COMPOSITIONS EXCHANGE 2024 / Association of Composers (Singapore) / Review

 

COMPOSITIONS EXCHANGE 2024 

Association of Composers (Singapore) 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Wednesday (19 June 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 June 2024 with the title "Singapore composers showcase works".

For a composer in Singapore, the most important thing is to have your work performed. First impressions matter, so having best possible performers for the premiere is a priority. The annual concert of the Association of Composers (Singapore), which showcased 12 works by 12 composers, was fortunate in having some of most accomplished locally-based professional musicians involved. 

Subtitled “Capriccio In The Style Of Folk Melodies”, most of the works were based on earlier music and crafted in the form of variations, fantasies and rhapsodies. The Chinese artsongs and instrumental works were sensitively accompanied by pianists Clarence Lee and Andren Koh respectively. 

Soprano He Miya sang two songs, opening the concert with Lee Yuk Chuan’s Yinghua Village Scenery Is Wonderful, extolling the land’s pristine beauty. Her expressive quality and ability to reach high notes effortlessly also touched in Quek Yong Siu’s Mother’s Smile, a song possessed with tenderness and nostalgia. 

Tenor Zhuang Jie had three songs, exhibiting exemplary vocal control in Liu Bin’s Homesickness, another mother-centred work more than tinged with melancholy. Quite different was Xiao Chunyuan’s An Auspicious Place, its rhythmic accompaniment supporting a more emphatic stance, further contrasted with a feel-good, pop-inspired sentimentality of Gan Yun Zhuo’s Everlasting Love. 

Of the instrumental works, Red Peach Blossom & White Apricot Blossom as arranged by Cao Ying was dressed with French impressionist colours. Sin Jin How’s flute ably provided virtuosic turns and nuances, transforming this Shanxi folksong into an almost improvisatory fantasy. 

Violinist Siew Yi Li was the busiest instrumentalist after pianist Koh, having performed no less than five showpieces. Chiew Keng Hoon’s arrangement of Xinjiang folksong Swallow Capriccio had a typically Central Asian flavour, and closed in soulful repose. Daniel Kom’s Variations On The More We Get Together, after the Austrian children’s song O Du Lieber Augustin, included a waltz, rhumba, romance in minor key and a variation a la Johann Pachelbel for good measure. 

Lee Ngoh Wah’s Galloping Horses was a variation of the popular erhu melody Sai Ma (Horse-racing). Its familiarity was topped by Lian Sek Lin’s Kaka Dan Mama, which merged the Indonesian folksongs Burung Kakak Tua and Aiyo Mama into a melange which the audience simply loved. 

Just as recognisable was the melody of Di Tanjung Katong Rhapsody, as crafted by Frederick Ng Eng Thong. The music played with polytonality and obliged the violinist to jump through several Paganinian hoops of string calisthenics before its grandstanding close. 

Pride of place, however, went to Lisa Zhao Lingyan’s Variations Of Yi Folk Dance, which transformed Wang Huiran’s simple Yunnan theme into something truly special. Its reimagination as a riveting rhapsody from Roarin’ Twenties Paris saw cellist Olivia Chuang and pianist Koh playing like people possessed. Its fanciful flight of ostinatos chanelled the spirits of Darius Milhaud, Bohuslav Martinu, Igor Stravinsky and hot jazz without imitating them. Hearing this work was alone worth the price of entry.

Here are the composers and performers:
He Miya, Lisa Zhao Lingyan, Clarence Lee,
Zhuang Jie, Quek Yong Siu, Xiao Chunyuan,
Lee Yuk Chuan, Chiew Keng Hoon, Lian Sek Lin,
Cao Ying, Frederick Ng Eng Thong, Daniel Kom,
Liu Bin, Andren Koh & MC (from L)

INSTRUMENTAL CONCERT 2018 / Association of Composers (Singapore) / Review

INSTRUMENTAL CONCERT 2018

Association of Composers (Singapore)

Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre 
Recital Hall

Saturday (8 September 2018)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 September 2018 with the title "12 composers, a myriad of styles".

Exactly how many composers are there in Singapore? The true figure will perhaps never be known. This chamber concert by the Association of Composers (Singapore) featured 12 of them, with none of the usual suspects patronised by the national orchestras. All belong to the Chinese-speaking community and many hail from the pioneer generation of citizens.

All the composers were seated in the
front row of the recital hall.

