Artsyfutsy's Blog

This reporter confesses that she has been too busy to update due to the multitude of tests even though this concert took place on the 15th March at the Lee Foundation Theatre in Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Lim Yan (One of Singapore’s most outstanding Pianists) for providing me with a complimentary ticket to attend this concert. Without whom, this post wouldn’t even exist.

As the title suggests, this is a concert for Brass so we had David Smith on the Trumpet, Jamie Hersch on the Horn, Fredi Sonderegger on the Trombone and Lim Yan on the Piano. Let me give u a brief background on each of these 4 outstanding musicians. (U can skip this section if u already noe who they are)

David Lyon Smith is currently Associate Principal Trumpet of the Singapore Symphone Orchestra (SSO) and a faculty member of the School of The Arts(SOTA), and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). Born in Leicestershire England, he began his musical studies at the age of 10 and progressed to further study at the Royal Academy of Musicand the Guildhall School of Music. His career to date has seen him travel around the worldplaying in many internationally renowned orchestras for some of the premier conductors of our time. Prior to taking the post in Singapore, David spent 3 years with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Harding and Claudio Abaddo.

Jamie Hersch, a native of the USA, began his musical studies on the Horn with Edwin Thayer, former Principal Horn-player of the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington D.C.). Since the age of 17, Mr Hersch has been playing professionally. He is the only high school student to have ever recorded with the NSO when he played with the Horn section in the recording of the 4th Symphony of Shostakovich with the great Cellist Rostropovich. In 1998 at the age of 23 years old, Mr Hersch became Associate Principal Horn-player of the SSO.

Fredi Sonderegger discovered his love for music very early and picked up the Euphonium by the age of 8. At 16, Fredi decided to learn the Trombone n pursuit of a professional career in music. Fredi holds degrees in performance and education from the Juilliard School, the Lausanne Conservatory and the Conservatory of Winterthur and Zurich. Numerous awards like the Kiefer-Hablitzel Prize, the Friedl Wald Prize, the Cultural Award of Appenzell the Orpheus Chambermusic Award, the Curt Dieneman Prize and twice the winner of the prestigious Migros Cultural Award honoured Fredi’s activities as a recitalist and as a soloist. In 2002, Fredi Sonderegger joined the Singapore Symphony as their Associate Principal Trombone and Bass Trombone player. He can also be heard with the SSO on Euphonium and Bass Trumpet. Soon after moving to Singapore, he joined the faculty of NAFA, where he teaches Trombone, Euphonium and Brass performance class.

Lim Yan started playing the Piano at the age of 5 and was a student of Miss Lim Tshui Ling before leaving for Manchester in 1993to attend Chetham’s School of Music. He subsequently graduated from the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music, where his teacher was Ronan O’Hora. Yan has performed throughout Europe and worked with many leading conductors and orchestras. He has been a soloist with the SSO on many occasions and received the Young Artist Award from the National Arts Council in 2006.

The first piece was Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury by Benjamin Britten. It was rather interesting with Jamie playing from the stage, Fredi standing at the left end of the hall and David at the right end of the hall. This arrangement created a “surround-system” sound engulfing the audience in the fanfare.

The second piece was Fantasie for Horn and Piano by C.D. Lorenz. Jamie’s notes were really clear (Out of the 3, he was the one who cracked the least number of notes) and he made the high notes sound so easy. He played with a really light touch and the notes seemed to come alive. Ahhh I have much to learn from him as a Horn player myself.

The 3rd piece is Triptyque (Trumpet and Piano) by Henri Tomasi. I absolutely loved David’s tone.  It has a tinge of Vibrato and it’s towards the darker side although he’ll alter it to suit the tone of the piece. He was cracking quite a lot of the impossibly high notes but it was beautiful and tugged at my heartstrings when he didn’t crack them.

The 4th Piece was Arrows of Time (Trombone & Piano) by Richard Peaslee. Although Fredi’s biography sounds the most impressive, I wasn’t very impressed by his playing. He had a very rough, brassy tone and was cracking a lot of notes. He was also extremely loud (my ears hurt from listening to him play) and his vibrato was less obvious than David’s. What I liked about his playing was his inhumanely clear triple-tongued notes. My jaw dropped in amazement when I heard the crystal-clearness of the notes he played at that inhumane speed. Personally, I think he could have been more gentle and put in more emotions at the slow parts.

The 5th and final piece was Sonata for Horn, Trumpet & Trombone (1. Allegro moderato: Grazioso 2. Andante: Tres Lent 3. Rondeau: Anime) by Francis Poulenc. This is my favourite piece out of the entire concert programme. It is a playful and cheerful piece which had duets alternating between the 3 instruments but it was mostly between Horn and Trumpet. It was very refreshing to hear the Horn playing the melody in a cheerful manner and the Trumpet answering back in an even more playful manner. Fredi did a great job of playing the harmony. His Trombone bridged the gap between David and Jamie’s instruments. He could hardly be heard unless he carried the melody thus leaving the Horn and Trumpet to duet, uninterupted. The most beautiful part was towards the ending of the piece when all 3 instruments could be heard harmonising and dueting. The harmony was exquiste and sweet. Music to the ears indeed!

Needless to say, Lim Yan’s Piano accompaniment was spotless. He did a wonderful job of being heard despite Fredi’s over-sonorous and booming tone.

This concert was a wonderful learning experience for me. It enabled me to compare their playing (especially Jamie’s) to that of my teachers. My teachers are both female so yes, there are obvious differences in the style and interpretation of the music.

