A mature orchestra complemented by the relaxed technique of piano soloist
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SOSL in performance with Dushyanthi Perera as conductor
The Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka had their Masterworks Concert sponsored by East India Holdings on Saturday, November 3 at the Ladies’ College Hall.
The concert programme comprised Chopin’s Piano concerto No. 2 and Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 3, the Eroica. The Orchestra was under the baton of Dushyanthi Perera and the soloist was young pianist Julian Clef.
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21 was composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1829 when he was around 20 years of age. It was first performed on March 17, 1830, in Warsaw, Poland, with the composer as soloist. It was the second of his piano concertos to be published (after the Piano Concerto No. 1), and so was designated “No. 2”, even though it was written first.
The work contains the three movements, typical of instrumental concertos of the period:1st Movement Maestoso (F minor), 2nd Movement Larghetto (A flat major), 3rd Movement Allegro vivace (F minor).
Soloist Julian Clef was born in 1990 in Kerala, India and went to the UK in May 2005, at the age of 14 to perform in the Rotary Young Musicians Concert in Derby. He took part in the Mansfield Music Festival the same year and won the trophy for the piano open class.
Very early in Julian’s career, international concert pianist Benjamin Frith commented, “Julian has a musical and pianistic maturity well beyond his years. He gives performances of great beauty, without mannerism or distortion. Already very experienced, he is totally composed on stage and he possesses a remarkably relaxed technique with which he brings the music so vividly to life”.
Julian was the winner of the RNCM Gold Medal in 2011, graduating from RNCM with a B.Mus degree in 2012. He went on to gain a Master’s Degree in Music under the guidance of Professor Dina Parakina from Russia and is now studying for an Advanced Diploma in Performance at the Guildhall School of Music in London under the tuition of Ronan O’Hora and Martin Roscoe.
This performance by the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka, marked a new era for the Orchestra under the baton of Dushyanthi Perera. The orchestra showed considerable maturity and assisted the soloist in performing Chopin’s Concerto with remarkably competency. The tempo chosen for the movements showed that the orchestra has come a long way in its journey performing masterworks of the great composers.
The one negative aspect is that we have still not been able to afford a piano capable of bringing out the best of the piano soloists who continue to play with the SOSL.
The soloist showed total composure on stage and his relaxed technique, as mentioned above, added a great deal to the overall performance.
Following on tumultuous applause, Julian performed Chopin’s ever popular Etude op.10 No.3 as an encore.
The other work that the orchestra performed was Ludwig van Beethoven’s mighty Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op.55 (“Eroica”).
This monumental performance did not depend on the vagaries of the quality of any one instrument like a piano. The orchestra maintained the dynamics and tempo that the work required, and here we must be grateful to the Conductor who did not allow the work to sag at any point, in spite of the orchestra being occasionally guilty of ragged playing by the strings, especially the 1st violins.
It is difficult to signal out any particular instrument, but the 1st Oboist and the French Horns in particular, need to be commended for their quality of tone and harmonizing in the important passages given to them in the third movement of the Symphony, albeit the rest of the work.
The orchestra was fortunate indeed that it was able to use the services of the 1st Oboist and the 1st Horn Player, who joined them from abroad. This contributed immensely to the overall success of the concert.
The audience, having acknowledged the orchestra’s success in the evening’s entertainment, left the hall having enjoyed a very satisfying concert.
Doctor Lalith