WILD AND IN LOVE / re:mix and FOO SAY MING / Review

WILD AND IN LOVE

re:mix with Foo Say Ming (Violin)

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (8 November 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 November 2015 with the title "Oldies in strings".

One has to be of a certain age to fully appreciate music performed by the crack local string group re:mix led by violinist-conductor Foo Say Ming. Purveyors of nostalgia non pareil, re:mix thrives on the music which baby-boomers (born in the 1950s and 60s) and their parents grew up with. Its latest concert takes its title from two Wong Kar Wai films, Days Of Being Wild and In The Mood For Love.

Within these are oldies which have been seared into the memories of many, and good tunes do not fade easily. The concert was turned upon its head with Hollywood film composer Franz Waxman's Carmen Fantasy, a work usually performed at the end of concerts. Bizet's opera Carmen would have made a splendid movie, and the soloist in Foo made the showpiece come alive with its hit arias, the Habanera, Seguidilla and Bohemian Dance.

Foo's virtuosity is of a fearless kind, surmounting thorny passages and cadenzas with swashbuckling abandon, while commanding his string players with frequent glances and bodily feints. The main body of strings responded with a svelte, gorgeous tone and an unanimity of attack. In a way, this was a tribute to the great Jascha Heifetz, teacher of Foo's teacher Pierre Amoyal.

The next six short pieces could have easily been a game of “Guess The Melody”, so familiar to the ear that their titles and composers are often forgotten. Cultural Medallion recipient Kelly Tang was responsible for four arrangements, including Guglielmi's Cherry Pink Apple Blossom White, Menendez's Aquellos Ojos Verdes, Martohartono's Bengawan Solo and Evans/Livingston's Mona Lisa. The technique of cascading strings, patented and perfected by Mantovani and his Orchestra, was put to good use, as sustained notes and echoes provide a truly haunting effect.

Derek Lim's arrangement of Li Qinguang's Ye Lai Xiang (Fragrance Of The Night) was simple yet effective, one where Foo's violin sang above perfumed string harmonies. This was contrasted by the plaintive tune of Umebayashi's Yumeji's Theme accompanied by a gentle waltz rhythm.

The longest work of the 75-minute-long concert was the World Premiere of British composer Dominic Sargent's Sonata Latino, a 5-movement string serenade using Spanish and Latin American hit songs dressed in the style of works by Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Britten and others. Commissioned by re:mix, its old-meets-new, East-meets-West stance truly embodied the ensemble's spirit.

The 1^st movement was an allegro in sonata form based on Augustin Lara's Solamente Una Vez, while the slow movement Notturno included a fugue on Osvaldo Farres' Quizas, Quizas, Quizas, popularised by Nat King Cole. The Barcarolle's rocking rhythm mashed up Besame Mucho with Perfidio, while the Tango dwelled sultrily on Antonio Carlos Jobim's Desafinado. The finale was an energetic Conga and Lambada in perpetual motion, but wittily taking some measures off the corresponding movement of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

A well-filled Victoria Concert Hall erupted in loud applause, and was rewarded with three encores, Kelly Tang's by now notorious “pizzicato polka” arrangement of Tian Mi Mi (by way of Danny Elfman's The Simpsons Theme), Jakob Gade's Tango Jalousie and another welcome airing of Ye Lai Xiang. The second CD recording by re:mix is well worth waiting for.   

SINGAPORE THROUGH THE GLASS / re:mix with FOO SAY MING / Review

SINGAPORE THROUGH THE GLASS

re:mix with FOO SAY MING, Violin

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (26 April 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 April 2015 with the title "Singapore's colourful seasons".

There was once a trend to perform Vivaldi's Four Seasons in juxtaposition with Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Violinist Foo Say Ming was the first in Singapore to attempt that tandem, and he later added the Singapore Seasons by four Singaporean composers to that mix. 

This concert by crack string ensemble re:mix, in conjunction with the SG50 celebrations, now couples the Singapore Seasons with four short films by local directors, interspersed by movements of Philip Glass's American Four Seasons in its Singapore premiere.

Glass's second violin concerto does not present anything new from his earlier output. He has truly created an artform besides making a fortune by generating repetitive patterns based on triads, rehashed endlessly to please his legions of fans. Each of its four movements began with a neo-Bachian violin solo, which Foo stated and shaped with coherence if not always in perfect intonation. The main body of strings later joined in for the movement proper, which resembled his film music by way of conjuring moods and emotions.

