ANCIENT MOON, PRESENT LIGHT / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

ANCIENT MOON, PRESENT LIGHT 

Singapore Chinese Orchestra 

Singapore Conference Hall 

Friday (6 September 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 September 2024 with the title "Audience chooses programme for SCO's entertaining Mid-Autumn concert".

For a celebration of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO) and its principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong came up with an entertaining, and for some even educational, concert. Its 75 minutes without intermission passed ever so swiftly and without encumbrances. 

Serving as an ever-effable host, Quek’s banter in Mandarin with the audience was, as always, witty and engaging. Departing from the norm, there was no published programme booklet, as the programme was by crafted by serendipity. A survey had earlier been carried out on members of the public as to which pieces they wanted to hear, and SCO duly obliged. 

Above is the list of pieces
subject to a public poll.

Scoring top marks was Huang Yi Jun’s Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Full Moon Blossoms) as arranged by Peng Xiu Wen. Often heard as an encore, this rousing number opened the concert instead, much to the audience’s instant recognition and delight. 

Far less familiar was Hao Wei Ya’s Flowers on a Moonlit Autumn River, which saw a serene string melody accompanied by Fontane Liang’s harp. Quek later revealed this to be a ruse. The people polled had liked its picturesque title, mistaking it for something else completely different. 

Two song arrangements came after that, Lian Hong Zhi’s May Life Be Eternal arranged by Sim Boon Yew with a pop beat, and Tie Yuan & Xu Xi Yi’s The Moon on the Fifteenth sumptuously arranged by Qu Chun Quan. In the latter, Yu Jia’s pipa and Zhao Jianhua’s erhu lit up the quietly meditative music, and somethings must be right when aunties in the audience were heard humming along for both songs. 

Two indestructible favourites followed in quick succession. Lu Wen Cheng’s Ping Hu Qiu Yue (Autumn Moon Over a Placid Lake) arranged by Li Fu Bin had some modern harmonies but its melody still wallowed in evenly unison playing. Ren Guang’s Cai Yun Zhui Yue (Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon) arranged by Peng Xiu Wen took on a tango beat, which Quek delighted in pointing out. 

As the concert’s only original work, former SCO composer-in-residence Law Wai Lun’s Song of Night for chamber ensemble stood out by its distinctiveness. Scored for two yangqins (Qu Jianqing and Ma Huan) and mostly plucked strings (pipas and zhongruans), cellos and basses, the Italianate serenade ambled from slow to moderately fast, maintaining a subtle dance beat throughout. 

Two works arranged by Peng closed the enjoyable evening. The ancient tune The Moon on High returned to the full orchestra’s gamut of capabilities as a symphonic poem, with Yu’s pipa and Xu Hui’s guzheng in the spotlight. The brief and rhythmic Axi Moon Dance had the very quality conductor Quek was looking for – clappability - and despite its irregular 5/4 beat, his audience was well up to it. 

For good measure, Hua Hao Yue Yuan returned home like a boomerang as the lunar-inspired concert’s obligatory encore. All who attended naturally assented.

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra