Friday 23rd July, 1999 Victoria Concert Hall |
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Last Thoughts.../Great Classics |
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Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No.3, op.72a
Max BRUCH Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, op.26 Johannes BRAHMS Symphony No.4 in E minor, op.98
Charles TREGER violin |
OVERALL NOISE RATING:
1 (Generally very quiet, except for the odd watch beep.)
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
by Derek Lim
Attending a concert with a guest conductor invariably proves to be an
eye-opener. Tonight’s concert was just such a performance. In this
ultra-conservative programme, Gaetano Delogu distinguished
himself on several levels as an interpreter of far-sighted vision and power.
Otherwise Delogu’s treatment of the music was vital and impassioned. If he
did not, ultimately, bring me to the heights of ecstasy, it was probably
because I would have preferred more eloquence in the unwritten pauses. But
this conductor definitely had musical ideas to bring off, unlike the
Coriolan Overture with the Hong Kong Philharmonic with Atterton (reviewed here).
A short note about the trumpet fanfares: I think they were beautifully
done, and the player has an adequately dark tone for the music.
Let me side-track into a short discussion of Delogu's conducting style. When I
say that he belongs to the old-style, I do not only mean that his musical
ideas belong generally to that school. In his conducting gestures, which I
find elegant but not just pretty, he achieves a very wide palette of
expression. His baton-technique is not completely clear, but unlike many
conductors nowadays, he does give cues for entries. It is a fluid, flexible
technique which is not often seen today.
A little more on that later. Next on the programme was the
very-popular-with-audiences and very-unpopular-with-orchestras Bruch G-minor
Violin Concerto. This is not one of the most difficult concerti, but it
does need keen musicianship. With all due respect to Charles Treger, I do
think that his technique is spotty to say the least, with intonation a
frequent problem. Despite a promising opening to the concerto on his part
(SSO woodwinds out of tune again!), he failed to really conjure up the
fantasy of the concerto and involve me in the performance. His unreliable
vibrato, though varied enough, also made this performance of the concerto
something I could not really enjoy.
Despite his musicianly performance, it
was just that - musicianly. Though he did have the touch of the Zigeuner
(gypsy) in his playing in the last movement, I simply wasn't impressed by
his lack of technique. I'm not a stickler for perfect intonation, but his
was poor, and his wobble only emphasized this. In the third movement, where
before it he cleaned his strings and the E-string got caught in his jacket,
his E-string posed more problems as it was flat!
I would like to try to
discuss the performance on its own terms - there was some lovely phrasing
in the Finale, for example, and some very nice dialogue between the violin and
orchestra, but overall, I found it hard to enjoy this. Nicholai Znaider,
though a trifle detached, did a much better job of this concerto (reviewed here). One
saving grace was Delogu's sensitive treatment of the concerto, though I
suspect there might have been insufficient rehearsal time again here. His
treatment was even Brahmsian in a way, and in the climaxes one could spot
him urging the orchestra along with his "mouthing" of the music.
The second movement was if anything even more Romantic, more
passionate, and slower. Delogu had several occasions where he was trying to
restrain the orchestra tempo-wise but didn't really manage to, but despite
this he managed a very well-shaped performance. One glaring point though:
he tried to effect a huge ritardando at one spot, but because hardly anyone
was looking, this had no effect whatsoever. This would have had been a
dramatic gesture, and very Brahmsian, if it had been effected, though.
The third movement was taken swiftly and brilliantly but the attention to
details was still apparent. The triangle, for instance, was brought out
very well, though the playing itself left a little to be desired.
Throughout the movement, despite a little lack of concentration in one or
two spots, there was a inexorable sense of musical argument, the likes of
which were made manifest in the tragic fourth movement, which taken faster
than the overall conception, sacrificed a little in dramatism in favour of
musical fluency. The frightening orchestration of Brahms' final Chaconne
was also brought out well. If I found anything lacking here, it was a lack
of flexibility and rhythm in the more military-sounding variations and
transitions between variations.
But if anything, this was the only proper Brahms performance that the
Singapore Symphony Orchestra has had the opportunity to showcase for years,
I believe. This conductor has Brahms in his blood, and it will be a pity
and a shame for the orchestra not to invite him again, and again.
Derek Lim is thankful that the drilling upstairs has stopped - it sounded like three harpsichords competing in playing crash chords.
I risk sounding naive, but with a head of hair reminiscent of three great
conductors Kubelik, Furtwängler and Fricsay, my curiousity was aroused the
moment he stepped on stage. Which of the three would he conduct like?
Apparently the middle one. From his broad tempi in the opening of Beethoven’s Leonora Overture III to his restrained but dramatic moulding of the themes which arise before Leonora’s motif is announced, he reminded me of Furtwängler’s careful but powerful treatment of the music. If I was a little disappointed with this solid, well-thought out reading later, it might have been because the opening was so promising that his later treatment of the overture seemed relatively inflexible, though this may have to do with the orchestra's seeming inability to respond to his direction because of technical aspects of the music, especially in the horns and the woodwinds (flute and bassoon). Some phrases were glossed over rather glibly because of this, I suspect.
This natural Brahmsian feel was brought out most beautifully and wonderfully
in the Brahms Fourth Symphony after the interval. Lingering a little on the
first note, then moulding and shaping the first theme, Delogu's treatment of
the music reminded me of - who else but - Furtwängler. It was sheer
pleasure to hear the music taken so passionately and but with such
attentiveness to detail and architecture. The tragic ending of the first
movement was taken with a huge ritardando; here again it reminded me of the
"Old School" of Germanic conducting. I was totally mesmerised by his
account of the music, which had adequate propulsion and argument.
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532: 25.7.1999 ©Derek Lim
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