The story of Coriolanus is probably best known to modern audiences through Shakespeare. Shakespeare, in turn, had originally borrowed from Plutarch's Parallel Lives (which also yielded material for two other of his 'Roman' plays, Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra.) The dramatic incarnation by which Beethoven became associated with this character, however, was not Shakespeare's but the German playwright's, Heinrich von Collins, who had already premiered his version, Coriolan, in 1802 with music patched together from Mozart's Idomeneo. Herr Beethoven was asked to provide a new overture for a 1807 revival, and the work was duly premiered in March that same year.

Having attended the first production, Beethoven would have known all about the passionate, imperious nature of the title character, which he represented with an intensely fierce C minor subject. Readers who have heard Zander's reading of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (Telarc CD-80471) would have recognized the same incisive, direct approach the good conductor used here, bringing (or should we say "wringing") out the emotional contours of the music. A red-blooded curtain-raiser for the evening, one which amply displayed Zander's firm grasp of the Romantic repertoire.

The Sibelius Violin Concerto is a work with which the Malaysian Philharmonic would be familiar: it was performed on their d´but in Singapore with Antje Weithass on November 9, 1999, and later recorded for the Vox Classics label (VXP 7904) with Aaron Rosand.

Clearly, this performance benefitted from their experience - one was immediately struck by the soundscape of icy desolation, a sonic canvas laid on by Zander for his young companion, Pekka Kuusisto. Kuusisto, every inch the youthful aristocrat of the violin, had sauntered onstage with a pre-World Cup David Beckham haircut and an insoucient swagger to match, which belied his ability - as the audience quickly found out - to fiddle faster than a speeding locomotive and leap over tall registers in a single bound.

His playing of the Sibelius was extremely unconventional, abandoning indicated tempi for the most part and applying his own measured sense of rubato, minimal vibrato and visually full of movement. In the throes of spontaniety if not eccentricity, Kuusisto stamped his foot, gestured to the audience and the orchestra with his bow, hunched himself over Quasimodo-like, tucked one foot behind the calf of the other, and fiddled away one-legged with much ostentatiousness.

One might say that Sibelius should move you to tears, not bewilderment, yet Kuusisto's extrovert reading somehow worked as a one-off performance, because of his enthusiasm and daring that successfully negotiated the fine line between daring and crassness. He has, in fact, recorded this work with Segerstam and the Helsinki Philharmonic (Ondine ODE 8782), which will provide interesting listening for those wanting a different spin on Sibelius's warhorse.

To his credit, Zander did his duty and stuck by the soloist admirably in this admittedly one-sided match - for it to have really worked would have required the orchestra to have adopted his narcisstic reading, and wouldn't that have raised some brouhaha. Rather, their support was serious, full of energy and vigour as might be expected, and realistically I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it if they had tried to match the eccentric spinto that was Kuusisto's prerogative as the soloist.

The slow movement provied more leeway for Zander to bring his own mark to the music, while Kuusisto played with steely, lyric determinism. It was not hard to see why the jurists of the Internation Jean Sibelius Violin Competition of 1995 not only gave him the first prize, but also a special prize for his interpretation of the Sibelius. What Kuusisto lacked in emotional pathos, Zander and the orchestra made up for, leading into the final movement that allowed Kuusisto to launch his fireworks (including an amazing dalliance in the upper flageolet registers of pure-white glassiness). Zander stuck to the soloist's lithe passagework like a limpet, bringing the work home with a bang, and then some.

For the encore, Kuusisto gave the Corrente from Bach's First Partita, again with impeccable bow-work and clean articulation. This was also the first time I've heard a solo violin give an encore in the hall, and the quality of the Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS's acoustics was just as amazing for solo violin as it was for large orchestra.

Brahms's fecund Fourth Symphony received a portentous reading from Zander after the break - the good maestro having full measure as an exponent of the Classico-Romantic repertoire. The legendary conductor Hans von Bülow has described this symphony as "stupendous, quite original, individual and rocklike... Incomparable strength from start to finish," and Zander eked these qualities out with a strongly characterized interpretation.

The orchestra responded with great alacrity to Zander, but I was drawn especially to the string playing, shading the opening undulating melody with autumnal melancholy. The central movements saw superb sectional playing from the winds and brasses, especially the horns, with pinpoint attack and precision. Zander's idyllic tempo for the second movement showed that he was not all about artistic red-bloodedness, tooth and claw, but what was missing I felt were the elements of individuality, the personal marks of craftsmanship. By this I mean that while the ensemble playing under the reins of a single person was fully idiomatic and responsive, there were sections in the music which individual musicians could have come forth with their personal touches as well.

The third movement, marked Giocoso (meaning "jovial"), was not so much lacking in humour as Zander's undue emphasis in burning off flair and panache than anything else. But this granitic approach worked in the finale, full of excitement, as the orchestra went through the exposition of thirty gutwrenching variations, punctuated with moments of tension and serenity, that built up to one huge, zaftig wallop of an ending. Zander has no lack of Weltzschmerz, and the orchestra turned in a good, solid performance. The road to recovery from the Gala Concert has begun.

P.S. One thing though - does the Malaysian Phlharmonic know that the Singapore Symphony is going to play a near-identical programme (just swap Beethoven's Coriolan for Schumann's Manfred) on Oct 4/5 ?

Benjamin Chee managed to find The Complete Macross triple-CD set (going for only thirty ringgit) on this trip.

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24.9.2002 © Tan Beng Ti

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