-Sarah

Cellissimo was held at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Hall on Tuesday the 9th of March 7.30pm. I know it was 5 days ago and I sincerrely apologise for the late review due to my everest of homework. I watched the concert partly because my Cellist sister wanted someone to watch it with her and partly becase I was craving to hear Professor Qin Li wei’s student, Wu Dai Dai play.

The whole programme consisted of 8 solo pieces and 2 pieces arranged for 4 Cellos. It was a concert for the Conservatory students under Professor Qin Li Wei and Professor Leslie Tan. It was quite obvious who studied under who by their playing styles and the way they expressed their music.

The programme opened with Chen Xi playing Beethoven’s 7 Variations on a 1896 Josef Muller Cello on loan to her from Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei. There were a few notes played wrongly but she went on as if nothing happened.

The second piece was Franck’s Sonata in A Major (Allegreto ben moderato) played by Wei Bing on a beautiful 1759 Andrea Castagneri on loan to her by Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei. Wei Bing was the only female of the night dressed in black pants and blouse. Her playing was very vigorous and expressive as can be seen from her movements and facial expressions. Unfortunately, she was over-zealous and used too much strength while bowing and one could hear the ear-grating sound of a Cello screeching. Ouch!

The 3rd piece was Tchaikovsky’s Pezzo Capriccioso, Op. 62 played by Li Mengqi on a 1856 Vincenzo Postiglione on loan to her by Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei. I loved her fire-engine red satin gown but not her playing. She lacked expression, did not have the guts to explore the unknown and stayed to the safe path instead. Tchaikovsky wouldn’t have approved of the way she interpreted his piece.

The last piece before the intermission was Crumb’s Sonata for solo Cello (1. Fantasia: Andante espressivo e con molto rubato 2. Tema pastorale con variazioni 3. Toccata: Largo e drammatico-Allegro Vivace) played by the star of the evening, Wu Dai Dai on a 1853 Guadagnini (One of the best Cellos available and extremely valuable with a 6 figure price tag) on loan to her by Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei. Wu Dai Dai is the daughter of a Cellist and is the winner of the 2009 Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concerto Competition. I applaud her for her boldness in choosing an extremely rare and uncommon piece. The title is self-explanatory, the piece is a solo piece with Piano accompaniment. The piece started with her strumming all 4 Cello strings vigrously and there was a lot of Pizzicatos involved. It was an extremely dramatic piece and she expressed it well as was evident from her face twisting and contorting in agony. (She had a murderous look on her face and looked like she wanted to strangle her Cello.) However, I found her a little too “noisy”.  By “noisy”, I am referring to the stomping of her foot and her loud breathing/snorting sounds she makes to cue herself in before every phrase. I felt that was unnecessary, noisy and irritating. Music should not be tarnished by these extra noises just like how incesstant couging in the audience disrupts a concert.  Apart from that, needless to say, her playing was flawless from her dynamics and her intonation, right to the smallest detail.

Xie Tian opened the second half with Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 5 in D major, Op. 102 (Allegro con brio) and Popper’s Elfentanz on a 1909 Paul Francois Blanchard Cello on loan to him by Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei. Unfortunately, his performance was mediocre. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I watched the concert after CCA and was too tired or maybe it was because he played it in an extremely boring manner but I’m sorry to say, I fell asleep. Some famous Pianist once told me that Beethoven is very difficult because only very good musicians can make it sound beautiful and interesting while mediocre musicians only make it sound boring. …….. I’ll leave you to ponder on that.

My jaw almost dropped when Pan Chang walked in with his 1808 Angelo Soliani Cello on loan to him by Mr and Mrs Rin Kei Mei to play Lutoslawski’s Grave. Pan Chang on first glance closely resembles Chinese Pop legend Jay Chou but on a closer look, Mr Pan has bigger eyes and sharper features, definitely more good looking than Mr Chou! Ok back to the topic.  Pan Chang, like Wu Dai Dai, chose a very unusual piece. Lutoslawski is a very grave, slow piece with a lot of low notes. Pan Chang’s low notes were very rich and had a beautiful timbre to it but his high notes sounded uncomfortably shrilling to the ear. No wonder he chose a piece filled with low notes to showcase his rich timbre.

The last solo piece was Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 (Allegro) played by Lu Bingxia on her own Cello. She was very expressive but by then, my ears and mind already went into music overload and I kind of shut down.

The last 2 pieces of the evening was played by a Quartet consisting of Elizabeth Tan, Xie Tian, Zhang Hui and an unidentified female. They played 2 pieces——Handel’s Lascia Ch’io Pianga from “Rinaldo” for 4 Cellos and Joplin’s The Entertainer arranged for 4 Cellos. Handel is a very sweet piece with beautiful harmonies that mesmerised me. Joplin is a very fun piece with a jazzy feel to it. Elizabeth played then Xie Tian answered her while the other two played the harmony in the background. The piece toyed with the tempo and dynamics in a way that made the piece seem very jovial and light-hearted. It was a beautiful way of closing the concert. It left us all feeling happy and light-hearted after a long day of school and work.

All the solo pieces except Wu Dai Dai’s, were accompanied by Low Shao Ying. Needless to say, her accompaniment was nothing short of perfection. She has a very graceful style. Her fingers look like they are plucking the strings of a harp and they seem to float across the ivories even when she’s playing at the speed of Vivace. I just adore her playing style from the way she sits to the way her fingers dance across the keys.

I have enjoyed myself at this concert but the students still have a lot more to learn from their teachers.

-Sarah