Concert Review: Qin Li-Wei Plays Shostakovich • Mahler 7 | The Flying Inkpot
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat minor
- Allegretto
- Moderato
- Cadenza
- Allegro con moto
Mahler Symphony No. 7 in E minor
Qin Li-Wei, cello
Orchestra of the Music Makers
Alexandre Bloch, conductor
Esplanade Concert Hall
29 May 2026
Review by Derek Lim
This evening’s darkness-to-light pairing showcased two challenging orchestral works that reinforced the Orchestra of the Music Maker’s intention to be a force to be reckoned with.
Shostakovich’s first cello concerto has seen a variety of interpreters, beginning with its dedicatee, the great Mstislav Rostropovich, who was a close friend of the composer, and whose larger-than-life recording still remains a touchstone of the gramophone.
Qin Li-Wei’s rather more intimate performance with his Joseph Guadagnini cello was elegant, measured and articulate, bringing a restrained intensity to the work’s searing bite. Perhaps because of the full hall (I was seated in the foyer stalls) his sound didn’t travel as well as it could. The second movement Moderato, with its desolate soundscape, brought a rapt transparency to the OMM strings, with the soloist bringing an impressive range of colour to reshape the movement as one of gentle pleading rather than abject tragedy.
The whistled artificial harmonic retelling of the theme brought a deepened, eloquent desolation to the music. As the pizzicato orchestral strings sounded their last note signalling the end of the Adagio, the third movement, an extended cadenza was where Qin shone, his cello’s rich, burnished tone eloquently mercurial. Polyphonic sections were played so beautifully in tune, it hurt, and toward its end, Qin brought a manic intensity that carried forward into the macabre finale — a virtuosic tour de force that held no terrors for Qin’s formidable technique.
There is a lot happening in the orchestral part at any one time in the finale and Bloch led them unerringly, while Qin led the charge with a renewed energy. The audience’s thankful applause was rewarded with a Bach encore that was rhapsodic and eloquent.
Mahler’s Seventh Symphony doesn’t get as many airings as it deserves. Audiences and critics are puzzled by its finale, which is like blinding sunlight compared to the four preceding movements, and struggle to understand its meaning.
For this writer, the first four movements are like a night-borne Pictures at an Exhibition, with Mahler using the night theme to explore his usual Wunderhorn naïveté, Jewish music, fantastical marches and man’s relationship with nature and darkness, while the finale dispels these fears and uncertainties by illuminating these darker elements in technicolour splendour. Having said that, it does need a special conductor with sympathy for the symphony to play it to best effect. I think Alexandre Bloch might be one — he recorded this in 2020 with the Orchestre National de Lille (notably, he has not recorded many other Mahler symphonies).
The OMM was his willing accomplice in realising Mahler’s fantastical vision. If there were earlier jitters in the Shostakovich, these were nowhere to be found in their confident performance, beginning with the excellent tenor horn solo played on euphonium by Kang Chun Meng. Bloch took generally flowing tempi, balancing the need for structure against detailed orchestral colour, while driving the music organically and energetically through the development.
His sensitivity to shade and sudden lightening of texture showed his experience in the work. The orchestra was up to the challenge, with ravishing strings, bright brass and colourful winds. Only in the soaring climax did I wish he had taken more time for repose.
Worth particular mention was the immense beauty, colour and rarified air of the brass and wind passages in the second movement Scherzo, where birds of the night sit alongside military tattoos — certainly Mahler was not done with his Wunderhorn days here. The confidence of the players in their obbligato parts made this a special treat, as was the colour brought out by the violas, high bassoons and contrabassoons in the witches’ dance of the third movement.
The serenade fourth movement, with its guitar and mandolin, could have highlighted those two instruments more, but Bloch was otherwise fully up to Mahler’s Romantic night visions, with the cellos especially beguiling in their big tune.
As the wee hours of night turned to day in the Finale, Allegro ordinario, Bloch kept the music moving along, willing the orchestra to play their hearts out in this technically challenging music. Each reappearance of the chorale, played wonderfully by the brass, was glorious, but he brought out a desperation in the music’s stretched seams that suggested he wasn’t reading the finale as a simple triumph of light over darkness — Mahler’s empty octaves perhaps reinforcing just that. In the frenzied sections the sheer speed meant that the playing did tip slightly into the scrappy territory – but that just made it more exciting.
In between, Bloch and the orchestra made the music dance and lilt to charming effect. Forced or not, the sheer energy of Mahler’s orchestration ensured that the symphony’s coda was pure jubilation, and after its final rush, the audience rewarded the orchestra with cheers and a roaring ovation that was thoroughly well-deserved.
