Kochanovsky's innovative Mahler concert

Bach and Mahler do not usually fit into a modern classical concert programme together. However, the rising Russian conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky innovatively and ingeniously assembled Mahler's Bach Suite and Fifth Symphony into a most delectable programme with the MPO.

Proceedings for the evening opened with Mahler's Bach Suite (or to give it its long name - the Suite for string orchestra, harpsichord and organ by J.S. Bach). Mahler re-arranged and re-orchestrated the first two movements of his Bach Suite from the Overture as well as the Rondeau and Badinerie from Bach's Orchestral Suite No 2 in B minor BWV 1067.

Since the flute has a prominent part to play in Bach's Second Suite, the guest principal flautist for the evening, Andrew Nicholson, took up a position next to conductor Kochanovsky on the podium. In the opening Overture (Grave), the sustained organ notes often swamped the strings in the balance. However, in the following movement of the Rondeau flanking the Badinerie, very lively playing with sprightly rhythms from the strings and flute lifted the portentous mood of the opening movement.

In the lovely third movement (known as Bach's Air on the G string) from the Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major BWV 1068, Kochanovsky encouraged the MPO strings to paint a very serene mood with wonderfully rich tones. In the last movement of the Gavotte I and II also from the Orchestral Suite No 3 in D major BWV 1068, festive trumpets heralded a triumphant closing of this rarely-played Mahlerian opus.

After a brief interval, we heard Kochanovsky's interpretation of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. More often than not, one can tell how good (or bad) a performance of Mahler's Fifth will be from its opening trumpet call. Here, the MPO's guest principal for the night, Shane Hooton, struck a balance between stridency, edginess and tragedy; but without the accuracy of intonation which Mahler's stratospheric and formidable trumpet part calls for.

Kochanovsky unfolded the first movement with bleak crispness in the tread of a fairly brisk funeral march, in keeping with modern performing traditions. The first movement's darkness was quickly eclipsed by the second movement which emphasized the rugged, almost schizophrenic nature of the score. In keeping with Mahler's explicit instructions, Kochanovsky had the MPO principal hornist, Grzegorz Curyła, play the first horn part for a solo obbligato horn next to himself, accentuating the dialogues between the horn and the strings in the great central bucolic Scherzo third movement.

The MPO strings and harp took centre stage as Kochanovsky unfolded the famous beautiful Adagietto movement (made famous by its use in Visconti's film Death in Venice)) in a romantically gorgeous reading which was full of passion at a reasonable pace.

Kochanovsky's approach to the jolly finale, as Mahler moves from tragedy to triumph, was one of fierce industry, leading to a jubilant and glorious conclusion to a terrific concert, marred only by occasionally poor MPO horn and trumpet playing.

MPO's 21st stellar season concerts for 2019

The MPO 21st season, which for the first time spans a calendar year, promises many special concerts from top conductors and soloists exclusively chosen for 2019. Stellar violinists like Akiko Suwanai in the Brahms Violin Concerto and Sarasate's Gypsy Airs, Tianwa Yang in Bruch's Scottish Fantasy and Ryu Goto in the Korngold Violin Concerto grace the DFP stage.

Rising violinists like Elena Urioste and Grace Clifford entertain us in Bernstein's Serenade, after Plato's Symposium and Mendelssohn's evergreen Violin Concerto respectively.

Perennial favourite conductors like Roberto Abbado, Mark Wigglesworth and Stanislav Kochanovsky also grace the DFP stage this season. Abbado features twice with a Russian programme of Prokofiev, Kabalevsky and Shostakovich as well as some major German fare of Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and Brahms' First Symphony.

Kochanovsky brings us an innovative Mahler concert featuring the Bach Suite and dramatic Fifth Symphony as well as an opera in concert, featuring Tchaikovsky's ever popular Queen of Spades after Pushkin's fateful tale.

Wigglesworth offers us a further two Mahler symphonies, the optimistic First and haunting Ninth.

Pianists Llŷr Williams, Tengku Irfan and P'ng Tean Hwa entertain us in concertos by Weber and Ravel. Other maestros that appear with the MPO are Alexander Briger, Rossen Milanov, Jessica Cottis, Olari Elts, Martin Sieghart, Junichi Hirokami, Jessica Gethin, Hans Graf, Jun Märkl, Benjamin Bayl, Jac van Steen, Jane Glover and Dirk Brossé.

The magnificent Klais pipe organ of the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas can be heard in two organ recitals (by Evelyn Lim and Gunther Rost) and in a concert which features sparkling organ concertos by Haydn and Handel with acclaimed organist Gunther Rost.

The 2019 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.

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.

Kochanovsky's triumphant Mahler 7

Having missed Stanislav Kochanovsky's previous appearances with the MPO in ballet performances of Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet, Adam's Giselle and Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, I was determined not to miss his concert of two mainstream Romantic German works in the shape of Mahler's Seventh Symphony and Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

The Seventh is consistently dubbed a "problem" symphony because, for all its attractiveness, the musical arguments do not always seem to hang together. Kochanovsky's solution was to go for a sane and measured approach in the first movement, whilst playing the middle three movements characteristically and making the triumphant fifth movement an exhilarating wild roller-coaster ride.

After the opening "oars" motif of the first movement, Kochanovsky encouraged tenor hornist Marques Young to play his doleful solo forte (as written in the score). Often, this solo is presented too apologetically and not like what Mahler called "a roar of nature". There was a broad nobility to the all-important march theme in the winds that followed. Kochanovsky ensured that tempo relationships in this huge first movement were always logical, with minimum manipulation of tempi, as each section segued quite naturally into the next. Tension throughout the movement was properly cumulative, meaning that Mahler’s climactic suspension at the coda unfolded as it should, without the need for additional agogic emphasis.

