FIREBIRD: 25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT / Philharmonic Wind Orchestra / Review

FIREBIRD:
25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA CONCERT

Philharmonic Wind Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (9 November 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 November 2025 with the title "Landmark works of Philharmonic Wind Orchestra's 25th anniversary".

The Philharmonic Wind Orchestra (PWO), formerly known as The Philharmonic Winds, celebrated its 25th anniversary as the nation’s leading wind band with a concert of landmark works performed during the course of its illustrious history. Conducted by Leonard Tan, who also served as an engaging host, the concert was a showcase of the orchestra’s prowess in a variety of virtuoso repertoire.

Opening the evening was late Singaporean composer Leong Yoon Pin’s own wind arrangement of Giocoso Largamente from his Second Symphony (1979). Influenced by Tang dynasty poet Li Bai’s words on the duality of life, its alternating fast and slow sections reflected conflicting emotions of happiness and sorrow. Its distinctly Chinese musical idiom and use of percussion felt close to home, also matched by the warm sonority coaxed from the players.

PWO’s biggest coup was its 2015 premiere of Spanish composer-conductor Luis Serrano Alarcon’s epic triptych Marco Polo. An ambitious programme symphony, its three parts followed the Venetian’s journey from West to East, and back. Its first part, The Silk Road, began with him as a jailbird, recounting travels through exotic lands with perils ahead to be faced. The scoring for massive forces included traditional instruments such as the oud (Middle Eastern lute), hulusi (gourd flute), Tibetan singing bowls and a host of Eastern reeds.

Concertmaster Ralph Emmanuel Lim
performed on the duduki while guest performer
Boo Chin Kiah played a hulusi.

Getting the colours right was key, and so was the musical story-telling with Marco Polo represented by a leitmotif first heard on Kartik Alan Jairamin’s French horn. By the time he arrived at the gates of Cambaluc (Beijing today), one had gone through a journey of musical discovery. This is what symphonies such as this were meant to do.

After the intermission, French composer Florent Schmitt’s Dionysiaques, composed in 1913 but premiered in 1925, was heard to brilliant effect. Considered the first true modern classic written for wind orchestra, its opening was redolent of Debussy’s Impressionism, and the Bacchanalian dance that followed rivalled the orgiastic writhings of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Albert Oliver Davis’ arrangement of Richard Strauss’ song Allerseelen (All Souls’ Day) was significant for being the first work PWO performed on its first overseas concert. Its lyrical lines, building to a passionate climax, was accompanied by old photographs and footage from the orchestra’s early years. Nostalgia indeed.

The evening closed with Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919) in a virtuoso orchestration by Randy Earles. Following the exact same storyline of the original, winds and brass took the place of ethereal string effects – not an easy task – but by dint of sheer grit, succeeded. Even the jump scare provided by King Kashchei’s Infernal Dance following the Khorovod (Round Dance) was there, all thanks to an alert bass drummer.

Emerald Tan’s lovely bassoon provided the soothing balm to the Berceuse (Lullaby) before the magnificent crescendo that is the grand Finale. With the evil spell broken and the captives released, the resounding close was symbolic of PWO’s past quarter-century. With hard graft comes just reward.