SYMPHONIC GIFTS / Singapore National Youth Orchestra & Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra / Review

SYMPHONIC GIFTS

Singapore National Youth Orchestra &

Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (24 July 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 July 2015 with the title "Youth orchestras make history and music together".

This will go down in history as a first ever collaboration between the Singapore National Youth Orchestra (SNYO) and the Singapore Youth Chinese Orchestra (SYCO), both National Projects of Excellent now under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. Its respective conductors Leonard Tan and Quek Ling Kiong (below) took turns to lead and play chatty and convivial hosts for the concert.

Western instruments conducted by Tan opened with Leong Yoon Pin's Dayong Sampan Overture, not merely an arrangement of the popular Malay song but a symphonic fantasy. Amid the obligatory dissonances and busy counterpoint emerged that catchy tune on solo oboe, accompanied by violin glissandi. The SNYO gave an assured account of what must be Singapore's best known orchestral composition.

SYCO then followed, conductor-less, to perform works of two popular genres: Jiangnan Shizhu and Chuida, representing a culture of strings with winds, and winds with percussion respectively. Happy Times was a showpiece of huqin prowess that progressed from slow to very fast. Li Min Xiong's A Well-Matched Fight featured a raucous duel between solo drummer Lim Rei centrestage (above) and seven of her percussionist partners against the entire band, with both groups coming out first among equals.

Guest violinist Siow Lee Chin was the glamourous soloist in Kam Kee Yong's Kuang Xiang Qu (Chinese Rhapsody) for symphony orchestra, performing its fiendish free-wheeling part with the swashbuckling verve as if it were Ravel's Tzigane. The orchestration was not particularly Chinese, veering more towards the music for biblical epics by Bloch and Rozsa, and the end result brought out the cheers.

All ears were pricked for the second half's music, specially orchestrated for both ensembles combined. At this point, it could be said this was an exercise symbolic of solidarity between instrumentalists across the cultural divide rather than something truly practicable. But only time will tell.

Eric Watson's Tapestries – Time Dances now resembled a concerto grosso, with a core group of three Chinese instruments (ruan, dizi and guzheng) and four Western instruments (violin, cello, French horn and harp) backed by the over-hundred-strong mega-orchestra. One outcome was that Chinese instruments stood out in the solo parts because of their penetrating timbres, while violins, violas and cellos overwhelmed the huqins when massed strings sang. At parts, Watson's creation began to sound like those of his compatriot, Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Wang Chenwei's The Sisters' Islands took on a distinctly Nanyang slant, with its use of Indo-Malay melodies, and the symphonic poem had a particularly effective spell depicting an attack by pirates of the Singapore Straits. One only wonders which orchestra does a blown conch shell belong to. Both pieces were led by conductor Quek.

The concert ended with Jeremiah Li's arrangement of Kelly Tang's Symphonic Suite On A Set Of Local Tunes, helmed by conductor Tan. This medley mixed the Malay song Chan Mali Chan with Dick Lee's Home and Bunga Sayang and NDP favourite Singapore Heartbeat, with a Hollywood-like vibe. Home was accounted by solo erhu accompanied by yangqin, which lent a tender touch, and Tang's trademark in-joke was to throw in the fanfare from The Magnificent Seven, not once but twice.   

As an encore, the audience was given permission to whip out their handphones and wave their built-in torches (above) to the strains of Home. After which they gamely rode off into the sunset. 

Guest violinist Siow Lee Chin with Guest-of-Honour
Sim Ann, conductors Quek Ling Kiong & Leonard Tan,
with board members of the SSO & SCO.

Addendum

I am grateful to Professor Lim Seh Chun for offering this most interesting piece of history:

The SYO and SYCO has collaborated before, but way back in 1971. The two orchestras performed in several joint concerts in Singapore and in Lausanne, Switzerland at the International Festival of Youth Orchestras. The concerts were led by the legendary Goh Soon Tioe and two younger conductors Goh Say Meng and Lee Suat Lin. 

Members of the SYO then included Prof Lim himself, conductor Lim Soon Lee, violinist Tan Peng Tow (who was the soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No.5), her brother Tan Peng Chin and neurologist Prof Benjamin Ong. 

The SYCO reads like a Who's Who of Chinese orchestra music today, including the composer Phoon Yew Tien, conductors Lum Yan Sin, Yeo Siew Wee and Lee Hoon Piek, recording-meister Goh Aik Yew, high fidelity reviewer Tham Chaik Kong and SCO veteran Sim Boon Yew.

