The Straits Times Best Concert of 2019

At the end of each year, The Straits Times invites reviewers to nominate their "Best and Worst" concerts of the year. For 2019, the list was shared by three reviewers. Here was my pick for the "Best Classical Concert", which was published in the 22 December 2019 edition of ST in print.

HOMECOMING III
Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Singapore Conference Hall
27 April 2019

The best new work of the year is Ho Chee Kong’s There And Back, a double concerto for violin, cello and Chinese orchestra, premiered by Siow Lee-Chin, Qin Li-Wei and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra under Yeh Tsung’s direction. 

The 20-minute single movement work had a atmospheric and cinematic feel, breathtaking with both solo instruments battling the elements in a rugged and exhilarating dance of the steppes. With stage-lights dimmed, Siow and Qin in a final intimate duet of rapt stillness provided the work’s most poignant moments. Here is a rare and perfect marriage of Western and Chinese music, done right for once. 

RIVER OF LIFE / Ding Yi Music Company / Review

RIVER OF LIFE
Ding Yi Music Company
Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (15 December 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 December 2019 with the title "Story of Singapore River awash with nice touches".

It is laudable that Ding Yi Music Company is engaging audiences not just by performing music well, but also connecting with local culture and history, putting these in context with well-curated concerts. River Of Life, a story of Singapore River set to music, was another good example of its worthy projects.

Running just over 60 minutes, this was a programmatic chamber symphony in four chapters inspired by late journalist Han Shan Yuan’s Endless Stories of Singapore River. The script was crafted by his brother Han Lao Da while his daughter Han Yong May served as script consultant. The music by Law Wai Lun, composer-in-residence of Singapore Chinese Orchestra, accompanied stills, moving pictures and calligraphy by Choo Thiam Siew.

Conducted by Quek Ling Kiong, the concert began with an informal preamble when instruments representing the music’s main motifs were introduced. The men in the 18-member ensemble were attired like coolies, and raised wings - where dizi and suona players were seated - were painted with eyes to resemble prows of river-boats, all nice touches.

The music was contemporary in feel, like scores accompanying documentary movies, but there were obvious ethnic and cultural influences too. In the first chapter, Our Forefathers, gamelan-like chimes represented the Indo-Malayan phase of Singapore’s history, and when the British arrived, the music played was Scotland The Brave. Was this some kind of mistake?

No, that was a knowing acknowledgement of Scotsman William Farquhar’s role in developing Singapore into a busy trading post as its first resident and commandant. His face was flashed on the screen soon after Raffles’. Historically-aware nuances like this made the production all the more interesting.

The second chapter A Prosperous River saw Singapore as a hive of activity, the river being its pulsing artery and life-blood. The third and longest chapter The River Symphony was overtly Chinese in feel, with Yvonne Tay’s guzheng central to the narrative. Equally vital was a roadside storyteller, played by narrator Yang Shibin by the glow of an oil-lamp, relating the story of Wu Song slaying the tiger. This was not done in Mandarin but Cantonese, and true to form, the story was left unfinished, to be continued in another session.

Alert listeners would also note that when news of the fall of Beijing to Mao Zedong’s forces was read, China was referred to as the homeland. Those were the days before Singapore’s nationhood. This movement then closed with a Glenn Gouldian fugue of voices, now in different Chinese dialects.

Singapore River has also seen its dark days, but these were glossed over by its clean-up and inevitable gentrification as a premier tourist attraction. All through this, various motifs hitherto heard in bits and bytes coalesced to become the familiar tune Singapura in the finale, titled A River of Hope. That the song was not quoted in full was a relief. With a bathetic end averted, a standing ovation was a just result.

Everybody wants to take 

selfies with politicians these days.

NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION 2019 / Artist Finals / Review

NATIONAL PIANO & 
VIOLIN COMPETITION 2019:
ARTIST FINALS
Victoria Concert Hall
Saturday & Sunday (7 & 8 December 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 December 2019 with the title "Six musicians, six concertos in the finals".

The biennial National Piano & Violin Competition (NPVC) is Singapore’s highest platform for finding talent in the two most popular Western classical instruments played here. The competition has been run by the Singapore Symphony Group since 2017, and continues to deliver high standards in its four age categories.

