FROM THE NEW WORLD / Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra / Review

FROM THE NEW WORLD

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra

Conservatory Concert Hall

Friday (6 November 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 9 November 2015 with the title "Heady show of exuberance".

American music was on the cards of the Conservatory Orchestra's latest concert, and it began with Composition Faculty member Peter Edwards' newly commissioned work Brastri Per Celindano. Its title, in faux-Italian, is formed by parts of the words “brass, strings, percussion, celesta, winds and piano”. It is in fact a single-movement concerto for orchestra which taxes the instrumental parts to their limits.

Crunching dissonant chords, with winds and brass dominating, opened accounts and ears to its shifting textures which later disintegrated into pointillist shafts of sound with individual solo instruments having their say. Although atonal in character, the work drew attention to a play of tonal colour, which range from quiet whispers to aggressively hammered out chords and echoes. The use of col legno, with players tapping the wood of their bows on strings, also added to the mystique of its conception.

More accessible was Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto with Conservatory alumnus Yue Ziqi, now pursuing her post-graduate studies in New York, as brilliant soloist. Composed for jazz legend Benny Goodman, the light and transparent scoring for strings, harp and piano, left little doubt the object of its focus. Here Yue produced a hearty tone of pristine clarity, luxuriating in the long lyrical lines of its opening movement.

A showy cadenza paved the way to a most unbuttoned finale, where the traditions of jazz syncopation, country dance, Latin rhythms and Klezmer converged in a heady show of irrepressible exuberance. Caution was thrown into the wind as she blazed through its fiendish pages to a stratospheric close, much to the delight of an audience that loudly whooped its approval.       

The orchestra led by Jason Lai was attentive and sensitive in its partnership, and had the field to its own in Dvorak's Ninth Symphony, popularly known as the New World Symphony. Having composed it during his tenure as head of the newly-formed National Conservatory in New York, the Bohemian composer included elements of native Indo-American and African-American music woven into its symphonic canvas. 

Its enduring success comes from strong performances, such as the one delivered by this young orchestra. The slow introduction with violas, cellos and basses was perfectly weighted. This was answered trenchantly by solo French horn, and this is how great symphony readings begin. The drive and dramatic tension in the 1^st movement was tempered by the plaintive flute solo which tenderly sang out the Swing Low, Sweet Chariot theme.

More excellent ensemble work came in the brass chorale of the famous Largo, which also highlighted the beautiful tone of Simon Lee's cor anglais. The well-drilled and disciplined forces followed up with more in the 3^rd movement's rapturous dance, and the best was reserved for the valedictory finale. While brass and strings shone brightly in the climaxes, the tricky passage work for various instruments peppered all through the movement, details often overlooked, was very well negotiated.

In short, this was a model showcase for professional musical education in Singapore that will be hard to better.   

Spectrum: Alternating Current / YST New Music Ensemble / Review

ALTERNATING CURRENT
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory New Music Ensemble
Esplanade Recital Studio
Wednesday (3 November 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 5 November 2010.

It is always fascinating to view the stage set-up for any new music concert. Surprises invariably come up. This evening, concertgoers were greeted by the sight of gamelan metallophones and four standing loudspeakers. Seven musicians then trooped onstage for Alvin Lucier’s 1994 Music for Gamelan, Microphones, Amplifiers & Loud Speakers.

A mundane title for 15 minutes that involved amplification of resonance produced by gently percussing the gamelan and vibrating of bonangs (handheld bowl gongs). Feedback, that usually irritating quirk of mikes going berserk, was employed to eerie effect for this static and unusually calming piece.

Eminent British conductor Sian Edwards (left) conducted the rest of the concert. The next work, also inspired by things Indonesian, tossed disparate sounds of oboe, bassoon, bass, harpsichord and percussion into a salad dish. Its sheer randomness was baffling, and to what objective? Composer Dieter Mack had anticipated the poser, and titled it Gado-Gado (2005). Could rojak be next?

Singaporean Yuan Peiying’s Mutability (2009, left), at 8 minutes, was the shortest piece, but one with the lushest sound. Everything changes, according to the Buddhist principle of wuchang, was her credo in a work that varied in colour, shade and metre with every passing moment. This was music on a move, and going somewhere.

American Peter Edwards (left), faculty member at the Conservatory, saw his Artifact (2010) receiving its world premiere. A most eventful work, it began with individual instrumental notes coming together as if in search of some cohering form. With a discernable rhythm established, the music traversed through multiple shifting soundscapes. Taped static and broadcast frequencies were also introduced, as the piece zipped perpetual motion to a sizzling end.

A second half was devoted to Heiner Goebbels’ Samplersuite (1994, left). A half-hour distillation of his far longer Surrogate Cities, its 10 short movements were titled like dances in a baroque partita. Strung together like a pendant, each reflected some aspect of urban-living. A synagogue cantor’s wails, strains of Scarlatti, sentimental piano musings all pointed to some historical perspective or social life of a city.

Both frenetic and phlegmatic, the work pulsed like a breathing organism, and the ensemble’s committed playing brought it rude, hale and hearty life. With the national orchestra not paying too much attention to new music, the Conservatory is now Singapore’s de facto contemporary music champions.