A question of professionalism

By Ranga Chandrarathne

Critiquing the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka (SOSL) is difficult; it is like critiquing your Grandmother. Salt of the earth. And unlike some extravagant uncles who came and went, she has always been there in your life, keeping the home fires burning, bumbling on ceaselessly and never changing her ways. She is all about nostalgia. We are fond of her, and tolerate her many gaffes and idiosyncrasies.

Lalanath de Silva, SOSL conductor, 2000-2002 Pic: Dominic Sansoni

However, when she embarrasses herself and the family she represents in public, it is our responsibility to alert her to that fact, only because we love her, and honour her role in having helped spawn some of Sri Lanka's greats in Western classical music, from Malini Jayasinghe-Pieris to Tharanga Goonetileke. All, who have gone on to achieve bigger and better things in the greater musical firmament.

The SOSL concert held on May 23, at the Ladies' College assembly hall titled "Romantic Masterworks", was ambitious, even by their standards. This is not the 1950s or 60s, when the Symphony Orchestra was the only source and arbiter for Western classical masterpieces and therefore immune to comparison.

The world has changed, and with Amazon.com, a DVD player, TV set and good speakers, you do not even have to leave your house to have access to the great European masterpieces played by the best. Therefore, comparisons are inevitable. We now know what it should sound like before attending the concert, even if the piece is billed as a Sri Lankan first. To be fair, no one expects the Symphony Orchestra to rival those on DVD, but that alone should not be an excuse to attempt the near impossible.

The Norway Embassy sponsored concert opened with two short excerpts from Edward Grieg's, (Norway's most famous son) Peer Gynt Suite no. 1, op. 46. Apart from the obvious reasons, the excerpts were an anomaly on the program. We would have preferred the Suite performed in its entirety. The token representation of that great music sounded more obligatory than meaningful.

Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1 with Harsha Abeyaratne as soloist was next. Abeyaratne, who is a associate professor of Music at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio, has been described by a Sri Lankan critic in 2003 as - "the kind of pianist who performs with a great deal of verve, passion and creative flair, not to mention heartfelt lyricism and poetic imagery".

The first movement marked Vivace began with a brass fanfare followed by a florid run of octaves by the piano. It could have been the sub-standard acoustic of the school hall and a piano that has seen better days that contributed to many of the soloists runs coming across indistinctly. However, we enjoyed the main theme, which had snatches of Rachmaninoff's lyrical and harmonic ingenuity.

The short second movement was an Andante cantabile in D major, and the soloist had many nice things to say. The quiet moments were pleasing, with time for reflection. The third and final movement was an Allegro scherzando, here; both the soloist and orchestra were made to work hard. It was difficult, and it showed. Overall, the outer movements sounded under rehearsed, both orchestra and soloist afraid to come out from under the shell.

The last work on the program was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36. It was unkind to our beloved orchestra. Starting inauspiciously with an ugly sound from the French horn section, the playing thereafter was cautious.

Other than some out-of-tune moments by the woodwind section, the second movement was the best; the playing was smooth and evocative. The cello section helped further vindicate the movement by some dark expressive legato playing. The lyricism was balm to the ear. The third movement marked Pizzicato ostinato was also pleasant. The soft plucking of the strings of the entire section was together and well judged, ruined though by some unfortunate non-musical noises from the woodwind section. The fourth movement marked Allegro con fuoco, that is Italian for very fast and fiery, was animated and at times very exciting. The solid trumpet and trombone sections contributed admirably when they had to. It was a pity though, that most of the hard work produced by the musicians was undone by a lack of balance control. Disproportionately loud playing by the percussion contributed to erasing all else on the stage.

Dinuk Wijeratne, Composer and conductor

The upper string section, that included children and many nervous novices, could in no way match the thundering booms, thumps and clashes of the percussion, thereby obliterating Tchaikovsky's celebrated string harmonies and melodies.

However, on the positive side, after getting opinions from a sprinkling of professionals from diverse artistic backgrounds who attended the concert, full credit must be given to the Principal members of the SOSL who valiantly held the orchestra together against all odds in this virtuoso work, and saved the day from what could otherwise have been an unimaginable disaster. Quoting from a early 20th century review written on a 4th Symphony performance in London, may help in putting into context the potential Tchaikovsky's work has in generating genuine excitement, it states - "the fourth symphony has Tchaikovsky writing tremendously eloquent and riveting music, where he consciously and un-consciously pays tribute to the greatness of his Russian heritage…. this music has become important to the Russian consciousness…. the entirely brilliant conducting brought out the veiled tensions and volcanic eruptions of emotional anguish that saturate the symphony…. the final moments were unleashed in a tumultuous outpouring of blazingly exultant triumphalism that shook the very foundations of the venerable hall". The interpretation we heard, was different. We suggest you listen to the performance of the symphony by Valery Gergiev conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to clarify the above; that concert is freely available on You Tube on the Internet. In conclusion, we offer some practical suggestions. There seems to be an obvious scarcity of professional conductors in Sri Lanka, and no one would disagree that having a professional conductor in charge could change things for the better. How difficult is it to explore the possibility of recruiting a talented conductor like our very own Dinuk Wijeratne for instance? His musicianship has been described as "Brilliance....a supreme musician".

His conducting credentials are relatively impressive too, the Music Director of the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra for four seasons along with many appearances with the National Arts Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia.

Or better yet, has the option of enticing the passionate Lalanath de Silva back to the fold been considered? The founding conductor Dr. Earl de Fonseca's handpicked protégé. There is strong evidence that indicates that the orchestra under de Silva's guidance, sounded and looked much better than it is now. More tellingly, de Silva's music programming and overall vision was cleverer and more complimentary to the orchestra, two departments that the SOSL needs to give immediate attention to. If these options are unworkable, there must be plenty of young up and coming conducting graduates from the world's great conservatories who would relish an opportunity to work and train an orchestra in the tropics.

We really should not mind if the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka continues to do what they do, in the way they want to do it, the orchestra being a "amateur, not-for-profit organisation which depends on public support", to quote from their website.

But since they carry the name of our country, and as such, unavoidably become the standard bearers and delegates of Western orchestral music on behalf of us all.

Especially now, in the hard fought new consciousness of a unified Sri Lanka, we would like to kindly remind them of the gravity of that responsibility, and secondly, to take it seriously and demonstrate that in their performances.

Perhaps some profound soul searching is necessary by all concerned, starting from the top decision makers, as to truthfully answer the question, are you making Sri Lanka proud?