It seems that the Yong Siew Toh Orchestral Institute led by Jason Lai has perfected the art of crafting the short concert, one that tells a story by uniting the themes into a complete and coherent whole. All within the space of an hour, music is delivered in digestible doses, fulfilling the credo of quality not quantity.
The evening opened with the haunting sound of the solo flute, Debussy's Syrinx (1913) heard from high up in the dress circle by the Conservatory's new head of winds, brass and percussion, Eric Lamb. Its ambiguous and fluid tonality makes it sound mysterious, and the purity of the sonority a close to unforgettable impression.
Lasting all but three minutes, it segued into the third movement of Mahler's Fourth Symphony, an ode to nature. Opening quietly, the strings crafted an oasis of inner peace, living up to its direction of Ruhevoll (calm, literally full of rest), which gently rose in temperature and volume in a most subtle of crescendos as the other instruments joined in. A passionate climax later, it returned to the solace it opened with.
Night turned to day with strokes of a tam tam leading to the opening pages of Debussy's La mer (The Sea), in a most riveting performance yet to be heard from these young players. From Dawn to Noon on the Sea, the balance of sound came close to perfect, particularly vivid were the low strings whipping up the tension of undercurrents, and it was easy to be swept away by the fantastical musical imagery conjured. To quote another composer (was it Stravinsky?), I particularly liked the part at about quarter-to-ten. Or was it quarter-past-ten?
The Play of the Waves intrigued and titillated the senses, while the final Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea whipped up a storm which seemed perilous at the time. Sureness and safety were key as the voyagers securely navigated the squall as the work blew to a frenzied but impressive close. I can conclude that this young orchestra is already playing at a higher level than the nation's first professional orchestra during its early years, and that cannot be a bad thing.
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| Eric Lamb and his flute get the applause. |
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