CHAMBER MUSIC RESIDENCY CONCERTS / Chamber Music & Arts Singapore / Review

 

CHAMBER MUSIC 

RESIDENCY CONCERTS

Chamber Music & Arts Singapore

Objectifs Chapel, 

155 Middle Road

Saturday (13 June 2026)

Friday (19 June 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 June 2026 with the title "Two evenings of resonant programmes by Chamber Music and Arts at Objectifs chapel".

Befitting a premier arts organisation, Chamber Music & Arts Singapore (CMAS) founded by local violinist Tang Tee Khoon aims to promote chamber music performance at highest possible levels. To this end, its Chamber Music Residency programme saw young Singaporean musicians mentored by leading international classical artists, and performing alongside them.

Two showcase concerts of French music were fruits of their labour. On Saturday (13 June), Gabriel Faure’s Piano Quartet No.2 in G minor (Op.45) was given a rare airing. Violinist Yang Shuxiang, who is concertmaster of re:Sound, was partnered with violist Joelle Hsu, pianist Tay Shu Wen and British cellist Jamie Walton.

The historic chapel of Objectifs, formerly the Middle Road Church in the 1890s, has reverberant acoustics well-suited for chamber music. From the outset, all four instruments could be distinctly heard on their own and in ensemble. This made for a rich unified sound in the music’s passionate opening pages, sustained as the tempo was further upped in the breathless Scherzo.

The true heart laid in the elegiac slow movement, where Hsu’s viola sang its plaint, backed by Tay’s bell-like chords. This oasis of respite was the calm before the finale’s storm of rapidly surging triplets, which made for an exciting end.

Maurice Ravel’s masterly Piano Trio in A minor followed without an intermission, performed by the musical mentors themselves, violinist Tang, cellist Walton and Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson. Despite adopting a somewhat deliberate opening tempo, the ensemble very rapidly ratcheted up the tension and volume, rising to the venue’s highest reaches.

All four movements were united by a common theme, so well-disguised as to be almost imperceptible. The second movement’s Pantoum was influenced by the metre found in the Malay pantun, its syncopations contrasted by the varied slow chants of the ensuing Passacaille (passacaglia), a set of variations on a bass theme. As in the Faure, the finale went for broke, where all caution was thrown to the wind for a rapturous close.

Friday (19 June) evening’s concert began with Faure’s La Bonne Chanson, an exquisite nine-movement song cycle with texts by French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine. Locally-based British soprano Kezia Robson was accompanied by string quartet (violinist Yang and Isabelle Ong, violist Hsu and cellist Cho Hang-oh), pianist Tay and double-bassist Kuek Jia Xin.

Over muted strings, Robson cast a spell of mystique over the opening song Une sainte en son aureole (A Saint In Her Halo), her spirits later soaring with the piano’s entry in Puisque l’aube grandit (Since Dawn Is Rising). The verses take a darker turn with fear and anxiety expressed, well captured by all aboard, before closing with the hope of love in L’hiver a cesse (Winter Has Ended).

Very different was Ernest Chausson’s Concert for violin, piano and string quartet (Op.21), a four-movement masterpiece conceived like a symphony but with the intimacy of chamber music. Violinist Tang and pianist Beatson were backed the same string foursome, but gloves were off for the most dramatic of first movements, built on an ominous three-note motif. 

A full gamut of emotions was run through a clothes wringer, the insouciant elegance of sicilienne-based second movement sharply contrasted with the moody yet intensely passionate dirge of the third movement aptly marked Grave.

The breathless and ecstatically charged finale saw the most acute of responses, with all six musicians playing as if their lives depended on it. The packed chapel erupted with vociferous praise. That is what truly moving chamber music in closed spaces elicits, and nothing less.

DAL SEGN0 1825 / Resound Collective & Chamber Music & Arts Singapore / Review

 

DAL SEGNO 1825

Resound Collective & 

Chamber Music & Arts Singapore

Victoria Concert Hall

Saturday (8 November 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 11 November 2025 with the title "A joyous outing by Chamber Music & Arts Singapore, Resound Collective".

What happens when the two most important chamber music forces in Singapore join hands? While operating independently, Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon’s Chamber Music & Arts Singapore (CMAS) and local impresario Mervin Beng’s Resound Collective have set the Singapore chamber music scene alight in recent years. Their collaboration, in a collegial spirit of partnership to make music, was inevitable.

