CROSSINGS IN SOUND / National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

CROSSINGS IN SOUND

National University of Singapore 

Symphony Orchestra

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (6 February 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 February 2026 with the title "NUSSO bridges divide between classical and pop in stirring fashion".

In the opening concert of the National University of Singapore Arts Festival 2026, the National University of Singapore Symphony Orchestra (NUSSO) conducted by Chan Tze Law presented a stirring programme that attempted to bridge the divide between classical music and popular forms.

Italian opera composer Gioachino Rossini’s Overture to La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) is a “lollipop”, a work of lightness that early audiences could relate to as easily as popular music. Drum rolls opened the piece, which initially strided with martial pretension, before breaking loose to reveal its true comedic intentions.

Photo: NUS Office of Student Affairs, Centre for the Arts

The patented Rossinian crescendo that graces all his overtures was taken deliberately, building up to a head of steam before wrapping up in a joyous conclusion. If the orchestra had not fully warmed up, it did so in the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, orchestrated by Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal.

Without replicated the exact sequence of songs and dances in the famous musical, it brought together most of its choreographed music, melding Latin and Puerto Rican rhythms with contemporary jazzy idioms in a virtuosic orchestral showpiece. Adding further interest were snapping fingers, a police whistle, lusty shouts of “Mambo!” and a fugue scored in jazz style.

While winds, brass and percussion were having a field day, the strings finally came into their own in the final song Somewhere, shining with a silvery sheen as the suite drew to a quiet close.

NUS Office of Student Affairs, Centre for the Arts

The final work was Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major (Op.56), the only concerto for piano trio (violin, cello and piano) in the active concert repertoire. For many, it was a guilty pleasure, often considered Beethoven’s least serious concerto but also the most fun to listen to.

Equally important was witnessing university students partnering and supporting Yong Siew Toh Conservatory’s dons and alumnus as soloists in concert. Where amateurs could stand equally tall with seasoned professionals, it was an exchange or metaphorical crossing that was never thought possible until recent times.

Beethoven never wrote a cello concerto but this came closest to it with cellist Qin-Liwei getting the plum parts and leading the way in all three movements. With violinist David Loke and pianist Ning An joining the fray, this was a spirited romp from start to finish.

With the orchestra quiet for much of the central slow movement, the trio was allowed to express itself with a luminous song-like glow. The finale’s Rondo alla Polacca, so named for its vigorous polonaise rhythm, provided a send-off that was clearly enjoyed by all in attendance.

NUS Office of Student Affairs, Centre for the Arts

The soloists’ encore of violinist Loke’s Pre-Dawn At Harbour River (a world premiere) opened in G minor like some trio elegiaque by Rachmaninov. Then morphing into a Canto-pop-like rave before breaking off abruptly as if he had run out of ink, paper and time, it drew plenty of laughs from the audience. It was a Haydnesque way of saying, “Enough of it, that’s all folks!”

WIN FREE TICKETS to CHOPIN: PASSION & DEATH

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Here's how to win 

a pair of FREE TICKETS to

CHOPIN: PASSION & DEATH

Consumed and wracked by the ravages of tuberculosis, Frédéric Chopin overcame his frail health and fear of mortality with great music of ultimate passion. His tempestuous relationship with author George Sand in tatters, and desperately short of funds, he picked himself up for one last hurrah, a concert tour in the rain-beaten British Isles. This was the spring of 1848. One year later, the great Polish-born pianist-composer was dead.

This special concert brings together for the first time in Singapore, the three great mature sonatas of Chopin, featuring four of Singapore's most exceptional young musical talents. Pianists Victor Yeh and Jonathan Shin (students of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory) will play Chopin's 2nd and 3rd Sonatas, while cellist Loke Hoe Kit and pianist Song Ziliang (both of whom studied abroad respectively at the Mannes College of Music, New York and the Moscow Conservatory) will join forces to perform Chopin's Cello Sonata.

Date: Thursday, 20 March 2014
Time: 8 pm
Place: Yong Siew Toh Conservatory

Just click on the following link:
http://bit.ly/1irWv1d

Programme:

CHOPIN Piano Sonata No.2
in B flat minor, Op.35 "Funeral March"

CHOPIN Cello Sonata in G major, Op.65

CHOPIN Piano Sonata No.3 in B minor, Op.58

Artists:
VICTOR YEH, Piano (Op.35)
LOKE HOE KIT, Cello
SONG ZILIANG, Piano (Op.65)
JONATHAN SHIN (Op.58)

Curtains Up! A Folksong Fantasy / Asian Contemporary Ensemble / Review

CURTAIN’S UP! 

