THE SINGAPORE COLLECTION: ALEXANDER TCHEREPNIN THE SYMPHONIES & PIANO CONCERTOS / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

ALEXANDER TCHEREPNIN

The Symphonies & Piano Concertos

Noriko Ogawa, Piano

Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Lan Shui

BIS 1717/18 (4 CDs)

TT: 4 hrs 34’09”

Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977) may be said to have been the first truly cosmopolitan composer. Born to a musical and artistic family in Tsarist Saint Petersberg, his father was the composer, pianist and conductor Nikolai Tcherepnin (1873-1945), whose claim to fame was having taught composition to the young Sergei Prokofiev (who in turn dedicated his First Piano Concerto to him).

He lived for varying periods in Paris, the Caucasus, China and Japan before settling in America. He was married to the Chinese pianist Lee Hsien Ming (no relation to the Singapore Lees), and his music suitably reflected an eclecticism which encompassed late Romanticism, Stravinsky’s iconoclasm and neoclassicism, popular idioms such as jazz, tinged with a 1920s modernist outlook and generous helpings of Orientalism. He was a modernist in all senses but yet never embraced atonalism or the vagaries of the avant-garde.

The recordings were originally issued singly,
and this was the first instalment.

The ten major works in this box-set (4 discs at the cost of 2) are four symphonies and six piano concertos. The symphonies date from 1927 to 1959 while the piano concertos from 1918 to 1965, suggesting a wide range of styles gestated over extended periods of time and covering multiple geographical localities. The shorter pieces include Magna Mater, Symphonic March, Symphonic Prayer, and Festmusik (a 4-movement suite from opera The Wedding of Sobeide).

The second disc to be released.

The four symphonies are heard in the first two discs, sandwiching the Fifth and Sixth Piano Concertos. For a taste of his iconoclasm, sample the riotous second movement (Vivace) of the First Symphony (1927), entirely scored for percussion. Its influence by Le Sacre du Printemps also effected the same response – a demonstration for which the police were called. For today’s ears, the idiom is rather palatable, no more modern than the likes of Milhaud, Prokofiev or John Williams.

Arguably the best-known among these are the Chinese influenced works – the Third Symphony (1952) and Fourth Piano Concerto (1947), subtitled Fantaisie. Chinoiserie is rife in the Chinese Symphony, as much as in Stravinsky’s Le Chant du Rossignol, but there is much lyricism in its Adagio slow movement. The concerto, which appears as the last item of the fourth disc, is more programmatic with movements having descriptive titles. The first is Eastern Chamber Dream, portraying Wu Song’s legendary vanquishing of the killer tiger. Tang dynasty royal concubine Yan Kuei Fei’s Sacrifice is the subject of the central slow movement, while the pentatonic rondo-like Road To Yunnan closes the work on a high. These are so accessible as to make one wonder why this concerto isn’t more regularly heard or performed.

Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa
is highly attuned to Tcherepnin's musical idiom.

The first two piano concertos are in a single movement (bringing to mind Rimsky-Korsakov and Prokofiev’s First) while the third is in two movements. The last three concertos are in the traditional three movements where the idiom is closer to Prokofiev. Pianist Noriko Ogawa is the fearless and swashbuckling soloist in these technically highly demanding works. The six concertos may be heard in chronological sequence on two discs issued on the Brilliant Classics label (9232), something which pianophiles may opt for. There was an earlier cycle by British pianist Murray McLachlan with the orchestra of Chetham’s School, issued on two Olympia discs in the mid-1990s, which is good but SSO provides superior orchestral support.

If you want just the piano concertos,
here's the budget double-CD set to get.

This project was the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s first collaboration with the Swedish BIS label, with recordings dating from 1999 to 2002. The first of its recorded symphonic cycles, the orchestra performs with finesse and total conviction. Now in the Twenty-twenties, Lan Shui and our national orchestra still has the field to themselves, and are unlikely to be challenged in this repertoire for decades to come. Classics Today.com’s Dave Hurwitz also agrees on this count too!

FINALISTS OF NATIONAL PIANO & VIOLIN COMPETITION ARTIST CATEGORIES NAMED: NOW HEAR THEM IN CONCERT!

 

The finalists in the Artist categories of the National Piano & Violin Competition (NPVC) have been named. Six fine young artists will perform full-length concertos with the NPVC Orchestra (the Singapore Symphony Orchestra) conducted by Joshua Tan at Victoria Concert Hall on Saturday and Sunday. Here is a chance to witness Singapore's finest young pianists and violinists in concert!