A MALAY RHYTHMS EXTRAVAGANZA / Asian Contemporary Ensemble / Review

A MALAY RHYTHMS EXTRAVAGANZA

Asian Contemporary Ensemble

The Living Room @ The Arts House

Friday (11 July 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 14 July 2014 with the title "Exuberant spin on traditional music".

The Asian Contemporary Ensemble was formed by young conductor-composer Wong Kah Chun to showcase new music written by young Asian composers reflecting their unique ethnic cultures and heritage. It made its debut several years ago at the National University of Singapore Centre for the Arts. Now it even has a season of its own, with this opening concert centred on Malay music.

For most non-Muslims, Singapore’s indigenous music is occasionally heard at Malay weddings, the odd multi-cultural event and television variety shows. The traditional concert hall where Beethoven is king might seem as foreign as possible a venue to hear Malay music but this 90 minute concert, attended by a full house, broke down barriers.

The five works receiving their World Premieres were based on five dance or rhythmic forms encountered in Malay music. Traditional examples of these dances were performed before each piece, and it was left for each of the five composers to meditate, elaborate or leave his or her personal mark on each of the forms. The results were both revealing and enlightening.

Malay composer Zaidi Sabtu-Ramli
speaks about his work Ala Nar.

Zaidi Sabtu-Ramli’s Ala Nar (On Fire) was based on the masri, a festive women’s dance with Arabic origins sometimes associated with belly dancing. The vigorous piece was memorable as it demonstrated the far reach of Islamic influences; parts of it sounded like a Spanish dance, notably the malaguena from southern Spain. 

Jeremiah Li and Joyce Poh were
interviewed by conductor Wong Kah Chun.

A Chinese Raga on an Inang Tala by Jeremiah Li was as eclectic as one could get. All three ethnic groups were represented in this deliberately modernised rojak, with improvisatory sections for dizi, accordion and tabla. Heterophony, where different instruments come together playing the same tune, a device heard in much Asian music, was also employed. 

Prize-winning composition The Sisters’ Island by Wang Chen Wei, based on a legend from the Riau archipelago, was an example of an asli, a more leisurely and relaxed dance-form that reflected grace and elegance. Adapted from its original form for Chinese instruments, the score used a toy piano with a tinkling timbre that resembled the gamelan.

The joget is a familiar rhythm from the old dancehall, and it was a pique of invention by Tan Wen Bin to transform it into a waltz in his Ruminations. Beginning like an avant-garde number, it cheekily incorporated the familiar Nokia ringtone (itself adapted from a waltz by Spaniard guitarist-composer Tarrega), and Geylang became Grinzing (a district of Vienna).

Conducting the audience and their rattles.

Finally, Syifiqah Adha Sallehin used the exuberant zapin for her Waves of Rhythm, a catchy piece with definite popular appeal. Here audience participation was directed by conductor Wong as to how and when to shake and roll their rattles for maximum effect. The concert ended on a cheerful high.

For the record, the performers were Abigail Sin (electronic keyboard and toy piano), Joyce Poh (a bagful of Chinese flutes), Syafiqah (accordion), Govin Tan (tabla and drumset), Ismahairie Putra Ishak (violin and gambus, an Eastern lute) and Shahrul Fadzly Shazuli (rebana, a Malay drum). It is hoped that an encore performance is in the offing. 

 

The composers take a bow (From L):
Wang Chen Wei, Jeremiah Li, Syafiqah Sallehin,
Tan Wen Bin, Wong Kah Chun (Conductor) & Zaidi Sabtu-Ramli.

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. 

PORTRAITS OF SINGAPORE / AudioImage Wind Ensemble / Review

PORTRAITS OF HOME

AudioImage Wind Ensemble

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (11 August 2013)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 August 2013 with the title "Xinyao tune wins over audience".

Sunday afternoon concerts at Esplanade Concert Hall are synonymous with light music and audience outreach events. In conjunction with National Day, the AudioImage Wind Ensemble conducted by Clarence Tan presented a programme of works wholly by Singaporean composers. However not all of it was light or easy going.

The concert began innocently enough with the familiar Malay tune Di Tanjung Katong wittily dressed up in joget rhythm by Bernard Lee. The three loud emphatic chords at its end seemed to recall a bygone era, one occupied by the late and venerated Leong Yoon Pin (below), whose music followed. 

