Kahchun Wong inspires Singapore Symphony in Shostakovich and Brahms

There are two Singaporean musicians who might justly be referred to as musical celebrities. One is former child prodigy violinist Chloe Chua while the other is Kahchun Wong, Principal Conductor of the Hallé and Chief Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic. Wong will doubtless become the first Singapore-born Music Director of the Singapore Symphony someday, but that will be something for the future. 

Presently, a two-week residency at his hometown orchestra has borne fruit. Tickets to both evenings of his first programme at Esplanade Concert Hall had been sold-out in advance. And what is there to object in a tandem of Brahms and Shostakovich? 

Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto is what the great Artur Schnabel might have described as “music better than could be performed”. And so it proved with septuagenarian German pianist Gerhard Oppitz, whose view was to regard his role as an integral part of the orchestra, in a four-movement symphony with piano obbligato. His monumental solo, thus, did not stand out like a hero battling orchestral forces but rather one sublimated within. The sonics were mostly in soft focus, even with the opening cadenza-like solo. And when the orchestra joined in, being swamped became a real possibility. This was most apparent in the opening movement, where the orchestra dominated and became the main focus. 

Things improved in the “little wisp of a Scherzo” (Brahms’ own playful words) where lightness and levity ruled, with Oppitz’s nimble fingers fully up to task. The best came in the slow movement with principal cellist Ng Pei-Sian’s sublime solo, where interplay between pianist and orchestra approached the grace and intimacy of chamber music. The finale’s fleetness seemed like an antidote to the heavy-lifting of earlier movements and Brahms’ send-up to the Viennese waltz was a refreshing way to close. Despite vociferous applause and encouragement, Oppitz was content to leave the stage without offering an encore. 

The evening’s main event was undoubtedly Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony conducted wholly from memory by Wong. He certainly has definite ideas about the music, despite its ambivalence and seemingly open-ended message. The opening page, essentially a tone row, with its slashing brute force, could not have been more clearly enunciated. The juggernaut of a march that ensued after the exposition was all about oppression and utter dominance, evident in its broad sweep and arrogant swagger. The Scherzo’s ironic waltz delivered a similar message, with solo entreaties from concertmaster Erik Heide’s violin, Evgueni Brokmiller’s flute and others being met with derision and ridicule, and the final closing chord deliberately held for longer than usual. 

SSO’s fabled strings led the Largo, setting the stage for its pall of catharsis. If there were a single movement not laden with vitriol, this was it, making for a truly moving plaint. The finale’s procession of triumphal bluster and its succession of repeated As have been well-debated, interpreted as forced rejoicing under severe duress. Wong’s reading, with the French horn section upturning their bells to dramatic effect in one passage, nailed this theory on its head. The prolonged applause that greeted its close may not have replicated that of its 1937 Leningrad premiere, but was an affirmation not of “a Soviet artist’s reply to just criticism” (Shostakovich’s own words), but rather a stiff middle finger to Soviet totalitarianism.