OUR PEOPLE, OUR MUSIC 2014 / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

OUR PEOPLE, OUR MUSIC 2014

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

National Stadium, Singapore Sports Hub

Saturday (28 June 2014) 

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 30 June 2014 with the title "Mega night to remember".

For the years to come, this concert by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra to celebrate the opening of the newly completed National Stadium and Sports Hub will be popularly referred to as the “Mega-Concert”. In terms of numbers involved in performing live music and sheer magnitude, there have been few equals.

In 1978, a choir of 4000 sang under the direction of the late Paul Abisheganaden at the Billy Graham Crusade, while a combined chorus of over a thousand from Singapore, Australia and Scandinavia performed Handel’s Messiah with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 1988.

Both events were held in the old National Stadium, scene of Singapore’s football triumphs and home of the Kallang Roar, a venue where the nation also greeted Pope John Paul II and pop icon Michael Jackson. Fond old memories of those escapades and the ubiquitous “drinks, keropoh and kwa-chee” linger, but the new National Stadium with the world’s largest domed roof is a sight to behold. A first concert there had to be equally memorable.

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra is no stranger to mass participation concerts having previously staged a mega-concert of a smaller scale with 2400 performers at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in 2004. This evening’s numbers would healthily surpass that as it involved no less than 128 school and community Chinese ensembles and choirs, including several groups from Johore and Sabah.

The SCO’s commitment to audience outreach also mandated that this evening’s fare was popular and approachable. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s baton provided the down-beat for the opening fanfare to Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra adapted for Chinese instruments by Tan Kah Yong, and the amplified sound of the augmented orchestra was close to deafening.

Each work programmed and conducted by SCO Music Director Yeh Tsung for the concert reflected some facet of the nation’s psyche, hopes and aspirations. Nostalgia was represented by Blue Memories, a medley of Teresa Teng hits arranged by Kuan Nai Chung which had to include that evergreen Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo Di Xin (The Moon Represents My Heart).

In reality, most of the works were a celebration of youth, somewhat ironic as the nation is inching inexorably into middle age. SG 50 was only mentioned once during the course of events, but staying young or young at heart was the key to true happiness, it seemed. A martial arts display by Singapore’s world wushu champion Vincent Ng, accompanied by music to the Jet Li movie Once Upon In China, provided the adrenaline rush.

More fast music included the popular number Horse Racing, which saw SCO Young Assistant Conductor Moses Gay lead massed erhus in a headlong charge assisted by Clarence Lee providing the beat and vertiginous cadenzas on an electronic piano. 10-year-old pipa virtuosa Chen Xinyu, winner in the 2012 National Chinese Music Competition, was the star in Wu Si Man Jiang’s Spring At Tianshan, a rhapsody on Silk Road melodies.

SCO Resident Conductor Quek Ling Kiong then flexed his ample biceps on the dagu (large bass drum) in Power Singapura!, the work for drums of all sizes co-written with Phang Kok Jun. As auditors from the Guinness World Records hurried to crunch the numbers, a Mexican wave rippled through the ranks and files of the ensemble as well as in the lively audience.

Composer-in-residence designate Phoon Yew Tien’s Variations On Singapura was a departure from the usual compositional form. It assiduously worked through motifs and fragments of the popular National Day Parade song, revealing bit by bit in short pithy phrases before its full glory was unfurled a single and definitive time.

There was a hush of anticipation as two Guinness World Records were established and awarded to the nation. An orchestra of 3345 Chinese instrumentalists set a new global landmark, while 4557 was the number to better when it came to amassing a Chinese drum ensemble. A pat on the back was due for all the students and aspirants who participated.

The evening closed on a sentimental note when veteran musical-meister Dick Lee was invited to sing what is arguably his most popular song, Home. Its memorable lyrics and poignant melody will always resound in the hearts of many as to what it means to be a Singaporean.  

SOME PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA'S MEGA-CONCERT AT THE NEW NATIONAL STADIUM

Here are some photographs taken at the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's mega-concert My People, My Music 2014 at the new National Stadium on Saturday 18 June 2014.

