DON'T MISS THIS ENCORE: ANOTHER RECITAL BY SÉRINE DE LABAUME!

DON’T MISS THIS ENCORE!:

ANOTHER RECITAL BY SÉRINE DE LABAUME

 

Still wondering. What kind of soprano is Sérine de Labaume?

Lyric coloratura? Dramatic coloratura? Coloratura moving on to Lyric? 

Has she lost her mind? Hasn’t she got a clue about different types of soprano voices? 

Is she the Queen of the Night? Coquettish Marguerite or Manon? Fragile but determined Gilda or Mimi? What kind of Cunegonde is she? Could she possibly be Leonora? 

Come join Sérine once again as she portrays different operatic heroines together with the pianist Hyeki Choi, and perhaps we'll have our conclusions then! 

Or will we? 

Those who enjoyed her earlier recital on 22 October are in for a treat a second time around, with an all new programme of operatic arias. On Sunday 31 October, she is joined by esteemed Symphony 92.4 DJ Andrew Lim who will share with you more insights into the fantastic world of opera.

 

Programme:

 

MOZART O zittre nicht (The Magic Flute)

DONIZETTI Quel guardo il cavaliere (Don Pasquale)

VERDI  Timor di me? … D’amor sull’ali rosee (Il Trovatore)

GOUNOD Allons, n’y pensons plus! … Ah, je ris de me voir si belle (Faust)

MASSENET Allons, il le faut… Adieu notre petite table (Manon)

PUCCINI Sì, mi chiamano Mimì (La Bohème)

VERDI Gualthier Malde… Caro nome che il mio cor (Rigoletto)

CATALANI Ebben? Ne andrò lontana (La Wally)

BERNSTEIN Glitter and be Gay (Candide)

 

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday 31 October 2021, 7:30 pm

Tickets on Peatix : https://serine2.peatix.com/ 

SOARING WITH THE WIND / Concordia Quartet / Review

SOARING WITH THE WIND

Concordia Quartet

Victoria Concert Hall

Wednesday (20 October 2021)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 October 2021 withe the title "Concordia Quartet soars in live return".

 

It was back in April when the members of re:Sound Collective last presented a live concert. Coming out of pandemic mode, they returned with a vengeance in a substantial programme of music by Mozart and Grieg, spearheaded by the Concordia Quartet.

 

Not having performed for months may have resulted in a certain diffidence, but not so this four-member string ensemble which made its debut last year just before the virus arrived on Singapore shores. Opening with Mozart’s late Clarinet Quintet in A major (K.581) was just the right tonic, especially when partnered with clarinettist Ralph Emmanuel Lim, one of Singapore’s most accomplished young woodwind players.

 

This combo had earlier impressed with the first movement from Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in January, and this perfomance was even better. Lim, with his rich and mellow sonority, almost nonchalant virtuosity and engaging personality, commanded the stage from the first entry. His clarity of phrasing and ease of articulation stood out in the opening movement, before song-like qualities coming to the fore in the slow movement, a close cousin of the Adagio from Mozart’s famous Clarinet Concerto.

 

Melodic lines were not just limited to Lim alone, as first violinist Edward Tan had his fair share, as did cellist Theophilus Tan. Together with second violinist Kim Kyu Ri and violist Matthias Oestringer, the quartet supported the enterprise to the hilt, not least in the sprightly Minuet and the concluding Theme and Variations movement. The free-wheeling quality in the finale made this performance a thoroughly enjoyable encounter.     

 

An air of seriousness opened Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg’s String Quartet in G minor, which the foursome responded with a Beethovenian show of intent. The bigness of sound was breathtaking, as if played by a far larger group of strings. Even if one casts the memory back to 2017, when all the strings of re:Sound played in Richard Tognetti’s arrangement of this quartet, this evening’s showing was no less involving.

