Saturday 9th October, 1999 Victoria Concert Hall	Subscription Series Last Thoughts.../Great Classics
	Johannes BRAHMS Variations on a Theme by (attr.) Haydn, op.56a Frédéric CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, op.21 Pyotr Illyich TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No.6 in B minor, op.74 "Pathétique" Benjamin FRITH piano WANG Jin conductor

OVERALL NOISE RATING: 2 (This week, the announcement against beeping digital watches didn't work. 9pm rang about 6 times, and 10pm at least twice - the CFCs must have left.)

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

Oh wow. This must go down as one of the most unusual and memorable SSO concerts for a long while. None of the pieces played were new to the orchestra, but what new ground!

I was looking forward very much to see (finally) my favourite British pianist in performance. Benjamin Frith does not have the widespread fame of say, Stephen Hough or Leslie Howard, but he remains for me one of the very best exponents of the Classical-Romantic repertoire. And surely tonight, with the Chopin No.2, was a case in point.

Mr Frith is not one to hide his enjoyment of the music, as he tapped his fingers on his lap along with the long orchestral introduction. As he began his solo, one thing was clear - in his hands and fingers, the VCH grand was transformed. Nowhere in earshot was either its usual blattery tone or for that matter its infamous tinny upper range. Instead, Frith coaxed from it a voice very much his own - forward and bright, much more open than usual, responding to his own brand of delicate, deliciously articulate fingerwork.

Frith has a fabulously light touch which I have always admired in his recordings. Coupled with his Classical articulation and Romantic sensibility to a score such as this, what we heard tonight was a rendition of the concerto which was not only superb, but pays justice to the fact that Chopin also transcribed it for piano quintet (more information here). Even the SSO responded obediently to the chamber feel with a light and backgrounded accompaniment, carefully and unobstrusively led by conductor Wang Jin.

In the first movement, Frith demonstrated fantastic timing and dramatic pacing. He gets exactly the pulse and phrasing he wants, never a hint of faltering or doubt; the minutest rubato and the most piquant turns of phrases admirably characterise his expert and natural pianism, while his shifts of tempo always made perfect sense in the music - these are qualities one will hear in his recordings as well (especially the Mendelssohn Concerti on Naxos). I have already described this as classical precision married to Romantic impulse. There is ample but never overcooked amount of feeling in his reading, as well as humour and warmth.

There is this intensity to every note he touches on the piano. Frith puts his whole frame to the instrument and the music; every note, fortissimo or pianissimo, tingles with power, but not brute force. In the serene Larghetto, his utter concentration is exerted to produce utter lightness. The resolution of each phrase in this heavenly music has an almost deliriously heady weight. His clearly moulded dynamic swells and drops added a special poignancy to the serious music of the mid-section. As the tranquil opening material returns, we were treated to these little rushes of utterly besotted Romanticism - no one could doubt that Chopin was in love when he wrote this.

The transition to the finale showed yet more genius, as Frith transformed the quiet ending of the Larghetto into the little dance that begins the Allegro vivace. A tinge of mischief accompanied the dancing figures, as Frith made every note belong in its place with running glissandi of sparkling clarity and flow. After the false ending, Frith attacked the final lap with glee, polish and relish. A fitting tribute to Chopin, to whom on 17th October we celebrate the 150th anniversary of his passing.

Chinese-born conductor WANG Jin has spent most of his time in Europe, in particular the Eastern side, where he has not only won music prizes from Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic (in addition to Austria, Italy and Denmark), but is also Chief Conductor of the Czech State Philharmonic, Moravia and MD of the Vienna Schubert Sinfonietta. He has studied with Zubin Mehta, Leonard Bernstein, Václav Neumann and Peter Eötvös.