The two emcees livened the audience before the music began.

Whoever thought that Richard.Strauss's
Also Sprach Zarathustra could open
a concert of Chinese music?

Wushu champion Vincent Ng provides the pugilistics.

Moses Gay (erhu) and Clarence Lee (piano)
lead the charge of Racing Horses.

10-year-old pipa virtuosa Chen Xinyu
paints a Silk Road fantasy with vivid colours.

Percussionist Quek Ling Kiong prepares for battle
in Power Singapura!

Part of the world's largest Chinese drum ensemble.

Phoon Yew Tien's Variations on Singapura.

A great shot of Maestro Yeh Tsung conducting
the world's largest Chinese orchestra.

Dick Lee and Yeh Tsung bid farewell.

Over 4000 musicians. Count them all!

The world's largest Chinese orchestral concert concludes.
Beat that, Beijing!

SYMPHONY 92.4FM YOUNG TALENTS PROJECT GALA CONCERT / Review

SYMPHONY 92.4FM

YOUNG TALENTS PROJECT 2014

GALA CONCERT

MediaCorp Television Theatre

Friday (27 June 2014)

After too many years of purveying programming mediocrity, Singapore’s only classical radio station Symphony 92.4FM has finally come up with a project that is laudable and worthwhile preserving. Its Young Talent Project, now in its third year, is a music competition that identifies top young classical talent in the nation under the age of 15 years.

It is almost an equivalent of the well-established BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in the United Kingdom, which has helped established the careers of artists like Nicola Benedetti, Jennifer Pike, Emma Johnson and Freddy Kempf, just to name a few “big names” in today’s classical musical scene. Even those who participated but did not win included the likes of Stephen Hough, Barry Douglas, Steven Osborne, Benjamin Grosvenor and Michael Collins. Not too shabby indeed.

Past winners and finalists of the BBC Young Musician
of the Year Competition are a stellar cast indeed.
Can Singapore do the same thing?

In many ways, this MediaCorp initiative complements the National Piano & Violin Competition (NPVC, organised by the National Arts Council) but has a couple of significant advantages. First, it features instrumentalists other than pianists and violinists, including voices, and secondly, it enjoys the coverage of mass media like television and radio. A winner of this competition could actually become a media celebrity if there is adequate follow-up in succeeding years. This competition does hark back to the halcyon years of television’s Talentime in the 1960s through early 80s, which has all but been replaced by reality television’s Singapore Idol and similar programmes. Was it not in one of the early Talentime episodes that violinist Lynnette Seah (Singapore Symphony’s Co-Leader) won a prize for her performance of Sarasate’s Gypsy Airs?    

I was fortunate to be able to attend this year’s Gala Concert which highlighted the top 10 talents of 2014, and was pleasantly surprised by the very high quality of the performances. The event was not aired “live”, which explained a somewhat slack and laid back feel to the proceedings, which ran almost to three hours. True to television rather than a live concert, all the instruments were amplified, often to the disadvantage of the performances. There was a artificially reverberant and swimmy acoustic throughout all performances, and the pianists bore the brunt of this. But I am quite certain that it will all look and sound very nice on the boob-tube come 5 July on the Okto channel.

Here are my observations of the young talents and their performances. Everyone was on the top of their game and there were to be no ciphers among them.

The first to perform, JOLENE CHEN (12 years, piano) set the bar very high with an impressive reading of the Glinka-Balakirev The Lark. The Russian folksong has a simple melody, which came through very well above the ornamental filigree. The technically tricky cadenzas were also overcome with impeccable technique and relative ease. My verdict: A very accomplished performance.

The only harpist in this cohort is SAPPHIRE HO (14), who had attracted a very large following to the studio, including the entire I-Sis Trio. Like the earlier performer, her work was another Russian showpiece, Walter-Kuene’s Eugene Onegin Fantasy based on themes from Tchaikovsky’s opera. Fairly similar to Paul Pabst’s fantasy on the same for piano, this rehashes the famous Waltz and Lenski’s Aria to great effect, and Sapphire never let the tension slacken for a moment. Even if there were a few minor hitches along the way, but the performance was very assured and she can only get better. Verdict: Another winning reading.

