Two Great Concertos (9 Apr 2011)

This concert was at the Esplanade Concert Hall, with Darrell Ang as the conductor and Sergio Tiempo as the pianist.

The programme:

Yuan Peiying - Through Bifocals for orchestra

Sergei Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, Op.30

Bela Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra

The first piece was by a young Singaporean called Yuan Peiying, who is only 27 this year. As expected from such modern compositions, I dunno wtf this piece is about. Too many clashing sounds, and I totally couldn't get any of the imagery she wanted to convey. 

Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto was the main reason I bought tickets for this concert. I had listened to the same piece performed by Boris Berezovsky in 2009, and it was nothing short of spectacular - there was a standing ovation and I was swept along by his performance from the first to the last second. Compared to that, one could see that Sergio Tiempo was obviously several levels lower than Boris Berezovsky. 

The Straits Times gave rather good reviews for him. "Accuracy and clarity were never a question for Tiempo's prodigious fingers, spitting fire at giddying speeds." I beg to differ. The first and second movements (Allegro ma non tanto, Adagio), while relatively quite free from technical mistakes, were uninspiring, unmoving and had occasional minor clashes with the orchestra. The rush from Adagio to Alla breve was too hasty, with the orchestra trying to catch up. The third movement, Alla breve, was the epitome of chaos. This time, the piano and orchestra were frequently at odds with each other, and I found myself cringing occasionally at particular bad intervals. 

The last piece was the one that sought for redemption for this concert, and got it to some extent. While I have never heard this piece before, it felt somewhat refreshing. There were five movements, and overall this concerto was a light-hearted one that reminded my companion of "Walt Disney music". The second movement was my favourite, which the concert booklet described as being "jesting". Truly an apt description.