1943: THE MUSICAL EVENINGS AT CHANGI / Phan Ming Yen et al

 

1943: THE MUSICAL 

EVENINGS AT CHANGI

Talk by Phan Ming Yen et al

National Library Building

Saturday (27 September 2025)

After Singapore fell on 15 February 1942, thousands of civilians became subject to the Imperial Empire of Japan. While the local Chinese were brutally suppressed, their Western counterparts including British / European / Australian were in incarcerated in Changi Prison. Over-crowded conditions meant that thousands were housed in spaces meant for hundreds. What was life like in Changi, and what sort of music did the prisoners get to enjoy? That was the subject of this interesting illustrated talk by historical researcher and general polymath Phan Ming Yen.

The 1st floor space of the National Library
was a conducive spot for this public talk.

Assisted by actor / dramaturg Aaron Lee who did readings and pianist Natalie Ng performing excerpts from piano pieces, this was an absorbing hour-long presentation that captured the imagination, and there was never a dull moment.

The source material came mostly from The Changi Guardian, a self-published periodical started by the prisoners to report on and document happenings that took place there and then. Extracts from May 1942 to September 1943 gave an idea as to what the prisoners went through.

Despite straitened circumstances, there was humanity in Changi. Through the good graces of a certain Lieutenant Okasaki, the captives were allowed to mount musical concerts to entertain themselves. Using captured pianos, those who could perform (and there were hundreds) did so and this meant a lot to those in attendance. 

The diagram behind shows the plan
of Changi Prison in 1943.

The concerts took place twice a week in an unlikely venue: the prison’s laundry area, amid the noise of operating machinery, flushing WCs and people at work. Not exactly Dame Myra Hess at The National Gallery.

One piece heard during the New Year period was Auld Lang Syne, which also existed in its Japanese version, Hotaru no Hikari (Glow of a Firefly), hence it was not proscribed. Also performed were works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Rachmaninov, all of which would have been familiar and played at home. One name stood out among the performers, Gordon van Hien, who in 1938 founded the Singapore Musical Society, which would be active post-War till the 1970s.

One asks the question, “Why does music matter?” One was the opportunity for silence, away from the mundane noises of the day, except for music and the laundry itself. Besides the music, there was also “Changi University”, a reference to the 4000 books that the internees had access to. By 24 September 1943, the population in Changi had numbered 3194.

All this had to end sometime. In September 1942, an illegal wireless transmitter radio was found in the possession of a prisoner, and music stopped. 57 men were interrogated and tortured at the hands of the Kempeitai; 15 died and the others were sent to Thailand’s Death Railway. It was a cruel way to end, but this was war after all. The last issue of The Changi Guardian was published in 12 October 1943. In 1946, the Singapore Musical Society that survived the war resumed its concerts.

Attending the talk were the WAGs.

SONGS OF OUR FOREFATHERS III / Lirica Arts / Review

 

SONGS OF OUR FOREFATHERS III

Lirica Arts

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (26 September 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 30 September 2025 with the title "Chinese art songs take centre stage in Lirica Arts' adventurous series".

Besides presenting chamber opera productions, Lirica Arts led by local baritone Martin Ng also lives up to its name by promoting the cause of art songs. In the third concert of its Songs of Our Forefathers series, some 19 Chinese art songs were performed, illustrating the sheer variety within this genre.

The Chinese language provided several millennia of source material, from Han dynasty (c.200 BC to 200 AD) texts through to the present day. Although presented in Mandarin, projected surtitles in both Chinese and English were a boon.

Beginning with songs accompanied by pianist Beatrice Lin, the evening felt like a recital of German lieder. Chinese soprano Peng Ying opened with three songs, Li Yan’s The Green Jadeite Bowl (On The First Night of the New Year), Wang Long’s The Ornamented Zither and Fu Jing’s Qing Ming (Tomb Sweeping Day), based on Han verse. Despite its sober content, the last asked, “Where is the wine shop?”, suggesting the ancients also had similar urges and vices as us. The songs were Romantic in idiom although through-composed rather than strophic in form.

