NOWELL, NOWELL! / Red Dot Baroque / Review

 

NOWELL, NOWELL!

Red Dot Baroque

The Arts House Chamber

Sunday (14 December 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 December 2025 with the title "Red Dot Baroque ushers in Christmas with joyous concert".

It was a wet and soggy Sunday afternoon, and it almost seemed a chore to haul oneself away from the comforts of home to attend a concert. However, this was not any concert, but a celebration of Christmas by Red Dot Baroque (RDB), Singapore’s only professional period instrument group. The much-needed tonic for one nursing a cold, its infectious high spirits instantly drove away the blues.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Opening with the distant wail of Law Chi Yan’s bagpipes, the tenor voice of Reuben Lai followed by Teng Xiang Ting’s soprano began this uncommon procession, a Yuletide offering from the British Isles not previously encountered in sunny Singapore. RDB knows how to put on a show and its 75 minutes were a treat from start to end.

With music from the Emerald Isle, this was a programme built around the legendary blind harper Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738), considered Ireland’s national composer. His Welcome was the perfect greeting for the dances – which sounded familiar by the Celtic fiddling – in Cup and Favourite Jig to come.

After RDB founder and leader Alan Choo made his entry, the floor of the Old Parliament’s chamber was transformed into some country barn. Joined by fellow fiddlers - Brenda Koh, Placida Ho and Gabriel Lee – they begun to make merry. Their free-wheeling moves abetted by foot-stamping by the audience made for an enjoyable musical spectacle.

Photo: Yong Junyi

The famous Wexford Carol, shared by Teng and Lai, well and truly ushered in the spirit of Christmas atmosphere. Crossing the Irish Sea to England, Pastime With Good Compayne by King Henry VIII, the infamous monarch with six wives, brought in more cheer.

Other RDB’s instrumentalists, Gerald Lim on electronic keyboard substituting for harpsichord and Christopher Clarke on archlute accounted for more intimate music by William Byrd and John Dowland. The alternation between instrumental and sung pieces worked very well, with the English segment closing with Nowell, Tidings True and Masters of this Hall, adapted from Frenchman Marin Marais’ music.

Climbing over Hadrian’s Wall into Scotland, there was more intoxicating fiddling in On the Wings of Skorie and Old Grey Cat. The soothing Skye Boat Song was sung by Lai with a distinct Celtic accent, while the witty and bawdy verses of Henry Purcell’s Twas Within a Furlong of Edinburgh Town were perfectly captured by Teng.

Returning to Eire, O’Carolan’s final work before his passing, Farewell To Music, made for some poignant moments before the jigs Apples In Winter and The Mason’s Apron closed the show with a proper hurrah. RDB’s splendid ensemble was completed by Leslie Tan on cello / gamba, Cheryl Lim on flutes and whistles, and percussionist Govin Tan who left his tablas at home.

Cheryl Lim

Leslie Tan

Govin Tan
Photo: Yong Junyi

The audience singalong was suitably rousing with seasonal hymns ironically by two German composers, Felix Mendelssohn’s Hark, The Herald Angels Sing and George Frideric Handel’s Joy To The World. With the current turmoil and violence, the world could do with more of Red Dot Baroque’s joyous message of goodwill and peace.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Photo: Yong Junyi