Putting down his violin, Foo then led the ensemble in Kelly Tang's Spring! with Zen Yeo's film of dynamic Singapore in alternating fast and slow sequences projected on the biggest screen ever erected in Esplanade Concert Hall. This visual and aural treat was made more special as the film closely paralleled the musical tempos. The music was cheery, based on Chinese-styled themes, while the film built on the premise that Singapore's rapid and inexorable progress was built upon the grassroots of hardworking women (and men).

Clearly the stars of the show were to be the local segments, with the Glass movements serving as interludes. The variety of each film and the feelings evoked by the music and images within far outstripped the static and often-limited material offered by the American, and soon one longed for the latter to end and the former to begin.

Denise Lee's Barely Restrained, was nervous and edgy in its pacing, and Idzwan Othman's film with close-ups of body parts, foliage and scurrying insects, focussing on the nation in a micro level, seemed totally apt. Likewise, Derek Lim's Weep was a funereal dirge in the best tradition of musical mourning, and one turns to Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Hindemith as plausible antecedants.

The imagery in Ler Jiyuan and Yap Teng Wui's film was haunting, of sandcastles washed by lapping waves, abandoned HDB apartments, cemeteries and long-forsaken landmarks. Lim wrote, in his notes, about his grandmother's funeral procession, and this most moving episode was about nostalgia and a seemingly futile yearning for a past that will never return.

Interestingly, as the Singapore Seasons got darker in colour and mood, Glass's Seasons began to gain in pace and vibrancy. The last of which provided soloist Foo with many a virtuosic turn, supported by his players to the hilt, which in turn was heartily applauded by the audience.

The final Singapore film by Shawn Lee Miller shot the nation by night, an almost ambiguous statement that portrayed an LRT ride and seamy Geylang in the same light. Chen Zhangyi's Ariadne's Lament had similarly shadowy intentions, with an impassioned viola solo by Janice Tsai as the final word in a cycle which ended in an eerie quiet.

To cheer things up, Foo and his charges played two encores, and the mood once lightened with Kelly Tang's surefire arrangement of Tian Mi Mi, with the melody of Dayung Sampan dressed up as “The Simpsons meets Pizzicato Polka”. Could there be anything more Singaporean than that?

CHAMBER.SOUNDS IN MOTION / Review

 

CHAMBER.SOUNDS IN MOTION

The Living Room @ The Arts House

Sunday (21 July 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 23 July 2013 with the title "Varied voices of Singapore".

Given the major symphony orchestra’s abject failure to commission and support local compositions, more Singaporean composers are relying on chamber groups to champion and perform their works in concert. Chamber.Sounds is a collective of young professional musicians and composers, mostly alumni of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, which has found an annual platform for its members.

Its yearly concert, usually held in the summer to coincide with its players’ vacations from overseas studies, is an ample showcase of the Singapore voice. This concert had a common theme of dance and childhood, which partly explained why there was sizeable number of children in the audience. They were mostly well-behaved, and more importantly, quiet throughout the event’s 70 minutes duration.

Driving ostinatos opened and closed the concert, beginning with Derek Lim’s Dance On! for piano trio (above). Wong Yun Qi’s piano provided an insistent jig-like beat, which was joined by Ng Wei Ping’s violin and Chan Si Han’s cello. There were multiple changes in meter, and the paced upped to resemble Shostakovich’s more manic moments.

Jeremiah Li’s Seasons: A Petite Suite, inspired by English poetry, portrayed the change of moods through indolent summer, lively autumn (with beat provided by Li’s baritone saxophone), desolate winter (starring Daniel Yiau’s clarinet solo) to the rejuvenating bagpipe drones of spring. Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony was cheekily quoted at its close.

Alicia De Silva’s Silhouette for Two was a cleverly disguised tango for violin, flute and clarinet, with Klezmer elements (Yiau again) thrown in, its title suggesting the ever-changing flickering of a flame and the shadow it casts.

Audience participation was called for in the first movement of Liong Kit Yeng’s Childhood Fantasy Suite, entitled The Clown (above). Clarence Tan’s jocular euphonium solo was punctuated by squawking and hooting on children’s party toys, which the kids in the audience duly obliged on cue. The balance of the suite consisted of more “naïve music”, totally tonal and eminently listenable.

Yiau’s IV Movements Four V ironically has three movements, every one being rhythmic, from the minimalistic Moving, the more fluid Flow and the funereal march of Rhythm which closed with one loud dissonant chord. The concert ended with John Mackey’s Breakdown Tango, its centre adopting a slow habanera rhythm, percussive Bartokian pizzicatos, and its bristling end being a summation of all that had come before. 