 

The music sounded familiar in parts, as Grieg had recycled a rhythmic theme from his ever-popular Piano Concerto, using it as a recurrent leitmotif all through the four movements. Solemnity gave way to the folksy homespun quality usually associated with rustic Nordic dance music, which was gratefully lapped up by the quartet.

 

The slow movement possessed a lyricism that resembled many of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces for piano, where the cello carried the melodic interest. Cohesiveness was the mainstay in the stormy third movement, where there was also sentimentality on display. In an imitation of country fiddling, cello, viola and violin took their turns on a particularly bucolic melody.

 

For a work that even exceeded Grieg’s piano concerto in length, the quartet managed its pacing and dynamic contrasts very well. It closed with a riproaring Presto alla Saltarello, based on an Italian dance in rapid triple time, with the resulting long and loud applause being well deserved.

SAYAKA SHOJI. SPIRIT OF THE VIOLIN / SYMPHONIC FANTASIES. KATE LIU PLAYS MOZART / Review

SAYAKA SHOJI.

SPIRIT OF THE VIOLIN

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (14 October 2021)

 

SYMPHONIC FANTASIES.

KATE LIU PLAYS MOZART

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (16 October 2021)

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 20 October 2021 with the title "Superb solos from Sayaka Shoji, Kate Liu".

The gradual relaxing of live concert activity over the past weeks has allowed guest performers travelling from selected overseas countries to give concerts here without having to go through the arduous quarantine process. Audiences decrying the dearth of foreign talents also got a boost last weekend when two excellent young soloists took the spotlight.

 

Partnered by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra was Japanese violinist Sayaka Shoji performing Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto in D minor. Composed in 1853 shortly before his demise in an insane asylum, the work has suffered in comparison to his piano and cello concertos. Saddled with less memorable themes and almost too long for its own good, it received a noble and totally musical reading.

 

Shoji has a robust and warm tone, evident in her resolute and confident entry, later softening to encompass more lyrical qualities. This flexibility worked well as the work meandered, but culminated in the short slow movement’s “Ghost” theme which was tender as it was vulnerable.  She remained unflappable all through the finale’s vigorous polonaise rhythm and her solo encore of Reger’s Prelude in G minor, with subtlety being the constant virtue.      

 

The orchestra led by Hans Graf also performed the Adagio from Bruckner’s String Quintet, a classic slow movement that moved seamlessly from quiet calm to climactic high. Quite different were the four movements from Schubert’s Third Symphony, a teenager’s vision of sunshine and cheeriness, which received an ebullient reading.  

 

Making a long-awaited hometown debut was the American Kate Liu, who made history in 2015 by being the first Singapore-born pianist to win a major prize at the prestigious Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. She received the Bronze Medal, Audience Prize and the “Best Mazurka” award. With the Orchestra of the Music Makers directed by Chan Tze Law, she performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor.

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

Arguably the greatest of his 27 piano concertos, its storms and stresses found a voice of reason in her sensitive yet invigorating solo playing. Clarity and purity of sound were ever-present hallmarks, and when push came to shove, she rose to the occasion with big-boned playing, especially in the rough-hewn cadenzas by Beethoven.

Photo: Chen Chan

 

The best contrasts were to be had in the central Romanze, where elegance and volatility sat cheek by jowl, and the finale’s return to the work’s tempest-tossed origins. A shift to the major key and consequent change of mood, handled with steadiness and authority, made for a joyous conclusion.

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

The Mozart was well-balanced by two vastly different 20^th century works for quasi-chamber sized forces. The Suite from Stravinsky’s neoclassical ballet Pulcinella provided a light-hearted comedic opening while a rare outing of Kurt Weill’s Second Symphony possessed more serious undertones. Both highlighted excellent solos and ensemble playing from woodwinds and brass, an underrated aspect of our young local orchestras.

There will be further concerts featuring visiting guest performers, including London-based violinist Kam Ning (21, 22 & 27 October), Hong Kong pianist Chiyan Wong (31 October), Russian pianist Zlata Chochieva (5 & 6 November), French pianist Cedric Tiberghien (11 & 12 November), Latvian violinist Baiba Skride (1&2 December) and Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer (9,10 & 11 December) in the coming weeks. Do not miss these!