Opening the evening was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor (K.466) with Hungarian pianist Zoltan Fejervari as soloist and British violinist Candida Thompson (of the renowned Amsterdam Sinfonietta) as leader. Although none of the performers onstage subscribe to the period instrument philosophy, some practices were in place.

Fejervari performed with his back to the audience, and played chords and accompanying figurations during the orchestral introduction, even before his solo entry proper. This practice harked back to a time when the keyboard was part of ensemble rather than a disparate entity. His playing was freshly minted, liberally dressed up with tasteful ornamentations, particularly in the central Romanze.

Photo: Clarence Aw

Solo cadenzas, including one by Ludwig van Beethoven for the first movement, was a reminder that Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) was still passionately in place. The finale’s shift into the key of D major was also a show of unfettered joy.

Photo: Clarence Aw

Only orchestral strings remained for the concert’s tour de force that was Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue, Op.133). Originally written as a finale for his Op.130 String Quartet, its sheer dissonance and radically modern outlook saw it being cast aside for something more palatable. Standing on its own, it is still Beethoven’s toughest nut to crack, for both players and listeners.

Photo: Clarence Aw

Thompson and her 22 charges tore into its thorny thickets like persons possessed. The unison playing impressed with its fearlessness, togetherness and voluminous heft, fully aware that one false step would mean total chaos. The fugal entries came quick and fast but nobody missed a cue as the evening’s most intense quarter-hour drew the first half to an impressive close.

Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E flat major (Op.20), composed at 16, is a miracle of precocity besides being a favourite of chamber festivals. Bringing together two string quartets, usually of different origins and countenances, as a harmonious whole is a secret to its success.

Photo: Clarence Aw

All the eight players, violinists Thompson, Tang and Yang Shuxiang (Singapore) and Liv Hilde Klokk-Bryhn (Norway), violists Julianne Lee (USA) and Ida Klokk-Bryhn (Norway), cellists Eckart Runge (Germany) and Cho Hang-oh (South Korea), sounded as if they had been playing as close partners all their lives.

Such unity was affirmed on its outset, the opening movement buzzing with activity, contrasted with the slow movement’s moving lyricism. The familiar Scherzo flew with the lightness of fairies’ wings, while the fugal finale with its quote of “And He Shall Reign Forever” from Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus became a ringing refrain. There can be no better advertisement for the joy of chamber music such as this.

Photo: Clarence Aw

AN 1825 HOPSCOTCH / Tang Tee Khoon & Alasdair Beatson / Review

 

AN 1825 HOPSCOTCH 

Tang Tee Khoon, Violin 

Alasdair Beatson, Piano 

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Saturday (10 May 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 13 May 2025 with the title "Virtuoso playing by Tang Tee Khoon and Alasdair Beatson".

Two hundred years ago, in 1825, the world of classical music moved well into the Romantic era. With Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony premiered the year before, musical history would never be the same again. This was the premise of a very demanding recital of German Romantic violin sonatas by local violinist Tang Tee Khoon, founder and artistic director of Chamber Music and Arts Singapore (CMAS), and excellent Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson. 

Beethoven, Mendelssohn & Schumann.

Photo: Clarence Aw

That the duo focussed on repertoire that is not often heard in concert, a decision that would have adversely affected the box-office, was also telling. Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No.10 in G major (Op.96 from 1812), which opened the concert, is far less often performed than his Kreutzer Sonata (Op.47) and that is our loss. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

It began with a whisper from the violin, echoed by the piano, its congeniality being a far cry from the blood and guts passion of earlier sonatas. This music is for sensitive souls performing for sensitive listeners, and the chemistry between Tang and Beatson showed from the outset. When both musicians listen to each other intently, the results are immediately palpable. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

The hymn-like slow movement oozed lyricism, later seguing into a brief Scherzo with crisply delivered chords. It was the finale’s theme and variations on a jolly subject that surprised the most. Seldom has Beethoven sounded this disarming and non-belligerent, and it was with this good humour that the duo scored the highest marks. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

By comparison, Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Sonata No.3 in F major (1838) was a showcase for virtuoso chops. The first movement’s main theme was resolute and heroic, a showy prelude heralding the musical sorcery to come. While the prayer-like central movement was a typical “song without words”, the finale flew on fairy wings, its feathery lightness being a hallmark of the technical prowess demanded. The twosome’s charming reading could scarcely be bettered. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

The concert’s second half was occupied by Robert Schumann’s very substantial Violin Sonata No.2 in D minor (Op.121) from 1851, more than a good half-hour of overflowing passion. A late work written at a time of psychiatric crisis, the embattled composer literally poured out his heart, and received the performance it deserved. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

From the series of slashing opening chords, both Tang and Beatson showed they clearly meant business. An overwhelming sense of agitation and urgency obsessed the music, with the Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) generated never flagging for a single moment. This tension continued into the second movement with flashy piano chords accompanying the violin’s plaints. 

