CROSS-CULTURAL EXTRAVAGANZA / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

CROSS-CULTURAL EXTRAVAGANZA

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (28 November 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 November 2015 with the title "Diversity of styles in cross-border concert".

For the Singapore Chinese Orchestra's first concert tour to Kuala Lumpur, it prepared a multi-cultural programme that reflected the diversity of musical styles that thrives in Singapore and Malaysia. Every ethnic culture was represented and there was an effort to bridge seemingly disparate genres in the five works performed.

Conducted by the visionary Music Director Yeh Tsung, the concert opened with an appetiser of Rambutan, the 2nd movement of Sabah composer Simon Kong's suite Izpirazione II. Combining Chinese and Malay influences, the short scherzo-like piece which highlighted the piquancy of flutes and woodwinds has become almost a marker of the Nanyang musical tradition.

Long-time Singapore resident Eric Watson's Dialogue brought Jatinder Singh Bedi's tabla set in headlong conversation with Chinese instruments. Although the tabla is not a melodic instrument, its varying rhythmic beats served as catalyst for this vibrant work of international flavour. The orchestra worked around the Punjabi virtuoso, sometimes imitating his pulse and other times serving as the counter-voice. There were solos for bangdi and suona, and the piece culminated with an elaborate cadenza where Bedi had the field to himself.

Even more esoteric was the world premiere of Yii Kah Hoe's The Silly Little Girl & The Funny Old Tree, based on a short play by the late Kuo Pao Kun. Central to this work was a wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre) show featuring Kelantanese tok dalang Eyo Hock Seng and his troupe Kumpulan Sri Campuran. Eyo multi-tasked as master puppeteer, storyteller and singer in a poignant story about uprooting of cultures and lost traditions.  

He is himself the stalwart of an age-old tradition that risks dying out with modernisation and relentless erosion by new popular cultures. His resonant voice in a vernacular Malay dialect local to the northern state stole the show, amid Yii's robust and earthy music that headily juxtaposed the Chinese suona with its Malay counterpart, the serunai.

Kelly Tang's Montage has become the most played Singaporean piano concerto of all time, thanks to SCO's advocacy and its dedicatee, jazz legend Jeremy Monteiro. Its three movements contain more jazz than Gershwin's Concerto In F and Rhapsody In Blue combined. Why the piano's lid was kept only on half-stick while being amplified was probably because of balance, but this pair of ears would have preferred even greater presence for the solo part in the outer movements with the lid completely off.

Nevertheless, Monteiro was in his element providing the expositional thrust and improvising. The erhu solo by Zhao Jian Hua in the slow movement's romance was a thing of beauty, matched by the irrepressible guanzi solo from Han Lei in the riotous Caribbean-rhythmed finale. Jazz drummer Tama Goh and bassist Lee Khiang made up the combo in yet another fun-filled outing.

The concert closed with a touch of glamour, when the first Singapore Idol Taufik Batisah emerged to sing in Watson's nostalgic Songs Of P.Ramlee medley. His soulful crooning of Getaran Jiwa (Vibrations Of The Soul), Senjakala (Twilight) and Bila Mama Pakai Celana (When Mama Wears Trousers) rolled back the years, and the final number dressed up with an infectious rumba beat brought down the house.

As an encore, Singh's tabla and Monteiro's piano joined in the fray for an uproarious reprise of the last song. Kuala Lumpur's Dewan Filharmonic Petronas is in for rolling good times. 

Composer and soloist:
Eric Watson & Jatinder Singh Bedi.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2015)

CARTE BLANCHE

MARTHA ARGERICH (Piano) et al

Deutsche Grammophon 479 5096 (2 CDs) 
***** 

Concerts are one-in-a-lifetime events, but some linger long in the memory because of the sheer artistry and passion displayed by the artists involved. One such concert took place at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland on 27 July 2007, with Argentina-born pianist Martha Argerich holding court in all but four minutes of its two and a half hours. 

Here she had selected her partners and the works to be performed, essentially a “carte blanche” or blank cheque for the programme. And what a musical feast it proved to be! Her only solo was to be in Schumann's Kinderszenen (Scenes From Childhood), a speciality which she treats with much tenderness.

The spirit of chamber music reigns in Beethoven's Ghost Trio (Op.70 No.1) with violinist Julian Rachlin and cellist Mischa Maisky, a sizzling performance matched by the folk-inspired dissonance of Bartok's Violin Sonata No.1, with violinist Renaud Capucon, and Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations for 2 pianos, with an equally energised Gabriela Montero. 

Lyricism comes in Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata where Yuri Bashmet's viola replaces the customary cello, and Lang Lang in deferential good behaviour as piano partner to Argerich for Schubert's Grande Rondeau (D.951) and Ravel's Mother Goose Suite. The concert ends with Montero playing an improvised Happy Birthday to Maisky’s daughter Lily, much to the delight of the audience. This is a “wish you were there” kind of album that thrills and pleases. 