A FOLKSONG FANTASY 

Asian Contemporary Ensemble

University Cultural Centre Dance Studio 

Sunday (27 March 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 March 2011 with the title "Fantastic new sounds for folksongs".

Should anybody be afraid of 21st century music? That question was posed by the newly-formed Asian Contemporary Ensemble making its debut at the National University of Singapore’s Arts Festival. Led by energetic composer-conductor Wong Kah Chun, its first concert premiered works by five young Asean composers, each given the task to write a piece inspired by folk music from their homeland.

Rasa Sayang provided the impetus for Malaysian Chow Jun Yan’s work, which began with seemingly random string scrapings, interjected by woodwind blasts. While Jason Cruz’s percussion improvisations were the most arresting feature, there was still no hint of the Malay folksong as the work ended some eight minutes later.

As one checked the title Metamorphosis – Where Is Rasa Sayang?, it all became clear. That was a rhetorical question, as the composer had converted melody into numbers, which dictated the sequence of notes to be performed. The song was merely a ruse.

Less abstract was Thai Pantawit Kiangsiri’s Illusion which mixed fragments of a lovesick prince’s lament Lao Duang Dern with recordings of Bangkok street sounds. Discernable themes were heard on cello, violin and viola, while the rhythmic percussion beat and recorded traditional instruments conjured an evocative aural snapshot of a bygone time.

Conductor Wong interviews Imson & Cruz.

From Philippines came Danny Imson’s Pangatuog, which employed a Southern tribal mother’s lullaby, juxtaposed with poet Ed Cruz’s recitation in Tagalog. Piquant chimes from the piano and kulintang (slung gongs) made for a soothing serenade, resonating deeply with the words that exhorted “Everybody needs to rest sometime”.

Indonesian Matius Shanboone’s Suara Demi Suara… had the most dramatic impact, largely due to Khairul Shahrin’s choreography for three dancers (above), which captivated with its fluid movements, subtle eroticism and pugilistic athleticism. So effective was the vigorous ballet that it almost overshadowed the music itself.

A Singaporean effort closed the concert with Syafiqah Adha Sallehin’s treatment of Semogia Bahagia (Zubir Said’s Children’s Day anthem, his second most famous song after Majulah Singapura) called Of Home And Happiness. The least radical of five works, its deconstruction of melody and visual representation of key words through children’s art from Clementi Primary School provided an overpowering sense of nostalgia and harmony.

The composers and performers of the Asian Contemporary Ensemble are encouraged to continue exploring, and reach out with their unique and inimitable voices.

Four of the composers with 

Wong Kah Chun.

(From L: a dancer, Chow, Wong, 

Syafiqah, Shanboone & Imson)

Teng Ensemble in Concert / Review

Teng Ensemble in Concert
University Cultural Centre Dance Studio
Saturday (6 March 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 March 2010.

Attempts to marry the disparate sounds of Western and Chinese musical instruments are not new, and the results have been variable to say the least. The public début of Teng Ensemble, a self-styled Chinese instrumental collective, at the National University of Singapore’s Arts Festival was a laudable addition to this crossover phenomenon. It may be said that chamber music is the most fertile soil for such experiments to take place.

Helmed by the Beijing-trained Singaporean pipa player Samuel Wong (left), the nucleus of the group also included Yang Jiwei’s sheng, Benjamin Lim’s guitar and Gerald Teo’s cello. These were further augmented by voice, violin and piano to make up a seven-member group, which in all honesty resembled more like a garage band.

In the six pieces on show, the sheng’s penetrating timbre and Wilson Goh’s lustrous and wide-ranging vocals had the juiciest parts, carrying most of the melodic interest. There was only one work that featured all seven musicians, Dang Yuan Ren Chang Jiu by Liang Hong Zhi, with each instrumentalist taking turn in the accompaniment.

Aside from a few decorative passages, there was precious little for the sadly under-utilised violinist Chan Yoong Han. Pianist Shane Thio’s part were also often reduced to providing plodding chords and occasional arpeggios, with the exception of Justin Hegburg’s techno-inspired Confluence where he provided the main rhythmic thrust.

The music, whether Chinese (Benjamin Lim’s He), Malay (P. Ramlee’s Getaran Jiwa) or sung in Italian (Sherman Ko’s Equinox), was never less than tuneful. The opening work, resident composer and arranger Lim’s Chang Men Yuan, a lament based on a Li Bai poem, would also easily pass for an atmospheric soundtrack to a period Chinese epic.

Wong’s uninhibitedly enthusiastic introductions to an audience mostly seated on the studio floor added to the general informality of the event. Entertaining it certainly was. While some new ground is being broken in this genre, the Teng Ensemble is encouraged to scale more heights and further explore.