Photo: Clarence Aw

Gentle violin pizzicatos opened the lyrical slow movement, its apparent quietude and simplicity later interjected with reminders from the preceding movement. Beneath the surface calm, not all is well was the intended message. The perpetual motion of the finale was a return to the maelstrom, as both performers rallied to an impressively resounding finish. It was a pity that such artistry was not witnessed by a larger audience.

SCHUBERT 1824 / Chamber Music and Arts Singapore / Review

 

SCHUBERT 1824 

Chamber Music and Arts Singapore

Esplanade Recital Studio 

Monday & Tuesday 

(16 & 17 December 2024)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 20 December 2024 with the title "Chamber Music and Arts presented sparkling showcase in mini Schubert festival".

So soon after the Ding Yi Chinese Chamber Music Festival came another mini-festival, this time for Western instruments by Chamber Music and Arts Singapore (CMAS) curated by Singaporean violinist Tang Tee Khoon. Its focus was on Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) and the year 1824. Three repertoire works from that annus mirabilis were heard over two evenings. 

Tang Tee Khoon is the founder 
and driving force behind
Chamber Music and Arts Singapore.

Schubert’s Sonata in A minor (D.821), popularly known as the Arpeggione Sonata, was originally written for the arpeggione, an obsolete bowed instrument with frets. Now commonly heard on cello, this evening’s performance came instead from the viola, helmed by American violist Julianne Lee with locally-based American pianist Ning An. 

Cello or viola, the music is equally beautiful, intimated by Lee’s rich and warm tone. Its lyrical lines were gorgeously voiced and her intonation impeccable. Every bit an equal partner was An’s crisp and unflappable pianism which never sought to dominate, instead making the music sing through three congenial movements. 

While the sonata basked in genteel Biedermeier sensibilities, String Quartet No.14 in D minor (D.810), or “Death And The Maiden”, reflected a more turbulent aspect of the Romantics. Festival director Tang, local violinist Yang Shuxiang and German cellist Eckart Runge joined violist Lee for what had to be the most passionate performance of this masterpiece heard in recent times. 

Its unison opening bars came like a fearsome onslaught, fair indication of angst and agitation to come. Unity and tautness of ensemble was on full display, yet every voice was heard with a startling immediacy and resounding clarity. The tempestuous first movement was contrasted with the slow movement’s variations, based on the solemn plodding chords which Schubert’s eponymous song Der Tod und das Madchen (Death and the Maiden) begins with. 

The full gamut of string quartet writing was wondrously revealed, each variation unfolding with ever increasing tension. Solos from Tang and Runge were lovingly voiced in this mini-epic. While the short Scherzo and Trio contrasted brusqueness with decorum, the adrenaline-fueled finale’s tarantella rhythm closed with an unabashed show of blood and guts. 

The second evening saw a rare outing of the Octet in F major (D.803), scored for strings and winds. The earlier quartet of strings was joined by Frenchman Florent Héau (clarinet), Lim Tee Heong (bassoon), Kartik Alan Jairamin (French horn) and Wang Xu (double-bass), the latter three members from re:Sound Collective. 

In six movements running for almost 70 minutes, this is Schubert’s longest chamber work, even more expansive than his “Great” Symphony. That the eight musicians stayed the course for this exhausting (more for players but less so for audience) masterpiece was credit enough, but they also impressed with an excellent balance of voices and individual instrumental virtuosity. 

The imposing opening movement established their credentials beyond doubt, while the Adagio second movement’s sheer lyrical beauty could melt hearts. Héau’s clarinet solo was an echo of the slow movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. Tang’s violin and Runge’s cello later took turns to gild the lily, while Kartik’s horn provided the counterpoint. Simply sublime. 

The faster movements, a Scherzo and Minuet, possessed a drive that resisted rhythmic rigidity, opting instead for flexibility when it came to contrasting second subjects. Sandwiched in between was one of Schubert’s greatest Theme and Variations movements, a folksy Mozartean subject put through a creative spin that was both inventive and delightful. 

Vigorous rumbling tremolos from Runge dramatically heralded the finale, an expressive outpouring of joie de vivre all the way to an ecstatic close. The rousing reception accorded to the octet was clear indication that the audience had witnessed something truly special.