The artists and concertos performed are as follows:

PIANO ARTIST CATEGORY FINAL

Saturday 29 November 2025, 7.30 pm

GOH KAI CHENG plays

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11

CHEN XING-CHI plays

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21

TOBY TAN KAI RONG plays

CHOPIN Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21

Tickets (at $10 only, a steal!) 

are available here:

Piano Artist Finals 2025 | Singapore Symphony Orchestra

VIOLIN ARTIST CATEGORY FINAL

Sunday 30 November 2025, 2 pm

MADELINE GOH ANYI plays

MENDELSSOHN 

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op.64

LOW PENG GUAN plays

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47

ERNEST SYU plays

TCHAIKOVSKY 

Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35

Tickets (really, just $10!) 

are available here:

Violin Artist Finals 2025 | Singapore Symphony Orchestra

If you buy tickets for both finals, its 30% off. No kidding.

THE SINGAPORE COLLECTION: RACHMANINOV SYMPHONIES & ORCHESTRAL MUSIC / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

RACHMANINOV

SYMPHONIES AND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Lan Shui

BIS 2512 / 4 CDs TT: 5 hrs 6’11”

This is the first review of a series which I will refer to as “The Singapore Collection”, devoted to classical recordings by Singapore artists and artistic groups. The Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is the obvious starting point, having a tradition of making records from the early-1980s under its founding music director Choo Hoey. With Lan Shui’s tenure from 1997, the SSO began making big strides in its partnership with the independent (not any more) Swedish label BIS. Then came a multitude of well-received and critically acclaimed discs of a variety of repertoire, both mainstream and off the beaten path.

This Rachmaninov box-set is a culmination of the orchestra’s penchant for Russian repertoire, incorporating the three symphonies and complete orchestral music (excepting those with chorus and voices, such as The Bells). The symphonies were recorded first, dating as far back as 2008. These were originally issued as single discs, some coupled with concerto performances by Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin (Piano Concerto No.1 and Paganini Rhapsody), not included here.

The set opens with the First Symphony in D minor (Op.13), discarded by Rachmaninov after its disastrous premiere in 1897, but pieced together after the Second World War. It remains one of his boldest creations, and gets a very lively and trenchant performance befitting the early promise. The Symphonic Movement in D minor (1891), also referred to as his Youth Symphony, belies an obvious depth of influence to Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninov’s first tone poem, Prince Rostislav, dates from the same year and was inspired by a ballad by Aleksey Tolstoy (second cousin of Leo). This early style looks forward to his better-known tone poems The Rock and Isle of the Dead, and deserves listening.

Probably the weakest performance of the set was the Second Symphony in E minor (Op.27), which was the first to be recorded. It is still rather good although suffering from a surfeit of portamenti in all its movements, rendering it somewhat sickly sentimental. Ma Yue is the eloquently plain-singing clarinettist in the Adagio. Nonetheless, it held together well enough for SSO to programme it in its BBC Proms debut in 2014. The fill-up is Rachmaninov’s own transcription of Vocalise (Op.34 No.14), where portamenti are fine when sentimentality is key.

SSO at the BBC Proms, 2014.

Coming from Rachmaninov’s late period and years of exile in America was his Third Symphony in A minor (Op.44) and Symphonic Dances (Op.45), his last work before passing in Beverly Hills. Both receive fine performances despite the former’s final movement which is unusually short-winded and soon runs out of ideas. The latter supplies an appropriate response to his (discarded, so he thought) First Symphony, it first movement subject which once sounded defiant now returns as retiring and resigned. As a whole, this disc (recorded in 2011 and 2014) represented the mature SSO at a new high, an advance over on the previous few years.

The fourth and final disc has the most recent recordings (from 2012 to 2015), including tone poems The Rock (recorded last and arguably the finest in the set), Isle of the Dead, Capriccio Bohemienne (a surprisingly effective showpiece in the slow-fast schema of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies), and the early but derivative Scherzo in D minor (1887), composed as a 14-year-old. Also included are four orchestral excerpts (Introduction, Intermezzo and Dances) from Rachmaninov’s first opera Aleko (1893) and a true rarity, the Prelude to The Miserly Knight (1904).

Lan Shui's work with the SSO
will never be forgotten.

There are famous recorded cycles of this repertoire, notably from the London Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn (on EMI, now Warner), St Petersburg Philharmonic with Mariss Jansons (also EMI / Warner) and those vintage Melodiya recordings by Evgeny Svetlanov, but none is as complete as this survey. The much-vaunted BIS recorded sound lives up to the hype. This set is a source of Singaporean pride, and rightly so.

FACE(T)S OF NATURE / Concordia Quartet / Review

 

FACE(T)S OF NATURE

Concordia Quartet

Chamber @ The Arts House

Friday (21 November 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 24 November 2025 with the title "Concordia Quartet deliver close ensemble work, precise timing and accurate intonation".

Despite changes in personnel within the past year, Concordia Quartet, the dedicated string quartet of Resound Collective, has been remarkably consistent in its concert programming. Violinists Wilford Goh and Kim Kyu Ri, with violist Edward Tan and cellist Lin Juan, have continued to surprise and challenge audiences and their expectations.

