SSO – POSTCARDS FROM SPAIN

I almost gave up on the SSO performance because of the flu. Waited until late afternoon, then decided I felt well enough to attend, and didn’t regret going. Even though there is a little relapse this morning.

I was kind of amused to note that “Postcards from Spain” featured works by three French composers – Debussy, Chabrier and Ravel. Irony aside, the program selection was rather well put together and entertaining. SSO was in quite a good form and gave a credible, if not perfect performance. It had been some time since I had attended such an enjoyable orchestra performance.

It was the also first time that I had a seat so near the stage. We were literally at the musicians’ feet, since the front row stall seats are much closer to the stage at the Esplanade concert hall compared to other venues such as the Victoria concert hall. We were all used to sitting further away in the Second Circle, so it was something new for us to get used to. I was somewhat concerned regarding the acoustics since we were sitting so near the stage. I didn’t want to spend the rest of the night listening to an unbalanced orchestra, but it was surprisingly unproblematic. In fact, sitting so near, the orchestra sounded more transparent to us, and we were able to catch many small details that might not have been audible if we were sitting at a distance. I was only disappointed at not having a full view of the orchestra. Half the fun in attending a live performance is watching the musicians, and being a wind player myself, I have special interest invested in the wind musicians, who typically sits right at the back of the orchestra.

The program for the night:

Maurice Ravel - Pavane pour une infante defunte
Emmanuel Chabrier – Espana
Claude Debussy – Fantaisie for piano and orchestra (Piano: Noriko Ogawa)
Claude Debussy – Iberia
Maurice Ravel – ­Bolero

The Pavane is a familiar tune. Nothing new or fancy there, but very nicely played, and was an enjoyable little ditty to start the performance with. I especially loved the French horn solo, though it didn’t give me any goose pimples. One thing though, I always thought this piece sounded more like Debussy’s work, but I guess these Frenchmen do influence each other here and there.

Chabrier’s Espana is written in the style that I love - flamboyant and colourful, bright and melodious. Again, well played and entertaining. No complaints here.

I found Debussy’s Fantaisie rather boring, which was not really surprising, since I have never cared much for Impressionist writing, with a few exceptions. Debussy’s works have never made it to my music list (not that he would have cared anyway). They are generally too airy fairy and lacking in body for me to take much interest. Give me the fire and verve of the Russian composers any day. So, despite having Noriko Ogawa on the piano, I spent most of the Fantaisie contemplating conductor Lan Shui’s legs (which was all I could see from my seat, his body being blocked by the piano), and mind orbiting in some unknown sphere.

The Iberia was more interesting for me, although not as well played. It sounded somewhat messy here and there, but I have to admit that the piece was technically quite challenging. Sitting where we were, we were more able to catch the various little details and nuances, which may made the piece more interesting to us.

The piece de resistance of the night for me was Ravel’s Bolero. This is one of Ravel’s most popular work and one of my most favourite pieces of music ever. A single theme repeated for fifteen minutes may sound tedious to some, but the ingenious orchestration makes every single second of the work riveting. Further, it is one of few orchestra pieces which show cases the wind instruments, and even scores in the saxophone, which is not a normally found in most orchestral writings. As a wind instrument player myself, this adds to my interest in the piece.

I would rate this SSO’s performance reasonably credible, but far from masterful. The piece started off somewhat shakily with respect to tempo, but which thankfully soon rallied. The most challenging parts of the piece lie in the first few repetitions of the theme, which were mainly solos by the wind instruments. The orchestral accompaniment also had to play softly and subtly at the beginning, which also added to the difficulty, especially when the brasses started to add on the articulated rhythm.

With the exception of the saxophone solos, I find the other solos somewhat bland. The playing was credible enough, and there no major boo-boos except for the piccolo which went off pitch at points. However, there was also no show of virtuosity from the soloists, which I thought was a pity. The most disappointing was perhaps the trombone solo, which the player could have made more of. I could hardly hear any of the glissando. The saxophone solos however, were just nicely done - good tone and with just the right amount of showiness without going over the top.

I was rather amused that the tension that pervaded the orchestra and the audience at the start of the piece. It was as if everyone was holding their breaths waiting for a major screw-up to happen. I could feel the general relaxation once solos were over and done with and the piece progressed into the tutti parts.

In general, it still was a good performance, which I very much enjoyed. We shall see what the next SSO season brings.