BEETHOVEN'S ODE TO JOY / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

BEETHOVEN’S ODE TO JOY 

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Esplanade Concert Hall 

Thursday (25 July 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 July 2024 with the title "Standing ovation for SSO's take on Brahms and Beethoven".

Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s first gala concert for the 2024/25 season, led by music director Hans Graf, was headlined by two major repertoire works. The opening act was Johannes Brahms’ Double Concerto in A minor (Op.102) with violinist Chloe Chua and SSO principal cellist Ng Pei-Sian as soloists. 

Despite their age gap (Chua is 17 and Ng in his late 30s), the duo worked well together, reliving the parts played by original virtuosos Joseph Joachim and Robert Hausmann at its 1887 premiere. After an orchestral outburst, Ng’s demanding solo cadenza was rapt and ear-catching with Chua later joining in as an equal partner. Nowhere was she overawed and they were hand-and-glove throughout, with the orchestra’s discreet partnership allowing their voices to shine. 

The central slow movement had them in a silky smooth unison, with an evenness providing some of the work’s most sublime moments. The Hungarian-flavoured finale was a jocular jaunt, playful in exchanges yet cohesive to the closing chords. The vociferous response was rewarded with a substantial encore: the Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia, another classic of sharing intimate moments together. 

The other blockbuster was Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in D minor (Op.125), his beloved Choral Symphony. There has been no better time amid tumultuous world affairs to relive this unifying work, the supreme espousal of Friedrich Schiller’s gospel of the universal brotherhood of man. 

Running for 67 minutes, Graf’s vision was a generally swift one. Following the opening drone, orchestral entries were brisk and crisp, yet with no hint of being hectic or strait-jacketed. The music was allowed to breathe naturally with a well-judged broadening of tempos when it mattered. 

Even when the Molto vivace second movement upped the ante, pulses quickened but never raced beyond safety limits, much having to do with Christian Schioler’s steady but emphatic timpani beats dictating the proceedings. The lovely Adagio slow movement provided much respite but was not allowed to languish or wallow. 

Then came the much-awaited finale. Its earth-shattering introduction relived moments from earlier movements, a summation of all that had come before. The first vocal was from baritone Liam James Karai, his commanding voice answered emphatically by 110 singers from the Singapore Symphony Choruses and Singapore Bible College Community Choir (Eudenice Palaruan, Choral Director & Wong Lai Foon, Choirmaster). 

There have been bigger choirs to grace the Ninth, notably Esplanade’s opening concert in 2002. However this group lacked nothing in pluck and confidence, delivering the famed Ode To Joy (Freude, Schoner Gotterfunken) chorus and tricky fugues with suitable eclat and ecstasy. 

The quartet of well-matched soloists was completed by soprano Johanna Falkinger, mezzo-soprano Anita Montserrat and tenor Seungwoo Yang, the last of whom conquered the Turkish march segment (accompanied by triangle, cymbals and bass drum) with much swagger. 

The symphony’s frenzied conclusion received a deserved standing ovation. Its message of world peace, delivered in harmonious Singapore, might however be a case of preaching to the choir.

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM MAVERICK PIANIST VICTOR KHOR'S BIRTHDAY CONCERT

MAVERICK PIANIST VICTOR KHOR'S 

BIRTHDAY CONCERT

Friday (26 July 2024)

Christopher Guy

There aren't that many pianists who belong to Singapore's Majulah Generation (born 1960-1970), and they may in fact be counted on one hand. Victor Khor, who celebrates his 58th birthday this month, is one of them. 

I have known Victor since 1989, when by chance I heard a church pianist at the Manchester Chinese Christian fellowship play some Scriabin just before a Sunday service. Piqued and curious, I asked him whether he happened to be a concert pianist, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that he was also from Singapore. It is curious how friendships start. 

Since then, I have heard him in multiple piano recitals in various venues, and he has the penchant of surprising his audiences with off-beat repertoire. One recital had Alban Berg's Sonata, Schumann's Sonata No.1, Debussy's Estampes, Borodin's Petite Suite and Liapunov's Lezghinka, capped by an encore of Liszt's Transcendantal Etude No.10. He was also the first Singaporean pianist to perform J.S.Bach's Goldberg Variations in recital.