BRAHMS Waltzes for Piano Four Hands / Fiammetta Tarli & Ivo Varbanov / Review

BRAHMS Waltzes Op.39

Liebeslieder Waltzes Op.52a

New Liebeslieder Waltzes Op.65a

FIAMMETTA TARLI 

& IVO VARBANOV, Piano 4 Hands

ICSM 001

 

Was it not Brahms, whom after hearing Johann Strauss Jr’s Blue Danube Waltz, once inscribed on a fan, “Leider nicht von Johannes Brahms” (Sadly not from Brahms)? He should know, being a naturalised Viennese and composer of waltzes himself. Brahms’ waltzes were not of the elaborate ballroom sequences and concert hall variety of the Strauss family, but much closer to the homespun spirit of Schubert and Ländler, humble Austrian country dances in three-quarter time.

 

Brahms’ three sets of waltzes for piano four hands (49 tracks in all) are well-loved by amateur pianists and choral societies for their memorable melodies, good humour and gemütlichkeit. All are short pieces, mostly lasting between one and two minutes (often less) and technically undemanding. To do these justice, however, needs artists of highest musicianship, which is why this recording by the duo of Fiammetta Tarli and Ivo Varbanov is simply a joy to behold.

 

The sixteen waltzes of Op.39 are the most familiar, and also exist in versions for solo piano. There are more details to be heard on four hands rather than two, and the performers are also less physically taxed which makes for better all round listening. The duo plays with much delicacy and wit, enhancing the delight to be had. Waltz No.15 in A flat major, the most universally recognised one, receives the tender treatment it deserves.   

 

There are two sets of Liebeslieder Waltzes (Lovesong Waltzes), often heard in versions for soprano, alto, tenor and bass (or mixed choir) accompanied by piano four hands. The earlier set Op.52a (18 waltzes, 1869), composed for Robert and Clara Schumann’s youngest daughter Julie, is by far the more popular one. Shorn of verses from Georg Daumer’s Polydora, the music is as infectiously tuneful as the purely instrumental waltzes, continuing seamlessly into the “new” Op.65a set (15 waltzes, 1874-77). Where one set ends and another begins is not as important as the sense of continuity and flow achieved by the duo.

 

As physical recordings go, this appears to be the only album available that so conveniently unites all three books. Lavished with care and with playing of such immediacy, the charms are hard to resist.     

DON'T MISS THIS CONCERT: SÉRINE DE LABAUME Vocal Recital on 22 October 2021

DON’T MISS THIS CONCERT:

SÉRINE DE LABAUME Vocal Recital 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Friday 22 October 2021 / 7.30 pm

What kind of soprano is Sérine de Labaume?

Lyric coloratura? Dramatic coloratura? Or coloratura moving on to lyric?

Lucia? Violetta? Queen of the Night or Liù… Which role suits her the best?

After a silly electric scooter accident in Berlin where she was thrown off the scooter and landed on her chest, she couldn’t expand her ribcage anymore. Her signature high notes were gone for a little while and during that time, instead of stop singing, she ventured into a different, more lyric repertoire such as Liu, Micaela, Butterfly, la Wally… Her high notes came back soon after and since then she’s been expanding her repertoire towards lyric all the while keeping her coloratura repertoire as well.

Come join Sérine de Labaume and pianist Beatrice Lin as she interprets different operatic heroines and let us know what you think.