The Finals of the Artist Category (young professionals and tertiary-level students) culminated in performances of six concertos with the NPVC Orchestra. This ensemble was essentially a pared-down Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by British conductor Peter Stark, Principal Guest Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra.  

Saturday evening belonged to the piano, opening with Zheng Mingen (China, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory) in Chopin’s First Piano Concerto. Hers were a totally confident showing, filled with virtuosic flair in outer movements and arch-lyricism in the slow central Romanze which served as a nocturne-like interlude. There was much to admire this eloquent and passionate performance that wore its 40-minute duration well.

Tew Jing Jong (Malaysia, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts) gave a crisply articulated account of Beethoven’s diminutive Second Piano Concerto, one which fully understood classical proportions yet strained to break free of its constraints. Emblematic of music’s transition into the Romantic era, his reading exuded and balanced silky elegance and muscular grit to just the right degree.       

Seth Tan Xun Yu (Singapore, YST Conservatory) was up to the big-boned challenges of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. He projected sound and song well, but suffered a memory lapse in the slow movement, becoming a bundle of nerves after that. Despite rallying valiantly for the mercurial finale, there was a touch of hit and miss overall. Tew was deservedly awarded the 1st prize by the international jury, while Zheng and Tan placed 2nd and 3rd respectively.

The Violin Artist Final took place on Sunday afternoon, when there were two very different performances of Tchaikovsky’s warhorse Violin Concerto, reflecting the soloists’ very different personalities. Lau Joey (Singapore, YST Conservatory) took a more visceral approach, with an impetus on the Russian’s music to dance and make merry. Her tone was also rich and voluminous. Animated and free-spirited, this also entailed a real sense of risk-taking.

By comparison, Yuchen Zhang (China, YST Conservatory) who followed reflected more on the music’s  cerebral qualities. His playing could be exciting at times, but it was discipline and decorum that that seemed paramount. If Lau is the more arresting soloist heard live, Zhang would be a safer bet in a recording studio.

No 1st prize was awarded in this category. Zhang won 2^nd place, while Lau shared 3rd with Tan Mun Hon, who performed Wieniawski’s Second Violin Concerto with much spirit and lyricism. That Tan is only 14, attending Tanjong Katong Secondary School and having lessons privately, is remarkable in itself. Big futures await all six young musicians, and this competition is merely a tool to identify and hopefully nurture them well.

SSO Artistic Director Hans Sorensen with members of 

the international jury (from L):

Tianwa Yang, Kam Ning, Foo Mei Yi, Uta Weyand,

Alexey Lebedev & Sasha Rozhdestvensky.

All the prizewinners together.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT / Ensemble de la Belle Musique / Review

CHRISTMAS CONCERT 2019

Ensemble de la Belle Musique

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (1 December 2019)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 4 December 2019 with the title "Ensemble de la Belle Musique's lively festive works".

Which group devoted to new music in Singapore consistently sells out for its concerts? That would be Ensemble de la Belle Musique (EBM), a chamber outfit devoted to discovering and performing new compositions that are tonal and tuneful.

Serialism and atonality are passé, and it takes talent to write a good melody. That was the take-home message of EBM’s third Christmas concert in three years. This evening, the 19-member ensemble conducted by Leonard Tan showcased ten world premieres of works built around the festive theme.

Opening the concert was This Way, Santa! by young Hong Kong composer William So. Like many of the other works, the seasonal feeling of happy anticipation was created by smartly using vibraphone chimes with woodwind and brass chorales. With the piano also playing a prominent part, a warm and fuzzy sensation of wellness was soon established.

Similarly, Snow Song by Dexter Yeo (Australia) also had the feel of wondrous film music, blending strings and winds harmoniously. Scored for wind quintet, Snowflake Waltz by Dmitry Stepanov (Russia) playfully depicted swirls of falling snow in his homeland, known for its short winter daylight hours.

Still on the subject of precipitation, Snowfall by Lynn Blake John (USA) was a most friendly impression of a blizzard thought possible. While brass heralded inclement weather ahead, strings created a frisson of chill that did not last too long. In contrast, Through Pines & Snow by Dave Dexter (UK) exhibited darker shades, coloured with a sobriety and melancholy that did not seem out of place.

