MOST HEAVENLY MUSIC OF THE SPHERES / 6th Singapore Lieder Festival / Review

MOST HEAVENLY MUSIC OF THE SPHERES!

6^th Singapore Lieder Festival

The Sing Song Club

The Arts House

Friday (28 October 2016)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 31 October 2016 with the title "Shakespeare in songs".

Perhaps no figure in literary history has had the same impact of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) on the English language, with his plays, sonnets and poems. On the 400^th anniversary of his death, the Sing Song Club has devoted the entire 6^th edition of the Singapore Lieder Festival to song settings of Shakespeare's verses.

The second of four evenings was a programme of 20 songs drawn from his comedies and problem plays. Thirteen plays were represented, sung with spirit and verve by five local singers accompanied by pianist Shane Thio.

Sing Song Club co-founder tenor Adrian Poon alone sang in ten songs. His mellow, natural and unforced voice was ideally suited for songs with flowing lyrical lines, such as Martin Shaw's I Know A Bank (from A Midsummer Night's Dream) and Patrick Doyle's Sigh No More, Ladies (Much Ado About Nothing).

Yet when it came to varying styles, such as two settings of Fancy (The Merchant Of Venice), he was fully attuned to each idiom and their nuances. Benjamin Britten's Fancie was more rhythmic, emphasising bell-like staccato phrases, while Francis Poulenc's Fancy was serene and less animated, yet delivered with equal vividness.

If there were one song that was alone worth the price of entry, that would be the newly-commissioned Come Away, Death (Twelfth Night) by Zechariah Goh Toh Chai which received its World Premiere. Also the longest song, its predominant mood was bleakly placid, but giving way to an atmosphere of soothing calm, with Poon's sympathetic entreaties finding an uncanny resonance with quiet drones on the piano. 

Soprano Cherylene Liew's exquisitely poised voice accounted for Hugo Wolf's Lied Des Transferierten Zettel (A Midsummer Night's Dream, sung in German), Ernest Chausson's Chanson D'Amour (Measure For Measure, French) and Haydn's She Never Told Her Love (Twelfth Night, English), which provided further contrasts.

Baritone Daniel Fong was given the honour of opening the recital, where a nice boomy glow to his voice graced Glen Roven's I To The World (Comedy Of Errors) and Schubert's Was Ist Sylvia? (Two Gentlemen Of Verona). The latter was another song with two different settings presented, and Eric Coates' more lyrical Who Is Sylvia? (sung by Poon) resembled a popular song.

In between the songs, there were a couple of amateur readings of Shakespeare, including favourite lines of Poon and Thio which lent a more personal touch to the proceedings. Thio's best loved quote from Henry V turned out to be one of the Bard's wittiest (and cruelest) insults.

The songs for multiple voices included Frederick Keel's You Spotted Snakes (A Midsummer Night's Dream) with soprano Yap Shin Min and mezzo-soprano Ng Sheh Feng, Liza Lehmann's How Sweet The Moonlight (The Merchant Of Venice) and George Shearing's Fie On Sinful Fantasy (Merry Wives Of Windsor). Bob Chilcott's Come Unto These Yellow Sands (The Tempest) closed the delightful evening with three women's voices in the brightest of spirits.    

THE ALPHABET SERIES: B IS FOR GARDEN / The Sing Song Club / Review

Alphabet Series: B is for Garden

The Sing Song Club

The Arts House

Saturday (19 May 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 May 2012 with the title "Blooming thrills".

The Sing Song Club has firmly nailed its colours to the mast. Its raison d’etre is to further the appreciation for art songs by presenting as wide a variety of songs as possible in its well-planned recitals. B is for Garden is the second such programme in its ambitious 26-part Alphabet Series. Its small audience was treated to a delightful hour and a half of 28 songs in five different languages.

Rebecca Li and Adrian Poon sang all of the solo songs, ably accompanied by pianist Shane Thio.

Lest one accuses its leader tenor Adrian Poon of being unable to spell properly, this ingenious garden-theme programme was inspired by blossoms, blooms, birds and bees, just to name but one bug. The beloved British bard of lyrical beauty Roger Quilter was represented by no less than seven songs; his melodies breathed a freshness and vitality that was hard to dislike. There were four duets, opening with Blossom Time and The Starlings, where Poon and soprano Rebecca Li were respectively paired with alto Ng Sheh Feng to delicious effect.

The German lieder were reserved for Li, whose bright-eyed and youthful ardour in Mahler’s Fruhlingsmorgen (Spring Morning) and Ablösung in Sommer (Change in Summer), and Hugo Wolf’s Die Gärtner (The Gardener) and Schumann’s Die Lotosblume (Lotus Blooms) were matched by excellent and idiomatic pronunciation. Her sung French, for contributions by Emmanuel Chabrier and Reynaldo Hahn, was no less vivid.

Rebecca hams it up for Adrian in William Penn's The Honeysuckle and the Bee.

Poon, who weighed in with 16 songs, was the most versatile, equally at home with Canteloube, Rorem, Britten, Ireland. Guastavino and Marx. He was also entrusted with three of four songs by local composers, including two World Premieres. Benjamin Lim’s My Lady’s Finger, set to texts garnered from the leisure and gardening pages of The Sunday Times, insinuated with several Freudian double entendres which Poon delivered with zest.

Alto Ng Sheh Feng (right) lent a supporting role for a number of duets.

In Wong Chee Yean’s To Daffodils, a deliberately darker hued approach was taken, well supported by pianist Shane Thio’s rich chord-laden accompaniment. For Zechariah Goh Toh Chai’s Flower, the seamless melody in C minor was intoned in Hainanese! Kelly Tang’s The Daffodils, with Wordsworth’s words sung by both ladies, ambled from the English pastoral tradition into a flight of fancy with a quote from Ravel’s Bolero thrown into the mix.

When the audience and singers are enjoying themselves, the evening breezed through effortlessly. The missionary zeal of The Sing Song Club deserves a wider audience. Its next concert E for English Excursion takes place at the same venue on 7 July. Be sure to come.

All the performers take a bow.

Origami blossoms. birds and butterflies sprinkled all round The Living Room lent a nice touch.