The first violinist to perform was JOEY LAU (14) who performed Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) accompanied by Lim Yan on piano. Sometimes this work feels overplayed but Joey prevented it from sounding trite or bored. She got most of the technical tricks in the first movement spot on, and was all sweetness in the short slow movement. The rip-roaring finale played to her strengths, and she does instil a genuine gypsy elan to the proceedings. Verdict: Brava! 

DANIEL LOO (11, piano) is the archetypal talent one invariably encounters in the Junior Category of the National Piano & Violin Competition. He is honed to perfection in playing a handful of set-pieces, polished to a fine sheen and blest with the requisite showmanship. Not a note was missed in Debussy’s Prelude from Pour le piano, and the reverberant sound militates to his favour. Its sweeping glissandi are excellently executed and he adds a theatrical pumping of the fist at the end of the work for dramatic effect. Verdict: Epitome of pianist as kung fu exponent.    

Little DAN YUET IAN (8, cello) has the cute factor working for him but he does not know it yet. One is amazed who someone this young has already mastered all the notes in Popper’s Hungarian Fantasy, a thorny showpiece which brings together many familiar melodies which may be found in a number of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies. Its difficulties are just swept away as nonchalantly as water off a duck’s back and his brilliant ending brings out many cheers from the audience. Verdict: Have we already found a winner?

 

I had earlier heard CHEN TIANQI (12, violin) a month ago in Suzhou, where he won 1^st prize in the Suzhou-Singapore Young Talents Competition. Part of his prize was an all-expenses paid trip here to perform for the big prize. If anything, he performed even better here, displaying a very secure technique in the 1^st movement of de Beriot’s Violin Concerto No.7, including a fearsome series of double-stops from its outset. He has a clear and generous tone, and makes the work sound better than it is. Verdict: Suzhou’s best is an even match with Singapore’s best.

MAXIMUS RENJIRO (9, piano) is the regional champion of Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world and Singapore’s immediate neighbour. Talent abounds in that nation and what I heard is a tiny tip of an iceberg. Maximus performed two of the Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythms from Bartok’s Mikrokosmos, which is an unusually narrow choice of repertoire. Fast and voluminous playing seems to be the order here, and while there is no doubting his talent, perhaps a better selection could have served his cause better. Verdict: A natural talent who could shine further in more appropriate repertoire.   

KAELYN SOH (8, violin) is also blessed with the cute factor, and she knows it all too well. This attribute is maxed to perfect effect in her fearless performance of Sarasate’s Scherzo-Tarantella. Not only does she get all the notes, she seems to be thoroughly enjoying the entire process. With the television camera zooming in, her facial expressions are fully captured; there is no grimacing or fake posturing, only broad smiles, and the music smiles with her from start to finish. Verdict: A certain winner, and let us hope she can further develop from this.    

ZANTHA TAN (14, piano) is at the upper age-limit of the competition and that maturity is reflected in her playing of Granados’s Allegro de Concierto. It is a coruscating showpiece, and she brings out all its details, including a singing line that could easily have been lost in the torrents of flying notes. A passionate and very confident performer who will soon be at the crossroads of what she wants to do with her life. Verdict: If she opts for music, she will do very well.

AODEN TEO (12, cello) is already a winner, having snagged the HSBC Youth Excellence Award for musical talent worth $200,000 last year. So the $2000 of this competition seems like small beer. He gave a repeat performance of Saint-Saens’ First Cello Concerto, but only played its first movement. This does not actually end with a strong cadence but instead fades away to nothing, which proves an anti-climax. He displays a strong technique, with good and healthy sound but one feels he could have come up with a better choice of work for this competition. Verdict: Does not really need to win this one.  