DECCA SOUND: THE MONO YEARS

Decca 478 7946 (53 CDs) / *****

Why do music-lovers still listen to monaural recordings when modern stereophonic and digital sound exists? Back in the 1940s, there were 78 rpm shellacs, which played for four and a half minutes per side. Then came long-playing 33 rpm long-playing records (or LPs) which were boon as one could hear an entire symphony by Mozart or Haydn uninterrupted. 

There were fewer orchestras and recording artists then, so that answer has to be the passionate performances themselves, which have never dimmed over the decades. This Decca retrospective of recordings from 1944 to 1956 pays tribute to its patented Full Frequency Range Recordings (ffrr), which still sound vivid to this day. The pre-1948 recordings are drawn from earlier 78s, which eventually gave way to the LP, whose era ended in the mid-1980s.

The roster of artists is stellar, including conductors Ernest Ansermet (Stravinsky's Petrushka), Erich Kleiber (Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) and the young Georg Solti (Bartok, Kodaly & Haydn), pianists Clifford Curzon (Brahms Piano Concerto No.1) and Friedrich Gulda (Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata) and Moura Lympany (Rachmaninov and Khachaturian concertos), violinists Alfredo Campoli, Christian Ferras and Ruggiero Ricci. 

The playing is at an exalted level. This wonderful collection could be listened to straight through or sampled piecemeal, either of which would be immensely rewarding.      

LANG LANG IN PARIS

Sony Classical 88875117582 / ****

So the Chinese phenomenon goes to Paris, but he does not play a single bar of French music in his latest album. Instead, this double disc set showcases Chopin's Four Scherzos and the twelve short pieces that make up Tchaikovsky's The Seasons. A looser interpretation of the title allows for the facts that the Polish Chopin had French ancestry and settled in France for good, and the Russian Tchaikovsky was a Francophone and Francophile.

Some bad habits which plagued Lang's performances of Chopin's four Ballades in Singapore linger, like banging, ear-catching accents and deliberate rubatos for their own sake. The First Scherzo suffers the most, but thankfully it improves with the other three. The Tchaikovsky pieces, each corresponding to the months of a calendar year, fares better. 

Each is well characterised, such as the popular Barcarolle (June), Autumn Song (October) and Troika (November). Even if certain liberties are taken to stretch out the music, these do not come across as crass. Devotees need not hesitate because like Horowitz, Lang Lang's marketing machinery and celebrity status has become a rule to his own. 

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR CHINESE ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION 2015 / Review

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

FOR CHINESE ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION 2015

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (21 November 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 November 2015 with the title "Lion dance score wins top prize".

Now in its third edition, the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition is without doubt the nation's most prestigious competitive platform for new music. Hosted and organised by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, the competition was made possible by a generous personal donation by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong himself.

Thirteen works by thirteen composers vied for six prizes in this year's finals and five were performed at the concert and award presentation ceremony. Conducted by Music Director Yeh Tsung, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra proved extremely adept at learning new music and gave very convincing performances of the winning pieces.

The concert opened with young Taiwanese Liu Wei-Chih's The Calling From The Distant Hills, which was awarded the 2nd prize. Zhao Jian Hua's solo erhu ushered in a highly atmospheric piece which relied on deft use of instrumental colour to create a mysterious haze from which various voices emerged in the tradition of Hakka folk-singing. Among these were a chorus of suonas, solo cello and guanzi before reaching a serene conclusion.

Two Singaporean composers took the Nanyang idiom, central to the competition's ethos, to heart. Wong Kah Chun's Krakatoa, which won the Singaporean Composer Award, was originally scored for wind orchestra. His Chinese instrumental version was evocative of Javanese tradition with dizis simulating the suling (flute) and a flight of birds just before the volcano's famous eruption. From the ensuing violence emerged a new creation, Anak Krakatoa, represented by a more Western-styled idiom that brought to mind Richard Strauss' avatar of the Superman in Also Sprach Zarathustra. 

Singaporean composer Wong Kah Chun
acknowledges the applause.

Chew Jun An's Bale Bengong, winner of the Young Singaporean Composer Award, was a more static work that dealt with the generation of ideas and fantasies. Its title refers to the Balinese “pavilion for day-dreaming”, where a complex counterpoint became a hotbed for themes and motifs to arise, all accomplished while seemingly fomenting in an arak-induced stupor.    

The 3^rd prize was named for Chinese composer Kong Zhixuan's Go Across The Rainforests, which was eventful in packing as possible within its brief duration. A tropical and Oriental version of Eden was conjured with all members of the dizi family engaged, before the use of Javanese scales and a graceful Indonesian dance indicated the work's specific geography. The work had a loud end which included a busily chromatic fugue for good measure.

