Winners of high profile international piano competitions can be relied upon to sell concert tickets, and Canadian pianist Bruce Liu’s Singapore Symphony Orchestra debut was sold out months ago. Cult of celebrity, involving young musicians of Asian extraction like Yunchan Lim, Seong Jin Cho and Yuja Wang, may be a critical factor in driving interest in classical music for young people in the Far East today.
The victor at the 2021 Chopin International Piano Competition being obliged to perform the Polish composer’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in E minor was no surprise. Liu, who commanded the stage with his lanky stature and casual but respectful demeanour, might just remind some members of the audience of the young Van Cliburn. Predictably, he gave a well-honed performance of this overworked warhorse, oozing Romantic fervour while showcasing requisite virtuoso chops.
The orchestral accompaniment led by Finnish conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste was as full-blooded as they come, but did little to faze a soloist determined to battle all the way. Unafraid to project with ringing resonance, Liu was also capable of lyrical poetry and exercising rubato without overdoing it. The first movement’s development was exciting but more telling was his shaping of phrases in the nocturne-like Romanze and the animated dance moves of the Rondo finale, most crisply articulated.
There were three generous encores, two by Chopin (naturally) including the “Minute” Waltz and “Black Key” Etude, both whipped off with an easy nonchalance. The best came in between, with the hitherto hidden voice of the Bach-Siloti Prelude in B minor gloriously coming to the fore in its da capo repeat.
The concert had opened with the Singapore premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony no. 2, revealing a more friendly face of the Second Viennese School. Its harmonic language was an advance on the late Romantic chromaticism of Verklärte Nacht, but without the prickliness of the better-known First Chamber Symphony. Its two movements are varied, the first brooding over some existential crisis, while the second is fast, bounding and waltz-like. Irascible in mood and inscrutable in character, this music found a sympathetic voice, with the musicians responding on cue with no little alertness.
While Schoenberg had a captive audience, the hall thinned considerably following the Chopin for the concert’s second half. That was a pity as Saraste’s vision of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 1 in C major had much to recommend. It has been stated that the SSO can now comfortably switch modes between big band and period instrument sensibilities. This performance sat unequivocally in the former camp, where vibrato and full-blown sonorities were prized.
Beethoven’s ingenuity to break away from Haydn and Mozart’s moulds was apparent from the first bars, teasing the listener with “wrong keys” before settling in C major. Saraste and the orchestra did so without resort to gimmickry, and the effect was no less ironic. The so-called slow movement’s fugal entries did not sound academic in the least, while the Scherzo-like Minuetto sped with a velocity and intensity that was impossible to dance to. The false-starts of the finale are a barometer of Beethoven’s humour, later racing without a break to a brilliant end.
