RHAPSODIES
OF SPRING 2015
Singapore
Chinese Orchestra
Singapore
Conference Hall
Saturday (31 January 2015)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 February 2015 with the title "All things Chinese to welcome spring".
The Singapore Chinese Orchestra's annual
Lunar New Year concerts, entitled Rhapsodies of Spring, have become as
much an institution as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra's Christmas Concerts.
Besides being celebratory in nature and content, it also has an ethnocentric
element to remind the audience what it means to be Chinese. This aspect was
more palpably felt in this year's edition.
Cast in the central role was popular
radio and television personality Marcus Chin (Chen Jian Bin) serving as host
with his constant bantering with conductor Yeh Tsung, who gamely played along.
After the rousing Spring Festival Overture by Li Huan Zhi, Chin stole
the show in a varied selection of songs that amply displayed his skills in
orating, rhyming and crooning.
Recalling the itinerant street
entertainers of China, New Street Vendor and The Shoe Cleaner had
the rustic quality of folksongs which Chin delivered with natural flair and
humour. This was contrasted with the Russian song Under The Silvery Moon
and Sichuan folksong Radiant With Joy, the latter sung in original
dialect with its quite exotic inflexions. Taiwanese composer Liu Jia Chang's The
Clown provided moments of sober reflection, the sort encountered in
Leoncavallo's verismo classic I Pagliacci.
Sheng player Zhong Zhiyue, attired in Miao
costume, performed Xu Chao Ming and Lu Zai Yi's Blowing The Lusheng, Singing
The Harvest on the lusheng, the ethnic Hmong variant of the mouth
organ. This was a rhapsodic work with a slow introduction and cadenza
before breaking out in a fast tribal dance with nifty footwork to match.
Improvisation on a modern sheng defined Zhong's stylish take on Bob
Gaudio's infectious Can't Take My Eyes Off You, the Frankie Valli hit
song heard in Jersey Boys.
No Chinese New Year concert would be
complete without some skit or other. Filial Piety, scripted and directed
by Chin with music arranged by Tan Kah Yong, revolved around a dysfunctional
family where old granny is ill-treated by the mistress of the house until the
latter gets a comeuppance of her own. With appearances by Lin Ru Ping, Xu Qiong
Fang, Chew Wen, Zhang Xiong and Chin in a cross-dressing role, it was quite
funny but somewhat preachy in tone.
Far more subtle was award-winning film
director Anthony Chen's 2011 short film Family Reunion with music by Law
Wai Lun. The idea of family and bonding through the generations came across
strongly in its brief 11 minutes, which captured fast disappearing scenes from
Singapore through the decades in the eyes of a dialect-speaking heartlands
family.
Sim Boon Yew's Spring Suite III
was a lively medley of seasonal songs including In Spring and Winds
Across The Land, which the irrepressible Chin led the audience in a
sing-along and clap-along. More familiar were He Xin Nian (New Year
Greetings) and Da Di Hui Chun (Spring Returns) which ushered
in two gods of wealth, who dished out chocolates in the shape of gold coins and
ingots.
Par for the course for a festive concert
where family values and all things Chinese become as important as or even
supercede the music itself. Attended by an over-subscribed house over two
evenings, a surfeit of goodwill and good wishes cannot be a bad thing.
 |
| May the gods of wealth bringeth thee great fortune! |
No comments:
Post a Comment