Hong Kong-born Gordon Fung Dic-lun's Arise, Lion Of Glory! was awarded the 1^st Prize of fifteen thousand dollars by an international jury comprising well-known Asian composers, conductors and academics. Its title had nothing to do with Singapore's jubilee but rather a Cantonese version of the festive lion dance. Unlike the other entrants, it was a concertante work, one which showcased SCO pipa principal Yu Jia in a stunning virtuoso role.

The pipa had both percussive and lyrical parts which underlined the rituals behind the lion dance, before breaking out in an all-out assault with drums and cymbals leading, familiar from Chinese New Year celebrations. However raucous the procession, the pipa still had the last word, finally accompanied by the gentle tinkling of Tibetan prayer bowls.

Chew Jun An gets the
Young Singaporean Composer Award.

The Singaporean Composer Award
goes to Wong Kah Chun.

Hong Kong's Gordon Fung Dic-lun
won the overall 1st Prize.

Some post concert photos:

Composers at large:
PerMagnus Lindborg, Joyce BT Koh
and Wang Chen Wei.

Composers Ho Chee Kong and Isao Matsushita
with Maestro Yeh Tsung.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2015)

CHARMS OF NANYANG II

Singapore Chinese Orchestra 

TSUNG YEH

SCO / ****1/2

By organising the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Competition, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra has become a global prime mover and arbiter on Chinese instrumental and orchestral composition. The competition was inaugurated in 2006 and this disc presents the best works from the second competition, held in 2011.

An international jury picked as 1^st Prize Xie Xiang Ming's A Stroll In The Lion City, a populist choice that opens with the rhythm to be found in the Dance Of The Adolescents from Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring and progresses by way of minimalism and milking a big tune. More subtle are the 2^nd and 3^rd prizes awarded to Stephen Yip's Nine Actors and Zhu Yi Qing's The Silence Of Borubodur respectively. The former makes use of Fujian and Hakka folktunes in a theatrical manner while the latter is an atmospheric two-movement concerto for bamboo flute and pipa that depicts the rise and decline of the great Javanese Buddhist empire.

All the works melded various Asian compositional genres and techniques, some based on religious ideologies, creating a pan-Asian flavour that is immediately palpable. Completing the album are Raymond Mok's Cycles Of Destiny (Winner of the Nanyang Award), Wang Dong Xu's The Capriccio Of The Mountain Folk Song and young Singaporean Lee Ji Heng's Dark Light. The last, composed at 18, is an earthy procession that marries Chinese woodwinds and Javanese gamelan to stunning effect. 

BOOK IT:

3^RD SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 
COMPETITION FOR CHINESE 
ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION 2015

Prize Presentation Ceremony & Concert

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday 21 November 2015, 7.30 pm

Tickets at $15 & 25, available at SISTIC

CHINESE ORCHESTRAL MUSICIANS & STAFF KNOW HOW TO HAVE FUN! Photographs from the Singapore Chinese Orchestra Annual Dinner & Dance 2015

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) held its annual dinner and dance on Saturday 14 November 2015 at the Grand Park City Hall Hotel. The theme of the evening was "Occupation Fantasy", and everyone was asked to come dressed up in their dream occupations. Essentially this was a cosplay party, and it seems that SCO staff and musicians craved being cabin crew of a certain airline or playing at doctors and nurses!

As one can see in the photos below, the event was a blast. Chinese orchestral musicians and staff (and their board members too) really know how to have fun!  

Music Director Yeh Tsung enjoys
being the Shanghai mob or a pirate!

A typical surgical ward at SCH,
or Singapore Chinese Hospital!

Carry On Nurse / Carry On Doctor
S/N Jocelyn Ng, Wei Ying & Jacelyn Chay (Admin),
Gynaecologist Dr Wu Ke Fei
& Proctologist Dr Wilson Neo (zhonghu players) 

Do I hear a murmur?
Cardiologist Dr Chin Woon Ying diagnoses
Board Member Patrick Goh with RHD
(Romantic Heart Disease)!

Guess who's the real medico here?

The ladies are looking glamourous:
Xu Wen Jing (gaohu), Tang Jia (cello) & Zhao Li (erhu)
while the men much less so:
Prof Ho Chee Kong, Father Moses Gay (Assistant
Conductor) & a penitent.

Resident Conductor Quek Ling Kiong
gets the "treatment" from SCH.

SCA: Singapore Chinese Airlines
A Great Way To Fly!
Kevin Cheng (sheng), Rebecca Chng, Gao Shihui,
Abbie Tan, Lim Fen Ni & Shi Tian Chan (admin).

A special award for those who
did not take a single day's MC!

The best dressed groups!

Pipa player Tan Joon Chin
takes out the trash.

Father Gay enjoys Bon Jovi songs.

Guys just wanna have fun:
Yeh Tsung, SCO Chairman Patrick Lee,
Patrick Goh & Han Lei (guanzi) 

Father Moses Gay & Prof Ho Chee Kong
before they were blackmailed.

What a bash that was!