CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2013)

CHAUSSON Concert / String Quartet

JENNIFER PIKE, Violin

TOM POSTER, Piano

Doric String Quartet

Chandos 10754 / *****

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899) would have become a major composer of the late Romantic French school had he not gotten in a bicycle accident that claimed his rather short life. Left unfinished in three movements was his String Quartet in C minor, completed by fellow composer Vincent d’Indy. Both were students of Cesar Franck, who in turn worshipped Wagner, and the music shares the master’s austerity and economy of themes. There is also a Beethovenian intensity that makes the music sound more Germanic than French.

Chausson’s most performed work after the popular Poeme for violin is arguably the Concert for violin, piano and string quartet (1889-91). Note the spelling of the piece, as it was not designated a concerto. Instead the term harks back to the concerts royaux (royal concerts) of the French baroque age, music for various instrumental ensembles as an entertainment. Its four movements play almost like a symphony in 40 minutes (Franck’s Symphony in D minor comes to mind at certain points), with strong thematic cohesion, orchestral effects and gestures. These most satisfying performances come from the cream of young musical Britons, for whom instrumental virtuosity is merely a tool of expression, and which comes as naturally as breathing. Highly recommended.

SCHUBERT String Quintet

SCHOENBERG Verklarte Nacht

JANINE JANSEN, Violin et al

Decca 478 3551 / *****

It is a sign of the times where a performer’s name is set in far larger letters than those of composers. The glamorous young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen will probably sell more records than either Arnold Schoenberg or Franz Schubert, even if she is one artist among six, or that is what the executives of the Decca label think. Thankfully, she is in good company as her fellow musicians violinist Boris Brovtsyn, violists Maxim Rysanov and Amihai Grosz, and cellists Torleif Thedeen and Jens Peter Maintz work extremely well as a unit in this generous chamber disc which plays for over 83 minutes.

Schoenberg’s most popular work Verklarte Nacht (Transfigured Night) is heard in its original string sextet version. Inspired by Richard Dehmel’s poem about a couple’s midnight stroll and transcendent love (with the revelation that the baby she is carrying is not his), the music transforms from agitation and trepidation to a blissful calm, which is exactly what the performers convey by capturing the febrile mood so vividly. Schubert’s late Quintet in C major is a surprisingly upbeat work from a dying man, and the players spare no effort in bringing out every ounce of pathos (the rapt slow movement in particular) and congeniality everywhere else. Here is chamber music at its finest and most joyous.

THE KIDS GET BETTER AND BETTER / Photographs from the National Piano & Violin Competition 2013 Prize Presentation Ceremony

Whether in sickness or health, the single event one must not miss is the National Piano & Violin Competition (NPVC) finals and prize presentation ceremony, organised by the National Arts Council (NAC). The future of classical music in Singapore is neatly showcased in this slick event of genuine music-making and often astounding virtuosity. 

I had been following the NPVC since 2001, and its prescience in unearthing true musical talents like violinists Grace Lee, Tang Tee Khoon, Lim Hui, Selina Tang, Ike See, Lee Shi Mei, Alan Choo and pianists Khor Shan Jin, Shaun Choo, Azariah Tan and Clarence Lee  (just to name only the Singaporeans) has been totally canny.

If you want to see who will figure large in the local classical music scene in the future, just attend the NPVC to view the crystal ball. The last five editions have also produced winners in foreign talents (from China, Taiwan, Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Ukraine, Uzbekistan et cetera) studying in our local musical institutions (YST and NAFA) and they have given Singaporeans a run for their money. The overall result has been an great improvement in the standards of playing and our musical scene has been the beneficiary. Whether the NPVC continues in this present form, it is undeniable that the Competition has totally enriched our musical landscape. 

1sr prizewinner of the Violin Artist category Shi Xiaoxuan
impressed in Saint-Saëns's Third Violin Concerto,
accompanied by the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra
conducted by Chan Tze Law.

It should be noted that Camille Saint-Saëns had a great year, as both First Prizewinners of the Piano and Violin Artist Categories won with the Frenchman's concertos. Earlier in the ceremony, Elaine Yap Sin Yee gave a swashbuckling account of the Presto finale from Saint-Saëns's Second Piano Concerto. Froth is good, when played with such flair and abandon!

The winner of the Goh Soon Tioe Outstanding Performer Award
was Samuel Tan Yek Hee, who received the biggest bounty
of SGD10,000! Here he meets the Ag.Minister Lawrence Wong
and Goh Soon Tioe's daughter Vivien Goh. 