The works heard may be grouped as pieces for piano solo, erhu or violin accompanied by piano, and string quartet. These displayed a broad spectrum of influences, inspirations and styles, and one may surmise that there is no singular Singaporean way of composition. At least, not yet.

The concert opened and closed with works for erhu and piano, performed by Ng Rui Jun and Irene Law respectively. The huqin’s voice ensured a Chinese feel about them, while the accompanying piano sounded somewhat incongruent with Western harmonies and timbres. A guzheng or yangqin might have made more sense.

Lee Ngoh Wah’s My True Love was a short lyrical romance while Lee Chee Kung’s Erhu Capriccio was the most authentically Chinese-sounding work of the evening. Quek Yong Siu’s Garden Under The Morning Sun was an extended fantasy with the mimicry of birdsong, providing the original meaning to tweeting or twittering. The 3^rd movement of Toh Heng Guan’s First Erhu Concerto luxuriated in unusual harmonies and a virtuosic cadenza.

For violin and piano, violinist Siew Yi Li performed his brother Xiao Chun Yuan’s Homeland, which alternated between major and minor keys while engendering a sense of patriotism and nostalgia. Chiew Keng Hoon’s Little Creature delighted in dissonances and jagged rhythms, simulating some flitting stinging insect, while his Fantasy was a true study in the atonal idiom of  the Second Viennese School.

Lian Sek Lin’s Moonlight Song had the hint of bel canto but with offbeat harmonies to unsettle and create tension. Lin Ah Leck’s A Wandering Life was a rhapsodic fantasy in the Chinese idiom culminating in a striding march. Tan Chan Boon’s Ostinatissimo was surprisingly gentle as he employed a slow chordal bass over which the violin fashioned a masterly passacaglia.

Pianist Nicholas Loh, who accompanied Siew, went solo in Xiao’s Tensions, built on an obstinate idee fixe, and hammered out Lian’s Hibiscus Variations, based ironically on a march theme, played fortissimo throughout with a Satiesque sense of irony.

The violin and piano duo of Mac Chang and Elaine Xu contributed Lee Yuk Chuan’s Remembrance and Rondo, contrasting sentimental lyricism with vigorous dance rhythms. Both works conjured the aroma of Central Asia, and the violinist was commended for spicing up the Rondo with Paganinian touches.

The cellist's score of
Frederick Ng's Dance In Harmony.

Two works played by the Melody String Quartet completed the programme. Lee Khiok Hua’s Autumn Scene was a Chinese-styled dance with alternating fast and slow sections, while Frederick Ng Eng Thong’s Dance In Harmony a heady mix of Malay motifs, minimalism, syncopation and counterpoint. Reliving a rowdy Chingay procession, this was arguably the most interesting work, a veritable rojak one might consider quintessentially Singaporean. 

All the composers
and some of the performers.

Composer Tan Chan Boon with his students,
the next generation of Singaporean composers?

TCHAIKOVSKY & ARENSKY PIANO TRIOS / Incursion Trio / Review

TCHAIKOVSKY & ARENSKY PIANO TRIOS

Incursion Trio

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (11 July 2017)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 July 2017 with the title "Thrills from a trio".

Some chamber groups have been established as local leaders of the chamber music genres which they perform. Already well-known are T'ang Quartet (string quartet) and Take Five (piano quintet), and more recently EDQ (wind quintet) has made its name.

Now meet Incursion Trio, comprising the husband-and-wife pair of Siew Yi Li (violin) and Beatrice Lin (piano), and its newest member Lin Juan (cello). On this concert's strength, one will expect it to become a force to reckon with, that is if the threesome gets to performs regularly enough.

The coupling of piano trios by Romantic Russian composers Piotr Tchaikovsky and Anton Arensky is not uncommon on CD recordings. In concert, however, this is a mountain to overcome for the musicians. The pianist never stops for a moment to rest. On this count, Beatrice Lin was a pillar of strength. Besides being spot-on technically, she had both power and projection, fueled by seemingly limitless reserves.

Here the piano becomes de facto leader, and it was easy for the Steinway grand to have totally dominated her string partners. Thankfully this was not the case, as both Siew and Lin Juan were just as resolute, possessed big tones and threw in their lot without reserve.

The opening to Arensky's First Piano Trio in D minor was delivered with such vividness and clarity that it was hard to mistake its nostalgia and melancholy. The skittish Scherzo proved more of a struggle; its tricky rhythms dogged the players and not all the jokes came off as slickly as planned.  