A certain pride of place has to be reserved for the Sonatina Op.2 No.3 for solo violin (above) by Cheng Wei Le. It began simply enough, a top-line melody in D major, which later shifted tonally and dynamically at an alarming pace, such that it ended like something by Prokofiev, stretching the resources of violinist Ng to the full. The astonishing thing is this: Cheng is only 11 years old. Are we witnessing the bright beginning of a startling new trend?

My apologies for not being to name every single performer who played in this concert. chamber.sounds In Motion also featured violist Jeremy Chiew and flautist Kevin Seah. 

CHAMBER.SOUNDS IN CONCERT 2012 / Review

CHAMBER.SOUNDS IN CONCERT 2012

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (26 August 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 August 2012 with the title "High scores for Singapore sounds".

It would be no understatement to assert that the Singapore’s cultural milieu is not conducive for the creation of new music. For example, the national orchestra has not commissioned a significant symphonic work from a local composer since 2004. Singapore’s latest opera Fences by John Sharpley and Robert Yeo received neither funding nor support from the National Arts Council. Composers persevere nonetheless, and it is the dedication of small groups of musicians and zealots that ensure that their music gets heard.

Chamber.Sounds is one such group, and its call for scores in 2011 saw the fruits come to bear in this varied and interesting hour-long concert. Five young composers were represented, beginning with Jeremiah Li’s Flourishes, three short movements for flute, clarinet, cello and piano.

Jeremiah Li's Flourishes

Described as “broad brush strokes”, various aspects of instrumental colour were explored. Bass clarinet and later piccolo solos opened the atonal first movement. The insides of the piano were plucked in the second movement, where the alto flute’s shakuhachi-like passages lent an Asian feel to the proceedings, while vigorous piano and cello ostinatos led the final movement.

Bertram Wee's Blurebird

Bertram Wee’s Bluebird, inspired by Charles Bukowski, was a duo for Kevin Seah’s flute and Chan Si Han’s cello, both locked in alternating intimacy and mortal combat. Flutter-tonguing on the flute produced a typically eerie and visceral sound, which contrasted with the cello’s more sustained lines. 

Derek Lim's In Darkness, Light Shines

In Darkness, Light Shines is the middle movement of a piano trio by Derek Lim. This is a journey from despair to hope, underpinned by a throbbing pulse from Wong Yun Qi’s piano, which at times resembled that of a tango. Beginning in low registers, the music traversed through a series of emotional ups and downs before arriving at a reassuring resolution in A major. Now this listener is moved and curious to hear the other movements.

Tan Mei Ling's Paradigm of a Magician

 

In this flute-dominated weekend, flautist Seah was called upon as the protagonist in Tan Mei Ling’s Paradigm of a Magician, a three-movement quintet (with clarinet, violin, viola and cello) inspired by a children’s picture book project. His flight of fantasy in the unaccompanied first movement met its match in Daniel Yiau’s clarinet in the slow and calming second movement Encounter. More lovely sounds returned in the finale which saw the magical flute having the last words.

Emily Koh's Freyja

The most adventurous work was Emily Koh’s Freyja for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, which portrayed the changing seasonal foliage of New England. Autumn was vigourous and sprightly, giving way to the static austerity of winter before the augurs of spring brought a return to life. The astonishingly vibrant score saw the liberal use of microtones, with instruments sliding and segueing into pitches that lie between the notes. The seemingly off-pitched stances provided an unnerving and unsettling feel, which is probably the message of the piece – everything is impermanent.     

 

Chamber.Sounds has become the de facto New Music Forum of old. May its laudable endeavours continue to bring out the best of new Singaporean music.



Chamber.Sounds in Concert 2012
Performers were (from L) Jeremiah Li (conductor), Chan Si Han (cello), Ng Wei Ping (violin),  Kelvin Seah (flute), Wong Yun Qi (piano), Daniel Yiau (clarinet), and Jaryl Luo (viola).

 

BOTTOMS UP / re:mix / Review

BOTTOMS UP! 
re:mix

Esplanade Recital Studio

Sunday (1 July 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 July 2012 with the title "Double bass doubly intriguing".

The latest offering by local maverick string group re:mix had nothing to do with drinking but rather the lowest pitched string instrument, the double bass. Seldom has this seemingly gauche member of the orchestra been cast so prominently in the spotlight, with Giovanni Bottesini’s Grand Duo Concertante for bass and violin being the opener of this concert.

Violinist Foo Say Ming and bassist Wang Xu in Bottesini.

First the members of re:mix trooped on stage vaguely resembling a circus of Elvis impersonators, and they opened with a lush string sound as big as their bouffants. It was left for leader Foo Say Ming on the violin and guest bassist Wang Xu to do the honours.

