EXUBERANCE
OF YOUTH
Singapore
Conference Hall
Saturday (16 July 2016 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 July 2016 with the title "Impressive youth performance".
If one needed to gauge the level in which
Singaporean youths applied themselves to the arts, there are worse ways than to
attend a Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra (SYCO) concert. Led by its Music
Director Quek Ling Kiong, the standard displayed by players ranging from 11 to 26 years of age
impressed, and the show of commitment was staggering.
This sense of frisson was immediately
felt in Kuan Nai-chung's The Sun, the
rousing 1st movement from Millennium
Of The Dragon Year. Beginning with a fanfare for suonas, solo
percussionists Lim Rei and Nicholas Teo commanded the stage, hammering out
rhythms on timpanis and a variety of drums. There were also quieter and lyrical
moments when marimba and slung gongs were employed, culminating in a fugue for
strings before a dramatic and rowdy finish.
The massed sound of suonas, woodwinds and strings created a festive atmosphere in young
Taiwanese composer Wang I-Yu's Impressions
On Bei Guan, a fantasy on a theme associated with the lunar new year. The Bei Guan, or northern reed, refers to suona music in all its guises, whether
heard as a plaintive solo, an off-stage presence or a stentorian chorus ringing
out loud and true at its climax.
Princess
Wencheng,
written by a committee of three composers, was a virtuoso sheng concerto showcasing the clear and incisive tones of soloist
Zhou Zhixuan. The work celebrated the union of Tang dynasty princess to Tibetan
monarch Songtsen Gampo, but its music featured only one phrase simulating the
Tibetan long horn. The eventful work which touted “friendly and cooperative
relationship” between Han Chinese and Tibetans came across more like propaganda,
a cover-up for brutal occupation of a sovereign state.
Almost as jingoistic was Liu Wen Jin's Brave Spirits Of The Slow Mountain
featuring erhu soloist Low Likie who
was equal to its technical and rhapsodic demands Here its three continuous movements
commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Red Army's Long March, with
musical references to the struggle, suffering and sacrifice of comrades through
a procession of martial and heroic strains.
Far more succinct was talented young
Singaporean composer Benjamin Fung Chuntung's Variations On A Hainanese Folk Song, which conjured a pastoral air
over which Zhe Gu Ti, a birdsong
inspired theme, was heard on solo suona
and later dizi. With further
development, this could become a substantial work like Kodaly's Peacock Variations.
Closing the concert was Law Wai Lun's
classic of Nanyang music, Prince Sang
Nila Utama and Singa, based on the legends of Temasek. Indo-Malayan scales
and themes were created for this lush tropical sea piece which at times hinted
of Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloe.
The orchestra cooked up a storm, placated by the Prince's relinquishing of his
head-piece, and the sighting of the mythical lion closed the work on a raucous
high.
For the encore, Guest-of-Honour Baey Yam
Keng (Parliamentary Secretary for Culture, Community and Youth) was invited as
guest percussionist for Ary Barroso's Aquarela do Brasil, which prompted a free-for-all on stage as the orchestra headily
greeted the Rio Olympic Games to come.
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