Mendelssohn and Beethoven share Singapore Symphony’s game of two halves

There is a popular term in footballing parlance, “a game of two halves”, referring to two different outcomes which take place within 90 minutes of a football match. In this concert by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the works performed before and after the intermission were so disparate as to be separate concerts in themselves. 

The only common ground was music from the early Romantic era, as the concert led by music director Hans Graf opened with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3 in C minor, Op.37. The soloist was Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter, who last appeared here at the 2022 Singapore International Piano Festival, playing Beethoven and Schumann. The opening ritornello saw the orchestra in full voice, an indication that this would be a performance that pulled no punches. Fliter’s entry was every bit its equal, the sweeping scales delivered with brusque immediacy and rude health. There was no mincing of notes or lines, as if Beethoven had crossed the Rubicon from Classical to Romantic sensibilities without looking back. Despite this, a singing tone and full-on lyricism were never far away, thus humanising this account. 

Beethoven’s own first movement’s cadenza was delivered with the requisite bravura, balanced by elegance in the ensuing Largo slow movement, its chorale melody lovingly voiced. Tender feelings engendered would soon give way to the rollicking Rondo that followed. Fliter’s sharply accented voicings carved out a highly rhythmic dance, albeit one impossible to waltz to at this velocity. Sturm und Drang turned to joie de vivre for the coda, which romped home in happy C major. Her more retiring encore, the Andantino slow movement from Schumann’s Piano Sonata no. 2, was a perfect synthesis of poetry and passion. 

The concert’s longer second half was devoted to the Singapore premiere of Mendelssohn’s complete incidental music to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The chief pleasure was hearing the music fleshed out beyond its four-movement suite, with sung vocal parts and spoken verses by Canadian actor Maureen Thomas. Hers was more than mere narration. Every word in this performing edition was by the Bard himself, including playing the impish character of Puck and breaking the fourth wall to address the audience. Shakespearean English is as good as a foreign language in Singapore, and one wondered whether the use of surtitles could have enhanced its appreciation. Projections on a wide screen would however have detracted from the theatre-like ambience created by the deliberately dimmed lighting.

Given that the work was written in 1826, when its composer was just seventeen, the Overture is a miracle of precociousness, its themes faithfully reused in the ensuing twelve movements. The playing was mercurial, full of vivacity, continuing into the feather-light Scherzo. The voices entered with “You Spotted Snakes” sung ever so delicately by fairy sopranos Kaitlyn Kim and Giselle Lim, backed by women’s voices from the Singapore Symphony Chorus and Youth Choir. 

Subtle horns and woodwinds distinguished the Nocturne, and there was a stir of recognition in the brass fanfare leading into that famous Wedding March. The hee-hawing motif representing Bottom’s mule-like transformation in “Dance of the Clowns”, and the chorus returned for the final blessing “Through the house give glimmering light”. It was left for Thomas to deliver Puck’s cheeky disclaimer of an epilogue to the enthused house. No apologies needed, as this enjoyable hour and a bit was well worth reliving.