A concert in the romantic vein, the night's repertoire easily attracted a full audience in the hall. Music lovers today seems to be very much enchanted still by music from the romantic era, music that sets out to communicate with the heart and to fire up the emotions. Happily all three pieces are music of differing characters-- Wagner's Prelude tells a searing tale of passionate love, Bruch's Concerto both a lyrical and strikingly virtuosic piece, and Franck's Symphony bearing much heroics in its themes.

It is unfortunate that I still have not had the chance to hear Wagner's Tristan and Isolde in its entirety, especially since I have always been struck with wonderment at the magic of the Vorspiel und Liebestod. The orchestra commenced the prelude with a foreboding air, the opening punctuated by silences between the sighing passages. Developing languidly, the work moves in a manner full of suspense until a powerful thump produced by the lower strings opens the floodgates of the emotions. There was a wonderful unity in the way conductor Christopher Seaman guided the orchestra through the descriptive unfolding of the music, urging each section to sustain the work's intense ebbing and swelling force continuously. The brasses were in perfect unison in the climactic blast, which was suitably restrained yet inevitable.

Emerging again out of silence the woodwinds sang out above the trembling strings, and when the strings took over the theme in full force I wished that I was sitting in the circle seats upstairs so I could hear the woodwinds clearly over them. Perhaps Seaman could have loosened his control over the orchestra a bit and let them roar over the audience towards the finale, but his guiding hands were crucial at this time to ensure that the deliberate avoidance of resolution worked successfully toward a dramatic closure.

Bruch's Violin Concerto found a worthy champion in the Scottish-born, Juilliard-trained violinist Lorraine McAslan. Ms Mcaslan stamped her mark on the concerto forcefully right from the start with her fearless strength on her violin. It is exciting to hear the rare violinist who can consistently produce such a powerful and robust sound out of such a frail and delicate wooden box, and Bruch's concerto really suited her temperament and her style of playing. I did not expect to hear a rendition of this work that could rival Nikolaj Znaider's performance, but it seems that I was proven wrong here.

McAslan tackled every virtuosic passage with great confidence and panache, so there was nothing in the way when she wanted to deliver an exciting act. The opening drama of the concerto, which is eventually repeated twice, had her displaying flawless double-stopped passages, which never faltered throughout the concerto. Her bravery in attacking notes in the high register with a very heavy accent was also remarkable, speaking not of brute strength but of an excellent bow stroke that is precisely accurate and can thus deliver maximum force without brashness. The lowest register of the violin was played with a faint and strangely satisfying buzz produced by snug and strong bowing on the lower strings. Cross-string arpeggios flowed with mercurial grace, and attention was always given to accentuating exciting elements with forzandos and tone contrast.

The second movement slipped in without a pause after the first, and though the delivery of the music was excellent, McAslan's strong playing was beginning to feel a bit too upfront, not fully matching the lyricism demanded by the score. Yet the Allegro energico did not disappoint after the fantastic showing of the first movement. The tempo was generally fast whenever McAslan led the orchestra, and towards the conclusion Seaman had to work to catch up with her to follow her enthusiasm. Though she was greeted with much enthusiastic applause from the crowd, McAslan did not grant the audience an encore, and I only regret I was not there for Friday's concert as well.

Christopher Seaman's account of Franck's only symphony demonstrated a more fiery temperament than his performance of Tristan und Isolde. While in Wagner's Prelude the audience could hear his patient control with the orchestra at work, in the symphony the solemn opening seemed to hide the orchestra's eagerness to spring off and work itself into a sweat. Seaman took the violins through the quiet opening with an air of apprehension, but that was soon abandoned when the brasses roared and heralded the start of the main theme. The entire string section played with much merit throughout the lengthy movement, the lower strings very bold in drawing up the short opening motif, and the violins opened up a world full of sunshine and triumphant spirit with the heroic theme. It was very heartening to hear the SSO capable of sustaining such exuberance throughout, and when the brasses ended the movement on high notes it felt like the finale of the symphony. But the movement was followed by an Allegretto, which Seaman delivered with scrupulous pacing.

But it was not to end there - after the emotionally draining first movement which wringed out much excitement and adrenalin, the Allegretto really was demanding attention from the worn-out audience. Seaman was scrupulous with an accurate pacing of Allegretto, and that helped a lot in making the music less tiresome.

I was looking forward to the final Allegro non troppo of the symphony, where Franck unifies the themes of the symphony into a very satisfying conclusion that is perhaps the most memorable feature of the work. Here the strings came up with another bright thematic fragment to rival that of the first movement, and a short exposition followed, leading into a return to the slow movement's story. Seaman had a very clear idea of how to perform the score, shown especially in his treatment of the lengthy section where the first and third movement motifs play with each other and attempt a synthesis. The ending came sooner than I expected, and again the combined orchestra broke out in a blazing finale to match the power of the first movement. Seaman showed remarkable energy in sustaining the onstage excitement throughout such a demanding work. The SSO must have really enjoyed working with him, and I would certainly like to hear another concert conducted by his masterful hand.