All the proud winners line up.

Newly commissioned work Varyations II by Terrence Wong
was played completely from memory
by Jonathan Chua Yujing.

Serene Koh (1st Prize, Piano Senior Category)
gave a stylish account of
Rachmaninov's Humoresque Op.10 No.5 

More virtuosity from Shalynn Tsai (1st Prize,
Violin Intermediate Category) with
Chen Gang's Sunshine Over Tashkurgan.
She was accompanied by pianist Lim Yan.

Liew Ai Xin (1st Prize, Piano Intermediate Category)
was all fluency and flair in Fauré's Third Impromptu.

Kennis Ang (1st Prize, Piano Junior Category) brought out
the orchestral colour in
Turina's Exaltacion from Danzas Fantasticas.

Kimberly Lo (1st Prize, Violin Junior Category)
impressed with stunning prestidigitation
in Sinding's Suite in A minor (1st movement).
Lim Yan makes sure he doesn't miss a note too.

Stunner of the evening: Samuel Tan Yek Hee (GST Award)
displays a natural virtuosity in
Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro in the style of Pugnani.
He also demonstrates "fiddler's drift" when he starts 
in front of pianist Beatrice Lin and wanders off
to the foot of the piano as the work concludes!

Jonathan Shin (3rd Prize, Piano Artist Category)
reunited with his first teacher Madam Fang Yuan.

Kennis Ang with her family and teacher Lena Ching (left),
who was a prize-winning pianist herself.

The Albert Tiu studio does it again: three first-prize
winners in three consecutive NPVCs.
Latest winner Elaine Yap Sin Yee (centre in all white)
and 2011 winner Victor Ye (white tee-shirt) flank
their proud and happy teacher. 

The masked bandit brigade!
PianoManiac meets MahlerManiac Tan Chan Boon.

NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION 2013 / PIANO ARTIST FINALS / Review

NATIONAL PIANO & 

VIOLIN COMPETITION 2013

PIANO ARTIST CATEGORY FINALS

Sunday (8 December 2013)

The grand final of the Piano Artist Category of the biannual National Piano & Violin Competition is the closest thing one gets to the final round of any international piano competition. Three finalists get to play a full length concerto with an orchestra, a formula which also applied to international competitions I have attended in London and Shanghai. For years, it has been the grand showcase of piano talent in Singapore and the previous finals have been memorable to say the least. This year it was even better.

In some ways, this seemed like a repeat of the 2007 finals held at the Victoria Concert Hall. That edition pitted Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto (played by a Chinese student from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts) against Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 (by a student from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory), with a Grieg Piano Concerto as an also-ran. On that December evening, the Tchaikovsky triumphed.

Due to the order in which participants had drawn earlier, it was the Tchaikovsky that opened this final, accompanied by the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra conducted by Chan Tze Law. NAFA’s Wan Jing Jing (China) was a rock solid soloist, comfortably issuing big chords that thundered through the orchestra’s majestic statement of the main theme. The early cadenza was dispatched with relative ease. A crying baby (why are they even allowed entry?) did little to faze this assured young lady on her mission. There were a few missed notes in the long cadenza at the end of the first movement, but that mattered little.

The main problem with this warhorse of a concerto is that it calls for big gestures through most of its pages, stampeding octaves, emotionally driven romantic clichés and the like all worn heart-on-sleeve. Wan delivered these with true weight and aplomb, but the overall effect with her and the orchestra operating at full blast in this reverberant hall was one of sensory overload and exhaustion.

Some respite came in the second movement, where the serene opening theme was well contrasted with the quicksilver prestissimo central interlude. The rollicking finale was also well pulled off, with the orchestra build up towards the final salvo of octaves being one of the work’s most thrilling moments. Wan did not disappoint, and even though she could develop further by bringing more nuances to this less-than-subtle work, this was job well done.

There was a good reason why Camille Saint-Saëns’s Second Piano Concerto was not on the list of concertos for the last three editions of the competition. It was the 2005 final which infamously featured three consecutive performances of the piece, each worse than the last. It made for a mind-numbing concert that nobody was keen to repeat. Thankfully Yap Sin Yee (Malaysia) gave a swashbuckling performance that topped all three of those, thus restoring some faith to the superficial delights of this work.

