Friday 29th October, 1999 Victoria Concert Hall	Subscription Series Last Thoughts...
	Gioacchino ROSSINI Overture to La Cenerentola (arr. Zedda) Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART Symphony No.41 in C major, K551 "Jupiter" Giuseppe VERDI Act I Prelude to La Traviata Johannes BRAHMS Violin Concerto in D major, op.77 Uto UGHI viola Claudio SCIMONE conductor

OVERALL NOISE RATING: 1 (some rustling of programme notes)

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

There are some who choose to view Mozart's music as porcelain, childlike and delicate. They delight in his "melodiousness", and charm and wit. And then there are those who view Mozart's music as innately full of quiet tragedy. They find him dignified, but with an undercurrent of unmistakable courage and strength. For such individuals was the interpretation of his 41st Symphony on Friday. The former might have found it bombastic, pompous, un-Classical; I found it delightful.

Claudio Scimione is a conductor such as I have never seen before. There is an unmistakable, though subtle, swagger in his gestures. Joy lights his face as he waves his long baton. His beat is rarely discernable, his baton serving all at once as a conductor's staff and a violin bow, his cutting figurations betraying his violinistic sources. In fact he rarely beats time.

Predictably then, the SSO had trouble following his conducting, but judging from the results he achieved, this hardly mattered. The first movement was admirably paced, the playful, joyful second subject fast on its feet. How some members of the SSO could play such music without evoking a smile is beyond me; it certainly brought a smile upon me.

The performance might have been classified as a Romantic one, what with the pregnant pauses before the second subject, and the rubato, subtle in some places, more emphatic in others, but the second movement was to bring surprises. This was taken at a true, flowing, Andante. This beautiful dream-like movement is tinged with more than a touch of tragedy, and Scimone brought this out with confidence. There was something of Beethoven's romances and Bartók's night-music in this performance; it was tragic but never complaining.

No Viennese lilt informed the third movement, taken more Ländler-like, but with a lot of humour. But it was the last movement which finally showed Scimone's full intentions with the symphony - it was Mozart at his most unassailable. It was Mozart the indomitable, the Mozart who wrote the Requiem mass, Mozart the eternal optimist. In the vitally-played fugal movement (it is known as "the symphony with the fugal ending" in Prague), Scimone brought the orchestra to shimmering, heavenly heights.

This, then, was one of the most compelling Mozart performances we have had of late.

Less satisfactory was the performance of Brahms' Violin Concerto. The orchestra performed far better than it did under Choo Hoey (Nov 1998 - reviewed here); here, in the least, were solid musical ideas, a contrast from the lack-luster catatonic performance under the former. Today the orchestra was full-blooded, pliant, and most of the time, attentive, after the opening orchestral tutti.

Soloist Uto Ughi performed in Singapore two years ago in a recital with Bruno Canino at the Jubilee Hall, and I remember that concert for two things: the blatancy of his "bluffing" in the second half, and the encore piece (Carmen Fantasie, as I remember), and the standing ovations at the end.

Both featured prominently tonight. Uto Ughi displays a fine musical intelligence but has the habit, unfortunately, of hectoring the music and beating it into submission. There were many of moments of touching beauty (his violin's tone is dark and intoxicating in the lower registers) but often screeches and wolf-tones in the higher positions, as well as patches of intonation problems which hampered the first movement. His audacious entries after some orchestral passages were certainly admirable, but intonation was certainly sacrificed.

Someone called Mutter's performance (Jun 1999 - reviewed here) rather too robust for his liking. I find, to a certain extent, this kind of robustness in Ughi's playing, unfortunately, it is not coupled with the same technical affirmation, nor does it have the sweep or breadth of Mutter.

That being said, his Joachim cadenza was certainly very well played, even if I prefer the Kreisler, and his daringness paid off totally here.

The second movement, not having the technical difficulties of the first, was played beautifully, even if Ughi's resistance to Scimione's slower tempi meant that there were instances where the sublimity of the music was compromised. Otherwise it was beautiful playing, with lovely phrasing from both soloist and orchestra/conductor.

The third movement, Allegro ma non troppo giocoso, had a touch more allegro than ma non troppo. Ughi started at a heroic pace, but was unable to keep his technical performance up to scratch. Scratches, huge spots of intonation problems, glibly slipped out notes, approximated arpeggios were among some of the problems. I would like to say that it was good to hear the finale played at such a pace (try Milstein with Steinberg for size), but this was a case where the difficulties overwhelmed the performer, and I was unable to consistently enjoy the performance.

Amazingly or otherwise, there were standing ovations after the performance. I say, Ughi should really consider if he should be acknowledging these with encores. After he played his Paganini cappricio as an encore, I was left mystified. Gone are the days, I suppose, where only the finest received such accolades. This performance was finer by several leagues than Michiko Kamiya's unfortunate one last year (aforementioned - reviewed here), but still no cigar.

I want to spend a little time discussing the two overtures from Italian Opera, La Cenerentola (Cinderalla), by Rossini and Verdi's La Traviata Prelude. In my opinion, La Cenerentola was played with lots of verve and gusto, although some musicians, for example the trumpetist was clearly not up to the job. Scimione obviously knows his Rossini!

The Verdi was a little too extrovert and a little too robust (that word again!) for my liking, rather in the old-style, similar to a performance by Panizza I've heard recently, but it was finely played, very Italianate (breath-taking trills from the violins!) and all in all, I wish that had not been the end of it. Verdi's music in this Prelude is so beautifully anticipatory, I could not have helped but felt it was one opera prelude that was really not meant to be played as a concert piece. But what I would give to hear Scimone conduct the whole thing!

An overall enjoyable concert, then, with caveats mainly with the violinist.

Derek Lim still hates to come up with closing lines =).

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