SINGAPORE FEATURES IN GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE (OCTOBER 2023 ISSUE)

Several years ago, I was called out by a fellow music reviewer for self-congratulation while covering the classical music scene in Singapore. All I did was remark on how the scene had significantly progressed over the many years I had been attending concerts. It was about how the Singapore Symphony Orchestra had improved beyond anybody's wildest imaginations, and how the classical musical fraternity here had reinvented itself to curate programmes, produce concerts and made recordings that would not have been possible a mere one or two decades ago. 

The latest issue of the authoritative British Gramophone magazine (October 2023 edition) provides further proof of this progress, by publishing two laudatory reviews of recent recordings by the Singapore Symphony and Singapore Chinese Orchestras. There is also a full-page advertisement of the SSO's recently released Chandos recording of music by film composer Bernard Herrmann. This ad, paid by the prestigious independent Chandos label, is a reflection of orchestra's ambition of becoming a positive force in the world of classical music. Just two years ago, the SSO was nominated by the magazine and received a creditable third place in the Gramophone Orchestra of the Year Award.  

Here are shots of the reviews of SSO playing the music of Danish composer Paul von Klenau (on Dacapo), and SCO playing the Butterfly Lovers Concerto with Joshua Bell (Sony Classical). These recommendations ought to get anybody who cares about classical music in Singapore excited.

The SSO review by Andrew Mellor
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The SCO review by Guy Rickards
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Can't see clearly? Just buy the magazine!

As for the naysayers who decry that Singapore is still some provincial backwater, I say, "We are not there yet. While we may not get there in this lifetime, it is the journey we travel that really matters". 

Music in Singapore matters, and our dedicated professional musicians from Paul Abisheganaden, Goh Soon Tioe, Choo Hoey, Lim Yau, Shui Lan and Chan Tze Law to the likes of Chloe Chua, Alan Choo, Abigail Sin, Li Churen, Joshua Tan and Toby Tan, to groups like SSO / SCO / OMM / Red Dot Baroque / re:Sound / Ding Yi Music Company, all make this journey an enriching and rewarding one.  

  

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR CHINESE ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION 2015: Advertisement in Gramophone Magazine

Imagine my surprise when I picked up this August 2014 edition of the Gramophone magazine. This was what I found on its inner cover page:

A full-page advertisement for the Singapore International Competition for Chinese Orchestral Composition 2015. 

Now in its third edition, this competition organised by the Singapore Chinese Orchestra has contributed significantly to the growing body of symphonic works for Chinese instruments. Now by paying for this ad, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra is seeking a truly global market for Chinese instrumental and orchestral music.

It is good to see that at least one national orchestra is putting some money where its mouth is.   

Singaporean reader posts Gramophone Magazine's Letter of the Month

The Letter of the Month in the May 2012 issue of Gramophone magazine was posted by a Singaporean  reader and musicophile. No prizes for guessing who it was - Phan Ming Yen - retired Straits Times music critic, music historian author and manager of The Arts House. 

A regular writer to the Forum pages of Gramophone and International Piano, this is an umpteenth time his letters has been published, but the first to be awarded Letter of the Month. So he gets to enjoy all those CD vouchers and prizes from Presto Classical. Do you detect a sense of envy here? You bet!

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Gunther's magic Wand enchants Phan Ming Yen.

ALBERT TIU'S NOCTURNAL FANTASIES gets rave reviews on Gramophone, American Record Guide and Fanfare

Albert Tiu's solo piano recording of Chopin and Scriabin Nocturnal Fantasies has received rave reviews from three of the world's most respected classical record review journals. The September 2011 issue of Gramophone has Bryce Morrison's highest and warmest praise for this "Made in Singapore" recording. He even makes a mention of a certain programme note writer (and this gives that writer that a great thrill to have his name in this periodical!), but the chief glory is in the music and its polished and heartfelt delivery by Albert Tiu. This CD is available at Music Essentials (Meridien Shopping Centre, Orchard Road).

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This enthusiasm is echoed in a review by James Harrington earlier in AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE (May-June 2011):

On FANFARE magazine, the usually highly critical Jerry Dubins has nothing but praise,

"Centaur has produced, in my opinion, one of the all-time great piano recordings. ... Urgently recommended."

Another thumbs up for classical music in Singapore, I say!

HAS SINGAPORE ARRIVED....?

HAS SINGAPORE ARRIVED when your local NTUC Fairprice Supermarket stocks copies of Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine? By the way, the copies of BBC Music Magazine in Bukit Timah Plaza's Popular Bookstore have all been sold out. Obviously someone other than Phan Ming Yen, Marc Rochester and yours truly have been reading these publications.

Can you spot Gramophone 

and BBC Music Magazine 

among the National Enquirers, 

Australian Women's Weekly, 

FHM, Men's Health and Match of the Day?

Here they are. 

At this moment, Lang Lang seems to be 

selling better than Anna Nicole Smith.

SINGAPORE IN GRAMOPHONE

Singapore and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra have made it again into the pages of Gramophone magazine. In the May 2011 issue of arguably the world's most authoritative classical music review magazine, SSO and Lan Shui (and by association, yours truly) appear in the column called Musical Journeys, written by my esteemed comrade-in-arms, Marc Rochester. Judging by the musical goings-on in Singapore, more will be heard from our island state in the years to come!

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Singapore's Orchestra of the Music Makers listed in Gramophone Magazine

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Singapore's Orchestra of the Music Makers (OMM) has made a mark in the worldwide classical music scene, with a listing of their 10 July concert of Mahler's Second Symphony "Resurrection" listed in the What's On page of Gramophone Magazine (July 2010 edition). The orchestra, led by Chan Tze Law, is the recipient of the HSBC Youth Excellence Award of 2009 and this is its biggest concert to date. The symphony will feature local vocal talents, Jeong Ae Ree (soprano), Rebecca Chellappah (mezzo-soprano), the Singapore Festival Chorus and the Queensland Festival Chorus. Also on the programme is Bruch's Violin Concerto No.1 with Singapore violinist See Ian Ike.

Diametrically Divergent Reviews for Hamelin's Haydn on Hyperion

Has there been a piano recording that has received more diametrically divergent reviews than Marc-André-Hamelin's latest instalment of the Haydn Sonatas (on Hyperion)? Read on...

The review by Bryce Morrison, Gramophone (October 2009)

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Raves:
"...even more dextrous, magical and enriching."

"Hamelin exhibits a coruscating wit and brilliance known to a few pianists."

"...a marvel of precision, grace and fluency."

"...leaving me to pray that Hamelin will continue his Haydn series..."

Here is the review from Graham Lock, International Piano (September/October 2009)

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Invectives:

"Hamelin (for me) gets it all wrong."

"...among the least engaging or sympathetic performances of Haydn's sonatas I've heard."

"...featureless and monochrome - an unforgivable sin".

So which review are you inclined to believe?
Be the judge for yourself and buy the discs!