INTERSECTIONS / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

INTERSECTIONS

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Tuesday (9 April 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 April 2019 with the title "Ethereal beauty meets harmony".

There are good reasons why Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in the National University of Singapore is known as “Asia’s International Conservatory”. Its students and staff are a good representation of the world’s diverse cultures, and despite being an educational institution of Western classical music, projects the feel of  “East meets West” in its pursuits.

The Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra’s pre-tour concert, led by its British Principal Conductor Jason Lai, also proudly paraded that internationalism. As if commemorating the bicentenary of Raffles’ acquisition of Singapore as a Crown Colony of the British Empire, the programme was for a large part English but showcased significant homegrown talent.  

Courtesy of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis, written for only strings, opened the concert on an ethereal high. The ensemble was subdivided into three “choirs”, each with separate parts, but together they coalesced with a vast cathedral-like sonority that belied its relatively modest size. With one voice, this string chorus radiated waves of warmth and burnished beauty.  

Standing out were the quartet of soloists, led by violist Wei Jun-Ting and violinist Kong Xianlong, which formed a concertino group as if playing in a baroque concerto grosso. This concept of stand-alone voices backed by a larger body of musicians also extended into young Singaporean composer Chen Zhangyi’s Concerto For Erhu, Zhongruan, Percussion and Ensemble, which received its world premiere.

Courtesy of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

This quasi-impressionist work harnessed woodwinds and brass, hitherto unused in this concert, as backing for three soloists playing Chinese instruments. Likie Low (erhu), Sulwyn Lok (zhongruan) and Yuru Lee (Chinese drums and marimba) were all conservatory students, majoring in  composition, audio arts and sciences and percussion respectively. This could have been a recipe for balance disasters, but Chen’s deft scoring ensured each instrument maintained its own voice amid spirited accompaniment, besides coming together for precious brief moments.

Courtesy of Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

Despite the work not sounding overtly Chinese in idiom, the Confucian principle of  “San ren xing”, or journey of three persons, was applied. Here, each traveller benefits from the wisdom of the others, and to these ears, the unusual combo of erhu and marimba seemed to effect the greatest harmony. 

After the intermission, William Walton’s Violin Concerto was given a rare airing with Qian Zhou, the Conservatory’s Head of Strings, as impressive soloist. Written for Jascha Heifetz, the 1939 work fused technical dare-devilry, unabashed Romanticism with 20^th century accents. Bittersweet melodies in the 1^st movement were the perfect foil for the witty and mercurial scherzo.

Qian dealt these wide shifts of dynamics with much flair, besides evincing a firm, robust tone and impeccable intonation. Just as importantly, Lai’s young charges coped well in these capricious mood swings, alternating bracing sarcasm with disarming sentimentality. On this form, the conservatory orchestra is set to do the nation proud in its coming visit to South Korea.