The Liszt Legacy (2 Dec 2011)

Venue: Esplanade Concert Hall

Conductor: Alexandar Shelley

Pianist: Stephen Hough

Programme:

Franz Liszt - Prometheus

Richard Strauss - Don Juan, Op. 20

Franz Liszt - Hamlet

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

I bought tickets to this concert especially for Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto, so I shall just comment on it. 

One word to describe it - disappointing. 

It was obvious that Hough was totally not serious about this piece at all. After the simple opening (which I already found to be a little too fast), he suddenly decided to leave the orchestra and conductor behind by sprinting forward in a mad rush and clash of notes. The orchestra, caught offguard, was around one beat off until they scrambled to catch up. This happened practically everytime there was a cadenza by Hough. It is all right to be fast, but rushing is a different thing entirely. There was no time to bring out each note; they were simply glossed over, as if they were insignificant individually.

After five minutes into the first movement, I was starting to feel very sorry for Shelley, who was struggling just to keep in line with Hough.

There were also many wrong notes played. This was actually understandable and forgivable, because this piano concerto is an extremely difficult piece. But rushing off on your own and ignoring the conductor and orchestra consistently shows a very disrespectful and selfish attitude. 

This torture lasted throughout all three movements. For the third movement, Alla breve, as the piece approached its climax, I thought this was a chance for Hough to at least end this concerto on a good note. But no, he didn't take it. The supposedly impassioned and dazzling climax was, unsurprisingly, rushed over again (with several wrong notes). 

I am not going to give him any applause, I told myself. He doesn't deserve any. But when the concerto ended, there was thunderous applause from the audience. What? Why are you all rewarding this crappy performance? 

I looked around at the audience more closely, and realised that there was a disproportionately large number of ang mohs tonight. And those that were giving him a standing ovation were all ang mohs. 

Hmm. Interesting. I wonder what this says about their tastes in music.

Update as of 3rd Dec, 2011:
The Straits Times gave the performance a good review, to my absolute disgust. The reviewer, Marc Rochester, depicted Hough's performance as "brilliant, exciting and super-charged", and even claimed that the SSO "relished every moment" (which they obviously didn't).


Marc, my respect for you just went down several levels. Don't worry, you are not on the same level as Hough yet.