Sumptuous Sibelius from Wigglesworth

Two perennial favourite artists at the DFP, Mark Wigglesworth and James Ehnes joined forces to present an eclectic programme of Romantic and modern works with the MPO. Wigglesworth began the Saturday concert with one of Verdi’s finest overtures, La forza del destino, which is frequently performed independently as a concert piece or encore. The MPO strings gave the "fate" motif a restless feel, whilst the "destiny" motif was prominently played with flowing melodic lines.

Alban Berg’s dodecaphonic Violin Concerto of 1935 followed the Verdi Overture. This was only the third performance of the concerto at the DFP Hall in the space of 20 years since the concert hall opened in 1998. The first performance was by Chantal Juillet with the MPO in November 2006, and the second by Frank Peter Zimmermann and the London Symphony Orchestra in May 2007. The modernist slant of the concerto probably resulted in the hall being less full than if the soloist James Ehnes had chosen a piece more central to the core violin concerto repertoire instead.

Written in response to the early death of a close friend's daughter Manon Gropius, the Berg Violin Concerto is in two sections. From the magical ascending open fifths at the beginning of the concerto, Ehnes demonstrated his complete mastery of the concerto's inherent lyricism depicting Manon's life of beauty and innocence in the first section.

Less successful was the unsettling Allegro in the second section, whose vehement and astringent mood contrasts greatly with the lyricism of the first. Despite his impeccable technique and his superb 1715 ex-Marsick Stradivari, Ehnes frequently struggled to be heard here, despite the solo part sometimes being subsumed in the orchestral texture as per Berg’s score. However, the final passage depicting Manon’s death and transfiguration took us into the stratosphere and was quite sublime in its purity and celestial beauty.

For his encores, Ehnes performed the calm and flowing "Largo" from JS Bach’s Solo Sonata No 3 BWV 1005, which contrasted strongly in atmosphere to the Violin Concerto, providing the audience with some welcome relief after the diatonicism of the Berg. After the Largo, Ehnes followed it with a dashingly speedy and nimble Allegro Assai from the same Solo Sonata, clearly delineating Bach's harmonic and melodic structure amidst the rapid string crossings.

After the interval, Wigglesworth gave us a sumptuous interpretation of Sibelius' lush Second Symphony, which was written in balmy Italy. After the Berg, the MPO seemed almost miraculously transformed for the particular lush sonorities of Sibelius. The symphony got a very compelling performance which thrived on luminous textures as well as fluent dynamics and judicious balances between the various orchestral sections.

Wigglesworth set just the right tempo at the start of the symphony, with the ebb and flow in the strings’ opening phrases like the gentlest of sighs. The movement flowed swiftly with gorgeous string tone and a folksy lilt to its woodwind themes with occasional glimpses of brassy excitement.

Some noteworthy playing from the bassoons opened the second movement before giving way to the sprawling strings that painted a barren, forlorn vista, which was interspersed with atmospheric silences and granitic climaxes. The third movement was almost Mendelssohnian in its lightness and energy, interfused with a gorgeous and limpid solo oboe in the Trio.

The finale bursts out of the preceding movement and the MPO string playing reached new heights with a most luxurious and sonorous timbre coupled with splendid brass tone capping a resplendent and triumphant interpretation from Wigglesworth.

Ehnes' excellent violin recital

A reasonably sized audience attended a mid-week violin and piano recital by James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong. Considering the travelling difficulties of getting into Dewan Filharmonik Petronas Kuala Lumpur in the middle of a working weekday, the faithful audience were treated to a superb and eclectic recital by this eminent duo.

Beethoven's earliest violin and piano opus, the Violin Sonata Op 12 No 1 was Ehnes' and Armstrong's first offering. Adopting a bright and lively tempo, the duo's brilliant tone (thanks to Ehnes' lovely 1715 Marsick Stradivarius and Armstrong's Steinway) set Beethoven's opening joyous movement into motion. The duo's balance and "give-and-take" was exemplary and this was maintained into the second movement's theme and variations. This was particularly palpable in the minor variation's large dynamic swells. Ehnes and Armstrong imbued the ensuing final Rondo: Allegro with gruff Beethovenian humour and its characteristic offbeat accents and distant modulations.