Programme:

DONIZETTI Regnava nel silenzio 

(Lucia di Lammermoor)

GOUNOD Ah, je veux vivre (Roméo et Juliette)

PUCCINI Signore ascolta (Turandot)

PUCCINI Tu che di gel sei cinta (Turandot)

PUCCINI Un bel di (Madama Butterfly)

MASSENET Suis-je gentille ainsi (Manon)

PUCCINI Vissi d’arte (Tosca)

VERDI E strano… Sempre libera (La Traviata)

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday 22 October 2021, 7:30 pm 

Tickets on Peatix : https://serine1.peatix.com

SCO 25: DAZZLING RHAPSODIES / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

SCO 25: DAZZLING RHAPSODIES

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday 9 October 2021

 

The second of Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s 25^th anniversary concerts was devoted to works composed more recently, specifically during what we know as the Yeh Tsung era. It was the Shanghai-born American-trained conductor (Music Director since 2002) who defined and revolutionised what may be called Chinese orchestral music with Singaporean characteristics. Nanyang music was essentially his brainchild and is what identifies the SCO from other ensembles of Chinese instruments around the world.

 

The Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Competition (SICCOC), organised by SCO in 2006, 2011 and 2016, helped establish the landscape for Nanyang music to flourish. Two locally-based composers “discovered” at the first concours have now become recognised names in the Chinese instrumental scene. The first was current SCO composer-in-residence Wang Chen Wei, whose Lion City Rhapsody was given its World Premiere, conducted by Quek Ling Kiong.  

 

This short bustling overture with its kinetic Nanyin theme Trotting Horse employed characteristic instruments and timbres associated with the five Chinese dialect groups in Singapore, namely Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainanese. These groups of instruments operated like the concertino section of a baroque concerto grosso, distinguished by their piquant and higher-pitched sounds, lending the work a particularly distinctive flavour. Add Teochew percussion and voice-overs in the five dialects (with well wishes to the SCO), this made for a memorable opener.

 

There was also a nod to sentimental Mandopop with Phang Kok Jun’s Medley of Singapore Chinese Pop, conducted by Moses Gay, which included songs popularised by Kit Chan, Stephanie Sun, Eric Moo, JJ Lin and Crowd Lu. I concede not knowing a single of these hits, but enjoyed the solos on guan (Jin Shiyi), erhu (Zhao Jianhua), sheng (Guo Changsuo) and dizi (Yin Zhiyang), backed by Shen Guoqin’s enthusiastic drum beat.

 

Yeh Tsung conducted the rest of the concert, including two concertante works. The first was Tang Jianping’s Spring and Autumn, a single movement concerto for pipa featuring principal Yu Jia in all her vermillion sequined splendour. This is a stunning work in a modern idiom which recalled the chunqiu shidai (Spring and Autumn era, circa eighth to fifth century b.c.), a tumultuous period of Chinese history. There are virtuoso cadenzas aplenty, after which a procession of Central Asian flavour took place, leading to a feverish climax where Yu’s pipa stood out above the din. Completing the spectacle was a wild chase, which was breathtaking to say the least.

 

The other concerto was Liu Xijin’s The Legend of the Merlion, already an established classic. Commissioned by the SCO in 1999, and taken on tour several times, this gaohu concerto is unusual for its slow-fast-slow three-movement form. Forget the programmatic story of a tourist-board created chimera (PR-generated fiction at its most contrived), it still has good thematic material that was well brought out by SCO concertmaster Li Baoshun.

 

The first movement (Seek Blessings) was meditative and reflective, contrasted by a scherzo-like middle movement (Raging Sea) which closed with the reassuring chimes of tubular bells. The lyrical finale’s (Nanyang’s Affection) broad melody was given an added touch of poignancy with gaohu heard alongside Xu Zhong’s cello - a veritable love duet – before its sublime close. Rare is a Chinese concerto that does not end with a big bang.

 

Concluding the celebratory concert was Eric Watson’s Tapestries – Time Dances, the winning work of the afore-mentioned composition competition in 2006. Since that triumph, the highly accomplished and eclectic British composer has been the SCO’s composer-in-residence in 2016 to 2018. While Tapestries may not exactly be Nanyang music, it nonetheless possessed Pan-Asian influences including hints of Indonesian gamelan, Southeast Asian dance rhythms and Indian drumming. However it is the Western model of symphonic poems which it most strongly resembles.

 

The long-held pedal point in D at the rapt beginning is reminiscent of the opening dawn scene from Mahler’s First Symphony, while the pastoral air of Vaughan Williams hangs over the work’s latter half. The point of it all was not trying to imitate Chinese idioms, but the skilful use of Chinese instruments to serve musical ends. The performance itself was energetic and finely detailed, bringing the concert to a suitably spirited close.  

 

I have little doubt that this is the whole ethos of the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, to stimulate and make good music that the general public can identify with and also enjoy. Not for nothing has the SCO been hailed as “The People’s Orchestra”.   

 

SCO 25: OUR SHARED MEMORIES / THE SCO YESTERYEAR / Review

SCO 25: OUR SHARED MEMORIES

THE SCO YESTERYEAR

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (2 October 2021)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 October 2021 with the title "Singapore Chinese Orchestra's walk down memory lane".

It is hard to believe that the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) is now twenty-five years old. Its history however goes further back to 1974 when the People’s Association Chinese Orchestra (PACO) was established as the first professional ensemble of traditional Chinese instruments outside China. Several musicians from that original outfit still perform in the SCO.

 

This 90-minute concert was a fond reminiscence of SCO’s forebears and a tribute to pioneers who showed the way. The first part entitled The Melodies We Used To Play showcased chamber music performed without conductor. The Beautiful Zhuang Brocade arranged by Wu Houyuan, premiered by PACO forty years ago at this same venue, was a soothing serenade with a lively dance-like end to close.

 

Equally animated was Pan Yunchong & Zhu Xiaogu’s The Bustling Docks, a 1970s paean to  progress in Communist China, which could easily have symbolised Singapore’s rise as a shipping hub during the same period. Renowned Chinese percussionist Li Minxiong’s Striving For A Bumper Harvest mined the same vein with young percussionist Benjamin Boo impressively leading the ensemble from his set of drums. As a point of interest, Boo was following in the footsteps of his percussion teacher Quek Ling Kiong (himself a student of Li), who gave its first Singapore performances decades ago.  

 

The second part, Those Classic Concertos We Grew Up With, featured two substantial concertante works. Liu Bin’s Haw Par Villa Myths, conducted by Associate Conductor Moses Gay, saw PACO veteran Lim Sin Yeo mastering four different wind instruments. These included the paixiao (panpipes), dadi (long flute), taoxun (ocarina) and xiaodi (piccolo) in a colourful four-movement suite that curiously united Chinese mysticism with modernist styles recalling sci-fi movie scores of Bernard Herrmann.

 

Liu Wenjin’s The Great Wall Capriccio was arguably the evening’s most familiar music. This four-movement erhu concerto, worthy counterpart of the Yellow River and Butterfly Lovers concertos, was premiered by the late erhu virtuoso Min Huifen in 1981. Her student SCO erhu principal Zhao Jianhua relived the demanding solo part with SCO Resident Conductor Quek Ling Kiong at the helm.

 

As expected, epic landscapes, heroism, sacrifice and commemoration were all encompassed, with its most poignant moments in the slow third movement Memorial For The Patriots. Here, Xu Zhong’s cello solo and Zhao crafted an elegy that left an indelible impression.   

 

SCO Music Director Yeh Tsung conducted the final work, three movements from late-lamented SCO musician and composer Yeo Puay Hian’s Torrent (1992). Inspired by tales of rivers and the sea, the work paid tribute to hard work, sweat and toil, aptly accompanied by black-and-white photographs of pioneering SCO members in their youth. Its final movement, Pass On The Light, also featured pre-recorded voices of  the Vocal Associates Chamber Choir, with the message that if we do not remember the past, we might as well forget about the future.

 

MUSIC UNMASKED / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

MUSIC UNMASKED

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (1 October 2021)

 

It was a cold, wet and drippy evening, when one rather snuggles with a good book and warm mug of cocoa at home as the rain poured outside, than venturing out to the Esplanade. However, some events have to be attended. There have been no concerts with wind instruments for an eternity (or since Covid struck our shores), and the prospect of a new symphony being premiered.

