Saturday 2 May 1998 Victoria Concert Hall	Singapore Symphony Orchestra
	MIKHAIL GLINKA Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla (1837-42) SERGEI PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No.1 in D, op.19 (1916-7) JOHANNES BRAHMS Symphony No.1 in C minor, op.68 (1855-76) Hagai SHAHAM violin Okko KAMU conductor

OVERALL NOISE RATING: 1 (Audience mesmerized.)

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

If the tempo with which an orchestra dares to execute the Russlan and Ludmilla Overture is an indication of their skill, then allow me to pre-pay the SSO and Okko Kamu (left) my profoundest respects.

It's always a good sign when you walk into the Hall and see more than a handful of players still practising their parts on stage. When the whole SSO finally gathered, there was a light atmosphere of expectancy over them. I guess they knew what was coming.

From the first shots of the timpani, the SSO transformed into this huge spinning thing on stage. The strings were a tornado, swirling into their exultant melody with gusto. The celli, with their magnificent second subject melody, were in excellent voice. I have heard the SSO play with the utmost unity before, but not often with such supreme eloquence. I marvelled at their sense of uplift, the seeming ease and their expressive commitment, while trying hard to forget that my mouth was hanging open. Okko Kamu was a sight himself as he turned page after page of his conductor's score every few seconds!

The Israeli violinist, Hagai Shaham (no relation to Gil) gave us another heart-stopping experience. In the dreamy mists of the Prokofiev, his soft, lilting tone was warm and possessed great powers of projection, intently capturing the audience's attention.

Here and there, Shaham demonstrated his Heifetzian ability to slide between notes, softening the interval between each with the faintest of glissando. A very beautiful "singing" treatment. He shifted between tones fine and coarse, as the personalities of the harmonies suggested - some sweet, some sour. Overall he gave a very disciplined and yet somehow very affecting and humane performance, one which made me feel for him (even before the accident occured - read on!). The quiet ending of the first movement was serenely done - a snowy landscape, but not a chilly one.

In the lurid Scherzo, Shaham generated great excitement with his very palpable stage presence. After breaking one strand of hair on his bow, one of his strings snapped as he strode purposefully into the grotesquely "ugly" passage about one minute into the movement. Shaham stopped and smiled knowingly at Kamu as the SSO faded into quiet. The audience, recovering from its astonishment, applauded in a gesture of support. I turned with childish glee at my companion and said, "Hey! This happened to Vengerov too!"

Please allow me to digress into a very interesting story (imagine you're waiting for Shaham to come back on stage). One well-known and excellent account of the Prokofiev First Violin Concerto is the 1994 recording made by Maxim Vengerov (b.1974) with the London Symphony under Rostropovich (Teldec 4509-92256-2). This is coupled with the Shostakovich First and was also the 1995 Gramophone Record of the Year. What is coincidental is that before this record was made, Vengerov had performed the Shostakovich No.1 at the Barbican Centre in London. During the finale, he too broke a string. In the kind of scene which one thinks only happens in movies, the LSO leader quickly passed his violin to Vengerov, who proceeded to finish the Concerto without a break!

Not that it could happen here, because Shaham had broken his in mid-melody. What I want to point out is the conviction with which both violinists played the Prokofiev, though Shaham's is more lyrical, Vengerov's more fiery. But of course, it's ridiculous to compare a "live" performance with a recording because the latter often indulges in multiple takes and the splicing together of the best bits.

After not very long, Shaham (left) returned, bearing a warm smile for everyone. One of our Inkpot writers was later told by him that he (Shaham) believes the extreme Singapore weather was to blame. Another black mark for El Niņo. Take Two was a nerve-wrecking experience. First it was taken slightly faster, and the score is already marked "Vivacissimo". The new string, which Shaham occasionally tweaked, seemed to rob the violin of some of its lustre and volume. Unfortunately for everyone, soloist included, Take One seemed better.

I felt sorry for our fine soloist, but who could blame the heightened sense of carefulness and anxiety (or was it just me?) that enveloped the second run of the Scherzo? Shaham played with much bravery, walking along a thin line between care for the precision of the notes and reckless abandonment for the "scherzo" element. He openly exploits exposed notes, in particular the resounding pizzicati, for maximum effect. This can be very effective though the momentum of the music becomes a little irregular.

Again, I watched in fear throughout the performance, the kind of feeling you can only get "live". In fact, halfway through the Scherzo, he broke another strand of bow hair. For all the anticipation, the anxiety, and most of all the concern I felt for Hagai Shaham - the experience of this concert was worth a million dollars.

Throughout, Kamu and the SSO accompanied with admirable skill, shifting the tempi appropriately for the soloist. Balance was a bit disadvantageous against the solo violin at times, particularly with the new string. Nevertheless, if you watched Kamu, you could see him trying his best to hush the SSO at these spots. Ensemble was for the most part excellent, harps and woodwind all nicely unobstrusive and enchanting the atmosphere.

In the concluding Moderato, Shaham moulded the ominously quiet goblin march of the beginning into a graceful series of moods - it somehow felt like some nocturnal dance beneath the stars. The final movement is one of those works which never really "begins". Rather, it is like a long lyrical "ending", which Shaham weaved with feeling, grace and personality. Finally, all ends in a veil of magical harmonic trills.

Before he left, Shaham entertained the audience with a finely crafted performance of a Kreisler Scherzo. A charismatic soloist with strong communicative presence. I hope the SSO invites him back.

The SSO was again in gigantic voice in the urgent and sometimes almost militant performance of the first movement from Brahms's Symphony No.1. The huge booming introduction brought on immediately the dark tragi-heroic tone of C minor. Their grand and full sound, finely articulated, managed to make the congested Brahmsian orchestration sound really good. The Beethovenian drive of "Beethoven's Tenth" was palpable, and also full of pathos. All beautifully handled, with the softest of endings.

The Andante sostenuto was also beautifully done, and here I just want to single out the exquisite violin solo of our fine leader, Alexander Souptel, who played with that natural sense of musical elegance we know of him. Kudos to the woodwind as well, exuding much pastoral warmth. The short burst of applause after the movement was very much deserved. The third movement was done truly "grazioso", gently moving, immediately appealling.

The finale was dark, then impulsive. Gorgeous contributions from the horns, calling as if from a great distance, welling up scenically with their alpine tone. The SSO played their hearts out - both Souptel and Lynette broke hairs as well. The strings were very full and grand in their big theme. I still think that the ending of the work is too verbose (in the manner of Beethoven's own Fifth and Tchaikovsky's 1812), but the SSO presented it quickly and with nobility.

For some the tempi Kamu adopted would be considered too fast, but I think what he has done is to sacrifice (conservativism of) tempo for symphonic consistency and efficiency. For me it works, and I thought it showed how the SSO proves again to be a real "Symphony" orchestra. I have only missed two Okko Kamu concerts since he became Principal Guest Conductor - this (along with last week's concert) is one of his most successful trips yet.

The only strings Chia Han-Leon now breaks are the confusedly complicated strands of densely convoluted strings of multiple-adjectivized phrases and over-described objects which make up his complexively congested and hastily concocted reviews.

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161: 3.5.98

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