SSO's most exciting and memorable Beethoven concert yet

The idea of a concert comprising wholly works by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is hardly new, yet a fully packed Victoria Concert Hall showed that the great German composer still has a special cachet among concertgoers.

- Chang Tou Liang

CONCERT BEETHOVEN WITH JAMES EHNES AND LAWRENCE RENES Singapore Symphony Orchestra Victoria Concert Hall Nov 9

Even the tried and tested three-work overture-concerto-symphony format seemed to work like a charm.

First up was Coriolan Overture (Op. 62), not based on William Shakespeare but the German dramatist Heinrich Joseph von Collin.

Nonetheless, the struggle between belligerence and peacemaking in this tragedy remained the same, with the opening punched-out chords delivered with extreme vehemence.

The level of tension ratcheted up by the orchestra under Dutch-Maltese conductor Lawrence Renes was key to its high drama.