MPYO concert again! National tour (Kuala Lumpur) review
Programme:
Wong: "Ria" Fanfare for Orchestra
Ahmad Muriz: Senandung Malaysia (World Premiere)
Brahms: Hungarian Dances 1, 3, & 10
Arnold: Four Scottish Dances
Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony
13 December 2007, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, KLCC
The folks of MPYO went on their first national tour starting 7th Dec from Penang, then performed at Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kuantan before playing their last stop back at their "crib" Kuala Lumpur. It is school holidays and the tour gives the MPYO players exposure on rigours of playing on tour (imagine 9 hours of bus rides, hopping from one performance to another in different state in two nights). While it is fun especially to orchestra members who are having their school holidays, their last performance here in KL may be threatened by exhaustion and burnout. However they managed to give a splendid performance yesterday night. Not to say the performance is entirely perfect though.
Adeline Wong's "Ria!" was the opening piece for their last debut concert and it was featured yesterday night. Again, I do not think the piece is appropriate for an opening act, because: 1)It is contemporary. 2) The piece is too demanding for an orchestra that needs to be warmed up, especially for a youth orchestra who only played together barely two years. Just imagine asking MPO to open a concert with Respighi's "Pines of Rome" and you get what I mean. At the beginning, the orchestra opened up with a riot of sounds, but that ain't exactly sensous. You can see the orchestra fumbling through here and there, trying to work their way through a mesh of a work. The percussions saved the day by churning out seductive Messiaen-influenced, gamelan sounds. If the last concert the piece sounded like Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie, this time it kinda like merged with Gustav Holst's "The Planets".
Ahmad Muriz' "Senandung Malaysia" was a pleasant surprise because, the piece (sorry Adeline) was more cohorent in structure and it has more originality. The malay dances of Joget, Asli and Zapin were fused with western composition method producing a truly funky work*. Muriz didn't do what I would expect some Malaysian contemporary composers to do, quoting exactly Malay melody/themes and juxtapose them with each other then sounds like some pathetic medley for "Malaysia Truly Asia" or "Visit Malaysia 2007". You do not recognise the local themes at first in what sounds like a typical Western work until the percussionists start thumping out kompang tunes that comes right out of a Malay wedding. I thought it was brilliant. And the greatest compliment I can pay to the composer is that the narrative structure pays homage to Ravel's "Alborada del Gracioso" or Falla's "El Sombrero de tres picos" (Three-Cornered Hat) not to mention both also share groovy percussion beats.
For Brahms' Hungarian Dances, it looks weird to see Kevin Field trying something different, eh trying to be Leonard Bernstein. The dances were subjected to "Lenny" style mannerisms eg: stop-and-go, push and pull tempos. The orchestras didn't sound too shabby although the "oompahs" wasn't too clear. Thankfully, orchestra and conductor revert back to usual mode for Malcolm Arnold's "Four Scottish Dances".
Like the last time MPYO played Scheherazade, the band shines in "big feature" works and Vaughan William's "A London Symphony" showed what a truly professional class the whole ensemble sounded. The highlight was 2nd movement's "Lento" described by the composer as "Portrait of Bloomsbury". I have not heard MPYO strings played with such attentive concentration the pianissimi of the passages and Lee Chun Hawe's cor anglais solo was truly haunting. One of the true hallmarks of a professional ensemble is how well you can cope playing piano as soft as possible enough to grab attention and MPYO succeeded in doing that. I have not heard the work before, but can you imagine NSO tackling this symphony? Not a fat chance! Give the orchestra ten more years and they can tackle the most demanding and most difficult of repertoires, eg; Strauss' tone poems or 20th century orchestral works of Bartok or Stravinsky. Hell, maybe they can try tackle Mahler as early as their next concert!
I am very eager to hear MPYO again in concerts to come. But there is one peculiar habit I noticed and that the orchestra takes some time to warm up as they progress through the concert, from Wong's piece to "A London Symphony". I think Kevin Field should begin with orchestra overtures always a plenty eg; Brahms' Acedemic Festival or Tragic Overtures, Mozart's Le Nozze da Figaro, Beethoven's overtures like Egmont, Coriolan etc. As to Howard (MPYO oboist)'s question are there improvement, well...I need to hear one or two more concerts to make that verdict.
*I've ran out of bombastic, scholarly words to use, bleh.
Wong: "Ria" Fanfare for Orchestra
Ahmad Muriz: Senandung Malaysia (World Premiere)
Brahms: Hungarian Dances 1, 3, & 10
Arnold: Four Scottish Dances
Vaughan Williams: A London Symphony
13 December 2007, Dewan Filharmonik Petronas, KLCC
The folks of MPYO went on their first national tour starting 7th Dec from Penang, then performed at Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kuantan before playing their last stop back at their "crib" Kuala Lumpur. It is school holidays and the tour gives the MPYO players exposure on rigours of playing on tour (imagine 9 hours of bus rides, hopping from one performance to another in different state in two nights). While it is fun especially to orchestra members who are having their school holidays, their last performance here in KL may be threatened by exhaustion and burnout. However they managed to give a splendid performance yesterday night. Not to say the performance is entirely perfect though.