Unusual performing locations included NUS Lecture Hall 13, Zouk, Singapore Management University, Yamaha Hall in Marina Square and Plaza Singapura. Later he included works by Radiohead, Joe Hisaishi and Ryuichi Sakamoto in his programme, alongside those of Erkki-Sven Tuur, Jean Philippe Collard-Neven and Zhang Chi. His curiosity knows no bounds, and his thirst for the arcane and unusual translates into his quirky but interesting programmes.

His birthday recital programme at Christopher Guy (268 Orchard Road) was a total mystery for all who attended. It was serendipity and spur of the moment that guided his choice of works, which included a baroque piece, Debussy's Arabesque No.1, Schubert's Impromptu in G flat major, Ravel's Pavane pour une infante defunte, works by Hania Rani, Jay Chou, Soloviev-Sedoy (Moscow Nights), Dante Marchetti (Fascination), before closing with Chopin's Ballade No.3.

His students were also given a chance to perform on the Steinway C, before he closed with an encore reminding one and all of his days of study at the Moscow Conservatory, Scriabin's Etude in C# minor (Op.42 No.5). For Victor's 58th birthday, we quote an Abba song by saying, "Thank you for the music!"

Former student Zhang Chi, now resident
in Penang, gave arguably the best performance
of the evening, Scriabin's Waltz Op.38.

A CHAMBER CONCERT NOT TO MISS: CONCORDIA QUARTET'S ROMANTIC TRAVELOGUES on 27 July 2024

Here is a chamber concert not to miss! The Concordia Quartet, part of the re:Sound Collective family, returns to Singapore after a concert tour to Malaysia with a lovely programme of Romantic quartet and quintet music.

What they will be playing:

SCHUBERT Quartettsatz in C minor, D.703

DVORAK String Quintet in E flat major, Op.97 "American"

with Andrew Filmer, Viola

MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in E minor, Op.44 No.2

Watch their latest video here:

Where: Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

When: Saturday, 27 July 2024 at 7.30 pm

Tickets available here:

Romantic Travelogues by Concordia Quartet | 27 July 2024 @ YST (resoundcollective.org)

MUSICAL SOUVENIRS / Koh Jia Hwei & re:mix / Review

 

MUSICAL SOUVENIRS 

Koh Jia Hwei (Organ) 

& re:mix 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Sunday (21 July 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 July 2024 with the title "Koh Jia Hwei and re:mix give Victoria Concert Hall's Klais organ a workout".

Part of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s innovative Organ Series, local pianist-turned-organist Koh Jia Hwei pulled out the stops for an unusual recital which combined Anglo-French repertoire with music for organ and strings. For about 55 minutes without intermission, the Victoria Concert Hall’s Klais organ was given a workout to a receptive Sunday afternoon audience demonstrating that interest in the “king of instruments” is far from dead. 

20th century English composer Herbert Howells is better known for his choral music, but his take on Psalm 34 Verse 6 (The Poor Man Cried, And The Lord Heard Him) is worth hearing. Its quiet opening and slightly chromatic language soon give way to the organ’s full voice. This was best heard in Victoria Concert Hall’s circle seats, now with an unobstructed view of the organ’s glorious pipes. 

The blind French organist-composer Louis Vierne is perhaps best remembered for having collapsed and died while playing on the organ of Notre Dame Cathedral. Koh chose two short items from his 24 Pieces in Free Style, which fittingly included the Epitaphe and Postlude. The subdued chordal voices in the former and the free-wheeling flourishes of the latter were starkly contasted, amply illustrating what the instrument was capable of. 

For the concert’s second part, Koh was joined by 25 string players of re:mix, led by SSO first violinist Foo Say Ming. This crack string outfit specialises in playing modern arrangements of old standards and film music. Right up its alley was Georges Delerue’s Concerto de l’adieu, adapted from his music for the 1992 feature film Dien Bien Phu. 

This neo-baroque elegy for the loss of French Indochina to the Vietnamese in 1954, as arranged by Chen Zhangyi, resembled in spirit the famous Albinoni-Giazotto Adagio in G minor heard in the movie Gallipoli. Typical of such heart-wrenching and emotional scores, Foo’s violin played prime protagonist, his digital calisthenics and sumptuous tone overcoming all odds to emerge like a cantor in a moving confessional. 

