CONTEMPLATIO
Yong Siew
Toh Conservatory
New Music Ensemble
Esplanade
Recital Studio
Wednesday (13 November 2013 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 November 2013 with the titles "Palette of riotous sounds".
The scope of modern music offers contemporary
composers the widest possible range of musical expressions and resources
available for creating new works. It is this sheer variety and endless
possibilities that make new music invigourating, and nothing has to sound the
same or tuneless, just to name common accusations levelled at this genre.
The Conservatory’s New Music Ensemble conducted
by Chan Tze Law skilfully and persuasively demonstrated this diversity in four
very different works. The chamber version of Singaporean Kelly Tang’s Radiance (2012), commissioned for the Esplanade’s 10th Anniversary, opened the concert.
It displayed a panoply of shifting moods;
intimacy from the strings contrasted with outward extroversion in the brass,
well complemented by thoughtful woodwinds. The almost impressionist haze gave
way to a series of chorales, which resembled stretches of film music before ending
in an abrupt upshot, described by the composer as a sardonic smirk.
Twilight
Colours
(2007) by the first important Chinese-American composer Chou Wen-Chung was more
extended, but limited to just three strings and three woodwinds. Solos were
heard separately and other voices later joined with varying timbres in this
desolate and contemplative piece. Little resembled Chinese music and somewhere,
the tonal spectre of Wagner’s Tristan and
Isolde hovered, straining to break free before its loud chordal ending. 
A wider palette of colours was the exploited by
Filipino student composer Joshua Pangilinan in When You Contemplate The Waters (2013). Piano, marimba and more
brass joined the ensemble in the metamorphosis of a rising three note motif,
evoking a lotus blooming. Stillness with Rit Xu’s alto flute accompanied by
Chen Yang’s marimba, and the climactic orchestral roar near the end were some
memorable moments. Pagilinan dedicated this World Premiere to the people of the
The longest work, and the most entertaining, was
John Adam’s Gnarly Buttons (1996), a
virtuoso clarinet concerto showcasing the impressive prowess of conservatory
alumnus Li Xin. Taking a byway derived from minimalism, the three intricately
rhythmic movements played on popular musical idioms including jazz, country and
western, and the sentimental ballad. 
Li’s free-wheeling manner in the frenetic and
acrobatic score resembled improvisation, leaping through thickets of
instrumental interjections as electric guitar, banjo, mandolin and two
synthesizer keyboards were thrown into the fray. The madcap antics including a
bovine moo in the central hoedown, aptly subtitled Mad Cow, lent an air of demented anarchy to the proceedings, and
the finale was a soppy song turned agitated. It made for a riotous end indeed.
This concert was presented as part of the Esplanade's Spectrum Series.
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