“Bach to Offenbach” is the apt description applied to the concerto’s journey from sobriety to outright frivolity, one which Yap understood well and took to her heart. The opening G minor cadenza with its long held pedal-note was delivered in its full gothic glory. Hardly a note was missed in the loud parts of the first movement, but it was the fairy-tale lightness in the quieter passages that impressed. While the second movement’s scherzo could have done with more crispness, the waltz-like soft centre was milked to its max. Any more sentimentality would have been a descent into schmaltz, a fine line which the performers treaded quite gingerly. 

Any doubts as to this performance were dispelled in the tarantella finale, which saw Yap flying off the blocks at a furious pace. How she maintained this momentum from frenzied start to scintillating end was a testament to her athletic prowess, but one which took all musical considerations in the stride. Amid the chase, there was humour and an ebullience that sparkled like champagne.     

Singapore’s hopes lay in Jonathan Shin who cut a supremely confident figure in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor (K.466). He was informally attired and looked like an epitome of coolness. The playing was however one of warmth and svelte elegance, though he closely identified with the music’s sturm und drang. Making the music come alive, with its emphasis on natural flow and innate urgency, there was no resorting to ear-catching agogics or exaggerated accents. The Beethoven cadenza was well-chosen, dramatic and trenchant in its delivery.

The slow movement’s Romanze was poetically shaded, and if there were a minor quibble, he could have stirred up the turbulent central G minor a bit more to show up the movement’s contrasts. The finale was a return to the first movement’s dramatics, and while some thought that it was taken too fast, I felt that he maintained the movement’s tension well, culminating with an excellent cadenza. In certain ways, this was for me the most satisfying performance of the afternoon. This was not because Shin did not put a foot wrong, but because Mozart is so darned hard to interpret convincingly. He seemed to get everything just right.

So how does one decide between a sturdy Tchaikovsky, a rip-roaring Saint-Saëns and an urbane Mozart? I don’t for a moment envy the jury of Gennady Dzubenko, Dean Kramer and Ick Choo Moon who have to judge these things. For myself, and those fortunate to have attended the final, this has been a most absorbing concert – perhaps the best final in years. The result had to be a close one, and here are the placings:

3. Jonathan Shin in Mozart 20

2. Wan Jing Jing in Tchaikovsky 1

1. Yap Sin Yee in Saint-Saëns 2

The moment when Yap Sin Yee
finds out she has won.

Congratulations are in order to all the pianists, as well as the semi-finalists (I heard another three) who have set a very high overall standard for the cohort of 2015 to emulate. Till the next time!

All the three winners (from L):
Wan Jing Jing, Yap Sin Yee & Jonathan Shin

INTERESTING NAMES @ NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION 2013

It has always been a habit of mine to leaf through the pages of the souvenir booklets of any music competition, to see who is participating as well as to ponder on the sort of repertoire offered. Often interesting choices of works crop up, but in this year, several players themselves were a source of interest, especially their names.

Imagine the surprise when I saw the name of Li Yundi pop up in the Piano Intermediate Category. This is indeed a famous name, that of the Chopin International Piano Competition 1st Prizewinner of 2000 turned Tchaikovsky Thrasher of 2009. From reliable sources, this Yundi turned out to be a girl. Hopefully she is a better pianist.

  

Now I was looking out for a Lang Lang, but found a Mei Fei Fei  instead. Does she (this has to be a girl's name) come from from China as well? Considering that Dong Fei Fei was a finalist in the 2013 Van Cliburn Piano Competition, this is going to be a good name for pianists. By the way, I've actually seen recordings by pianists Niu Niu and Dong Dong, and met a pianist called Fang Fang.

Indonesians, I've heard, like to go by a single name like the Brazilians do, such as Pélé, Zico, Kaka, Romaria, Ronaldo, Junior and Eder. So here are two Indonesian pianists who like to be known by their only names, Wilson and Josephine. I heard Josephine play in the semi-finals and she is very musical.

Some Indonesians like to go by two names, both of which are first names. So here is Sandy Amanda, a student of NAFA who was also a semi-finalist. Other examples I've encountered include Andrew Alexander, a young pianist who also sings, and my all-time favourite Indonesian pianist name, Randy Ryan.

Finally, what are the odds that the father of Solskjaer Alesi Thio is not a Manchester United fan? Does he have brothers named Ferguson, Sheringham, Beckham, Roy, Keane, Ruud, Jaap, Cristiano or Ronaldo? The last notable pianist in Singapore named after a football star is probably Keegan Ng Zhi Wei.

If I come back reincarnated as an ahem... real pianist, perhaps I should go by the name Liang Liang.