Peng emoted well, her voice possessing heft, later flexing coloratura acrobatics in Xu Jingxin’s Fantasia of a Moonlit Night by the Spring River, which was spectacular. She also sang a Suzhou Pingtan number, Ode to the Butterfly, with lyrics by no less than Chairman Mao Zedong.

Local tenor Shaun Lee bared his heart and vulnerability in Huang Zi’s Homesickness and Liu Xue An’s Song of the Red Bean with words from the Qing dynasty. Baritone Ng’s songs juxtaposed polar sides of love relationships, Li Yan’s The Phoenix Seeking His Mate and To a Faithless Husband, the latter being a song of farewell after a change of heart.

Song dynasty polymath poet Su Shi’s words were celebrated after the intermission. Beijing Opera artist Tian Ping was introduced in Qingzhu’s The Yangtze River Flows East alongside tenor Lee. Her highly stylised singing, with nasal overtones, brought authenticism when heard on her own.

The union of Beijing opera and Western-styled singing in Huang Zi’s Song of the Southern Country in duet with Ng was however jarring in the extreme, like oil and water. Throw in Wang Yan Tong’s jinghu (the highest pitched huqin) with its piercing sonority in Yang Nailin’s Ode to the Pear Blossom, even voices struggle to get heard.

The highlight of the evening, also the longest song, was the world premiere of local composer Chua Jon Lin’s Melody of the River Town. Sung by baritone Ng, this was a contemporary work unafraid to experiment. String piano technique, including directly plucking the strings produced an otherwordly effect, over which Ng mused about separation and homecoming. Moving from a sedate pace to agitation, heavy chords and Bartok-like ostinatos were likely to move emotions.

The two-hour concert closed with all the performers joined by host Wenxia (also a soprano) for Zhong Xingmin’s Lan Ting Xu (Orchid Pavilion Preface), based on ancient calligraphy by Wang Xizhi, and popularised by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou. The old met the new this evening and with its hits and misses, Lirica Arts is encouraged to continue searching and discovering.

YO-YO MA DVORAK CELLO CONCERTO / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

YO-YO MA

DVORAK CELLO CONCERTO

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (25 September 2025)

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 29 September 2025 with the title "Yo-Yo Ma thrills and enthralls Singapore audience".

Yo-Yo Ma. The man is a box-office dream, a living legend who had an Esplanade full-house (1800 with the gallery filled) cheering even before he played a single note. Such was the grip the American-Chinese cellist had on his audience, that every move, phrase and breath was held in special significance. His radiant smile, the way he leaned back on his stool, how he gestured with the bow upon completing a passage were multiplied to the nth degree as these heavily imprint on one’s consciousness. Yet something was missing.

Ma has performed in Singapore on many occasions, from a solo recital in 1993, multiple concerto gigs with the Singapore Symphony, fiddling and jamming with his Silk Road Ensemble, last appearing in 2016. All those events were lit up by his vibrant and sociable personality, backed by a big and gorgeous sonority. The last bit was, however, the loose cog in an otherwise impeccable complex that took on the challenges of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor (Op.104).

The orchestra led by Basque conductor Juanjo Mena went full voice for the tuttis and piped down considerably whenever they backed Ma. The reason for that was Ma’s ability to fully project over the massed forces had diminished over the years. This was most apparent in the first movement despite Ma’s best efforts. He was really trying and clearly still enjoying the music-making, but the commanding sound he once mastered had been attenuated.

The slow central movement, with its quote of Dvorak’s song Lasst mich allein (Leave Me Alone), saw Ma at his best – a pristine voice with perfect intonation and phrasing, how it should be without straining to be heard. The audience held its collective breath, then unloaded with bronchial coughs at the movement’s end but the finale came attacca, before the clearing of phlegm has settled. No matter, the Rondo’s martial mode held sway with Ma leading the charge, and few moments could match the beauty in his duet with concertmaster David Coucheron’s violin towards the end. The triumphant close drew the largest spontaneous standing ovation witnessed in years. 

Yo-Yo Ma gives SSO Principal Cellist
Ng Pei-Sian a hug. Cello brotherhood!