This was forgotten in the elegiac slow movement, achingly beautiful as it unabashedly bared its brooding Russian soul. The finale was a show of passion, its surge of adrenaline only stemmed by a return of the 1^st movement's haunting theme. This sense of deja vu literally stops one's thoughts in its tracks, a highly effective plot device that was to be repeated in the Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor, which plays for over 45 minutes, is one of the monuments of the trio repertoire. Composed in memory of piano virtuoso friend Nikolai Rubinstein, who had previously rejected his First Piano Concerto, Tchaikovsky was to ironically craft a work longer and even more taxing for the pianist.

The trio more than coped with its longeurs, especially the repetitious 1^st movement which was delivered with seriousness, tinged with typically Tchaikovskyan sentimentality. Lin's opening cello plaint could not have been better rendered.

The 2^nd movement's inventive Theme & Variations, another long movement, was so imaginatively coloured that time just flew past. There were variations in a style of a music box, a waltz, an elegy within an elegy, a mazurka, and culminating in an ever-busy fugue. The breathless last variation served as a long finale, and the 1^st movement's theme returned, now as a plodding funeral march.

Surely performances of Rachmaninov's two piano trios cannot be far off from this excellent trio.

Two violinists: Siew Yi Li with his former teacher
Alexander Souptel, former Concertmaster
of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Author's note: Interestingly, the first time I heard a live performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio was in 1992 at the Scriabin House-Museum in Moscow. The violinist on that occasion was none other than Alexander Souptel, before he joined the SSO in 1993. What goes around comes around.

REBECCA CHELLAPPAH & FRIENDS IN CONCERT / Review

REBECCA CHELLAPPAH

& FRIENDS IN CONCERT

Esplanade Recital Studio

Thursday (25 September 2014)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 27 September 2014 with the title "Magical evening of great lieder music".

There appears to be an unusual efflorescence of song recitals and vocal events taking place over the coming week and a half. It seemed a pity that this excellent recital by Rebecca Chellappah, one of Singapore’s precious few mezzo-sopranos, had to coincide with the opening of the 4^th Singapore Lieder Festival. Splitting a potential audience meant that only about 50 people were in attendance for this very engaging evening of art song.

Chellappah did not prioritise bringing out popular crowd-pleasing songs but instead worked on the intimate relationship of setting words to music. All of her repertoire choices were thoughtfully and lovingly made, each highlighting the elusive art that separate great songs from merely good ones. Not all of these are well-known, but she had what it took to make them sound convincing.

Erich Korngold’s Abschiedslieder (Songs of Farewell), sung in its original German, was coloured with the dark hues and Romantic sensibilities that unite these with the better known Mahler lieder. Far from being lugubrious, Chellappah lifted the four songs with an air of wonder above the bittersweet contemplation. The best known number Mond, so gehst du wieder auf (Moon, So You Rise Again) was sensitively sung, with Lim Yan’s accompanying piano providing a veil of opulent harmonies.   

Manuel de Falla’s Seven Popular Spanish Songs are familiar enough, but has anyone checked out the lyrics? From Chellappah’s facial expressions, one could tell which songs spelled regret, resignation, disgust or despair. Here she was partnered by her husband Billy Greenan on the guitar, which added a further dimension of authenticity.

The balance of the programme was accompanied by a piano trio, a rarity in itself. In Englishman Roger Quilter’s Three Pastoral Songs, the music was fairly straight-forward. The simple rusticity and folksong charm of it all was easy to bring out, even in Cherry Valley, which was lightly tinged with the impressionism of Debussy.

In the American songs cycles, the balance between voice and instruments was trickier. Chellapah had to rise above Siew Yi Li’s violin, Lin Juan’s cello and Lim Yan’s piano, as not all the scoring was texturally light or transparent. But when she did, the effect of the often poignant songs was close to magical.

Lori Laitman’s Daughters explored the relationships between mothers and daughters and the sense of loss engendered on departure or death. Stella Remembered with words by Karen Gershon was particularly moving, as a mother is willing to trade a truckload of photographs just to see her daughter turn around again. A Letter to My Daughter, a setting of Anne Ranasinghe’s poem, was so soothing that audible snoring from the back of the hall was heard at its conclusion.