Bottesini was hailed as the Paganini of the bass, and that itself obligated Wang to jump through all sorts of hoops besides blending with Foo’s own acrobatics. The music was unremittingly tuneful, typically Italian bel canto in style. How the bass managed to sing long sequences of high notes with such grace and agility was testament to the art of the unlikely virtuoso.       

Chen Zhangyi conducted the World Premiere of his Double Concerto.

The other major work was Singaporean Chen Zhangyi’s Double Concerto for electric violin and bass guitar, receiving its world premiere conducted by the composer. The tandem of Foo and Wang were again in the thick of things, like the concertino component of a baroque concerto grosso. However this very interesting experiment fell short because the possibilities offered to such unusual instrumentation were not fully exploited.

Both soloists were positioned rather far apart from each other. And occupied with their own busy parts, there were scant opportunities for much interaction or chances to truly gel together. For the violin, it sometimes sounded like an exercise in amplified squeaking. A revision will have to beef up its overall dynamic range and boldly go for outlandish effect.

Foo directs Elvis.

In between the main courses was Kelly Tang’s arrangement of the Elvis hit Love Me Tender, where high strings relived Wagner’s Lohengrin while the cellos eased out the main melody. Naughty but nice. Perhaps more surprising was the final piece, Charmayn Chua’s treatment of the Queen standard Bohemian Rhapsody, sanitised and gentrified (think of Freddie Mercury in a tuxedo instead of a singlet) but spiced up with foot stamping from the players.   

Bohemian Rhapsody!

Why stop now with the rock and roll? The encore by Derek Lim was a tribute to the late Robin Gibb and already much missed Old School (home of re:mix for four years, soon to be demolished), with a breezy and groovy version of Emotion. It was supposedly a time for tears, but one suspects that many of the players and the audience of mostly children were much too young to remember anything.

The Bee Gees relived, with violinist Foo Say Ming, Matthias Oestringer and violist Lim Chun.

TURN! TURN! TURN! / re:mix / re:view

TURN! TURN! TURN!... 

re:mix / FOO SAY MING, Violin
Esplanade Concert Hall 

Sunday (1 May 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 3 May 2011 with the title "Great synergy for all seasons".

About ten years ago, violinist Foo Say Ming performed Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons Of Buenos Aires with The Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, which caused a minor sensation.

This year, Foo and his crack string ensemble re:mix have taken a further step by commissioning four new seasons by Singaporean composers. Played without a break over 90 minutes, the twelve seasons drew from the strengths of each work, resounding with a synergy that was both unusual and refreshing.

First, the traditional sequence of Spring to Winter was disposed of. The concert instead began with Piazzolla’s Autumn, where Kenneth Lee’s cello immediately perked up the ears, singing with an immediacy that was a perfect foil to Foo’s solo fireworks. The first Singapore season was Denise Lee’s Barely Restrained, a kinetically charged toccata that never let up on its energy for a second.

Its buzzing minimalist shifts generated an uneasy tension, suitably echoed by the pelting rainstorm of Vivaldi’s Summer, where violinist and ensemble were buoyant, responsive to each other and breathing as one through its course. Vivaldi’s vigorous Autumn and Piazzolla’s warmly shaded Summer then gave way to two successive local seasons.

Before one jests about overcast and cloudy skies, Chen Zhangyi Ariadne’s Lament – Love and Derek Lim’s Weep could have been two chapters from the same meteorological guide. Chen’s serene, sustained strings with Janice Tsai’s lovely viola solo came as an all-too-brief interlude before Lim’s ashen and lachrymose elegy, like petals and leaves falling off colourful garden blooms in time-lapse photography as the sky gradually darkens.

Denise Lee, Chen Zhangyi, 

Derek Lim & Kelly Tang (L to R)

Before long, one reached the final trilogy, opening with Kelly Tang’s brightly celebratory Spring!, with lively quasi-Chinese themes and a fugal culmination for good measure. Drawing from twin cultures, his string writing may be cheekily described as Vaughan Williams goes to Shanghai.

Shane Thio’s harpsichord improvisation then linked Piazzolla’s Spring with Vivaldi’s familiar La Primavera, but performed in reverse order, beginning with the third movement and closing with the rousing opening. Was there some method to this apparent madness? Clues may be drawn from the arty programme booklet, which cited Pete Seeger’s 1959 song Turn! Turn! Turn! and the biblical book of Ecclesiastes.

After all, there is a time to break the rules, and a time to be different.