Daybreak and Sunrise, his only work for wind band, was evocative with its slow introduction leading into a brass chorale and march. Chinese motifs with hints at Elgar coloured its climax before closing on a surprisingly quiet note. Then the music took on more austere tones.

There should be some rightful place for Lee’s Wind Field II, but its atonal pages and episodic character, with the instrumentalists (and listeners) seemingly grasping for straws, sounded out of place here. The audience was becoming restless, with teenagers chatting and one child crying, whether out of boredom or for respite, it is anyone’s guess. It also did not help with ushers scampering up and down the aisles in search of errant photographers, real or imagined.

Chen Zhangyi’s impressionistic Toward Dawn was atmospheric in the use of tone colour, and almost echoing Leong’s earlier effort, built to a fulsome high before ending quietly. This is a work that repays further listening. Cultural Medallion recipient Kelly Tang’s (right) Sarabande made more concession for listeners, its graceful lilt and warm Andrew Lloyd Webber-like harmonies provided a soothing aural salve.

Jeremiah Li’s Two Portraits were studies in contrasts. Solo cello, marimba and percussion provided an unusual wind-free timbre for Nuances, which played on a triplet leitmotif. The infernal dance of Clockwork’D was about jabbing ostinatos and Bernsteinesque jazzy turns.

The 75-minute long concert concluded with a return of the familiar. Unfortunately the arrangement of Count On Me, Singapore by Chen was stodgy, an over-reliance on long-held notes and resonances impeding its natural flow. The loudest cheers were reserved for Liang Wern Fook’s (left) xinyao classic Xi Shui Chang Liu, in a light-hearted clap-along with Dixieland echoes transcribed by Wong Kah Chun.

It certainly does not hurt to write a good and memorable tune, and this fact was not lost on its audience.    

AudioImage Wind Ensemble
conductor Clarence Tan (right)
with bilingual MC and
composer Liong Kit Yeng. 

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).

 

THE SINGAPOREAN STRING QUARTET / Review

THE SINGAPOREAN STRING QUARTET
Artsylum and Oxley Quartets
Esplanade Recital Studio
Friday (2 September 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 September 2011 with the title "Salute to composers".

While the notion of Singaporean string quartets may not be immediately appealing, reality threw up a most fascinating concert featuring seven very individual Singaporean voices. However, one may be excused for being somewhat confused to find three women in black lying on the floor and babbling in Chinese, Malay and Tamil, as a tape of ambient noise played on.

That was the opening gambit, the World Premiere of Weird Witches (2011) by Jun Zubillaga-Pow, a play on the opening of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with a quasi-political message. But where were the strings?

The mystery was solved when two quartet groups made the stage to perform two quartets each. The Artsylum Quartet (below), led by violinist Ng Wei Ping, performed Kelly Tang’s String Quartet (1990, revised 2011) and Jeremiah Li’s Three Korean Scenes (2006). Both were early works in their creative outputs but revealed coherent thoughts and much self-belief.

Tang’s concentrated single-movement distilled influences of the Second Viennese School into a tonal canvas without losing sight of its main thematic thrusts. A worthy academic exercise, quite different from the freedom of Li’s conjuring up impressions of his Korean memories – morning mists and birdsong, a frenetic train ride and the reassuring smell of coffee! The four young Singaporean players brought out the contrasts well.

The slightly more mature Oxley Quartet (below) is formed by a Singaporean, Australian, German and Briton. They were entrusted with Phoon Yew Tien’s String Quartet (1980) and Benjamin Lim’s Through The Glass (2007) and Porcelain Harlequin (2008). It was a pleasure to see and hear the foreign talent confidently handle Phoon’s Chinese-inflected score with such verve, and later put a gloss on Lim’s counterpoint and scherzo-writing.

Both quartets were united and joined by bassist Sanche Jagatheesan for two further works. Lee Yuk Chuan’s Lingzhi Capriccio was the earliest piece, essentially programmatic Chinese music untouched by Western idioms, written for his landmark Chinese opera of 1973. The versatility of the medium saw the pendulum swinging over to the late Leong Yoon Pin’s Largo-Vivace (1982), arguably the evening’s most modern sounding work.

If there was anyone who could transform a Hokkien song into ostinatos that Bartok might have been proud of, it had to be Leong. This salute to our composing legends and emerging creators was a timely and vital one. If only it had a wider audience to share in its glorious diversity.