|
Wednesday 19 August, 1998 Victoria Concert Hall |
T'ANG QUARTET Breaktime! |
|
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN String Quartet No.6 in B-flat major, Op.18 (1800)
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH String Quartet No.7 in F-sharp minor, Op.108 (1960) CLAUDE DEBUSSY String Quartet in G minor, Op.10 (1893)
NG Yu-Ying 1st violin |
OVERALL NOISE RATING:
3 (Just several coughs actually, but all at just the right moments)
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.
Ticket for Inkpot classical music reviewer has been impulsively sponsored by the Editor, who was recently paid for doing some stuff...
by Ong Yong Hui
As I seated myself comfortably in the concert hall, I noted a microphone placed on the left side of the stage, and thought that I can finally get to hear the person making those "switch-off-all-handphone-and-pagers" announcements live. Soon, the lights dimmed, and the expectant and sell-out crowd was eager to clap for the group's appearance. Footsteps were heard, and a single clap sounded out before the crowd realized that only Leslie Tan, cellist of the group, had appeared, and without his bulky tool of trade too.
Looking nervous and a bit sheepish, he told the curious audience that he was here to make a speech as he "realized that many of you don't read programme notes" (Really?? See below*). Anyway, he confessed that they are mostly "too technical" in explanation, and kindly proceeded to enlighten the audience about the music in layman's terms. "We often give nicknames for our
programmes, and we named this one as 'depression'", and he went on to explain why most "musicians are depressed people".
The group finally made their appearance and settled down in time. Mentally preparing themselves for the start of the concert, their camaraderie was clearly there; for a long while they exchange communicative glances at each other silently and eventually, with a sheepish smile, they launched into Beethoven's Op.18, Quartet No.6. Right from the start, their gorgeous sound
and fine balance caught my attention, giving me the feeling that they would do well in the slow movements. The fast tempo chosen and the light touches gave a puckish feel to the music in the first movement. The third movement is also handled well and is equally delightful in the same fashion. Nothing much can be faulted with the playing except for a a soft volume in the fast
passages, but that is hardly enough to mar their enjoyable performance.
The second movement, true to my expectations, did not disappoint me at all. The wonderful full-bodied sound from the group and the perfectly balanced ensemble playing contributed to a very satisfying account of the expressive music. Perfect control in playing was also present again in
the last movement, where each member can be clearly seen to be totally involved in the music-making. The slow introduction was built up gradually in a solid manner, the dramatic energy gathering into an almost impossible climax. The intense moment ends in a final chord that is firmly attacked to
drive home the point, and what sounded like a stamping foot onstage actually turned out to be the ressonance of an aggressively-struck cello string which immediately resulted in the breaking of a strand of bow hair. It was a very good interpretation of the seemingly disjointed last movement, and for once I finally saw the link between the intense moments and the bright theme that
abruptly interrupts the former, all due to their excellent performance.
The curious opening motif on the violin answered by three questioning knocks on the cello brings to me the images of random dreams on a restless night, and it soon develops into an hypnotic train of thought that grew in tension and agitation. Leading up to the middle section, a short fugue motif introduced a trace of hysteria, and the music is soon dominated by full-blown violence, wearing off its energy in a frightening episode before finally lapsing back into the uneasy restless atmosphere of the first section. It was the first time that I experienced vivid fear in the concert hall. Quite a disturbing experience but very intriguing, enough to make me want to
get a recording of the Quartet straight away.
After the interval, I waited eagerly to hear one of my favourite Quartets, the only one from Claude Debussy. A sensuous piece of 'impressionistic' music that is ravishing in its beauty, it certainly bears Debussy's unique composition style despite being his only string
quartet. This time, the T'ang Quartet lost its balance between the various instruments, resulting in various parts sticking out alternately. The dense and heavily textured scoring does nothing to help at all, and there is a lack of smoothness in the flow of the music when the T'ang Quartet did not resolve the difficulties properly; the unequal balance means that some parts are almost invariably lost throughout the movement. The problem persisted into the second movement. The pizzicato notes were all firmly sounded, maybe too much so - the solo viola theme was hopelessly drowned out by the rest of the group for the whole duration of the introduction.
But the T'ang Quartet found back its form and finally played imaginatively for the tender third movement. The climax is unfortunately lacking in impact due to an uncalled-for acceleration in tempo when the group approached it, but eventually things were corrected when the former tempo
is resumed to finish off the rest of the music in a satisfactory manner. The Quartet ended in spirited fashion as the performers played boldly after their confidence was regained. Rushing away to the finishing line, they produced the final triumphant chord, then lingering over their instruments for several moments before relaxing back and rising to enthusiastic applause.
But the night was not over yet. The T'ang Quartet showed their eagerness to play for the home crowd by coming out with scores in hand after just one curtain call, playing Shostakovich's Polka (from Two Pieces for String Quartet, Op.80) and then the Andante from Mendelssohn's
Third Quartet of Op.44. Midway through the pastoral music however, fate intervened to stop the show early. Twank! Leslie Tan looked up with wide-eyed astonishment and an open mouth, and the rest of the members each finished their phrases before stopping one by one after realizing that one of Leslie's cello strings had snapped. By then the audience had recovered from the shock and burst out in chuckles and loud applause in appreciation of the group's effort.
It was an exciting night of music overall, and I have to say that watching the T'ang Quartet performing music demonstrated to me that concerts are a visual arts too. The group showed their total involvement in the music with their expressions and body language onstage. Leslie Tan particularly expressed his emotions to the audience, having a look of bliss on his
face when playing Debussy, eyes opening wide in curiosity performing the quirky Polka and giving a gleeful smile of delight in performing Beethoven. The Quartet moves with the music they play, with the violist contorting into various positions with the emotional music. Their team spirit
is certainly there and they have no lack of youthful enthusiasm too, which I could not detect at a recent Guarneri Quartet concert though they may have played better than the T'ang Quartet.
I sure look forward to listening to them play again after their studies to see how much more they can progress from their already masterful performances in this concert.
The T'ang Quartet comes back to Singapore after completing part of their studies in quartet performance in America to play at the Victoria Concert Hall again. The group members left the Singapore Symphony Orchestra to be the first quartet group to be enrolled in the new Master of Music Degree at the Shepherd School of Music (Rice University). There, they are currently being coached by Paul Katz, founding member of Cleveland Quartet, and grabbed the chance to learn from the Emerson and Takacs Quartet during the Aspen Summer Festival. An exciting life for them no doubt, and I am excited myself to hear their playing after their professional training abroad.
From Beethoven's despair of his deafness, Shostakovich's fear of the communist rule, and to Debussy's unhappiness about the direction of music's progress, he did a wonderful job in explaining to the audience how the experiences of the composers influenced their music. Running out of words after a detailed introduction, Leslie finally decided to relieve himself of the ordeal, pleaded to the audience to give him time to "calm [him]self down", and popped backstage with quite a bit of apparent relief.
Shostakovich is totally new to me, and it was a very interesting first encounter with his string quartets that night. His String Quartet No.7 in F-sharp minor, although dedicated to his first wife Nina, does not lack the ironic ambiguity of Shostakovich's musical style.
Left: Photograph of Debussy with his daughter Claude-Emma in 1916.
Ong Yong Hui well advises people to give up concert seats to the needy if they attend concerts to pore over *program notes and scrutinize their nails.
|
Click to Return to the Concert Index!...
or Visit the Inkvault archives! |
273: 28.8.98
 |
Explore the Flying Inkpot
| Concert Reviews |
Bit deadish:
| All Chambered Up |