Friday 16th July, 1999 Victoria Concert Hall |
Familiar Favourites
Opera Without Words |
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Gioacchino ROSSINI Overture to La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie)
Jules MASSENET "Meditation" from Thaīs Charles GOUNOD Ballet music from Faust Giuseppe VERDI Overture from La Forza Del Destino (The Force of Destiny) Pietro MASCAGNI Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana (Rustic Chivalry) Richard WAGNER Prelude and "Liebestod" from Tristan und Isolde "The Ride of the Valkyries" from Die Walkure Bart FOLSE conductor |
OVERALL NOISE RATING:
3 (hypnotised by the Wagner.)
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
by Isaak Koh
The SSO opens the second half of its 20th Anniversary Year with a selection of familiar favorites, modelled along the lines of a Boston Pops/Fiedler concert. Subtitled "Opera without Words", this programme is clearly targetted at the casual listener who might be intimidated by longer and more "serious" works. This move to attract a wider audience is praiseworthy and is a positive step towards the cultivation of the arts in Singapore.
Massenet's famous "Meditation" was much better done, the orchestra sounding rich and highly expressive. Sporting a handsome beard, leader Alexander Souptel took the solo violin section lyrically and his beautiful tone enraptured the attentive audience. The only quibble was that he should have been standing and facing the listeners concerto-style, instead of sitting in his usual position, so as to highlight his important role in the work as well as to project the sound of his instrument more fully into the back reaches of the hall.
The ensemble was slightly uncoordinated in Verdi's Overture to The Force of Destiny, with clearly audible slips in contrast to the magnificent work done in the Gounod. The structure of the work calls for the various sections of the orchestra to play concertante-fashion in turn. There was beautiful playing from the sections when their turn came around, leading to a rousing end, although the work itself was not impressive overall.
Mascagni's famous Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana was spine-chilling, particularly during the first high note of the main melody, the ravishing strings coming in to sweep the audience off its feet (despite again sounding thin at the beginning). It was sadly all too soon over.
They woke up to the recognisable sounds in the famous Ride of the Valkyries, taken from Die Walküre, the second of the four music dramas in Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen. The work started off with sufficient menace and bite, the strings appropriately creating short and sharp screeches. However, the horns were too civilised, lacking that blaring quality that is the focal point of the work. Similarly, the lower strings lacked growl, failing to make sufficient impact on the swirl of orchestral colours. Generally though, the ensemble was again very fine, especially the percussion section, sounding fabulous in their contributions. Still, the SSO sounded underpowered for a work filled with so much gusto, and this was painfully revealed at the final charge, when it should have swept the audience out of the hall with a tsunami of sound. The horns did sound great at the end, coming together as they ought to have at the beginning.
If the aim of this concert is to attract a wider public to become frequent members of future concerts, it has admirably succeeded. If it was meant to be an artistic showcase of the musicianship of the SSO, then it has honestly shown what the orchestra is capable of but has also revealed its weaknesses.
Isaak Koh is groovin' to Miles Davis and Bruckner. Strange bedfellows...
The Thieving Magpie overture began with the orchestra sounding thin and somewhat uninvolved. The typically playful Rossini work wore a sombre face, a mood at odds with the high-spirited music. Folse (right) maintained this restraint almost to the end, when he pushed the orchestra to a hell-bent charge to the finish.
Gounod's opera Faust is based on Goethe's epic drama. The ballet music was added in 1869, depicting Faust being led by Mephistopheles through hell. The seven parts depict the various beauties shown to Faust to distract him from Marguerite. The SSO opened the first dance (Les Nubiennes) with forceful chords, leading into a delightful waltz. Folse left the orchestra much on auto-pilot, himself performing a miniature dance on the conductor's podium much to the amusement of the audience. The music was generally attractive to the ear, played well by the orchestra, albeit inconsequential. Cleopatra's Variations seemed interestingly carnivalesque, while the dance of Les Troyens was sweet and endearing, while the Variations du Miroir revealed the orchestra in fine and precise form, alive and alert. The last number, the famous Allegro vivo of Phryné's Dance, was suggestive of demonic thunder and lightning, culminating with an exhiliarating mad-cap rush to the end. Amidst the helter-skelter, Folse and the musicians exhibited a wonderful sense of control and execution. The inexperience of the audience was also revealed during the ballet music, clapping inappropriately at the end of the first dance!
The two Wagner pieces were much more problematic. It was obvious that the inexperienced audience did not expect such demanding listening, appearing uncomfortable during the drawn-out prelude to Tristan und Isolde. Other than a distracting loose note on the flute, the excerpts were executed well, with the buildups powerfully sustained. Unfortunately, Folse's choice to go on the slow side hampered any climaxes from achieving passion and frenzy. The music was certainly stirring enough (particularly in the "Liebestod"), the chromaticism in Wagner's writing was clearly heard, but the audience was unprepared for this music without a catchy melody.
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