The audience had clearly been thrilled and enthralled by Ma’s musicianship and charisma. He may not be the Yo-Yo Ma of decades past, but he is still the Yo-Yo Ma, soon to turn three score and ten within a fortnight. Everybody deserves to hear him at least once, and his illuminating encore, the Catalan song El Cant dels Ocells (Song of the Birds), once a Pablo Casals favourite.

Yo-Yo Ma announces his encore,
in tribute to Singapore's 60 years of independence.

Yo-Yo M loves the audience,
and vice versa, its mutual!

The President returned in time
to catch Yo-Yo Ma.

To catch Ma, the audience was first obliged to sit through Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony, or the Inextinguishable. This was music that captured immense struggle, the full weight and momentum of which the orchestra responded with much brio. The opening was passionate with brass chorales gloriously helmed. Lightness and jocularity in the woodwinds ruled the second movement while strings painted a bleak landscape for the third movement. A furious string fugato ushered in the finale, where the pitched battle between timpanists Christian Schiøler and Mario Choo ensued before a tumultuous conclusion. Conductor Mena kept a tight ship through the squalls. He had announced his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease in January, but nowhere was that apparent in the performance. In short, he was proving to be inextinguishable.

Star Rating: ****

The original review may be found here:

Yo-Yo Ma thrills and enthralls Singapore audience | Bachtrack

SSO PRESIDENT'S YOUNG PERFORMERS CONCERT / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

PRESIDENT'S YOUNG 

PERFORMERS CONCERT

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (20 September 2025)

This review was first published on Bachtrack.com on 22 September 2025 with the title "Singapore’s Got Talent! Three President’s Young Performers hit the jackpot".

One dream of young classical musicians growing up in Singapore is a chance to perform a concerto with the national orchestra. Since the mid-1990s, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s (SSO) annual President Young Performers Concert has made that dream come true for dozens of musical talents. After two consecutive editions that highlighted pianists, this year’s gala gave golden tickets to a saxophonist, clarinettist and harpist.

Photo: Clive Choo

It was a pity that President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and his wife were not present to witness three excellent concerto performances with the SSO led by Associate Conductor Rodolfo Barráez. The evening opened with the Singapore premiere of Frenchman Henri Tomasi’s Saxophone Concerto (1949), performed by 18-year-old Dante Tan Yu Jie, student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Despite its date of composition, this was no avant-garde nasty, but a lushly orchestrated score which resembled those of biblical movie epics. Tan made most of his opportunity by crafting a rich, creamy tone which confidently cut through thickets of orchestral textures. The tricky cadenzas were very well negotiated, including one accompanied by harp, before energetically racing off in the jazzy syncopations of the finale, aptly titled Giration.

Photo: Clive Choo

Another SSO premiere saw 22-year-old Chua Jay Roon, student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, take on the thorny challenges of Carl Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto Op.57 (1928). Its angular dance-like main theme derived from folk music was very well projected, dominating much of the single-movement work. Her virtuoso credentials were established on the outset, handling the highly chromatic and convoluted passages with much natural ease. An ongoing duel with Jonathan Fox’s snare drum (echoes of the belligerence in Nielsen’s Fifth Symphony) ratcheted up the tension, before the concerto coming to a surprisingly peaceable close. Responding with a fist pump, Chua knew she had nailed it, and the audience responded with equal enthusiasm.

Photo: Clive Choo

After the intermission, it was the turn of 19-year-old Renee Yadav, recent graduate from the School of the Arts, with her solo in Claude Debussy’s Danses sacrée et profane (1904). Quite unlike the exuberance of the earlier wind concertos, this was a far more sedate affair but one lit up by Yadav’s grace and dignified poise. Clarity and purity of her lines shone through the light string accompaniment, first in the chaste opening dance before letting loose somewhat in the gentle waltz rhythm of the second dance. There was nothing profane about it, just a show of a little self-determination which came up trumps in the end.

