DISNEY FANTASIA IN CONCERT
LIVE TO FILM
Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Thursday (7 August 2025)
This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 August 2025 with the title "SSO and Disney's Fantasia make a great introduction to classical music".
Ever since movies incorporated the new dimension of sound, it did not take long for Walt Disney to dream up the ultimate marriage of animated films with classical music. Fantasia (1940) was the result, in his famous collaboration with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski.
The Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s pops concert, led by Joshua Tan, united favourite segments from the original movie and its sequel Fantasia 2000, including new animations and musical selections.
The first movement from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony opened the two-hour concert, accompanied by geometric patterns of the letter V taking the form of butterflies. This abstract interpretation was contrasted with the more earthy programme of Greek mythological creatures frolicking to the final three movements from his Sixth Symphony, the “Pastoral”. Its Merry Gathering of Peasants, Thunderstorm and Cheerful and Thankful Feelings After The Storm were a breezy and enjoyable romp.
Following that were six popular dances from Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker. What may have appeared amusing to American audiences in the 1940s, its Chinese Dance, with kowtowing red mushrooms with gill slits as eyes, now comes across as a crass racial stereotype.
The famous film of dinosaurs battling extinction to Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring was not included. However excerpts from the Russian’s The Firebird covered a similar theme, with the Khorovod (Round Dance), Infernal Dance of King Kashchei, Berceuse (Lullaby) and Finale symbolising Mother Earth’s regeneration following volcanic destruction.
After Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune (Moonlight) in Stokowski’s gorgeous orchestration, the second half of the concert came across as more comedic. Italian opera composer Amilcare Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda may not be often heard these days, but there was no forgetting surreal scenes of ostriches wearing bows, elephants blowing bubbles, hippopotami in tutus and prancing alligators in its delightful choreography.
Common to both movies was Disney’s singular feat of animation genius, Mickey Mouse’s iconic appearance in Paul Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Here, Liu Chang’s solo bassoon did the honours in portraying the broomstick drawing water from the well and causing an almighty deluge. The orchestra’s timing in this timeless classic was spot on.
Speaking of floods, a mash-up from three of Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Marches formed the basis of Donald and Daisy Duck’s biblical act of herding all the planets’ animals into Noah’s Ark. Amid this chaos, there was even time for a touching romance.
Closing the concert must have been the most surprising and imaginative animation of all, Ottorino Respighi’s The Pines of Rome accompanying a family of gravity-defying humpback whales caught in a sea of icebergs. A welcome encore took the form of the rollicking finale from Camille Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals, with a flock of pink flamingos getting tied up in a yo-yo.
Sometimes fantasy gets the better of reality, which is why Disney’s Fantasia may just be the perfect introduction to classical music for the young and young at heart.
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