Adeline Wong's "Ria!" was the opening piece for their last debut concert and it was featured yesterday night. Again, I do not think the piece is appropriate for an opening act, because: 1)It is contemporary. 2) The piece is too demanding for an orchestra that needs to be warmed up, especially for a youth orchestra who only played together barely two years. Just imagine asking MPO to open a concert with Respighi's "Pines of Rome" and you get what I mean. At the beginning, the orchestra opened up with a riot of sounds, but that ain't exactly sensous. You can see the orchestra fumbling through here and there, trying to work their way through a mesh of a work. The percussions saved the day by churning out seductive Messiaen-influenced, gamelan sounds. If the last concert the piece sounded like Messiaen's Turangalila Symphonie, this time it kinda like merged with Gustav Holst's "The Planets".
Ahmad Muriz' "Senandung Malaysia" was a pleasant surprise because, the piece (sorry Adeline) was more cohorent in structure and it has more originality. The malay dances of Joget, Asli and Zapin were fused with western composition method producing a truly funky work*. Muriz didn't do what I would expect some Malaysian contemporary composers to do, quoting exactly Malay melody/themes and juxtapose them with each other then sounds like some pathetic medley for "Malaysia Truly Asia" or "Visit Malaysia 2007". You do not recognise the local themes at first in what sounds like a typical Western work until the percussionists start thumping out kompang tunes that comes right out of a Malay wedding. I thought it was brilliant. And the greatest compliment I can pay to the composer is that the narrative structure pays homage to Ravel's "Alborada del Gracioso" or Falla's "El Sombrero de tres picos" (Three-Cornered Hat) not to mention both also share groovy percussion beats.
For Brahms' Hungarian Dances, it looks weird to see Kevin Field trying something different, eh trying to be Leonard Bernstein. The dances were subjected to "Lenny" style mannerisms eg: stop-and-go, push and pull tempos. The orchestras didn't sound too shabby although the "oompahs" wasn't too clear. Thankfully, orchestra and conductor revert back to usual mode for Malcolm Arnold's "Four Scottish Dances".
Like the last time MPYO played Scheherazade, the band shines in "big feature" works and Vaughan William's "A London Symphony" showed what a truly professional class the whole ensemble sounded. The highlight was 2nd movement's "Lento" described by the composer as "Portrait of Bloomsbury". I have not heard MPYO strings played with such attentive concentration the pianissimi of the passages and Lee Chun Hawe's cor anglais solo was truly haunting. One of the true hallmarks of a professional ensemble is how well you can cope playing piano as soft as possible enough to grab attention and MPYO succeeded in doing that. I have not heard the work before, but can you imagine NSO tackling this symphony? Not a fat chance! Give the orchestra ten more years and they can tackle the most demanding and most difficult of repertoires, eg; Strauss' tone poems or 20th century orchestral works of Bartok or Stravinsky. Hell, maybe they can try tackle Mahler as early as their next concert!
I am very eager to hear MPYO again in concerts to come. But there is one peculiar habit I noticed and that the orchestra takes some time to warm up as they progress through the concert, from Wong's piece to "A London Symphony". I think Kevin Field should begin with orchestra overtures always a plenty eg; Brahms' Acedemic Festival or Tragic Overtures, Mozart's Le Nozze da Figaro, Beethoven's overtures like Egmont, Coriolan etc. As to Howard (MPYO oboist)'s question are there improvement, well...I need to hear one or two more concerts to make that verdict.
*I've ran out of bombastic, scholarly words to use, bleh.
posted by Corgan Sow at 9:10 am
3 Comments:
Hi! Thanks for a thouroughly interesting read. Although I don't agree with some of what you say in your review, I found it refreshing to read criticisms as well as praises! I think MPYO needs more people like you to motivate excellence. Although (very sadly) I am no longer a member of the mpyo (that Dec 13th concert was my last) I wish it the very best and I agree that it is truely a wonderful group of very talented musicians. SO glad you mentioned Chun Howe as I think he's INCREDIBLE! Looking forward to more reviews!
Nami
Thanks for reading and also for your comment. You must be the concertmistress! It's a pity you have to leave your post. All the best for you and I will continue writing. Gambateh!
Oh no, I missed their performance in JB! Would have loved to see such talented local musicians perform. It's not very often we get visiting performers in JB.
(Google brought me here while I was surfing. Sorry for posting this uninvited comment.)
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