Saturday 9th September 2000 Victoria Concert Hall	MASTERS SERIES Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle / SSO Sounds of Asia Series
	Mikhail GLINKA (1804-1857) Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture TSAO Chieh (1953-1996) Singapore, Symphonic Suite for Large Orchestra Ludvig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, op.37 Alexander MARKOVICH piano SHUI Lan conductor

OVERALL NOISE RATING: 5 - (He "forgot" to switch it off).

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.

In his own words, Tsao Chieh describes Singapore, Symphonic Suite for Orchestra as "eclectic in that it draws upon everything from romantic symphony to aleatoric techniques". It is, by modern standards, a rather lengthy work, running to about forty-five minutes spread across five movements.

Conceptually, Singapore is similar in many ways to Smetana's Ma Vlast ('My Country'), although the idiom of the composition is markedly different. Where Ma Vlast is rooted in the classical-romantic school, Singapore exhibits more contemporary traits: oversized orchestral textures, twelve-tone scales, dissonance and chromaticity.

While Tsao does not create any radical reinvention of modern compositional styles, he does draw liberally upon the musical legacy of 20th-century composers, from Elgar and Britten to Prokofiev and Stravinsky. The result is surprisingly organic: a lingua franca, as it were, built with a sensitive ear, an innate musicality and a touch of emerging compositional style, bringing together diverse classical and modern influences.

Lan Shui's bold interpretation focuses on atmosphere and expression rather than sharpness of detail or technique. The orchestra has clearly benefitted from their ongoing exposure to contemporary and avant garde repertoire: in this respect, the response of the players to the conductor's insightful interpretation cannot be faulted, nor their sheer virtuosity in carrying this music off. The ad libitum of the strings in War was especially well played.

That said, there were points in the performance where they clearly struggled with the material. In the March, for example, where the entire orchestra was utilized to depict the noblissimente of British Colonial days, what emerged (and I do realize that this music can be very difficult to perform) was more bombast than quality. In this instance, the viscosity of Tsao's huge orchestral palette and sonorities clearly produced a negative effect. I can't help but wonder how this will turn up when they make the recording next week.

Also, while Tsao's conception of this music is nothing less than epic, seeking to encapsulate the totality of nation-building - the title is certainly less than subtle in this respect - one cannot help feeling here that the content has been stretched a bit too thin. Fortysomething minutes might just be too long for an average lay-concertgoer to sit through just to get to the "good bits" in the final movement: the readily identifiable quotations from the Malay folk song Rasa Sayang, the Chinese ditty Xiao Bai Chuan and the apotheosis of the National Anthem - not to mention a motif straight out of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf which Tsao's notes curiously describes as "a perky tune reminiscent of an old army song".

Aleatorics and dissonance are a very strong feature of the score, with the middle sections War and The Aftermath very much in the abstract and hardly recognizable as a scherzo and a passacaglia (as they have been respectively labelled) in the usual sense. The writing was very strong and challenging - I for one would have loved to see how Tsao's music would have developed had he continued composing - and the orchestra acquitted itself with full marks.

At its best, Singapore has moments of charm and piquancy, built upon, it has to be said, a technical vocabulary more modern than classical. The oversized orchestral palette, as with so many contemporary works, was rather excessive and not always used productively. (The harp, for example, was given sweeping scalar roulades amidst a full orchestra - which totally drowned it out.)

The evening's curtain-raiser, Glinka's Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla made a somewhat more positive impression. This is the second time it has been played inside a month, and what a difference the conductor makes. Lan's approach was vivid and direct, and his breakneck speed - this is one for the record books - did not pose any problems for the musicians, who responded splendidly.

- William Beh

"Save the best for last" may be a title to a song but that was exactly how I felt in the recent Beethoven concerto series. It is a pity that because of the programming many people left this concert out of their calendars and the concert hall was only half full.

With the exception of Bellucci , I felt that Markovich's performance possessed a certain level of maturity which is nowadays becoming rarer to find. A stout and pudgy guy who looks much older than his age but possessed of a youthful charm, from the very start he put his fingers on to the keyboard. One interesting point is that he hails from the Gnessin Music school, which has produced the likes of Evgeny Kissin, another boy wonder. I think this is good enough reason to pay greater attention to his playing. The Russians do not allow just anyone to go to this particular school. Prodigies are grounded through the most difficult piano curriculum with each student graduating with the capability of taking an of the major piano competitions that the West or East can offer.

Shui Lan took the pace well from the opening notes, however I did find that it lacked a certain amount of strength which he could have fostered with a stronger forte. The long introduction gave Markovich time to stem his opening notes with authority, and he quickly asserted himself. If there was a pianist that possessed a variety of colour, he is it, there is no wonder why Vengerov and Repin picked him as their partners in violin-piano recitals.

Possessing the Gnessin school technique (well, there is nothing more to comment on this) he carefully breezed through all the finer technical details with crystal clear and iron-clad staccato runs which never seemed to bother him in the least. His cadenza was particularly interesting, I have not heard this extended version with the added Lisztian difficulty thrown in. One regret of mine is not finding out the encore that he performed which sounded like a Thalberg/Strauss-Schulzer Waltz.

The second movement, while marked Largo, was taken a bit too slow by Shui Lan and Markovich was quick to force the pace back a little. One interesting aspect that I particularly took note was the clarity of Markovich's pedalling, which displayed the various full and half pedalling techniques any avid Beethoven listener would know the desired effect it can produce. This particular work leaves more room for interpretation, especially in the 'fate' motif which sets the mood for the concerto. Markovich seemed very aware of the music and all salient points seemed to have been brought out clearly.

Everything that Markovich seemed to have done, from his silvery runs across the keyboard to his syncopated arpeggio runs - all worked well. The second movement was unfortunately marred by a person in the front second row whose handphone who went off seconds into the movement . I have to congratulate the person who told him off after the concert, to which the culprit had the cheek to give the excuse "Oh, but I forgot to switch it off!". He received the prompt retort of "you should have forgotten and not turned up". While opinions may differ according to some of the more compassionate people who go to concerts - I for one am totally unsympathetic to these. I think I have put up with so much for far too long.

- Johann D'Souza

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763: 11.9.2000 ©William Beh, Johann D'Souza

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