Having clearly whetted some appetites (and got someone in Baltimore on the warpath over some questionable content in the concert's programme), I give here the original version of my concert review, published in today's Straits Times.
They completed
their run of the complete Beethoven symphonies a few months back, so Lim Yau
and the Philharmonic Orchestra have now turned to Sibelius and a year-long
series performing all seven of his symphonies.
There is some
sense in following Beethoven with Sibelius - even if you miss out such
significant 19th century symphonists as Mendelssohn, Schumann,
Brahms, Dvorak and Tchaikovsky - since Beethoven’s and Sibelius’s Firsts were,
respectively, the first and the last major symphonic premieres of the 19th
century.
Lim, however,
chose not to start this Sibelius cycle with the First, but launched straight
into the Third Symphony. A sensible
choice, since the Third is Sibelius’s most accessible symphony, brim full with
great tunes and glorious moments. In the
first two movements the Philharmonic Orchestra were producing some fabulous playing,
and Lim was inspiring them to impressive heights of excellence.
It was neither
entirely the orchestra’s nor Lim’s fault that the third movement often seemed
rather shambolic. You get the impression
that Sibelius got a bit bored after producing such wonders earlier in the symphony,
and it ended decidedly lamely.
Never mind, high
ranking professional orchestras and top-flight conductors have come to grief
over Sibelius symphonies, so it was to their eternal credit that these
Singapore musicians not only produced very creditable performances but showed
some glimpses of a real affinity with the music.
Every section of
an orchestra is projected in a Sibelius symphony, and strengths and weaknesses are
cruelly exposed. The Philharmonic
Orchestra were certainly producing some top-class playing here, but in the
First Symphony, which followed the interval, a couple of weaknesses were
revealed. A little more time spent
tuning the wind on stage would not have gone amiss, as things were very ugly
for a moment in the second movement, while a serious shortage of cellos was the
one obvious indication of an orchestra which does not play in public with any
real frequency. Given the lovely
collective violin and viola sound and a disarmingly powerful double bass one, a
couple more cellos at least would have given a wonderful richness to the string
sound.
Lim’s direction
had the great benefit of purpose and fluency, and where things wobbled, he kept
them on the straight and narrow, and where things shone, he did not hesitate to
give extra lustre through an expansive approach to dynamics. Great big climaxes and intimate little
passage of self-reflection brought the symphony vividly to life.
Symphonies 2 and 4
will be in the next instalment of this series, and while you will have to wait for
October for that, the wait will certainly be well worthwhile.
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