suggest the vasteness of the design that lies ahead.
Gradually, fragments of the main theme emerge from the darkness until
suddenly the theme itself blazes out like a flash of orchestral
lightning. The main theme is followed by a wealth of subordinate
ideas, mostly lyric. There is a great climax, after which the
orchestra suddenly subsides into the tremulous empty fifths of the
opening. A highly concentrated development of the opening material
follows, then a recapitulation of the whole opening section. The coda,
with its ominous ostinano in the depths of the orchestra, seems
an apocalyptic vision.
Edward Downes
Again, Cleve's
phrasing of the melodic lines was impeccable and one senses that he is
the type of conductor par excellence which, even within a short
rehearsal time, manages to convey and elicit exactly what he wants
from the musicians.
Zheng Zhou, who interjects with the opening vocals, "O Freunde,
nicht diese T霵e!" ("O Friends, no more of these sounds!") was
in top form, as were his other three co-soloists.
Mezzo-soprano Yang
Jie, fresh from her three French Flair concerts last week,
performed from memory. In the "Turkish March", tenor David Quah
delivered the "Freudig wie ein Held zum Siegen!" ("Joyfully like a
hero towards victory!") with great aplomb, almost as if he was a
forerunner of glad tidings. (And why not, with the final choral
iteration of the Ode yet to come.)
The four soloists blended well and the chorus fittingly rose to the
occasion, commemorating their 20th anniversary in style. The massed
choral sections were electric (a hint of exuberance, perhaps ?) with
Cleve bringing everything together into one heck of an unforgettable
experience. At the end, it seemed that the applause simply was not
going to stop, until the lights finally came up and the concertmaster
led everyone offstage.
Is there, or is there not, going to be an interval ?
George Cleve (right) opted to perform the Divertimento with
a larger-than-chamber-sized string ensemble, moving the second violins
to his right, and the cellos and violas respectively one position to
the left, similar to Petri Sakari from a fortnight ago. This
was to achieve the stereophonic effect from the way the parts were
written for First and Second Violins.
The third movement, which Bernard Tan describes in the notes as
"Beethoven's most sublime slow movement" (and gets no argument from
me), was played wonderfully. Cleve did not overindulge nor rush the
tempo, but instead sculpted a flowing legato from the
orchestra. A pity, though, that many in the audience (who obviously
came for you-know-what) were spotted nodding off in the quietitude of
this movement.
Notes
Guide to Symphonic Music (1976), pp.109
The final movement, of course, began with an almighty rumpus, the
conductor barely pausing between the previous movement and this one.
(Yet another instance where inter-movement applause would have been
ruinous to the concentration of the performers.)
William Beh is reminded of the climatic battle scene
from Neon Genesis Evangelion whenever he hears the
Choral Symphony. (It's a long story.)also works in the IT industry. What is the world coming to?
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7xx: 13.5.2000 坪illiam Beh
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