SSO 40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA / Review

SSO 40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (18 January 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 January 2019 with the title "A fitting celebration of SSO's 40th anniversary".

Almost 40 years ago to the week, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra performed its first concerts at Singapore Conference Hall, led by founding Music Director Choo Hoey. The orchestra then numbered 41 musicians, but gave the 1979 audience an inkling of what professional music-making in Singapore was to become.

The 49th Anniversary cake was cut by
violinist Lynnette Seah (Orchestral Leader in 1979),
Music Director Shui Lan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong,
SSO Chairman Goh Yew Lin & SSO CEO Chng Hak-Peng.

At its 40^th anniversary, present Music Director Shui Lan helmed a programme that paid tribute to those inaugural concerts. Two works were reprised. The first was 20^th century American composer Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question. Its inclusion by Choo was symbolic and rhetorical, as if pondering on an uncertain future of classical music (or the orchestra for that matter) in Singapore.

That question has however been emphatically answered many times over. Classical music, especially orchestral music, thrives in Singapore today. Even young amateur groups of music makers now sound more accomplished than SSO of the early 1980s.

The short mysterious work nonetheless piqued the senses. Muted strings were challenged by David Smith’s trumpet perched high up in organ loft. This conversation of crossed purposes was interjected by the chatter of a flute quartet, with all involved left none the wiser. Such was the intent of the iconoclastic Ives.

More down to earth was the second reprised work, Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto, popularly known as the “Emperor” for its sweeping grandeur. Lim Yan, the first Singaporean to perform all five Beethoven piano concertos here as a cycle, was the ideal soloist.

That he got every note down pat was a given. His projection of unruffled authority, full-blooded tone and a sheer sense of joy that radiated through its three movements made this a most rewarding outing. Lim, representing the vanguard of young Singaporean soloists, will most certainly erase memories of the original 1979 pianist, the late Ong Lip Tat, whom from all accounts was a bundle of nerves.    

The concert’s opening work was also the first Singaporean work performed by the fledgling SSO. Dayong Sampan by the late Leong Yoon Pin, considered the “Father of Singaporean composition”, was a heady fusion of Western and Eastern idioms. Amid a commotion of brass fanfares and buzzing strings, the emergence of the Malay melody on solo oboe represented a quintessential Singaporean musical moment. Like the year 1965, this 1980 composition has rightly become a landmark and an icon.  

If the first half sounded promising, the second was even better. Shui had replaced Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (another symbolic choice of Choo’s) with Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. The faster tempos he adopted were close to perfect, as there were no moments for the music to lag. Even the 1^st movement’s slow introduction sounded swift, and the 2^nd movement’s variations unfolded with inexorable purpose.

As if to demonstrate the orchestra’s prowess, the final two movements were taken at a breathless pace, and the effect was thrilling. Just as the symphony clocked in under 40 minutes, SSO’s 40 years has felt like a breeze.

The SSO acknowledges applause from the Gallery.