The jury of conductor turned MediaCorp Vice-President Wang Ya-Hui, virtuoso violinist Siow Lee-Chin, double-bass player Wei Yung-Chiao and NAC bigwig Pearl Samuel took almost an eternity to make their decision. In the meantime, the audience was treated by performances of previous winners and other stand-outs from the competition.

This photo gives you an idea how young and tiny
these massive talents actually are.
The winner Kaelyn Soh is third from the right,
beside the two youngest players who are 7 years old.

The overall winner who receives $2000 and a scholarship for masterclasses by the Amadeus Academy in Vienna was KAELYN SOH. Not a great surprise here. The winner of the $2000 Symphony 92.4FM prize was SAPPHIRE HO, while the Audience Prize of $1000 went to DAN YUET IAN. Congratulations all around.

This competition holds great promise, and I can see it expanding over the years to come. If taken on with greater support from the National Arts Council, it can become a national event akin to the NPVC, one that highlights a wider range of instrumentalists, not just pianists and violinists. The usual complaint that the NAC does not support cello, bass, woodwind, brass, percussion players and singers can be easily addressed with the merging of the two competitions. The publicity from television and radio would further enhance the profile of the competition. Furthermore, the upper age limit may be raised to 18, like the BBC competition, which will attract more mature talent (wind, brass players and singers take a little longer to mature), not just the cute ones. 

I look forward to the 2015 edition, which I am sure will be equally enthralling.

All photos courtesy of MediaCorp Symphony 92.4FM.

  

KUN-WOO PAIK Piano Recital / 21st Singapore International Piano Festival / Review

KUN-WOO PAIK Piano Recital

21^st Singapore International Piano Festival

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Thursday (26 June 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 June 2014 with the title "A spellbinding hour of Schubert".

The 21^st edition of the Singapore International Piano Festival was opened by veteran Korean pianist Kun-Woo Paik with an all-Schubert programme. Unlike the last all-Schubert evening served up in 2012 by Briton Paul Lewis that included two major sonatas, Paik’s offering was ten short pieces performed without a break and lasting just over an hour.

These comprised the complete set of Four Impromptus (Op.90), Three Piano Pieces (D.946, sometimes referred to as his posthumous Impromptus) and selections from the Six Musical Moments. Although not performed in sequence, Paik’s own order of playing made plenty of logical and musical sense.

Like the song cycles of Franz Schubert (1797-1828), which also run for the best part of an hour, the listener was taken through a journey of emotional peaks and troughs, experiencing joy and sorrow in equal measure. Starting from the First Impromptu in C minor (Op.90 No.1) and ending with the Sixth Musical Moment, this was essentially a cycle of “songs without words”.

Most of these pieces were written in the ternary form, in three parts where the central section is markedly contrasted with the outer sections. Within a short space of minutes, Schubert was able to conjure up a wealth of feelings, often coloured by rapid and often abrupt shifts in dynamics. This was, of course, also among Beethoven’s devices, but Schubert did so with a heart-warming sympathy that was his greatest asset.

The exact Schubert programme of Kun-Woo Paik's
recital has been reproduced on this CD

The leonine Paik, who is in his sixties, appeared world-weary and drained as he stepped on stage, but when the emphatic G in octaves of the First Impromptu sounded, all the ennui seemed to melt away. The inherent tragedy of the work, deeply felt as it worked to a feverish climax also gave way to the animated gypsy-like elan of the Third Piece from D.946. Two successive Musical Moments contrasted reverent awe in a chorale-like tune with an unlikely study of clockwork timing and repetitive beat.

All these paved the way for the set’s most familiar numbers; the seamless lyricism in the G flat major Impromptu (Op.90 No.3), one of Schubert’s loveliest melodies, juxtaposed with the dizzying perpetual motion of the E flat major Impromptu (Op.90 No.3). Two further Piano Pieces (D.946 Nos.1 and 2) displayed a relentless drive with yet another outpouring of uninhibited song.

Paik was rock-steady throughout and unerring in his delivery. More importantly, the inner soul of Schubert’s tormented and conflicted life was being laid bare. The last two pieces were both in the key of A flat major. The rippling filigree of Impromptu (Op.90 No.4), a favourite of piano students, was a concession for understated brilliance, while a most contemplative Musical Moment closed the evening in sublime reticence.

The audience held its breath for a long silence before applause broke through. Paik did not elect to play an encore, and why should he? The Schubertian hour of catharsis was so complete in itself that  further comment would seem unnecessary, even superfluous.  

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, June 2014)

LEGENDS OF THE PIANO

Acoustic Recordings 1901-1924

Naxos Historical 8.112054 / ****1/2

Wonder what some of the great composers sounded like playing on the piano? Thanks to the advent of electrical sound recording early in the 20^th century, we now know. This anthology brings together 24 performances recorded a century ago, in acoustic recordings which have a more natural feel and aural ambience than the mechanical and robotic piano-roll, a rival medium at the time. Camille Saint-Saëns was still agile and speedy at the age of 84 when he recorded his French Military March from Suite Algerienne. One will not get more authentic than Edvard Grieg in his Norwegian Bridal Procession and Peasant’s March, or Enrique Granados in an improvisation on El Pelele and Spanish Dance No.10.

Arthur Friedheim and Frederic Lamond, both students of Franz Liszt, can be heard in their master’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 and Gnomereigen (Dance of the Gnomes) respectively. Aleksander Michalowski and Raoul Koczalski provide the same service for Chopin, teacher of their teacher Karol Mikuli. Also interesting are Ilona Eibenschutz, pupil of Clara Schumann in Brahms’s Waltzes and Ballade (Op.118 No.3), and Alfred Grünfeld in his famous transcription of Johann Strauss’s Voices of Spring. All these reveal a free-wheeling and almost nonchalant pianism of a bygone era. The re-masterings here filter away most of the hiss, crackle and pop from the original sources and are hence make for more than tolerable listenable.  

GREAT WORKS FOR

FLUTE & ORCHESTRA

SHARON BEZALY, Flute

Residentie Orkest Den Haag / Neeme Järvi

BIS 1679 / *****

From one of the world’s great flautists comes this flavoursome anthology of flute concertos and concertante works. The adjective “great” in the title probably just applies to Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto (1926), a work of remarkable eloquence in blending dissonance, lyricism and  Scandinavian folk elements. Israeli flautist Sharon Bezaly’s advocacy and virtuosity shines through most persuasively, with the music’s apparent spikiness being lent a smooth and silky veneer. German Carl Reinecke’s Flute Concerto (1908) and American Charles Griffes Poem (1918) are more approachable, as is Tchaikovsky’s virtually unknown Largo & Allegro (1863-64), originally for two flutes and strings.

French woman composer Cecile Chaminade is better remembered for her salon piano pieces but her Concertino (1902), a popular showpiece, has become a favourite of flute competitions. Francis Poulenc’s well-known Flute Sonata (1956-57) takes on an orchestral guise in Lennox Berkeley’s orchestration, and is a sumptuous listen. Listen out for the built-in encore, Finnish composer Kalevi Aho’s exciting transcription of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee. Bezaly’s mercurial artistry knows few equals.

STRINGFELLOWS / T'ang Quartet and Friends / Review

STRINGFELLOWS

T’ang Quartet & Friends

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (22 June 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 June 2014 with the title "Fab Four find perfect pairing in foursome".

 

After some 22 years in business as Singapore’s only full-time chamber group, the T’ang Quartet can still be counted upon to turn informality into an art form. This latest concert saw them transform Esplanade Recital Studio into café culture, with the placement of quirkily colourful chairs, furniture and props dressed up like giant confections.

The audience was encouraged to sit closer up to the performers and be part of the musical tableaux. Teabags with the Stringfellows brand were handed out, but alas after the concert, so nobody was able to sip the brew while enjoying the music.

The foursome was joined by four female colleagues, who had their turns in all the works performed. Violist Thian Ai Wen and cellist Elizabeth Tan Su Yin partnered T’ang violinists Ng Yu Ying and Ang Chek Meng in Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade which began the afternoon concert. Unusually sunny for the moody Austrian lieder composer who ended his days in an insane asylum, the performance radiated much warmth as the genial music smiled from ear to ear.

Far more serious was the Quartettsatz (Quartet Movement) by Franz Schubert, another syphilitic master of the Lied displaying a more tragic side to his affable melodies. Violinists Tang Tee Tong and Lillian Wang together with the Tang sibs, violist Lionel Tan and cellist Leslie Tan, found a near-perfect characterisation for this short work. Amid the dramatic dark clouds of life, there may be found slivers of beauty, even humanity.

Then it was three men and three women in Alexander Borodin’s uncompleted Sextet in D minor. Although its two movements were neither typically Russian in feel nor quoted Slavic folksongs, there was a nevertheless a palpable sense of tension and melancholy generated, balanced by lovely sonorities in the committed playing.

The concert reached an emotional high with eight musicians uniting in Mendelssohn’s extraordinarily crafted String Octet, composed as a precocious 16-year-old. All had separate parts, but were led by first violinist Ng, whose virtuosic role resembled the solo of a concerto. Unerring throughout, his vitality was infectious and immediately shared by his fellow players.

The long first movement was gripping in its intensity and the spirit never flagged. A strong sense of cohesion was maintained in the slow movement, before flitting into feathery lightness for the popular Scherzo. The finale was a tour de force of optimism and positivity, reinforced by the repeated quote from Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, as if echoing a personal and spiritual triumph.

For the audience who quietly and attentively sat through the concert’s 70 minutes without intermission, the ending came almost all too soon. Another chamber concert of this calibre is well worth waiting for.  

Concert photographs by courtesy of Aloysius Lim. 



BRIDGING FRONTIERS / Metropolitan Festival Orchestra / Review

BRIDGING FRONTIERS

Metropolitan Festival Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (21 June 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 June 2014 with the title "East meets West in hymn".

This concert by the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra, Singapore’s one-year-old professional symphony orchestra and spiritual successor of the Singapore Festival Orchestra, was a throwback to the early seasons of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. In those days, Choo Hoey regularly programmed Chinese orchestral works in subscription concerts of Western classics to court Chinese-speaking audiences.

These days, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra does the converse by playing Western classics transcribed for Chinese instruments. MFO on this evening has doubled back on this trend by playing a work originally for Chinese instruments arranged for Western orchestra. Liu Xi Jin’s Hymn of Wusuli, a concerto for two erhus, sounded perfectly idiomatic in Eric Watson’s masterly orchestration.

The two erhus were retained, performed by Ling Hock Siang and Wilson Neo, both members of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. The music, instantly accessible, was a paean to fishing, singing and hunting, favourite preoccupations of the Hezhe people who live on the banks of the Wusuli River. It was a pleasure to witness how tightly intertwined the solo parts were, with the duo operating like some musical Siamese twins act through its three movements.

Further clarity was afforded by the subtlety of the accompaniment, always supporting and never overwhelming. The warmth of the strings and brass gave the music a smoother edge which would have contrasted greatly with the earthier and perhaps more strident original.

Two repertoire showpieces opened each half of the concert. Dvorak’s Carnival Overture is an established curtain-raiser, which was given a truly exciting reading. More impressive than the outward bluster was the sensitive and immaculate solo woodwind playing in the work’s quieter central section, going to the heart of its nostalgia.

Equally showy was Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Juan, with the brass in full throttle. The French horn section can claim credit for a memorable outing, confidently nailing that ruinously familiar clarion call near the end which could have easily gone awry. Conductor Chan Tze Law deserves the plaudits for honing performances that can rival those of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Finally the concert closed with Strauss’s Horn Concerto No.1, with leading horn virtuoso Han Chang Chou (also SSO Principal Horn) overcoming its multitudes of heroic flourishes and awkward leaps with great aplomb. Live performances of horn concertos here are understandably rare, and this reminded one why the thrill of going to a concert often trumps listening to reproduced recordings at home.

All photographs by courtesy of Chrisspics+ and the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra.