Saturday 28th August, 1999 Victoria Concert Hall |
Subscription Series
Classical Mambo Rock! |
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Leonard BERNSTEIN Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, Op.9
Bela BART覭 Piano Concerto No.3 Imantz KALNINS (b.1941) Symphony No.4 "Rock"
Peter FRANKL piano |
OVERALL NOISE RATING:
2 (an attentive audience, with considerably fewer watch-beeps at nine o'clock, perhaps thanks to the announcement emphasising Beeping Watches in the list of no-no's?)
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 Soo Kian Hing with Adrian Tan
The Casual Concert this weekend must have been one of the worst attended
concerts in the orchestra's history. I swear there must have been more
people on stage than in the audience. Granted it was a rainy day - I
would like to think, albeit too naively, that this was the reason for
the poor attendance. The SSO's efforts in these casual concerts are
applaudable and deserve support.
Okay, for those of you who don't know what a casual concert, it is when
the orchestra literally takes off their tux and the conductor talks about
the music in some detail before performing.
There is also a Q&A session whereby slips of paper are
handed out to the audience to fill in any questions they might like to
ask about the orchestra, the composers or the music.
With this week's "Rock" Symphony on the line-up, one would think that
there would be a barrage of questions. However, there were none. Right,
this is Singapore where we're not used to speaking up much, but come on,
I heard some real questions in the toilet downstairs later that should
have been forwarded to Shui Lan. So eventually, the orchestra showed up
to perform for a handful of people - defeating the purpose of the whole
"casual concert" concept and wasting the precious time the musicians
should have spent with their families.
Still, I for one would really like to see these concerts work. So, on
our part, for those of us who really would like to have a chance to
learn about the music and ask questions, let's make the effort to
attend. On the SSO's part, how about EVEN MORE publicity, or finding
alternative times and venues (like a Saturday afternoon, or in NUS or
something) when audiences might be more willing to talk and attend. I
know I'm taking blind stabs at solutions from an outsider's viewpoint.
But we do want to see this work.
This is good stuff the orchestra is doing, and we can all understand
that musicians' and the management are disheartened to see such poor turnout.
It's a vicious cycle. If the next casual concert is going to be yet
another of these non-events, the series will just burn itself out.
I look forward to the next Casual Concert and I really, really hope the
audience would give this a shot. You really missed something! Least of
all, Lan Shui singing "Somewhere" from West Side Story.
Let's also pray that it won't rain next time.
Lenny's West Side Story really needs no introduction. Though many of this opera's songs have achieved pop status, the Symphonic Dances retain Bernstein's taut syncopation and unconventional rhythms. The SSO jumped quickly into the mood with the Prologue's portrayal of animosity between rival street gangs, building up the tension, so that when they reached "Somewhere" the mood was transformed distinctly from war into visionary peace. This featured Jiri Heger in a warm viola solo, accompanied rather dispassionately by Alexander Souptel on solo violin. Some of the entrances in the softer and more exposed parts of the suite were also smudged.
The Fugue was neatly played with its intertwined voices and devilish rhythms; though the higher woodwinds seemed to strain under attack from the brasses and lower strings, this somehow gave the performance more credibility, as the Jets struggled to keep their hatred under "cool" control. The escalating mood with the final climax in the Rumble was convincing enough though not heart-stopping; the final short pizzicato note from the lower strings and brasses was smudged and badly cut off. Aside from these glitches, the orchestra was generally in good form tonight, and again demonstrated that on a good night they can give a worthy performance.
Bela Bart髃 had emigrated to New York in 1940 due to the unstable political atmosphere in Hungary; towards the end he must have felt an increasing nostalgia for his homeland, as reflected in his Third Piano Concerto, the only one among his three piano concertos to incorporate a Hungarian folk-song as its opening theme. This was his very last work, completed just before he died of leukaemia in 1945, save for the orchestration of the last seventeen bars (completed by close friend Tibor Serly), and also reflects the composer's matured style: a concentrated resolution of daring harmonic experimentations and academic research into folk music.
The SSO, understandably, seemed less at home with Bartok's folk idioms, which often evoked the rural landscape of Central Europe. However, in the opening of the second movement (Adagio religioso), the strings quite convincingly portrayed peaceful visions of the Hungarian countryside. In the third movement Bart髃's understated virtuosity did not deter Frankl from giving a brilliant reading, including alternating fugal parts with the orchestra; the SSO seemed less sure-footed here, but the short coda was excellent, no doubt with much assurance from the soloist.
The Latvian composer Imant Kalnins (b.1941), to me, remains very much of a mystery after the concert. Was he a classical composer utilising rock idioms in his writing, or was he simply a hippie of the Woodstock generation who was able to orchestrate rock music?
According to the notes, Kalnins himself was a full-blown hippie, experimenting with rock music, psychedelic drug trips, communes, and free love. Of course, this hippie lifestyle, including rock music, was a strict no-no in many Cold War communist regimes, and this oppression must have made rock iconism only more alluring, like water in a desert, contributing to the almost obsessive embracing of American ideals at that time.
Kalnins' Fourth Symphony was named "Rock" because it is simply rock music. The first movment sets off on a long journey, minimalist style accompanied by an driving rock beat on the drum set and a quick walking bass, slowly building up to the climax. The second movement was saccharine and fairy-like, not unlike the soundtrack accompanying Animage, a popular style of Japanese animation. The third movement seemed to be a tragic march interspersed with more saccharine interludes; up to here the epic proportions of the musical idea could fit into an adventure drama.
The wet west wind wrapped us up;
As I was a child you pamper me with roses.
The colours of wind are cold.
He's absurd...
Against the blue air,
In this pink dawn, my heart flares up and dies down.
I held my tongue when you went away.
What of soul was left I wonder,
The final movement is actually a dramatic setting of love poetry from the American, Kelly Cherry. Each and every word is set in a mood befitting the context; as a result phrases are long-drawn-out, and each of the nine stanzas have a different emotional expression. Acclaimed Canadian coloratura Jackalyn Short gave an engaging reading: anguished phrases were pelted out like a cat spitting, and lingeringly nostalgic phrases languish in ruminative yearning. The coda was almost like a rock musical, reminiscent of the earlier, more superlative Lloyd Webber musicals.
Aside from the fact that Kalnins used a microphone for the soprano (thus further simulating a rock concert), the musical material was also hardly able to maximise a good coloratura's skills. However, the SSO played with aplomb, giving the "Rock" plenty of drive and head-banging feel; the exaggerated colours and 'high' of a drug 'trip' was also paintedly vividly. This was an exciting local premier for the work, and I have always respected the SSO for championing works by modern living composers. It seems that tonight, the Post-Romantic programme sat well with the audience and instead of another evening of "stuffy" symphonies and concertos, we were treated to a glimpse of how exciting "classical" music can be, fresh out of the oven.
Adrian Tan on Kalnin's Rock Symphony
Listening to a new work is always a remarkable experience, as it was
with Kalnin's "Rock" Symphony. Out of curiosity, I made it a point to
listen for people's comments at the end of the concert. "It's so noisy!" was a common response, and "Was that a Symphony? I'm not convinced by the form" was another. I remember shuddering at that last comment.
Personally, I had a great deal of fun listening to it. The first
movement was repetitive and thus minimalistic - though I hesitate to say that
this is minimalist music. Doesn't all Rock music have some
minimalist characteristics? Nonetheless, there was a lot of Rock in
there and I'm not just talking about the drums. There were those violin
passages that I can imagine taken up on electric guitar, and those
strong pizzicato bass lines that must have been conceived with a bass
guitar in mind. Unfortunately, Shui Lan did not balance the
voices well enough for us to hear each distinctly enough. When the
orchestra reached a forte, one could only hear a huge mass of sounds,
exciting though these were. Then again, Kalnins should have known that
orchestrating for an orchestra is not the same as for a 5-piece
amplified rock band.
The inner movements of the symphony did not share the visionary nature
of the first. The second has a waltz-like character - the celesta
adding to it an innocent, child-like atmosphere. The theme is catchy,
surprisingly chroamtic at points. The music is sometimes almost sarcastic,
reminiscent of Shostakovich's Jazz suites. The third movement, an
expansive Cowboy-Western, was very entertaining but not much there. What's so
"Rock" about this? Beats me, but if Kalnins had wanted to capture "the
new sounds that were filtering in from the West", I think he's got it
spot on.
The final movement would have stood on its own. I liked that poem by
Kelly Cherry - sardonic, witty and satiric. These elements Kalnins could
capture, simply setting the most instinctive music to the words. I heard
a lot of The Beatles in there, especially in those sections when the
accompaniment abruptly entered the Rock feel. What captured my
imagination most was at that section when the orchestra recapitulated
the first movement. The vocalist began in a recitative (or rap,
depending on how you want to look at it) mode leading into a triumphant
rock coda with the orchestra and the vocalist yodeling "I will remember
you!" (in a more refined way than in the very best of Whitney Houston).
That music stayed in my mind for quite a long time. To me, Kalnins was making
a tribute to this music which he loved, and about freedom in a
passionate outburst that was not legal in the then Soviet Union. In this
way, taken in its time and context of the 1960s and 1970s, this music is a
remarkable effort by the composer, and to me, quite moving. If it was not
Singapore and not in the Victoria Concert Hall, some people might have gotten out of their seats and did some headbanging. (I'm talking about the dance, not the serious people banging their heads on the floor because of the racket)
This is no masterpiece from a musician's point of view, but it was fun.
So, all the hardcore Beethoven and Brahms people who were there, loosen
your tie and chill out a little, ok?
Soo Kian Hing stays on the West Side of Singapore and now and then enjoys a martini on the Rocks at the Bar. Adrian Tan lives rather more East.
Tonight was one good concert. Though I came mainly for Bartok's Third Piano Concerto - I hadn't even imagined the SSO doing the mambo - I was nevertheless pleasantly surprised to hear the orchestra deliver a delightful and interesting evening. Delightful, in that the performers had enough affinity with the works to give a coherent and exciting performance, and interesting in that the SSO decided to play something that was utterly different from anything that most concert-goers had ever heard before (evidenced by furtive bemused glances throughout the audience).
The Casual Concert as recounted by Adrian Tan
Right from the opening folk theme on the piano, Peter Frankl made me look up from reading the programme notes, and captivated me throughout the concerto. Frankl immediately and completely identified with the music; his empathy with the nuances and tonal colours of the music was not surprising given that he himself was born in the Hungarian capital of Budapest in 1935 (he was made British citizen in 1967).
When you left, I cried fiercely
The I died.
Will you suffer my sorrow, let me forgive you.
I will when the owl lights on the oak
sweep with my brush your loose hair back.
And love you in bed.
And wrap this sweet sheet round you until you are dead.
Red leaves rained down your back.
Oh, you -- I know who you are,
Dragon dragging your muffled fires through the chilled woods.
If you were an angel, I would laugh you out of heaven,
And set your hair on fire
and your black eyes burning would bloom like a black flower.
In this airless room I shuffle their petals
and inhale their thick, dull, deadly perfume.
As I was a child you pamper me with roses.
On a cold night, I read some books,
and some books are cold, but I read,
And in my head,
I know I hear gray grating words winged on an arctic wind.
How he loved me!
Trembled, if I touched his hand.
I saw his quick eyes glittering in the night.
I saw him strip off his kin.
And white bones clattering, he fled into the night.
He floats muter than a ghost.
I watch his wavering there,
Upon the air, and wait for his words to fall on me,
words I want most.
But he says nothing at all, but floats above the air.
Bright wind crackles around my ankles.
If I said I loved you, it was because I was bored.
Or in an aimless moment,
I many have caught the mood of the moon
Making overtures toward a mockingbird.
I could have sworn I saw the leaves changing colour,
The west wind torn from the sky and bunched into a cloud.
I could have sworn you scorched my sleep like lightning.
When the kissing had to stop.
But as the fading sun clips you from my sight,
I will remember you.
When you have gone,
the sun like a silent song will burn up the far side of night.
I will remember you.
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