JOE BURGSTALLER AND THE SINGAPORE WIND SYMPHONY / Review

JOE BURGSTALLER &

THE SINGAPORE WIND SYMPHONY

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (7 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 September 2014 with the title "Top brass shines with Singapore Wind Symphony".

Here is a piece of sound advice: If you want to catch a world-class brass soloist in action, go to a Singapore Wind Symphony concert. After great success with the New York Philharmonic’s Principal Trombonist Joseph Alessi earlier this year, the orchestra has now engaged the wizardry of Joe Burgstaller, who was for eight years the trumpeter and arranger of the legendary Canadian Brass.

The concert in the newly opened Victoria Concert Hall resounded with four brilliant concertante works, including two World Premieres. Malaysia-born Su Lian Tan’s Trumpet Concerto entitled Ming was heard for the first time in its two-movement form. The first movement Ming Dai (Ming Dynasty) had little or minimal Chinese influences, instead luxuriated in impressionistic hues inspired by antique brush paintings. This was contrasted with the new second movement Xian Dai (Modern) which took on freer means of expression, including adapting contemporary and popular dance idioms.

The trumpet’s part was typically thorny, full of virtuosic devices and a panoply of thematic ideas which sometimes bewildered the listener. Burgstaller swallowed these challenges whole, making light of its complexities. The ensemble led by Taiwanese-American guest conductor Apo Hsu coped well without skipping a beat, bringing much cohesion to the difficult score.

Composer Lee Jinjun acknowledges the good work
by the SWS and Joe Burgstaller.

More accessible was young Singaporean Lee Jinjun’s Variations on Chan Mali Chan, the premiere conducted by Adrian Tan, the local answer to Arban’s fantastic Carnival of Venice Variations. The familiar Malay melody was presented in many different and surprising guises, each imaginative and obliging Burgstaller to jump through a dizzying series of technical hoops. Expect this work to be heard far more often in the near future.

Further variety was provided in Rafael Mendez’s Virgin of the Macarena, a Spanish bullfight standard where Burgstaller gave a masterclass in circular breathing, which enabled a passage to be repeated for an extended duration without catching a breath. After that feat of sheer athleticism, a Vivaldi trumpet concerto – formal and ceremonial - completed the generous trumpet offerings.

The ensemble also distinguished itself in purely orchestral numbers. Benjamin Yeo’s Redhill – A Symphonic Folklore was a well-conceived piece of programme music which retold the ancient story of Bukit Merah and how a school of killer swordfish was repelled. His facility with lyricism, notably in the pivotal oboe solo, showed that he could be writing Broadway musicals pretty soon. Taiwanese composer-conductor Chung Yiu-Kwong’s Festival Celebration, which the set the traditional lion dance to music, showcased the ensemble’s excellent percussion section.

Robert Russell Bennett’s symphonic suite arrangement of music from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess was a delight with its hit tunes, and had ensemble trumpeter Adrian Flowers (above) taking the spotlight and doing the honours in the evergreen Summertime. If you are a wind player who likes to perform, joining the Singapore Wind Symphony and sharing in its vast pool of talent would be a dream come true.

All photographs by the kind permission of the Singapore Wind Symphony.

THE PERFORMER'S VOICE / COLIN CURRIE (Percussion) and JOE BURGSTALLER (trumpet) / Review

THE PERFORMER’S VOICE

Colin Currie (Percussion)

Joe Burgstaller (Trumpet)

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

Saturday (27 October 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 October 2012 with the title "Pitch-perfect percussions".

The Second Performer’s Voice Symposium at the Conservatory has sprung forth some unusual concerts and this evening’s tandem of percussion and trumpet recitals was the most wide-ranging of all. The Scotsman Colin Currie is possibly the world’s most famous solo percussionist after his compatriot Scotswoman Dame Evelyn Glennie, and is no less prodigious.

Given that percussion is history’s oldest group of musical instruments, its sound is universal and the first three works in Currie’s recital – by Elliott Carter (USA), Per Norgard (Denmark) and Toshio Hosokawa (Japan) – seemed to coalesce as one. Beginning with the mellow marimba, he soon worked his way to the brighter vibraphone and a bewildering array of unpitched percussion awaited.

His rapid-fire responses on the mallets made for an acrobatic display of adroitness which built up to massive crescendo. Returning to the marimba for Hosokawa’s Reminiscences, the low registers droned and rumbled, and one sitting close enough would have experienced the vibrations in harmony with its reassuring tones.  

Currie closed with British composer Dave Maric’s Trilogy, an eclectic three-part work of disparate inspirations with sampled percussion and amplification augmenting the live performance. The second movement Pelogy skilfully employed the Javanese pelog scale without actually sounding like a gamelan, while the eccentric minimalistic beat of Tamboo rounded off an exhilarating display of all-round virtuosity.

American trumpeter Joe Burgstaller helmed the second recital, and opened with Rafael Mendez’s arrangement of Monterde’s Virgin of the Macarena, a stunning showpiece where the technique of circular breathing to maintain implausibly long passages was employed. A former member of the legendary Canadian Brass, he relived its trademark humour as he played and spoke.

For Astor Piazzolla’s tango Oblivion, he was joined by a brass quartet formed by members from the Singapore Symphony and Malaysian Philharmonic. For once, this popular number rang out with an elegiac quality as it should, much like the Afro-American spiritual Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, which soulfully sang the blues.

A highlight was the World Premiere (above) of Malaysian-American composer Su Lian Tan’s Ming, an evocation of Chinese brush-painted landscapes, its placid waters, gnarled trees, rugged mountains and soaring birds. Partnered by pianist Low Shao Suan, this atmospheric score ambled from impressionistic half-lights to a Messiaen-like timeless calm. Burgstaller’s part used the mute liberally, to tamper the bluesy timbre before going full voice on a song.  

For sheer variety, a Vivaldi-Bach concerto, Duke Ellington’s Echoes of Harlem and an encore where the audience provided a drone (surprisingly in tune!) to Burgstaller’s soliloquy completed the evening’s fine entertainment.