SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO.10 on Philips Classics

 

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.10

LEONG YOON PIN Dayong Sampan

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

Philips 426 228-2

This CD recording saw the Singapore Symphony Orchestra come of age. Issued in 1989 to mark the orchestra’s 10th anniversary, it was a once-off on the Dutch Philips label, a gift from the regional director of Philips Electronics, which had a factory operating in Toa Payoh. The disc was produced for local distribution by the Polygram group, but still carried the hallmarks and technology of Philips, the label of Bernard Haitink, Colin Davis et al.

By this time, the SSO under music director Choo Hoey had already developed a good reputation in 20th music. In 1980, SSO performed its first Shostakovich symphony (No.1), just five years after the composer’s death. In 1983, the Tenth Symphony received its Singapore premiere, and this was a work the orchestra returned to with much regularity, together with other contemporary staples like Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919) and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Composed in 1953, after the death of Soviet dictator Stalin, Shostakovich was free to express his true feelings about the regime, encapsulated in its four unusual movements. Widely considered his greatest symphony, SSO very much regarded it as such. The long slow first movement unfolded with purpose and received a true Mahlerian catharsis it deserved. The short Scherzo was a portrait of pure Stalinist malevolence, and Choo Hoey drove his charges to a feverish frenzy. This movement was so well performed that it was shortlisted for SSO’s 21st anniversary highlights disc.

Elmira & DSCH

The final two movements were possessed with Shostakovich’s ironic sense of humour, an interplay between a mystery French horn theme (now identified as the Elmira Nazirova motif) and his own DSCH motto. Were the two secretly in love? According to Nazirova many years later, it was all in Mitya’s head. The finale is possessed with a mordant wit that makes light of all the horror that came before. It was Shostakovich’s unique way of saying, “the tyrant is dead, and the independent spirit is now freed”. SSO’s performance showed it clearly identified with Shostakovich’s idiom.

The venerated Leong Yoon Pin,
Singapore's only Nadia Boulanger student.

Leong Yoon Pin’s Dayong Sampan (1980) was the rather apt coupling. For more than thirty years, this was Singapore’s best-loved and most-performed symphonic poem, only displaced by Wang Chenwei’s The Sisters’ Islands - another maritime-themed work - during the 21st century. The Malay melody (known to the Chinese as Tian Mi Mi) emerges from an introduction of dense orchestration and counterpoint to become its main subject. The work is a sober take on the Chinese diaspora who ventured across the South China Sea to seek new lives in Malaya, a quintessential piece of Nanyang music even before the term came into being.

Wan Soon Kam's water colour painting

The orchestra plays both works with passion and conviction. SSO has Dayong Sampan pretty much to itself, and even if the Shostakovich is not quite in the same exalted level as classic Kondrashin or Mravinsky, there is still much to be proud of. There are biographical and programme notes (by Bernard Tan) in English, German and French. The cover design of Victoria Concert Hall is from a water colour painting by Wan Soon Kam. A piece of musical nostalgia well-worth owning.

This recording was one of two CDs issued by SSO in the year 1989. The other was its only Beethoven recording, of his Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos (with John Bingham) on the Meridien label. That was reviewed here: pianomania: CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2014)

SHOSTAKOVICH WITH LEONIDAS KAVAKOS & HANNU LINTU / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

SHOSTAKOVICH WITH

LEONIDAS KAVAKOS & HANNU LINTU

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (9 April 2026)

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 13 April 2026 with the title "Lintu, Kavakos and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra make the case for Shostakovich".

Has Dmitri Shostakovich become the new Rachmaninov in Singapore? There have never been more performances of Dmitri Shostakovich’s music in Singapore within such a short space in living memory. Two weeks ago, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra scaled his Eleventh Symphony with Eliahu Inbal conducting, and the First Piano Concerto followed with Yeol Eum Son’s brilliant fingers a week later. The Fifth Symphony will be heard from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestral Institute in two days’ time, and under SSO’s Music Director-Designate Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, two blockbusters attracted audiences the size that would usually flock to Rachmaninov evenings.

Photo: Jack Yam

The Soviet era composer’s blend of 20th century modernism, dissonant but ultimately tonal, with communicative raw emotions identifiable with contemporary living, was what packed them in. Raw and gritty, as opposed to Rachmaninov’s lush and opulent, also found receptive ears. There was no virtuoso more suave than Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos for the First Violin Concerto in A minor (Op.99), composed in 1947. 

