SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: COMING OF AGE / SINGAPORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA 21ST ANNIVERSARY

COMING OF AGE

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

21st Anniversary

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra marked its 21st birthday in 2000 with this compilation album of recordings made between 1979 and 1999. It includes important landmarks from the orchestra’s history from its inaugural concerts in January 1979, live performances and recordings made during this period. It would go on to make much better recordings, but this album, despite the variable quality of sound, provided an important snapshot of SSO’s progress over the years. The way we were, so to speak.

In the beginning...

The journey takes place at its very beginning, with a live reading of the popular Dance of the Yau People by Mao Yuan and Liu Tien-Shan, from the inaugural concerts at Singapore Conference Hall led by founding music director Choo Hoey, complete with audience applause. Following that is the brief but brutal second movement from Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, issued on a once-off Philips recording to mark SSO’s 10th anniversary in 1989. SSO’s prowess in 20th century music, Choo’s speciality, was evident for all to hear.

The only concertante track was the Rondo from Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos in F major (K.242) with the celebrated duo of Dennis Lee and Toh Chee Hung and SSO Chairman Tan Boon Teik, who was then the nation’s attorney-general (a sort of Singapore answer to West Germany’s Helmut Schmidt). That was part of a fund-raising LP recording made in 1983. Music by Singaporean composers was represented by Leong Yoon Pin’s Dayong Sampan, taken from the 1993 documentation recording rather than the 10th anniversary Philips album from 1989.

Lim Yau (extreme right) was
SSO Associate Conductor and SSC Chorusmaster
when he got the Cultural Medallion in 1990.

The dramatis personae who defined the SSO’s early years have been included, including long-time associate conductor Lim Yau and his Singapore Symphony Chorus, performing the Ode To Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth, the Choral Symphony. The 10-minute segment starts from bar 195, after the first orchestral fugue, all through to its glorious end. Lim’s successor for three years (1998-2000), the American Bart Folse is represented with Isoldes Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, the recording from a Familiar Favourites concert “Opera Without Words”. SSO’s principal guest conductor the Finn Okko Kamu, appointed in 1994, does the honours in three Brahms Hungarian Dances, Nos.1, 5 and 17.

Bart Folse assumed Lim Yau's positions
from 1998 to 2000.

Okko Kamu was SSO Principal
Guest Conductor for over 20 years.

Lan Shui was SSO music director
from 1997 to 2019.

In 1997, Lan Shui succeeded Choo Hoey, becoming SSO’s second music director. One of his earliest recording projects on the Swedish BIS label was the complete symphonies and piano concertos of Russia-born composer Alexander Tcherepnin. The 2nd movement from the Third Symphony “Chinese” has been included here. The hour-long disc closes with three dances from Tchaikovsky’s ballets Swan Lake (Waltz) and Sleeping Beauty (Panorama and Waltz), a clear demonstration that the orchestra was truly adept in dance music.

At the turn of the century, SSO at 21 had come of age, and that was just the beginning of a long journey to musical excellence and worldwide recognition.

The cardboard case which the 
jewel case and CD were enclosed.

Post-script: This commemoration album was not for public sale, but presented to sponsors and guests at SSO's fundraising dinner in 2000. As editor of BraviSSimO! (The SSO Friends newsletter) and all-round kaypoh at large, I was asked to script the programme notes as well as the Chairmen's congratulatory messages.