In Jake Heggie’s Some Times of Day, the musical idioms of Americana stood out. It was jazzy and syncopated in The Minuet, a waltz-rhythm dominated the ironic song Simple, while a country feel pervaded The Best Time of Day. With all the serious stuff behind her, it was left for Chellappah to relax and luxuriate in this enchanting closing act. In many ways, this recital was a mini Lieder festival in itself.  

Photographs by the kind permission of 

Mrs Greenan and friends.

BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY: A SYMPHONIC DANCE SPECTACULAR / Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra / Review

BEAUTIFUL SUNDAY:

A SYMPHONIC DANCE SPECTACULAR

Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday Afternoon (21 October 2012)

After a rain-soaked Sunday morning when torrential storms lashed most of the island, it was a relief to see the clouds clear and a glimmer of sunshine greeting the afternoon that was to be a Beautiful Sunday. This is the title of Esplanade’s free series of Sunday afternoon concerts that showcases Singapore’s non-professional and community musical groups. The featured group today was the Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (BHSO), Singapore’s only community orchestra, led by its newly appointed Music Director Adrian Tan.

It was not so beautiful trying to get into the hall, with a very long queue snaking through the Esplanade foyer before one actually finds the seats. All the stalls, Circles One and Two seats had been filled, and one has to be satisfied sitting near the ceiling of the 1600-capacity Esplanade Concert Hall in Circle Three. But what a view it affords, and the sound is pretty decent too.

A spectacular view of Esplanade Concert Hall from Circle Three.

The BHSO is often seen as the Cinderalla of local orchestras, not known for precision playing or sumptuous sound, but rather for its enthusiasm and can-do attitude. However within the reverberant acoustics and vast expanse of Esplanade this afternoon, it now sounds like a princess among orchestras. Credit goes to young conductor Tan who has injected a certain immediacy and revitalised spirit into its playing, opening with Johann Strauss the Younger’s bubbly Die Fledermaus Overture. Taken at the right speed, the music sparkles like champagne and there was never a hint of strain in this fizzy curtain-raiser.

The orchestra also looks a great deal more youthful, and this was only matched by a very enthused audience that comprised mostly families with young children. Amazingly this was a very attentive group of listeners which applauded vociferously and appropriately, and not in between movements from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. The Trepak was brought off with vigour, and the three flutes shone in the Dance of the Reeds, before rounding off with a rousing Dance of the Flowers.   

Two young soloists also joined the orchestra in concertante works. 12-year-old violinist Wu Shuang (above in red) was a most confident soloist in the final movement of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole. She projected very well and could be clearly heard all the way up in Circle Three, while her intonating and articulation was spot on. Someone double her age would have been more than proud with her showing. Somewhat older was Siew Yi Li who performed the solo in Carlos Gardel’s Por una cabeza. His stylish insouciance lent the sultry music its much needed sexiness, and he was joined by piano and accordion for this number (below). In between the orchestra filled in with Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance, played with much verve.

To close, BHSO let down its collective hair for a medley of Duke Ellington tunes. A drumset provided the rocking beat, and the orchestra was beginning to sound like the Boston Pops. Solo trumpet and oboe stood out in their melodies, and the deep Southern drawl coaxed by the clarinet gave much atmosphere to the closing It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing). This orchestra certainly had that swing for this music, and it was refreshing to see how it switched modes from classical to jazz comfortably, as if with a flick of the baton.

The encore was Offenbach’s high-kicking Cancan from Orpheus in the Underworld, to which the audience spontaneously clapped along without any coaxing. Clearly it was in the same groove as the orchestra, and I could not tell which was enjoying itself more. Young conductor Adrian Tan has begun his Phase One in rejuvenating this orchestra; one cannot wait to see how Phase Two turns out.

The friendly folk of BHSO, catching a drink at Harry's post-concert. To conductor Adrian Tan's left is the visiting Russian pianist Ilya Rashkovskiy, a future soloist with the orchestra. 

POPULAR CLASSICS / Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra / Review

POPULAR CLASSICS
Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra
Singapore Conference Hall
Sunday (29 August 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 31 August 2010.

The Braddell Heights Symphony Orchestra (BHSO) is Singapore’s only community-based orchestra. Since 1986, it has provided an invaluable platform for non-professional musicians, students and budding soloists to perform the great classics in public. Its latest concert was a good example of egalitarianism at work.