Seow Yibin
Photo: Chan Chen

 

The strings of the Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) have had their say, and now it was the turn of the woodwinds, brass and percussion to have moments under the spotlight. The wait was worth it when Associate Conductor Seow Yibin stepped up to lead Richard Strauss’ Rosenkavalier Harmoniemusik as arranged by Nigel Shore. Harmoniemusik is a very Mittel-European concept, essentially wind transcriptions of popular operatic melodies, played and enjoyed by village bandsmen over schnapps and pretzels. Mozart’s operas were popularised by such arrangements, and the luscious melodies of Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier are no exception.

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

Despite having just sixteen players (11 woodwinds + 5 French horns) on stage, the ensemble generated a  big sound for its opening, with the horns lapping up those coital whoops which Strauss had so delighted in. Articulation of phrases was excellent and intonation secure, and one just wallowed in the big melodies. The problem with this suite was its length. With multiple parts and running over 40 minutes, it felt much longer. (The Rodzinski suite for full orchestra plays for a fraction of this time, and said everything that was needed to say.) One waited for sequences of waltzes to appear but that seemed in vain. And with the players at the end of their tether, a merciful close arrived.

 

The main event was a shorter work, the World Premiere of young composer Lee Jinjun’s Symphony for Brass and Percussion, also entitled “The Times Have Changed”, conducted by OMM Music Director Chan Tze Law. Cast in four movements, playing for some 27 minutes, this was a real and bona fide symphony in every respect.

Chan Tze Law
Photo: Yong Junyi

 

More significantly, this appears to be the first symphony by a Singaporean composer to be heard in a long time. None of Tan Chan Boon’s five symphonies have been performed here. Tsao Chieh’s Singapore Suite, a symphony in all but name, was premiered by the Singapore Symphony in 1986, and only performed again in 2000. There have been performances of symphonies by Robert Casteels and John Sharpley (both long-time residents here) but none from Singaporean voices. Just silence... but a gaping void was filled this evening.

 

Lee Jinjun played the trumpet
in the world premiere of his symphony.

Although the detailed booklet notes indicate a programme of the pandemic striking the city-state and heroes rising to meet the challenge, this symphony works well as absolute music. The first movement may be discerned as been written in sonata form. After a portentous introduction, two themes are introduced in the ensuing allegro, the first in syncopated rhythm contrasted by a second, which is flowing and lyrical. The trumpet gets a prominent solo, while the snare-drum provides the feel of an ominous threat looming overhead.

 

The second movement’s scherzo is percussion-driven, alternating between menace and playful mischief. One senses a Waltonian spirit of con malizia (with malice) in these pages, contrasted by a more reassuring central chorale which may be described as Bernsteinesque, while a John Williams’ Star Wars vibe is never far, far away.

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

In the slow third movement, also the symphony’s longest, one gets to the heart and soul of the work. A warm Beethovenian theme dominates, involving flugelhorn, Wagner tubas, piccolo trumpet or a combination of these, building to a crushing climax suggesting tragedy on an epic scale. The warm Hero’s theme is restated, and there is an attacca (without break) into the galloping chase-like finale.

 

One might have wished this to be longer and further developed, like a Brucknerian “hunting horn rondo”, but spare a thought for the 16 brass and 5 percussion players who would have been pretty exhausted by now. The close was an emphatic one, possessed with the vigour and vehemence that permeates action movie music scores.  

 

Make no mistake, what I witnessed is a magnificent symphony, performed with the requisite virtuosity one has come to expect from the young musicians of OMM. One hopes this symphony will be heard again with some frequency, especially from Singapore’s many wind bands, but first they must get their hands on those Wagner tubas. By the time I left the Esplanade, the rain had abated, and there was still time for that good book and mug of cocoa.