Completing the evening was an ebullient reading of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.4 in A major, popularly known as the Italian Symphony. Conductor Barráez led with an easy authority, bringing out the Mediterranean sunshine of the opening movement, then maintained a steady but not strait-jacketed pulse for the second movement’s religious procession. The third movement’s dance had a more casual air about it, tempered by martial interjections from the winds. The finale’s Saltarello was taken at a furious pace, closing a very satisfying concert where the youths shined... with or without the President.

The original article may be found here:

President’s Young Performers at the Singapore Symphony | Bachtrack

Star Rating: ****

STRAITS MELODIES: DUOS VS TRIOS / Society of Composers (Singapore) / Review

 

STRAITS MELODIES: DUOS VS TRIOS

Association of Composers (Singapore)

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (17 September 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 September 2025 with the title "Association of Composers spotlights Singapore and Malaysia works in programme of art songs and piano trios".

The latest concert by the Association of Composers (Singapore) was held in collaboration with its counterpart from across the Causeway, Chin Yong Music Society Malaysia. Showcasing 17 works by eleven Singapore-based and six Malaysian composers, its theme was the genre of art songs (solos and duets) and piano trios.

Stella Zhou and Lim Soon Gui

Even the art songs, all sung in Mandarin, had a specific pastoral theme inspired by nature and the countryside. All the vocal duets were by Malaysian composers, opening with Tee Xiao Xi’s Traveler which saw soprano Stella Zhou partnered by baritone Lim Soon Gui, followed by Sebastian Ooi’s Little Sailboat, with Zhou and tenor Timothy Huang.

Stella Zhou and Timothy Huang

These songs were Romantic in character, melodious, and possessing the amiable quality of folksongs. The well-matched singers blended well. Jellal Koay’s atmospheric Forget was as beautiful as harmonies could get while Wong Chee Wei’s Lingering in the Song of That Night was a portrait of serenity and contentment. Zhou was joined by baritone Ralph Ong for Lim Yu Yao’s Fossil at Port Dickson Beach and Chow Jun Yan’s The Birth of Morning, both were short but filled with reassuring tones.

Stella Zhou and Ralph Ong

The solo songs were mastered by soprano He Miya, whose sense of theatricality and diva-like big gestures were well suited to Quek Yong Siu’s Flow, Brook! and Lee Yuk Chuan’s Rainbow. She also emoted and projected to the max for Liu Bin’s The Shepherd’s Sad Story and Wu Jie’s Odes of Qin: No Garments.

He Miya and Soh Wei Qi

All singers were partnered by excellent pianist Soh Wei Qi, no mere accompanist but one ever-sensitive to myriad nuances presented in the songs. The intimate nature of the evening, attended by a small audience of relatives, friends and associates, resembled a Schubertiade, those homely Viennese soirees where Franz Schubert’s Lieder were famously premiered.

Exhibiting even further range and variety were the piano trios performed by Kuala Lumpur-based musicians Chang Yi Li (violin), Tay Yi How (cello) and Iau Jo Yee (piano). Ng Eng Thong’s Joyous Gathering began seriously but gradually transitioned to happiness. Daniel Kom’s Variations of When We Get Together, based on the Austrian children’s tune O Du Lieber Augustin, was enjoyable as it was inventive, contrasted with a scherzo-like movement from Gan Yunzhuo’s Exploration In The Dark, barbed with Bartok-like spiky dissonances, a study of anxiety in extremis.

From Xiao Chunyuan’s Piano Trio No.1, its first movement titled Of Sharps and Flats started with plain vanilla C major but ventured into distant keys and pitches, creating a sense of disorientation. Zhao Lingyan’s Capriccio mirrored Koay’s earlier duet with lush Impressionist sonorities, taking the form of a dreamy and wistful elegy.

The well-conceived concert closed with two trios displaying emotions abashedly worn on the sleeve. Chiew Keng Hoon’s Love was tinged with melancholy and filled with tension, suggesting this was a grandfather’s tough love for his grandson. Cao Ying’s Regret was similarly doleful, its cello solo brooding giving way to an angst-ridden finale. In reciprocation, a repeat of this concert takes place in Kuala Lumpur in late October.

All the composers and performers.
Onward to Kuala Lumpur!