ONCE UPON A TIME / LOH JUN HONG & ABIGAIL SIN / Review

ONCE UPON A TIME

LOH JUN HONG, Violin

& ABIGAIL SIN, Piano

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (6 December 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 December 2013 with the title "Technicolor treats".

“More Than Music” is a new series of concerts initiated by young Singaporean musicians Abigail Sin and Loh Jun Hong to bring classical music closer to beginners and neophytes, through an informal and interactive approach that is accessible yet does not dumb down.

In Once Upon A Time, a concert presented by the Kris Foundation, the duo performed a 90-minute-long programme of light classics and short works, leading listeners through each piece by relating stories of their own. The hall was decorated resembling a classroom, with portraits of seven composers on easels looking fondly on the performers.

Loh’s selection of violin works was romantically inclined, and the subject of composers’ love lives figured prominently in his preambles. Thus Edward Elgar’s Salut d’amour (Love’s Greeting) was an appropriate opener, showcasing his full and sweet string tone, one which he could emote and wallow unabashedly in sentimentality.

Such are the qualities of the violin, which resembles the full palette of singer’s voice. In Dvorak’s Romance in F minor (Op.11), deeper emotions were explored as the melancholy of unrequited love found a passionate release in its central climax. 

Loh’s range comfortably encompassed these extremes, as in Wieniawski’s Legend, where darkness turned into light as the work’s brooding open gave way to the a joyous outburst before its quiet end. Sin accompanied with much sensitivity on the piano, casting frequent glances at her partner.

Her solos were more varied, which included the baroque, romantic and impressionist pieces. She spoke more analytically on these, explaining how music could imitate sounds in nature as well as express feelings. In Ravel’s Oiseaux Tristes (Sad Birds) and Alborada del gracioso (Morning Dance Of The Jester), she brought out Technicolor shades in both tone paintings, although the glissandi in the latter could have been more flamboyant.

Her complete mastery of contrapuntal playing in J.S.Bach’s Capriccio on the Departure of a Beloved Brother, besides conveying every nuance and mood in this programmatic work, suggests a supreme Bach interpreter in the making. In Chopin’s late Barcarolle, she chose to eschew surface glitter, highlighting instead its more turbulent undercurrents which equated Venice with death and decay.

The duo completed the evening with Tchaikovsky’s bubbly Waltz-Scherzo, a virtuoso showpiece which pulled out all the stops. A reprise of Elgar’s number one hit was a much enjoyed encore, after which the audience was invited to a champagne reception. Indeed, much more than music had been served. 

    

Concert photographs courtesy of Chrisppics+

  

The families of Loh Jun Hong and Abigail Sin
with Kris Tan of the Kris Foundation.

Abigail & Jun Hong 2013.

Jun Hong (left) and Abigail (right) in 2000
at the SSO Children's Music Marathon.

 Additional photos by PianoManiac.

2013 ASIAN TOUR: SINGAPORE CONCERT / Bard College Conservatory & Soochow University School of Music / Review

2013 ASIA TOUR: SINGAPORE CONCERT

Siow Lee Chin with faculty of 

Bard College Conservatory &

Soochow University School of Music

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (3 December 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 December 2013 with the title "Winning partnership".

It was good to see violinist Siow Lee Chin back in concert after close to two years, having recovered from a career-threatening injury sustained in a hit-and-run auto accident last year. She not playing solo but partnering colleagues from New York’s Bard College Conservatory and the newly formed Soochow University School of Music in a short but lovely programme of chamber music.

Mozart’s popular Flute Quartet in D major (K.285) provided a most congenial opener, with Czech flautist Clara Novakova weaving clear and pristine lines, closely supported by Siow, violist Shawn Moore and cellist Wu Hekun. The vital essence of chamber music was in play throughout, with an ideal balance of sound and tautness of ensemble.

Its Adagio was a charming aria-like serenade, with flute floating above gently plucked pizzicato strings. But before one could get too comfortable, it abruptly broke off into the lively Rondo finale with all four musicians articulating its joyous strains in one accord.

Siow spoke briefly about her home-coming and learning new repertoire, which included arrangements by Levon Atovmyan’s of Shostakovich’s Five Pieces for two violins and piano. Here was the Soviet composer at his least forbidding, writing popular and banal melodies, mostly for films and ballets, without resorting to his trademark cynicism.

She was partnered by Moore, now playing second violin, and pianist Elise Yun. Although undemanding on the ears, the little pieces which include a Prelude, Gavotte, Elegy, Waltz and Polka required warmth, delicacy and no little good humour.  These were in bounteous supply, but need the audience applaud after every two minutes?      

Enthusiasm and ignorance were equally and graciously accepted by the performers, whose role was to proselytise on behalf of music and the conservatories. This continued into the concert’s major work, where cellist Wu returned to join Siow and Yun in Mendelssohn’s First Piano Trio in D minor (Op.49).   

One of the great trios of the early Romantic period, its share of overflowing melody and fastidiously crafted note-spinning was gratefully reciprocated by the threesome. Yun had the most running notes, which she accurately and crisply rolled out on the keyboard. The singing qualities of Siow’s violin playing, always a pleasure, were complemented by Wu’s big-toned and lusty bowing.

The song without words that is the slow movement was followed by the quicksilver Scherzo, which flitted and flew with feathery lightness. The finale with its big striding tunes completed the picture and closed the concert with passionate aplomb. With teachers like these on board, Suzhou might soon be known for its classical music, alongside its gardens and industrial parks.  

Concert photograph courtesy of Dr Siow Yew Nam.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, December 2013)

 SZYMANOWSKI Symphonies Nos.1 & 2

London Symphony / VALERY GERGIEV

LSO Live 0731 / ****1/2

Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), widely hailed as the greatest Polish composer after Chopin, wrote four symphonies. While the latter two get occasional airings in concerts, the first two are rarely performed. These earlier works illustrate his eclectic and evolving style which mirrored the progressive and rapid erosion of tonality in Europe at the turn of the century. The First Symphony in F minor (1906-07) is in two movements, and was never completed. Its sound palette continues where Wagner’s seminal opera Tristan And Isolde left off and shares the same feverish atmosphere as Schoenberg’s early tonal scores. Although Szymanowski despised it, the music does make an impressive impact.

The Second Symphony in B flat major (1909-10) is a finer and more mature work. It shares the same volatile spirit as its predecessor, but the aesthetics are now more aligned with the opulence of Richard Strauss and Scriabin. An opening theme heard on solo violin is its recurring motif that unites its sprawling half-hour duration. The second movement is an elaborate theme and variations, culminating in a mighty final fugue, as if to display his academic credentials. The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev gives marvellous live performances (recorded in late 2012), and its audience is remarkably quiet. The music deserves nothing less.    

PORTRAITS: THE CLARINET ALBUM

ANDREAS OTTENSAMER, Clarinet

Rotterdam Philharmonic

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Conductor

Deutsche Grammophon 481 0131 / ****1/2

This is young Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer’s debut album on the famed German yellow label, just under an hour of clarinet concertos and encores. He is a versatile as they come, equally at home with the classical repertoire and modern works. He weaves a luscious creamy tone in the opening of Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto (famously recorded by Benny Goodman) before extrovertly breaking out into jazz-inspired runs which make this work such a hit.

The Clarinet Concerto by Italian Domenico Cimarosa, better known for his operas, is arranged from a keyboard sonata by Arthur Benjamin (the Australian-born composer of Jamaican Rumba). Its clean classical lines, beautifully shaped, evoke the mellifluous operatic arias of the period. With the First Clarinet Concerto by Louis Spohr, one arrives at the golden age of the clarinet, where an outsized virtuoso technique becomes a pre-requisite in meeting the music’s acrobatic demands. Ottensamer delivers with panache, and the three short works orchestrated by Stephan Koncz that precede each concerto are well chosen. Gershwin’s First Prelude, Debussy’s Girl With The Flaxen Hair and Amy Beach’s Berceuse are totally enjoyable as well.

Living With NATALIE NG Piano Recital / Review

LIVING WITH

NATALIE NG, Piano Recital

Living Room @ The Arts House

Monday (2 December 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 December 2013 with the title "Young pianist unfazed by hyperactive toddler".

There are now many young and well-trained Singaporean pianists but solo piano recitals are still thin on the ground. So kudos go to Natalie Ng, a graduate of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and Leeds University, whose recital of intimate classics was the antithesis of the exploits of a certain Lang Lang a few nights before.

All of the works were programmed with literary inspirations in mind, from Milan Kundera, Petrarch, Shakespeare, A.E.Houseman and local authors like Lee Tzu Pheng and Phan Ming Yen.

Janacek’s The Virgin of Frydek from On An Overgrown Path opened with sombre chords, interspersed by lyrical musings accompanied by mellow tremolos. A surfeit of pedalling and hyper-resonant acoustics ensured that mistakes could be concealed but textural details were similarly blurred out, an unfortunate outcome.

In the three Petrarch Sonnets by Liszt which served as intervening chapters within the recital, every effort was put into ensuring clarity of the singing line. The ever-sensitive Ng succeeded even if the florid cadenzas were not always immaculately articulated.

The longer central work was Beethoven’s Tempest Sonata in D minor (Op.31 No.2), in which the contrasts between agitation and calm were well conveyed. There were moments of awkward hand-crossing in the central movement, as well the finale’s eternal perpetual motion to overcome, but these were not Ng’s greatest bugbears.

It must have been a trial to concentrate when there is a hyperactive toddler seated in the front row just a few paces behind the performer. The constant fidgeting, noise-making and gestures of impatience were left unchecked by the irresponsible mother. An effort to relieve the offensive duo from the ordeal of serious music-making however proved unsuccessful.

Undeterred and unruffled by the ruckus, Ng regained the composure to delicately tease out the delicious harmonies of three short pieces by John Ireland, Spring Will Not Wait, A Grecian Lad and The Cherry Tree. In many respects, these miniatures lovingly gilded prove more rewarding than impetuously banged out Chopin Ballades.

Ardent applause was rewarded with a wonderful encore, Saint-Saens’s aria Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix (My Heart Opens To Your Voice) from Samson And Delilah in a luxuriant transcription by Frederic Meinders, which for long stretches highlighted mastery for the left hand alone. That performance was alone worth the price of entry, which was generously bestowed to the Business Times Budding Artist Fund. 

  
Photographs by the kind permission of Natalie Ng and The Arts House.

CIRCUS MAXIMUS! / The Philharmonic Winds / Review

CIRCUS MAXIMUS!

The Philharmonic Winds

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (1 December 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 December 2013 with the title "A blast from Winds".

Composers who write for wind orchestras tend to be specialists, but when a traditional mainstream composer attempts to create music for woodwinds and brass, something special results. Such was the case for two composers in The Philharmonic Winds’ blockbuster concert this evening.

The first was Richard Wagner’s Huldigungsmarsch (Homage March), a short piece written for the 19^th birthday of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, something opera lovers may not be aware of. Disciplined and well-honed, the young musicians confidently trumpeted the kind of fanfares one would expect from the composer of Lohengrin and Tannhäuser.  

The second would dramatically close the concert, but there were three intervening works including David Ward-Steinman’s Singapore Sonorama, a new commission receiving its World Premiere. The American composer had visited the island-state some thirty years ago, and these picture-postcard impressions were his “An American In Singapore”.

His references were 1970s and 80s, when Singapore touted itself as a touristic “Instant Asia”. Its four colourful movements included Malay, Indian and Chinese portraits. Dayung Sampan was deconstructed and quoted in the 2^nd movement. Govin Tan’s tabla and Shane Thio’s prepared piano (simulating a tambura) provided a raga-like basis for the 3^rd movement Little India, while percussion lit up the Chinatown finale.

This well-crafted work gave individual soloists and the ensemble to shine, but had anyone told the composer that the Merlion was ersatz, the figment of some tourism executive’s imagination? Or that the low brass belches within the piece were the first time anybody heard the creature roar?

Korean-Japanese composer Chang Su Koh’s Lament, a funereal trudge that brought out a finely-detailed crescendo, in stark contrast to the slick clichés of American Norman Dello-Joio’s Satiric Dances For A Comedy By Aristophanes.

The titular Circus Maximus was the Third Symphony of John Corigliano, better known for his film music for The Red Violin and a First Symphony in remembrance of AIDS victims. This was an unlikely-to-be-repeated spectacle that could only be experienced in a concert hall rather than through a pair of speakers.

Off-stage musicians occupied all four levels of the Esplanade Concert Hall, and an antiphonal racket ensued, masterfully helmed by conductor Leonard Tan whose Mahlerian task was immense. In this 35-minute long work, Corigliano likened the bloodlust and barbarism of Roman games to modern ills like commercialism, consumerism and channel-surfing.

Some of the loudest music ever to be heard in this venue was balanced by saucy interludes from  saxophones, “wolf calls” from French horns, intimate playing in the two Night Music segments (influenced by both Bartok and Mahler), and a Prayer which highlighted fine brass chorales. To throw in the proverbial kitchen sink, a marching band trooped the aisles, and the music was put to an abrupt end by literally a gunshot to the head (above).   

Who wins this new “war of the worlds”? The jury is still out, but the finest young wind players of the land were taken to task, but emerging as first among equals.

Photographs by the kind courtesy of The Philharmonic Winds.