Ehnes and Armstrong proffered us Ravel's Second Violin Sonata in G major next. The duo's polished playing was entirely appropriate for one of gentlest opening movements of the Romantic violin sonata repertoire. The modal melodies flowed sweetly, graced by warm and judiciously applied vibrato adding significantly to Ehnes' ethereal and shimmering tone. The middle blues movement took on an insouciant character, with subtly graded rubati and portamenti enhancing its obvious musical homage to Gershwin. The Perpetuum mobile finale was brilliant executed and crisply played.

After the interval, the second half opened with Brahms’ Scherzo from the FAE Sonata, performed pleasingly with a lighter than usual touch reflecting the "joke-like" character of a Scherzo, rather than the heavier approach that duos mostly apply to the piece. To end the recital, Ehnes and Armstrong gave us a wonderfully virtuosic rendition of Corigliano's tonally exciting and rhythmically exacting Violin Sonata of 1962-1963.

For his encores, Ehnes elected for mainly technical wizardry, performing Heifetz’s arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee with stunning spiccato bow strokes that barely lifted off the violin strings. The next two encores were Sarasate's Zapateado Op 23 No 2, played dashingly with pristine artificial harmonics and superb cracking left-hand pizzicati and Wieniawski's Scherzo tarantelle Op 16, performed with a Heifetz-like intensity but with Milstein's fluidity and purity.

Just when the audience thought Ehnes would play a further string of encores like Itzhak Perlman does in recital, he chose to say goodnight with his final encore, the rarely-played and touching Sibelius Berceuse (No 6 of Six Pieces Op 79). What sets Ehnes apart from other modern-day virtuosi is that even in his first three encore pieces, he never overtly showboats his violinistic skills – if anything he is so unassuming that one forgets how fiendishly arduous those pieces are.

MPO 20th anniversary special concerts for 2018

The MPO 20th anniversary season promises many special concerts from top conductors and soloists exclusively chosen for the remainder of 2018. Renowned pianist Stephen Hough performs Rachmaninov's evergreen Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini with conductor Mark Wigglesworth in a classic concert entitled Russian Rhapsody.

Mark Wigglesworth also leads a concert which juxtaposes Alban Berg's heart-rending Violin Concerto, with the stellar violin soloist James Ehnes and Sibelius' sunny Second Symphony.

Rising violinist Ray Chen makes a welcome return to the DFP in a colourful concert of Lalo's Symphonie espagnole and Dvorak's rustic Eighth Symphony, led by the veteran Finnish conductor, Okko Kamu. Another popular returning artist to KL is the electric harpist Leonard Jacome with Venezuelan harp offerings and Rachmaninov's romantic Second Symphony.

The perennial favourite conductor Robert Abbado offers us Carl Orff's epic choral spectacular Carmina Burana, prefaced by Haydn's Symphony No 103 ("Drumroll"), whilst the emerging Stanislav Kochanovsky also returns to delight us with two Romantic German third symphonies of Schumann and Brahms.

Making his debut here in KL at the DFP, Roberto González-Monjas directs Vivaldi's The Four Seasons from the violin and then leads the MPO in Mussorgsky's evocative Pictures at an Exhibition. Britain's premier historically informed orchestra, The Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment (OAE) also makes an appearance at the DFP under the banner of the Toyota Classics.

On a lighter musical note, Billy Joel's protégé Michael Cavanaugh plays and sings the music of his mentor with the MPO, whilst the elegant "live" band Pink Martini with the sultry lead singer China Forbes also entertain us in their multilingual songs from around the world.

The 2018 MPO anniversary season promises many concerts of varied fare, with great artists in wonderful repertoire. For further information, visit www.mpo.com.my or call (03) 2331 7007.