Where else but in the Chamber of The Arts House can one expect to hear great chamber music in a perfectly intimate setting? The delightful evening opened conventionally with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Quartet No.14 in G major (K.387), appropriately nicknamed “Spring” because of its freshness of thematic ideas and cheerful disposition.

Playing in Singapore's "Wigmore Hall".

See the resemblance, sort of?

Playing on a raised platform under a cupola, the setting superficially resembled that of London’s Wigmore Hall but the shared experience of close engagement between players and audience was real. Close-knit ensemble work, precise timing and accurate intonation were all part of the game, and the foursome generously delivered.

Gentility in the opening movement was well-realised and articulated, with the graceful dance of the second movement upping the tempo ever so slightly. Even when shades grew darker for the slow movement, the warmth of sonority never flagged. The finale was all sunshine and smiles, and one cannot get more congenial than this.

For the second half, the quartet literally moved to the floor of the house. The players were seated so close to the audience that one could even see the scored notes on their tablets. Four of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak’s Cypresses, string transcriptions of songs, were selected for variety of moods and feelings. One did not need to know the original words to understand the sentiments of love, grief, joy and contentment portrayed within.

Photo: @ Joelcaptures

The music then transplanted from Central Europe to the Sceptred Isles for six short pieces by two of England’s greatest composers. It was an artistic coup to alternate three of Henry Purcell’s Fantasias In Four Parts with Benjamin Britten’s Three Divertimenti. These transitions between baroque and 20th century aesthetics were both daring and ear-catching.

The order and form of Purcell, polyphony at its prim and prettiest, sounded well-groomed and decorous. His G major Fantasia soon gave way to the dissonance and irony of Britten’s March, music that was both acerbic and anarchic. Purcell’s F major Fantasia then dissolved into a slow and sentimental Waltz which later took on more sarcastic overtones.

Photo: @ Joelcaptures

Chalk and cheese, or oil and water, never the twain shall meet but to the many enthused listeners, these sounded totally plausible because of Concordia’s ardent advocacy. The quartet’s ability to skillfully shift between vastly contrasting dynamics and idioms was a credit to their technique, discipline and musicality.

Photo: @ Joelcaptures

The final D minor Fantasia would now morph into a bristling Burlesque, filled with quickfire responses and split-second surprises. The enjoyment of the small but keyed-in audience was clear and palpable.

Photo: @ Joelcaptures

SINGAPORE'S VINTAGE EATING PLACES: COMMONWEALTH CRESCENT MARKET & FOOD CENTRE

This is the most frequented of all our eating places over the past two decades. Commonwealth Crescent Market and Food Centre is as old as the neighbourhood (dating from the 1960s) but the building has been transformed from a single-storey set of huts to a modern two-storey complex with the wet market on the ground floor and food centre above it. It has a great variety of food to be had.

The oldest and long-lived stall has to be Hong Kee Porridge, run by Mr Hui and his family for many years. He arrived from Guangzhou in the 1950s, bringing with him the hallowed tradition of Cantonese-styled rice porridge, which is silky smooth as opposed to the Teochew variety. He and a brother set up shop in Chinatown before moving to Queenstown where he never left. He still lives in an apartment across the street from where he toils and slaves. There is never a day where he is not found at his stall, closing only during the Chinese New Year period.

Our favourite is his century egg and sliced pork porridge (皮蛋瘦肉粥) where his generous portions (a whole egg) and tender and chunky meat slices are a pleasure. He has also kept his prices low, far better value than those well-known dim sum places in town. 

There have been rumours of Mr Hui's impending retirement in 2026 (when he turns 80) but thanks to Mr Makansutra K.F.Seetoh's pleading, these plans have been delayed, for now. 

New to the food centre is Northern VN Cuisine, which has become one of my new favourites. Run by Hanoi-native Anna Nguyen and her Singaporean husband Christopher Leck, its offerings are both healthy and delicious. They do not serve Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) but has Pho Ga (chicken noodle soup), but my favourite is the dry pork noodle and Bun Cha served with pork belly and minced pork balls. The spring rolls (fresh and fried varieties) with sweet sauce are also excellent.

Dry pork noodles.

Fried spring rolls. Take it with sweet sauce.

For beef noodles, the Hainanese variety with thick black sauce is available just behind at Ah Kee Beef Noodle. The portions are generous and the soup simply delicious. The standard bowl is $5 but one can supersize it to $8 with added ingredients.

Just a couple of stalls away is the classic Chye Tow Kuay (fried carrot cake) at Liang Liang Fried Carrot Cake, available in both "white" and "black" varieties.

This is the "black" variety,
sweeter and totally sinful!