The opening Nocturne pitted low strings against the high line seamlessly established by Kavakos, whose clear and incisive tones sang out like a voice in the wilderness. The bitterness expressed, followed by lashings of vitriol in the Scherzo, where violin battled spiky woodwinds in a hammer-and-tongs struggle, would be suppressed until after Stalin’s death in 1953.

The concerto was clearly about a man against an oppressive totalitarian system, which the original dedicatee David Oistrakh fully understood. Kavakos, despite his cool approach, was never at odds with this, and the ensuing Passacaglia reinforced its gravity. There was a long pause for effect before the searing solo cadenza which launched inexorably into the finale’s Burlesque. In its frenetic pages, the baton flew off Lintu’s grasp, landing in front of Kavakos who returned it to the mirth of the audience. That was a brief moment of comic relief amid the flailing Klezmer-influenced mayhem which brought the concerto to a explosive close, greeted by a chorus of cheers. 

Kavakos’ encore of J.S.Bach’s Loure from Partita No.3 in E major (BWV.1006) provided the perfect balm for the frayed nerves that came before.

Shostakovich’s longest symphony, the Seventh or “Leningrad”, composed during the thousand-day Nazi siege of the city where a million souls perished, completed the evening. Should this be regarded as absolute or programme music, or propagandist hubris for a wartime cause? Lintu and his charges let the music speak for itself, with sound production being the primary agenda. To this end, four French horns, three trumpets and three trombones were placed in the gallery behind the orchestra for maximal projection... and it worked. Seldom has there been a more clear-headed performance of the music, with its themes well-delineated and never strained beyond incredulity. The battle depicted resistance not so much against Fascism but against the banalities of vulgarity.

That infamous first movement invasion theme (based on either Lehar or Tchaikovsky, later parodied by Bartok) and its ensuing crescendo was built up organically, and ratcheted to an ear-lacerating climax. Guo Siping’s plaintive bassoon solo provided the desolate denouement. After the exhausting half-hour mark, the central slow movements provided relief despite interludes of upheavals for contrast, and it was the finale which picked up from the opening movement’s exertions. The transition to C major at its conclusion provided the final redemption for the city which “Stalin destroyed and Hitler finished off”. 

Photo: Jack Yam

The 78 minutes was a journey well spent. If this show of passion and commitment cannot stir zeal and interest in Singapore for arguably the 20th century’s greatest composer, nothing else will.

Star Rating: *****

The original review on Bachtrack.com:

Lintu, Kavakos and the SSO make the case for Shostakovich | Bachtrack

HANS GRAF AND CHUREN LI / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

HANS GRAF & CHUREN LI

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (19 December 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 December 2025 with the title "Quintessentially Singaporean piano concerto by Jonathan Shin".

Singaporean piano concertos are a rarity, and can be counted on one hand. Three by Kelly Tang and one each from Leong Yoon Pin and Bernard Tan are all there is, and besides Tang’s Montage being championed by local jazzman Jeremy Monteiro, how often do the others get heard? The world premiere of Jonathan Shin’s piano concerto, newly commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, was therefore big news indeed.

Jonathan Shin & Churen Li

Titled child of the shore, Shin brought a Singapore perspective to his music without having to quote local melodies or Asian influences. Written to showcase the flamboyant pianism of soloist Churen Li, its showy and exuberant solo part worked the upper registers of the keyboard to the max.

The opening movement, Gerygone, recalling the song of the golden-bellied gerygone in its scintillating writing incorporated mild dissonance but was never atonal. This piquant mix of lyricism and brilliance of piano concertos by Briton Michael Tippett (1955) and Australian Carl Vine (1997) were being relived.

as she looks out to sea, the central slow movement, quoting the novel The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng, referenced Xinyao and was unafraid of being sentimental. At moments, the music almost seemed to lapse into Dick Lee’s Bunga Sayang but resisted the temptation.

Li’s solo opened the busy and jazzy finale, Peripheral Joys, which recounted the exhilaration of a morning commute (presumably without the MRT breaking down), went full toccata mode before closing in unfettered joie de vivre. 

Shin has written the quintessentially Singaporean piano concerto which loves and celebrates life. A repeat performance cannot be soon enough. Li’s own jazz-inflected improvisation on Dick Lee’s Home as encore put the icing on the cake.