The Brahms Variations on a Theme by (or rather, attributed to) Haydn is a bit of an SSO staple, it seems - I can almost say my entire education of this work is from the orchestra. Wang's take on it was simple and... German, like a good strong Volvo full of braun. His conducting here was natural and clean, reflecting very much the SSO's response to the music. Admirable was the sense of flow created through the variations, as is the dark and beautiful stringwork (Variation IV). Even though the Brahmsian "cloudy" orchestration appears in say, Variation V, pertinent parts of the music somehow come through effectively, particular in the winds. The orchestral tone brightened toward the end, hinting at the Tchaikovsky to come, and the finale was pulled off with majesty and weight, concluding a simple but very enjoyable reading.

The "Pathétique" is my favourite Tchaikovsky symphony, though I was not quite in the mood for it tonight. Expecting yet another usual performance of yet another SSO staple (that is, Tchaikovsky symphonies), I was not prepared for the gargantuan hall-quake that followed.

The opening, rising from the depths, was very dark, very deliberate. Wang Jin enforced a somewhat architecturally "blocky" view of the first movement, which was unusually transparent horizontally. Whereas we would expect a Romantic symphony such as this to be more "mushy", Wang emphasized the stomping vertical steps of the movement rather than its horizontal flow. The effect was rather more Shostakovichian than Tchaikovskian. So punishing were these hammering blocks of sound that the best phrase I can find to describe this view was that it was making the symphony "burst its seams". The tone colours were a bit flat, with great prominence of brass. Overall, I felt that this harmed the symphonic flow rather than aided it. Nevertheless, it was a highly dedicated performance, which raised my eyebrows more than once. Very powerful and original, but not for me.

It gets even more interesting. The luscious 5/4 waltz of the Allegro con grazia, my favourite of the Tchaikovskian "symphonic waltzes", was more effective. In this case, the more vertically unified structure of the work came through. If the rubato exercised by the conductor was a bit too deliberate (I wonder how much rehearsal went on for this), Wang Jin's invocation of the music's beauty and power won my admiration. A very well-integrated reading.

The startlingly committed performance of the SSO was such that I think I must have heard every note in the third movement, the titanic march of the Allegro molto vivace. Under Wang, the music gathered shattering momentum with massive power - rarely has the SSO sounded this loud as it thundered forth the score like some giant Shostakovichian army of string swirls, wind blasts and percussion cannon.

I was a bit disappointed that so much noise (shuffling, coughing, score turning) was made after this movement. But on Saturday we had a good audience - they didn't clap. I have been informed that on Friday, parts of the audience burst into applause at this infamous juncture of the "Pathétique". In any case, all the more was my world turned upside down as the performers tore through the tragic fabric of the mercilessly remorseful Adagio lamentoso, which Tchaikovsky contemplated destroying after the premiere.

It became almost Expressionist, so heartbreakingly extreme was the emotionalism. The highly effective use of the flute pedal in the beginning, the tenderly scorching strings, the heartbursting swelling chords - the clarity with which Wang Jin obviously sought brought about new meanings to the music. So starkly were the orchestral elements revealed that it became almost like bloodstains on a white wall. In this performance, the passion of the sorrow was truly, absolutely - epic.

All was extended suffering, yet it felt so fleeting and short - death seemed to await in anticipation, but also to come quickly to grant peace. As the lower strings intoned the final sighs of anguished peace, no one moved. Wang Jin held onto the diminuendo, which fades to a pppp, with severe concentration, and finally dropped his arms in exhausted resignation.

As the audience thundered away in applause, we had not yet fully fathomed the extent of his immersion into the emotional core of this music. It only dawned on me when it took the better part of about half a minute for Wang to regain his composure, wiping away the perspiration of emotional outpour repeatedly from his face. He thanked the orchestra first, which is the right thing to do, before at long last he turned to the audience. Even from afar, the emotional aftermath was visibly etched in him.

In all, it was a most shockingly (must use the word again) epic performance. Mr Wang, I do not completely agree with your view, but I bow in complete homage to the power of your vision.

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