Despite its rather formal title, Concerto for Viola and String Quintet by Darren Wirth (USA) was more like a scherzo movement from a larger work. Violist Jonathan Lee mastered its tricky solo part with the aplomb and energy that reflected the music’s joy and excitement. Also highly animated was Christmas Mischief With The Nisse by Kari Cruver Medina (USA), with the bassoon leading an impish dance of a Scandinavian elf that resembles a mini Santa Claus.

What about the three Singaporean composers represented in this concert? Low Shao Suan’s Sonatina Festivo was a three-movement work for flute and piano, with Andy Koh helming the virtuoso solo part that include lively dances and a slow movement reminiscent of Harry Potter movie music. A Christmas Lullaby by Yvonne Teo was an enchanting look at Christmas night after the celebrations have ended and champagne bottles emptied. Only a choir was missing in this wistful fantasy.   

The work this pair of ears most liked to hear again was by the youngest composer of the ten, Lim Han Quan. His Christmas Prayer for just strings unfolded like some adagio movement from a Mahler or Bruckner symphony. Simply put, his was a sound world that was ethereal and otherworldly, imbued with a spiritual heft to move mountains.  

DUO SENSES: HARP & PIANO / Laura Peh & Azariah Tan / Review

DUO SENSES: HARP & PIANO

LAURA PEH Harp Recital

AZARIAH TAN Piano Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday & Saturday 

(29 & 30 November 2019) 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 2 December 2019 with the title "Home-grown talents shine in harp and piano recitals". 

Kris Foundation has been presenting young Singaporean musical talents in recitals over the last decade, and this year’s two soloists were distinctive in different ways. In 2013, Laura Peh was established as the first Singaporean to perform a solo harp recital, while Azariah Tan became Singapore’s first hearing-impaired concert pianist.

Peh’s recital was a showcase of mostly French virtuoso pieces representing the “Golden Age of the Harp”. Opening with the etude-like Au matin (In The Morning) by Marcel Tournier, its sunlit pages radiated a warm glow and ethereal aura. Her art was the pursuit of gentle scintillation, with the 1^st movement from same composer’s Sonatine sounding just as persuasive, a heady reminder of the Belle Epoque.

Harp-fanciers will also recognise the names of Gabriel Pierne, Felix Godefroid and Elias Parish-Alvars, the latter two being hailed as the Paganini and Liszt of the harp. Despite being finger-twisters, their pieces also evoked the lyricism of bel canto and Chopin. Scarlatti’s Sonata in B minor and Debussy’s Clair de lune (from Suite Bergamasque) were originally conceived for the harpsichord and piano respectively, but these translated well on the harp too.

Artist & Composer:

Laura Peh with Lim Kang Ning

Also significant was the world premiere of young Singaporean composer Lim Kang Ning’s Cornish Tides, evocative and impressionist picture postcards of the wind-swept Cornwall landscape. The first movement was redolent of Debussy, with whole-tones sprinkled liberally, while the second was a whimsical scherzo which playfully involved rhythmic tapping of the harp’s wooden frame.

Pianist Azariah Tan’s programme comprised just two works, Beethoven’s Sonata No.30 in E major (Op.109) coupled with Johann Sebastian Bach’s mighty Goldberg Variations. This tandem worked a treat because of related thematic material, which Tan eloquently explained and demonstrated pre-performance.

Both works were regarded as spiritual journeys, with their requisite ups and downs. Opening quietly and closing in serenity, there was to be much activity and angst encompassed in between. The late Beethoven sonata received a supremely musical reading, culminating in the final movement’s set of variations on a hymn-like theme.

The descending bass notes to an aria was the subject of Bach’s fantastic variations, which comprised 30 in total but laid out as ten groups of three. As Tan explained, every three variations included a dance, a technically demanding study and a canon. His performance was highly assured and clear-headed as his preamble, and shorn of idiosyncracy or stylistic quirks.

As he chose to omit all repeats, the work clocked in just under 45 minutes, in effect a breeze. When the closing Aria breathed its last, a journey of transformation was complete. For most, that would  have been total satisfaction in itself, but Tan shared two lovely encores. A Chopin Prélude (Op.28 No.17) and an unpublished song by late Canadian pianist Vernon Duncombe were the extra treats.

Artist & Benefactor:

Azariah Tan with Kris Tan,

Founder of Kris Foundation.