The guest conductor was Seah Kar Heng, better known as a mechanical engineering professor specialising in racing cars and all-round renaissance man. The soloists were members of the Incursion Trio (below), which performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major (Op.56). Although not the German master’s greatest effort by a long shot, it is the only example of the genre in the active repertoire.

Cellist Brandon Voo, the chief protagonist, cogently presented his opening statement, later joined by his partners violinist Siew Yi Li and pianist Beatrice Lin. Balance between the three young professionals, who have been playing together for about a year, was generally good, but problems arose when the orchestra joined the fray.

Cellist Brandon Voo, pianist Beatrice Lin,

conductor Seah Kar Heng & violinist Siew Yi Li (from L)

Mozart’s Don Giovanni Overture opened the concert, its stern opening chords and an introduction foretelling the grave final scene contrasted with the lively main body. Although the sound was anaemic and lacked homogeneity, the story was conscientiously conveyed.

The most satisfying orchestral performance came in Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony in A major, also known as the Italian Symphony. For its outset, Seah’s charges got the throbbing rhythm spot on, and the pulsating spirit of the sunny work never flagged. The second movement was also coherently delivered, its slow march-like procession paced with discipline and character.

There were some rough spots in the flowing third movement, but the sweeping intensity for the final Saltarello, a swirling Italian dance, made the journey worthwhile. The intricate counterpoint was overcome with some degree of caution, but that was never an impediment to a final decisive flourish.

The encore, the rousing Wedding March from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was dedicated to Seah’s wife. Engineers, contrary to popular stereotype, can be romantic souls too.

Chamber Music Weekend / Review

CHAMBER MUSIC WEEKEND

Incursion Trio, Esplanade Recital Studio
Saturday (15 August 2009)

VCH Chamber Series, Victoria Concert Hall
Sunday (16 August 2009, 5.00 pm)

Yang Shuxiang & Friends, Esplanade Recital Studio
Sunday (16 August 2009, 7.30 pm)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 18 August 2009.

What a busy weekend this has been. With the Singapore Symphony Orchestra on a month-long break, local chamber groups and musicians have come out in full force.

First off was the curiously named Incursion Trio (above). Word has it that the three young Singaporeans – violinist Siew Yi Li, cellist Brandon Voo and pianist Beatrice Lin - gave their first recital together in the Swiss town of Sion, hence its name. More topical was the group’s incursion off the beaten track of repertory works to present local premieres of a teenaged Claude Debussy’s Piano Trio in G minor and Spaniard Joaquin Turina’s Second Piano Trio.

These aren’t the greatest of pieces, but there are enough pleasantries to shake off the derivative nature of the former (think Saint-Saëns and Fauré in a palm court), or the paucity of Hispanic-ness in the latter. Polish, confidence and a lovely overall sound are their qualities, capped with an ability to sustain long sighs in Schubert’s autumnal Notturno.

More established are the three ladies of the Feng Trio, members of the SSO, who presented Brahms’ First Piano Trio in B major (Op.8). Has there been a more gorgeous melody than the one that opens this masterpiece? Their sense of nobility and sumptuous handling were alone worth the price of admission.

Pianist Liu Jia (above) also joined other SSO colleagues in Hummel’s Piano Quintet in E flat minor (Op.87), unusually scored to include the double bass. Stylistically caught between Mozart and Mendelssohn, this trifle was 20-or-so innocuous minutes well spent, with a scintillating piano part to tickle the palate.

Leaving the most spectacular for the last, 20-year-old violinist Yang Shuxiang made a stunning debut with pianist Khor Shang Jin (both above) to a rapturous standing ovation. 

Looking like Adonis sporting a Paganinian mane, Yang’s sheer force of personality and a sonorous vibrato to match was simply breathtaking. There was little to quibble about his effortless take on Vitali’s Chaconne, closely followed by Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.7 in C minor (Op.30 No.2), which penetrated with an intensity of a laser and bristled with brio.

His ability to blend were further highlighted with duos partnering violinist See Ian Ike and violist Tan Wee Hsin, in Moszkowski’s hyper-Romantic Suite for 2 violins in G minor and Lazar Trachtenberg’s devilishly dissonant Witches Soirée respectively. The diablerie continued with Ravel’s Tzigane, a gypsy rhapsody where free-ranging sense of abandon displayed by both violinist and pianist became an asset.

May wonders in our local chamber music scene never cease, and such weekends of musical manna never end.