The unequal balance of forces between mighty organ and puny strings were surprisingly not a big issue given the skilled writing. Organ bluster was mostly reserved for big chords and febrile climaxes, with muted figurations filling in the textures alongside the strings. 

Koh took a well-earned break in Xiong Meiling’s Crying For Love (Ku Sha, or Crying Sand), a 1990 Mandarin lovesong famously covered by Tracy Huang and A-Mei, also in Chen’s arrangement. Foo and his charges positively wallowed in nostalgia, with the most poignant moments coming with his solo accompanied by pizzicato strings. 

The concert closed with the familiar Chaconne in G minor attributed to Tomaso Antonio Vitali as arranged by Ottorino Respighi with the organ returning to the fray. Its series of short variations on a ground bass unfolded majestically, with each change in key adding to the music’s inevitable sense of destiny. Here, violin solo, string ensemble and pipe organ shared the spotlight, and deservedly became first among equals.

SEAMLESS / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

SEAMLESS 

Singapore Chinese Orchestra 

Singapore Conference Hall 

Saturday (20 July 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 July with the title "SCO's season opener nothing short of spectacular".

The opening concert of Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s 2024-25 season, led by principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong, was nothing short of spectacular. True to its credo of being the “people’s orchestra”, SCO’s exploration of trans-cultural genres immediately bore fruit with its collaboration with 2023 Cultural Medallion recipient Osman bin Abdul Hamid. 

The Malay dancer-master’s Era Dance Theatre (EDT) took centrestage in a choreographed performance of SCO composer-in-residence Wang Chenwei’s The Sisters’ Islands (2006), his award-winning symphonic poem based on a well-known Malay legend. The music’s deft use of lilting asli, zapin dances and the pelog scale made it eminently suitable for choreography. 

Seventeen dancers soon filled the aisles and stage, reenacting the graceful sashays of the eponymous sisters and villagers, before them being forcibly abducted by pirates. The playful and later angst-filled movements echoed the dramatic programme music, adding a further dimension to an already vividly detailed score. 

The sisters’ immortalisation as the island pair in the Straits of Singapore was represented with both dancers held aloft high above the orchestra as the music reached its climax. After this impressive showing, it is now almost impossible to hear this music without reimagining the dance moves. 

Also involving EDT was a sole veiled dancer in Chung Yiu-Kwong’s Girl From Kroran, a single-movement yangqin concerto with SCO principal Qu Jianqing as soloist. Kroran was an ancient kingdom along the Silk Road which suddenly disappeared during the Fourth Century A.D., and the music was distinctly Central Asian with its Arabic influences. 

The dancer soon unveiled, performed several dervish-like pirouettes before hightailing offstage, just as the pace escalated alarmingly into terminal velocity. Then the super-virtuoso in Qu took over, stealing the stage by romping through the high-risk high-stakes score completely from memory. Any misplaced note would have spelt disaster, but the adrenaline-fueled soloist and turbo-charged ensemble gloriously prevailed. 

The balance of this very well-structured programme, graced by President and Mrs Tharman Shanmugaratnam, also had much to recommend. Beginning the evening was Jiang Ying’s Impressions of Chinese Music: Daqu, the movement’s title translating into Big Composition. This sumptuous score, opening with a lovely guan solo, resembled film music, and its well-sustained waves of sound approximated that of a Western symphony orchestra. 

Following this was Peng Xiuwen’s Flowing Water, essentially a river portrait tracing the origins of the mighty Yangtze from trickling droplets (guzheng), limpid streams (lyrical huqins) to soaring waves before concluding in harmonious peace. 

The concert closed with the two movements of Liu Changyuan’s Symphony of Sizhu. Jiangnan Sizhu is the beloved tradition of “silk and bamboo”, delighting in the finery of lush string (silk) and wind (bamboo) playing. Its beauty was captured in a intimate moment when Yu Jia’s pipa, Huang Guifang’s sanxian and Zhao Jianhua’s erhu were given free rein to express themselves. 

The conclusion work’s animated conclusion was so well received that it was encored, with the audience encouraged to hum along its big tune before its grand apotheosis. Little wonder why this season opener closed in brimming high spirits.