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