[LJ2ME] Brahms Mobilised
True enough, the mobilisation exercise dragged on for longer than it should have, for the recalcitrant ones who chose to keep everyone waiting for them, and we were only dismissed at about half seven.
Was definitely going to miss the concert, but I decided there and then that I had no choice but to hotfoot it to the concert direct. Yes, in my uniform and with my barang barang in tow.
Must have raised some eyebrows and initiated some talking points when I was at The Esplanade and at Citilink after. Not since my NS days have I exposed myself to the public thus, and having the full complement of equipment was a first time ever, never to be repeated, please.
The whole rush and hassle was worth it, for catching my favourite piano concerto with a pianist who blew my mind the last time I saw him couldn't be let up.
With its four movements, the Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 is a veritable warhorse that challenges the best of pianists and orchestras. While not quite the virtuoso masterpiece the Rachmaninov concertos embody, this is no walk in the park, with the soloist's endurance and technique stretched to the limits.
Brahms crafted the work like a symphony with a substantial piano part, so the orchestral overtures were rich and sonic with some of the most beautiful music ever written being spun out as the narrative of the four movements unfolded like an epic legend of old.
The melancholic and mellow horn call that opens the work was hypnotically turned out by horn principal Han Chang Chou. In the slow movement, the cello refrain with the plucked bass underline, and then the alternating viola and violin parts simmering and shimmering in sensitive support were paralysingly poignant.
Yefim Bronfman rose to the challenges of the part with a most involved reading, gently coaxing out the cluster of notes from the span of the keyboard in the introspective and lyrical parts and then majestic in his tumbling passages in the more impassioned runs.
He deigned to play an encore after resounding applause brought him back on stage again and again, tossing off his regular encore, Chopin's Revolutionary Etude with equal parts power and precision.
It's been a long time since my last Brahms 2, but every performance makes me want to go right back and put on Gilel's benchmark recording and listen to it all over again. Maybe I will!
Was definitely going to miss the concert, but I decided there and then that I had no choice but to hotfoot it to the concert direct. Yes, in my uniform and with my barang barang in tow.
Must have raised some eyebrows and initiated some talking points when I was at The Esplanade and at Citilink after. Not since my NS days have I exposed myself to the public thus, and having the full complement of equipment was a first time ever, never to be repeated, please.
The whole rush and hassle was worth it, for catching my favourite piano concerto with a pianist who blew my mind the last time I saw him couldn't be let up.
With its four movements, the Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 is a veritable warhorse that challenges the best of pianists and orchestras. While not quite the virtuoso masterpiece the Rachmaninov concertos embody, this is no walk in the park, with the soloist's endurance and technique stretched to the limits.
Brahms crafted the work like a symphony with a substantial piano part, so the orchestral overtures were rich and sonic with some of the most beautiful music ever written being spun out as the narrative of the four movements unfolded like an epic legend of old.
The melancholic and mellow horn call that opens the work was hypnotically turned out by horn principal Han Chang Chou. In the slow movement, the cello refrain with the plucked bass underline, and then the alternating viola and violin parts simmering and shimmering in sensitive support were paralysingly poignant.
Yefim Bronfman rose to the challenges of the part with a most involved reading, gently coaxing out the cluster of notes from the span of the keyboard in the introspective and lyrical parts and then majestic in his tumbling passages in the more impassioned runs.
He deigned to play an encore after resounding applause brought him back on stage again and again, tossing off his regular encore, Chopin's Revolutionary Etude with equal parts power and precision.
It's been a long time since my last Brahms 2, but every performance makes me want to go right back and put on Gilel's benchmark recording and listen to it all over again. Maybe I will!