Saturday 23 May 1998 Victoria Concert Hall	A Celebration of French Art
	MAURICE RAVEL Alborada del gracioso (1918) CHARLES CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.22 (1868) HENRI DUTILLEUX (b.1916) Métaboles (1964) CLAUDE DEBUSSY La Mer ("The Sea", 1903-5) Pascal ROGÉ piano SHUI Lan conductor

OVERALL NOISE RATING: 3 (When you have music by Debussy and Satie, OF COURSE someone is going to cough out loud, watches will go beep-beep for their lives and more people will cough.)

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.

This review has been kindly sponsored by the Singapore Symphonia Co. Ltd

For the SSO's final concert of the season, we have none other than possibly the most famous French pianist of his generation, Pascal Rogé. Entitled "A Celebration of French Art", the concert was held in conjunction with the ongoing exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum, "The Origins of Modern Art in France 1880-1939" (May 15 - Sep 13: it's only $3 a ticket - GO!)

The program was entirely French, naturally, with the added flavours of Spain colouring the first item. Ravel's Alborada del gracioso is another example of the composer's startlingly spectacular orchestration. Beginning with strings plucking as an orchestral guitar, the SSO's performance seemed to lack cohesion at first. But in fact the score is written such that it's fairly hard to not sound at least a little scrappy in the opening. I was particularly impressed with the dynamic range elicited by Shui Lan, with the fortissimo tuttis ringing out brilliantly. The woodwinds, giggling with liquid mirth nearer the end, were in excellent form. In all, a very spirited and fiery performance.

Pascal Rogé (right) finally appeared on stage, and having followed his discography for so long, I couldn't help being surprised at finally having a real look at my favourite French pianist! Like his physical frame, his piano tone in the Saint-Saëns concerto was surprisingly bigger than I had imagined. His playing of the solemn Andante sostenuto was positively Germanic. Rogé’s hands seemed to wring out more than the piano wanted to give, but nevertheless, the concentration of the performance was firm, especially towards the end.

Rogé’s sparkling technique was put on display in the two quick movements that followed. In the Allegro scherzando, his delivery of the quicksilver phrases were a delight to hear and watch, though I felt the final wink (as the movement ends) could be a little cheekier. The Presto finale was committed and powerfully done, with Rogé’s notes solid rather than light. The performance was concluded with great relish.

Admittedly, I would rather hear Rogé play something more distinctly 20th-century-"French", and my wish was granted. For his much-welcomed encore, our guest played a beautiful rendition of Erik Satie's Gnossienne No.5. The scores to the Gnossiennes have no barlines whatsoever and contains written instructions which seem to bear no relation to the music (not surprising for this composer). With its playfully understated, mesmerizingly nonchalant nature (rather like the famous Gymnopédies), the result was magic in Rogé’s hands.

Henri Duttileux (b.1916) is arguably France's most famous contemporary, living composer. Written in 1964, his Métaboles is, as the name suggests, a work dealing with the idea of metamorphosis or transformation. Essentially absolute music, the five sections are first, the Stravinskian Incantatoire, then a Linéaire for strings, followed by an Obsessionel. Throughout these, there are hints of transition towards the next movement, thematically and in terms of the instrumental scoring. The fourth movement is the percussion-dominated Torpide, hinted at by little snatches of percussion in the previous movement.

My experience with Dutilleux's music is practically zero, so admittedly, I had much trouble thinking of what to say about this performance. For "amateurs" like me, it's a case of "Even if the orchestra plays a wrong note - heck, I would be the last to know!"

But although I had my eyebrows furrowed and my jaw half-open during the first four sections, the final Flamboyant at last hit me. Not merely because it is spectacular, but also how the composer knits everything together in an impressive apotheosis. The feeling was of realization, as the SSO, surging powerfully, brought the work to completion.

"Impressionism" was a bad word in those days, and that may explain why Debussy (right) refused to be associated with the movement. Nevertheless, if any composer came closest to the ideals of such Impressionist painters as Monet, it has to be Debussy.

The philosophy of Impressionism is also very useful in an appreciation of such music. To put it in one way, the idea of the Impressionist is NOT to paint the subject (eg. in this case, the sea), but the SENSATION (not emotion) of the subject. The Impressionist is painting (or composing) the light bouncing off the waves (but not the waves); the breeze on his cheeks (but not the wind itself), or the smell of the salt (but not salt).

If Monet painted lilies, he was not painting lilies but painting the light reflecting off the lilies. If Debussy was composing the sea, he was not composing a tone-poem about the sea, but the sensation of the sea itself.

So let's experiment a bit here. I shall not review the SSO or the music or the composer. I'll give my "impressions" of La Mer as I sat in the Victoria Concert Hall that night, and this in a sense is my "impression" of the performance:

Stillness. serenity.
movement. underlying energy. threat. rising -
travelling, moving. light. joy. Softness.
Surging. ominous. watching,
play. scudding clouds. sleep -
Grandeur. Majesty. swelling.

scintillating, sparkling, shimmering.
surf, flirting, hurrying. playing.
frenzy, surging, dancing, swelling
peace. serenity. still.

Thunder. looming. wind. moving. crashing, rage. winding.
waiting, anticipating.
High. keening. wandering. anticipating.
growing. power. volume. depth. speeding, surging, crashing.

... The idea is that Impressionist works are best seen/interpreted from "afar" (as Cher would tell you in Clueless), rather than get "too close" to or being overly precise about it.

For the encore, Shui Lan gave us (surprise, surprise!) Debussy's serenely sweet Clair de lune (an orchestral arrangement by Lucien Caillet if I'm not mistaken). And thus ends another eventful SSO season.

Yes, yes, Chia Han-Leon has nothing better to do than write silly, arty-farty reviews that no one understands. He will continue to do it anyway.

Click to Return to the Concert Index!... or Visit the Inkvault archives!

188: 25.5.98

Readers' Comments

Explore the Flying Inkpot