FLOURISHES / NAFA New Music Ensemble / Review

FLOURISHES

NAFA New Music Ensemble

Lee Foundation Theatre

Thursday (3 October 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 October 2013 with the title "Aural snapshot of city and country".

Following the fine example set by the Conservatory, the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts has begun to present new music in chamber concerts open to the public. This modest but encouraging free event, attended by a small audience, featured works by four locally-based composers who are faculty or alumni of the institution (below).

The eponymous Flourishes by Jeremiah Li which began the concert was a set of three contrasting canvasses exploring different moods and textures on flute, clarinet, cello and piano. Loud and emphatic riffs issued from the opening Presto Agitato, a world apart from the static calm of the middle movement Tranquillo which included the insides of the piano being quietly percussed. A jazzy ostinato from Tran Thanh Xuan’s piano set the rhythm of the insouciant finale which gave the work a languid feel of the American Deep South.

Each composer spoke briefly about their pieces. Li likened his Daemonwing for solo violin to the malevolence of a gothic cathedral gargoyle in flight. Violinist Guo Xingchen (below left) was put through an etude-like test which bristled with high-pitched harmonics and sul ponticello, the wiry timbre produced when the instrument is bowed near its bridge.

Similarly inspired was Lim Tee Heong’s The Devil Dancing for solo piano, receiving its world premiere by excellent Indonesian pianist Wilson (above right). Lim attempted to outdo the efforts of Liszt’s First Mephisto Waltz which he considered being “too nice”. Its 333 bars (exactly half of the diabolical number triple 6) housed trills galore, insistent gestures and abrupt rhythm changes before coruscating home with a tarantella from hell.

The two pieces by Zechariah Goh Toh Chai sounded more conventional but have the best chance of becoming central repertoire works. Four Taiwanese Aboriginal Songs for woodwind quintet is an excellently scored study of ethno-musicological research, in the best tradition of masters like Bartok and Kodaly. Conducted by the composer himself, the EDQ quintet brought out its quaint folksy flavour to great effect.

Goh’s T’was The Rain, part of an ongoing series of chamber pieces, was impressionistic in its colour, with long-breathed passages by flautist Jasper Goh and oboist Veda Lin (above) sensitively accompanied by Ernest Lim on the piano. This was the aurally the most alluring work in the whole concert.

Not to be outdone was Eric Watson’s Aftermath for solo piano, composed in 2011 as a reflection of the Japanese tsunami tragedy. Introspective rather than violent, its subtle mood changes ranged from stoic despair to placid resignation, masterfully negotiated by Ukrainian pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina (above) with much polish and poise.

This concert was in essence a 70-minute panoramic snapshot of the contemporary composing scene in the “city” (the Academy at Bencoolen Street), a quite different but equally valid vista from the “country” (the Conservatory at Kent Ridge). It is hoped that more is forthcoming in the near future. 

EDQ! A Woodwind Quintet Recital / EDQ / Review

EDQ!

A Woodwind Quintet Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Wednesday (7 August 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 August 2013 with the title "Unfamiliar delights".

EDQ is an award-winning woodwind quintet formed by young professional musicians who were alumni of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra. Fresh from winning the contemporary music prize at the Henri Tomasi International Competition in Marseilles, its second public concert in Singapore was greeted by a full-house and a standing ovation.

Repertoire for woodwind quintet often involves different composers from those of standard chamber music programmes, usually peripheral figures unfamiliar to the public. Bohemian composer Anton Reicha (1770-1836), the acknowledged “Father of the woodwind quintet”, was a contemporary of Beethoven, but how many people know of his 24 quintets?   

The members of EDQ showed that his very well-crafted Quintet in D major (Op.91 No.3) was worth listening to because of its freshness and vitality. A slow introduction heralded a florid cadenza from flautist Jasper Goh, and the ensuing Allegro was launched with an energetic fervour. Veda Lin’s oboe and Goh provided the main melodic thrust in the four movements, well supported by their partners on lower pitched instruments.

Frenchman Jean Francaix (1912-1997) was a colleague of Olivier Messiaen but their music could not be more different. The former was the master of musical comedy, as his Wind Quintet No.1 (1948) proved. After a languorous opening, jazzy runs erupted in all directions, with side-splitting bellyaches from Alan Kartik’s French horn which almost stole the show. Neoclassical and mock-serious, this was music that spared no effort to entertain, and the performers reciprocated with every ounce of their wits.

Two works that utilised folk music followed after the interval. Hungarian Ferenc Farkas’s Serenade (1951) was short and pleasing, full of bucolic charm and Italianate warmth. The World Premiere of Singapore composer Zechariah Goh Toh Chai’s Four Taiwanese Aboriginal Songs (2013) was nothing short of a success. The way he dressed these simple melodies with unusual harmonies and counterpoint made them sound contemporary and relevant.

Opportunities were given for clarinettist Benjamin Wong and bassoonist Emerald Chee to bask in melody, while Goh briefly exchanged his flute for the piquant piccolo in the Dance of the Paiwan Tribe. The final Dance of the Beinan Tribe brought all five instrumentalists together for a grand tutti.

The final and longest work was the Sextet (1888) for piano and winds by the Austrian Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907), who knew Richard Strauss and was probably acquainted with Mahler. The first two movements breathed the same air as Brahms, the expansive themes rich with piano chords and figurations from guest artist Nicholas Loh. The music could have suffered from a surfeit of voices, but it was the clarity of articulation and individual mastery of each performer that saved the day.

As if effecting a change of heart, the music broke off from its shackles of convention with a jocular little Gavotte and finished with a sunny Tarantella in rapid triple rhythm. It was like the composer saying, “Enough of the serious stuff, and now let us have fun.” That spirit was clearly conveyed by the six musicians to all present, and the audience voted with its feet. Bravo all round.