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The St Paul Chamber Orchestra
Tuesday
2 February 1999 Victoria Concert Hall |
GIVING HOPE THROUGH MUSIC In aid of The Hope Fund |
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Richard WAGNER Siegfried-Idyll Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART Clarinet Concerto in A major, KV622 Bright SHENG Postcards Manuel de FALLA El amor brujo
Sabine MEYER clarinet |
OVERALL NOISE RATING:
2 (beep-beep-beep-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 Esplanade Co. Ltd
by Darrell Ang
This 40-year-old, Minnesota-based orchestra was formed with the mission to
"devote the major portion of its programmes to the wonderful literature,
both classical and contemporary, that is not ordinarily played by large
symphonies"; and in this, it has today come to be recognised as one of the
finest chamber orchestras in the world – not least for its adventurous
programming, but also for its performances of high calibre. Since 1988
(Music Director from 1991) the Orchestra has been under the dynamic
leadership of Hugh Wolff; and the partnership has reaped extraordinary
results – culminating in more than 19 recordings (they have an exclusive
contract with Teldec) and numerous, highly-acclaimed international tours.
Singapore-audiences were certainly fortunate enough to be treated to some
extravagant musical fare on two consecutive evenings this week.
Wolff certainly knows the music well, dispensing with the
score and focusing his attention on his select group of remarkable players.
The smooth introduction was as fluid as anyone could ask for – the
tentative phrases urging ever forward. Speeds bordered on the brisk side,
but were well-adapted – nevertheless - to the music.
A chamber-like
intimacy was undoubtedly the order of the day, and the musicians of the
SPCO did well in listening to one another: fully responsive to their
colleagues and to their conductor, as individual entries eased their way
comfortably into the music's delicate texture. The present writer would
have preferred a little less harshness in the strings, and thought the tone
to be slightly wiry – a more silken-quality would have been better-suited
to the music. Inner voices were given their due, especially in the
contrapuntal passages; the orchestral balance was quite successfully
maintained.
A tranquil, almost mysterious quality was evoked in the
development section – with hushed, muted strings amidst woodwinds uttering
in gentle whispers. The climax leading into the final section was
well-crafted, although this listener missed hearing the jubilant trumpet
fanfare-like figures. Bird-calls on flute and clarinet, and the serene and
beautiful horn-signals were certainly most memorable – all in all, a
deliciously-wrought performance of this little masterpiece.
Sabine Meyer is incapable of making an ugly
sound, and all aspects of her technique defy description – that leaves this
reviewer at a loss for words. The Allegro first-movement opened confidently
– again, textures were lucid and well-balanced, strings never overpowering
the winds' harmonic back-up. Meyer's entry with the first subject was
luscious, creamy and absolutely delectable: she displayed a clear
understanding of those long, arching phrase-lines and imbued each new
figure with character. Incredible lower-registers too, not harsh or
menacingly-thin – always full-bodied and thick.
Excellent control was
evident in the Adagio second-movement: Ms Meyer's unerring sense of
musicianship never once lacking in lyrical warmth and sensitivity, greatly
heightening the intimacy of this lovely music. The orchestra's
accompaniment, though (this listener feels), did not quite compliment the
soloist's understanding of the music. The Rondo-Allegro third movement was
spritely, and its exhuberance was maintained throughout; mimicking, no
less, Sabine Meyer's jubilant and puck-ish characterisation – her
dulcet-tones never failing to capture the moment, and Hugh Wolff was a
reliable accompanist throughout. In a word: unforgettable!
Bright Sheng belongs to a current generation of emigrant Chinese composers
(Tan Dun, Chen Yi and Julian Yu among them) who fled the cultural
revolution in their homeland and are now considered the representative
musical voices of China – collectively known as "The New Wave". Now
Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan, he had previously
studied with the likes of Jack Beeson, George Perle, and most importantly,
Hugo Weisgall and Chou Wen-Chung. His music has been championed by
Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma and Kurt Masur; and is a regular feature at most
festivals of contemporary music.
Basically a tonal composer, Sheng
disguises key-affiliations with a wide palette of compositional techniques
derived from Stravinsky and Hindemith, including Chinese folk-music; and
his Postcards is a case-in-point. Originally a commission for the silver
wedding anniversary of Ruth and John Huss, Postcards is "about nature, love
and nostalgia"; and is scored for small orchestra with a battery of
percussion which includes mallets, tubular bells and piano. It is in four
movements, titled "From the Mountains", "From the River Valley", "From the
Savage Land" and "Wish You Were Here".