The balance of the concert was Russian, with Mikhail Glinka’s Valse-fantasie being the opening piece. Leagues away from wearing his nationalist hat, the music channeled Central Europe, and looked forward to the ballets of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Alexander Glazunov and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Shostakovich’s bitter Tenth Symphony in E minor (Op.93) occupied the concert’s second half. Composed after the wake of the Second World War and the midst of totalitarian terror, it had to be suppressed until after Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s death. In a short preamble, SSO music director Hans Graf very eloquently elucidated its main themes, and it all became very clear.

The way we were, back in 1989.

Even in the darkest recesses of its murky opening, there was a ringing clarity that was to permeate the entire performance. SSO has lived with this masterpiece since 1982, which was the centrepiece of its 10th anniversary CD recording led by first music director Choo Hoey. Now under its third director, the orchestra has progressed immeasurably besides coming full circle.

The movement’s chaotic development and the second movement’s relentless portrait of sheer malevolence could not have been better voiced. As if with a flick of a switch, the composer’s personality and his coded messages took over the final two anarchic movements. Closing with barely disguised mirth, Shostakovich proclaimed “the monster is dead”, and it was time for the self and artist to come to the fore. 

This review is dedicated to the memory of Choo Hoey (1934-2025) whose contributions to classical music in Singapore can never be over-emphasised.

The review of the same concert 

on Bachtrack.com:

World premiere of Jonathan Shin’s Piano Concerto a Singapore landmark | Bachtrack

SHOSTAKOVICH WITH HANS GRAF & NIKOLAY DIDENKO / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

SHOSTAKOVICH WITH HANS GRAF

AND NIKOLAY DIDENKO

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Thursday (31 March 2022)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 6 April 2022 with the title "SSO shines at full strength with Shostakovich".

 

A huge cheer erupted in Esplanade Concert Hall when Singapore Symphony Orchestra Chief Conductor Hans Graf announced that this was the first time a full-strength orchestra had assembled to perform a concert since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. The last was back in 5 March 2020, when Principal Guest Conductor Andrew Litton led the orchestra to perform Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony.

 

Thus it seemed appropriate that Soviet era Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) again headlined another landmark concert. The works programmed come from polar ends of his substantial output, beginning with the Suite on Verses by Michelangelo Buonarroti Op.145a, composed the year before he died from lung cancer. Scored for large orchestra including multiple percussion instruments, harp, piano and celesta, the 40-minute song cycle in eleven movements played like a sixteenth symphony.

 

The words, sung in Russian translated from original Italian, were by Renaissance Italian artist-sculptor Michelangelo, whose brilliant yet checkered career found a resonance with Shostakovich. Having to sublimate his artistic vision under the dictates of a totalitarian regime, Shostakovich found his voice by coding his music in creatively enigmatic guises.

 

The verses followed the trials and tribulations of an artist caught between conflicting world views, encompassing love, separation, creativity, exile, death and ultimately finding immortality. Despite massive orchestral forces, only small sections were employed at each turn to support Nikolay Didenko, a soloist in the hallowed tradition of Russian basses. A bear-like presence with a voice that could freeze blood within the veins, his was a richly nuanced performance that vividly captured all the emotions expressed within the pithy words.

 

Music in low registers dominated for most part, except in high-pitched passages denoting satire and irony. The final movement, Immortality, was uncharacteristically lighted-hearted to the point of frivolity. Quoted was a ditty written by the child Shostakovich, signifying this piece was his life’s work coming a full circle.

SSO Chief Conductor Hans Graf
demonstrated Shostakovich's themes on the piano,
much to the delight of the audience.

 

The concert’s second half opened with Scherzo Op.1, the first published work of the thirteen-year-old wunderkind. Cheerfully innocent, its colourful five minutes, played with spirit and verve, reflected the influences of Shostakovich’s forebears, notably Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Only five years later came his Symphony No.1 in F minor Op.10, a masterpiece of true prodigiousness.

 

A work of astonishing boldness and ingenuity of instrumentation, it received a performance of incisive wit and dramatic sweep. Fully aware of its shock value, the music rapidly shifted between irony, Slavic pathos, comedy and ultimately a portent of tragedy. In full-blown climaxes of its third and fourth movements, one could only sit in awe of SSO’s magnificent brass section, heard for the first time in full voice. Pandemic or not, it was every bit worth the two-year long wait.   

 

The arts benefits humanity, and the audience was encouraged by conductor Graf to donate to the Red Cross relief fund. The Russian Shostakovich would have cracked a wry smile to know that his music had aided the victims in Ukraine.  

Photos by Nathaniel Lim, courtesy of Singapore Symphony Orchestra.