The second movement of the Seventh Symphony is a nocturnal march. The MPO hornists played the call and response motif to open the movement before the main march theme (with a rhythm from his Das Knaben Wunderhorn song "Revelge") was taken up by the orchestra. Colourful elements such as cowbells in the distance and warbling woodwind bird calls instilled the movement with a pastoral feel throughout, evoking comparisons to Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch.

Kochanovsky made the third central movement downright strange and spooky. Creative touches in orchestration punctuated this movement which was replete with various waltz tunes and Ländler. Whether it was the slurping sounds of the violins playing the melody with glissandi up to their highest notes, the swirling viola parts, the Bartok-pizzicati in the cello and double bass parts or the shrieking of trumpets and woodwinds, Kochanovsky characterized every oddity at each turn. After all, Mahler marked the movement Schattenhaft (shadowy).

Kochanovsky’s baton-less response to the second Nachtmusik’s Amoroso marking was to apply a simple sensuality whose fervour stood in stark contrast to the macabre mood in the previous movement. Here, Peter Danis’ warm violin solo supported by Csaba Körös' sensuous cello line lent a tenderness and style to Mahler’s gentle interlude, with the orchestra’s "plucked" section (mandolin, guitar and two harps) adding a squeeze of zest to temper the sweetness.

In the Rondo-Finale, Kochanovsky and the MPO truly shone. Kochanovsky’s compact, crisp conducting style helped create a forward momentum to the end, important in a movement with seven iterations of the Rondo theme. The MPO brass came into their own here. In particular, the guest solo trumpet (Sergio Pacheco) sounded especially magnificent in Mahler’s stratospheric writing. It was a thrilling ride to the end of the movement, with the percussion section creating an irresistible rhythmic drive. The exuberant final chord was met with rapturous, well-deserved applause. This technically and interpretatively superb performance of the Mahler Seventh definitely trumped the dismal 2015 MPO outing with Fabio Luisi previously.

Kochanovsky chose to close the concert with Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, obviously recreating the sequence of the programme of its Dutch premiere with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam on 2 October 1909 under Mahler himself. The Prelude was played in a grand and stately manner with rich and luscious string tone, which had been lacking in some recent MPO performances.

On this showing, Kochanovsky's star is deservedly on the rise, with appearances with top world orchestras like the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Orchestre de Paris and Russian National Orchestra for 2017/18. Perhaps it could be time for the MPO to consider Kochanovsky for its vacant music director post.

MPO's 20th season brings many veritable musical delights

The 2017-18 MPO season celebrates the orchestra's 20-year tenure with veritable musical delights from top conductors and soloists specially invited for this exciting year. The rising British conductor Jonathan Bloxham debuts with the orchestra in a colourful programme that includes Brahms' magnificent Symphony No 1.

The MPO devotes two concerts to the centenary tribute to Leonard Bernstein with a concert of the centenarian's Broadway music and another concert of his Symphony No 2 with pianist Conrad Tao and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, led by Bernstein's protege, Eiji Oue.

Returning Japanese conductor Kazuki Yamada inspires us with 2 musical views of Byron's Manfred, with Schumann's Manfred Overture as well as Tchaikovsky's epic Manfred Symphony.

Experienced maestro Roberto Abbado brings us a lovely programme that includes Mahler's heavenly Symphony No 4, with the American soprano Lauren Snouffer.

Russian conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky brings us two programmes of varied fare, with Mahler's triumphant Seventh Symphony as well as a vocal Russian night with Rachmaninov's The Bells and scenes from Tchaikovsky's lyric opera Eugene Onegin.

One of the perennial favourite conductors here with the MPO, Mark Wigglesworth returns with two excellent programmes featuring Beethoven's dramatic Third Piano Concerto with Malaysian soloist Foo Mei Yi and Rachmaninov's lyrical Third Symphony as well as Bruch's evergreen Violin Concerto No 1 with soloist Joshua Bell and Bruckner's majestic Seventh Symphony.

Veteran Austrian conductor, Hans Graf brings us a heroic programme of Richard Strauss' Horn Concerto No 2 and Beethoven's epic Eroica Symphony.

German-Japanese conductor Jun Märkl delights us with a youthfully exuberant programme of Debussy's Children's Corner Suite, Beethoven's First Piano Concerto and Richard Strauss' Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.

Other star violinists who are making their debut in the MPO's 20th season include the French violinist Renaud Capuçon who brings us Bartok's folksy Second Violin Concerto and the Latvian violinist Baiba Skride, who plays the technically challenging Sibelius Violin Concerto.

Pianists who also grace the season are Tengku Irfan, who performs Beethoven's regal "Emperor Concerto", Jean-Yves Thibaudet with his rendition of St Saens' exotic Fifth Piano Concerto ("Egyptian"), Bobby Chen in Beethoven's lyrical Fourth Piano Concerto and Loo Bang Hean in Beethoven's youthful Second Piano Concerto.

A key visiting orchestra this year is the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Lan Shui and they bring us an attractive Brahms' programme, which includes the sunny and lyrical Second Symphony.

Fun and laughter will be the order of the concert as the zany violin and piano duo of Igudesman and Joo bring their own unique style of superlative music making and comedy in their new show called Upbeat.

Ella, Malaysia's Queen of Rock will present the first ever solo concert in DFP featuring a local rock artist, backed by a fully symphonic Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

The 2017-18 MPO 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.