Exotic, "Chinese-opera" sounds are
immediately evoked at the start of the preludial opening movement:
"weird-and-wonderful" orchestration which serves, according to the
composer, the apparent "overall gesture, emerging as it does from the inner
details like a tree-branch or Chinese calligraphy". In this, he succeeds;
as one is likely to notice of the music's obvious "silent" growth.
String-portamenti and scordatura-like effects are employed to enhance the
music's oriental flavour.
Manuel de Falla's Andalusian gypsy scenes, El amor brujo ("Love, the
Magician"), provided the perfect foil for Bright Sheng's Chinese nostalgia.
Originally a ballet, the music has fared better over the years in the
concert-hall. The selection tonight dispensed with the scenes which call
for solo-voice. It is based on an old Andalusian legend about a sensuous
gypsy woman, Candelas, who is haunted by the ghost of her late husband.
Having been neglected and faithless in life, he now continually interferes
with Candelas and her new lover. The woman's attempts to exorcise the
spirit in a "Ritual Fire Dance" are in vain; and finally, with the aid of
sorcery, the perturbing spirit is lured away by the conjured form of
another pretty gypsy girl.
The "Introduction" opened briskly and grandiloquently,
with near flawless synchronisation of the strings/timpani rumble; and the
subsequent "Evening" scene started-off mysteriously, before the delicious
oboe solo that introduces halfway the "love"-theme. Ravel-ian rhythms
prevail in the "Ghost" and its accompanying "Dance of Terror" scenes; and
the orchestra was definitely up-to-task in the quick, pointed figures –
thumbs-up, too, to the pianist who played magnificently in the
tutti-passages.
The magical and serene "Fisherman's Story" was
well-sustained – the SPCO and its conductor are certainly not incapable of
lyrical tenderness. Elsewhere, they displayed an amazing affinity for the
wild energy in the "Ritual Fire Dance" – excellent horns, nonetheless! The
final scene, "The Morning Bells", magically evoked an orange sunrise –
complete with chiming tubular-bells and thomping timpani. Furthermore, the
audience was pampered with two encores: a rowdy "Hoe-Down" from Copland's
Rodeo, and the Gavotte from Prokofiev's "Classical Symphony" – how
extraordinarily delightful! Pity the ringing handphone near the end, though
…
The premiere night opened with a lucid account of Richard Wagner's
Siegfried-Idyll, composed in 1870 as a birthday gift for the composer's
wife, Cosima. She awokened on Christmas Day that year to "a sound, swelling
ever more, until (she) could no longer believe (she) was dreaming. Music
sounded, and what music!" The original title given to the score was
"Symphonic Birthday Greetings: Tribschen Idyll with Fidi's Birdsong and
Orange Sunrise". "Tribschen" was the name of the couple's love-nest and
"Fidi" the nickname given to their favourite child, Siegfried. The themes
in the Idyll find their origin in the composer's opera, Siegfried, on which
the composer was still at work at the time. Its quasi-Sonata form structure
is elusive, owing to the excessive wealth of melodic material which flows
uninhibited throughout the score in timeless rapture, sometimes
contrapuntally.
No qualms whatsoever, about this evening's magnificent rendition by Sabine
Meyer of Mozart's evergreen Clarinet Concerto. The present writer cannot
recall ever having heard it better-played than it was tonight. Ms Meyer's
reputation surely precedes her: who could have forgotten the woman who was
responsible for the ousture of Herbert von Karajan from the Berlin
Philharmonic late last decade? Hearing her in performance definitely erased
all doubts as to why the late, great maestro defied heaven-and-hell (in
this case, the Board of the Berliner Philharmoniker) to grant her
membership in the orchestra.
Petrouchka is called to mind in the second
movement; and the composer's highly-derivative streak is multiplied in the
third movement as he unabashedly lifts from Le Sacre, seemingly to evoke
a raw, savage dance. Here, especially, Stravinsky's influence is evident
(no less in the carbon-copy music) in the motoric rhythms and metre-shifts
– the SPCO and Wolff responded well to the demands of the score. Its back
to Chinese folk-style again in the final movement, as a simple melody is
given an oriental twist much like the opening movement. An interesting
work, nevertheless, if not very original; and conductor and orchestra gave
a convincing and superbly played account.
The garishly colourful music is marked by de
Falla's profound admiration for Debussy, Ravel, and especially, Dukas;
coupled with his deep love of Spanish song and nationalist fervour. The
SPCO and Wolff (right) obliged us with a vivid reading of this wonderful music,
with sharply-characterised rhythms (so hugely imperative) and instrumental
details never amiss.
Darrell Ang found out that he was sitting on the wrong seat at this concert - three days later.
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