SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: SINGAPORE SYMPHONY CHORUS - THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS

 

THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS

Singapore Symphony Chorus

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Lim Yau (Conductor)

So far we have been listening to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s oldest recordings, issued during the mid- to late 1980s. One aspect of SSO history which should not be ignored is its performances of symphonic choral repertoire. The Singapore Symphony Chorus (SSC) was established in 1980 to serve that purpose, inaugurating with Brahms’ A German Requiem (sung in English) in the same year. By 1992, the SSC had contributed to Singapore premieres of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (1983), Tippett’s A Child of Our Time (1978), Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass (1989) and Rachmaninov’s The Bells (1992).

This CD album was issued in 1993 to commemorate the SSC’s first dozen years, conducted by its chorus director Lim Yau (also SSO Associate Conductor) since 1981. Excerpts from live concerts at Victoria Concert Hall from 1989 to 1992 were selected from engineered recordings by Donald Wong of Ultralinear International, who was later responsible for the “clandestine” recording of SSO’s Richard Strauss Alpine Symphony in 1993. This recording was however authorised and sanctioned by SSO and Lim Yau, and released for public sale. It even enjoyed a brief run at the top of the classical charts in Singapore’s record shops including Tower Records and Music Power House.

What were its contents? There is a complete performance of Poulenc’s Gloria, recorded in 1989 with late British soprano Susan Chilcott. This reading sparkled with life and verve, with both chorus and orchestra enjoying its unique blend of liturgy and humour. From 1990 came the orchestra’s only recording of a Beethoven symphony, namely his Ninth, or Choral Symphony. 

Since this is a choral CD, only the An die Freude (Ode to Joy) final movement, was included but with its first 202 bars omitted. Thus the music begins just before bass-baritone John Tranter’s declaration of O Freunde, nicht diese Tone. The vocal quartet was completed by tenor Neil Mackie, soprano Dorothy Ross and mezzo-soprano Yang Jie. The chorus is in very good form and the fugal entries well-handled, as would be expected from the disciplinarian Lim Yau, then Singapore’s only orchestral conductor with extensive choral experience

Lim Yau and the SSC in 1992.

Shorter choral excerpts make up the rest of the disc. From Mozart’s “Great” Mass in C minor (K.427), Jesu Christe and Cum sancto spirito from its Gloria (recorded 1991) brought back fond memories. Lim Yau once recounted to me that he needed to recruit more singers from church choirs to join the SSC, which was one reason why Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah was programmed in 1990. A result was the fine chorus, Yet the Lord see not.

A very satisfied Lim Yau after the performance
of Rachmaninov's The Bells in May 1992,
with Mrs Valentina Loginova,
Russian language coach.

To close the hour-long disc were the Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Beethoven’s Mass in C major (Op.86) from March 1992. I joined the SSC as a tenor shortly after that concert, thus missing out from being included in SSO’s only wholly choral disc! Nevertheless, this snapshot of SSC and SSC history from the late 1980s to early 1990s is a historically important one.