NOWELL, NOWELL! / Red Dot Baroque / Review

 

NOWELL, NOWELL!

Red Dot Baroque

The Arts House Chamber

Sunday (14 December 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 16 December 2025 with the title "Red Dot Baroque ushers in Christmas with joyous concert".

It was a wet and soggy Sunday afternoon, and it almost seemed a chore to haul oneself away from the comforts of home to attend a concert. However, this was not any concert, but a celebration of Christmas by Red Dot Baroque (RDB), Singapore’s only professional period instrument group. The much-needed tonic for one nursing a cold, its infectious high spirits instantly drove away the blues.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Opening with the distant wail of Law Chi Yan’s bagpipes, the tenor voice of Reuben Lai followed by Teng Xiang Ting’s soprano began this uncommon procession, a Yuletide offering from the British Isles not previously encountered in sunny Singapore. RDB knows how to put on a show and its 75 minutes were a treat from start to end.

With music from the Emerald Isle, this was a programme built around the legendary blind harper Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738), considered Ireland’s national composer. His Welcome was the perfect greeting for the dances – which sounded familiar by the Celtic fiddling – in Cup and Favourite Jig to come.

Photo: Yong Junyi

After RDB founder and leader Alan Choo made his entry, the floor of the Old Parliament’s chamber was transformed into some country barn. Joined by fellow fiddlers - Brenda Koh, Placida Ho and Gabriel Lee – they begun to make merry. Their free-wheeling moves abetted by foot-stamping by the audience made for an enjoyable musical spectacle.

Photo: Yong Junyi

The famous Wexford Carol, shared by Teng and Lai, well and truly ushered in the spirit of Christmas atmosphere. Crossing the Irish Sea to England, Pastime With Good Compayne by King Henry VIII, the infamous monarch with six wives, brought in more cheer.

Other RDB’s instrumentalists, Gerald Lim on electronic keyboard substituting for harpsichord and Christopher Clarke on archlute accounted for more intimate music by William Byrd and John Dowland. The alternation between instrumental and sung pieces worked very well, with the English segment closing with Nowell, Tidings True and Masters of this Hall, adapted from Frenchman Marin Marais’ music.

Climbing over Hadrian’s Wall into Scotland, there was more intoxicating fiddling in On the Wings of Skorie and Old Grey Cat. The soothing Skye Boat Song was sung by Lai with a distinct Celtic accent, while the witty and bawdy verses of Henry Purcell’s Twas Within a Furlong of Edinburgh Town were perfectly captured by Teng.

Returning to Eire, O’Carolan’s final work before his passing, Farewell To Music, made for some poignant moments before the jigs Apples In Winter and The Mason’s Apron closed the show with a proper hurrah. RDB’s splendid ensemble was completed by Leslie Tan on cello / gamba, Cheryl Lim on flutes and whistles, and percussionist Govin Tan who left his tablas at home.

Cheryl Lim

Leslie Tan

Govin Tan
Photo: Yong Junyi

The audience singalong was suitably rousing with seasonal hymns ironically by two German composers, Felix Mendelssohn’s Hark, The Herald Angels Sing and George Frideric Handel’s Joy To The World. With the current turmoil and violence, the world could do with more of Red Dot Baroque’s joyous message of goodwill and peace.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Photo: Yong Junyi

More photos from the concert 

may be found here:

pianomania: 24 VARIATIONS ON RED DOT BAROQUE'S NOWELL, NOWELL

BACH CONCERTOS EXTRAVAGANZA / Red Dot Baroque / Review

 

BACH CONCERTOS EXTRAVAGANZA!

Red Dot Baroque

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (7 September 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 September 2025 with the title "Celebrating 60 years of Singapore-Germany diplomacy with Bach extravaganza".

Red Dot Baroque (RDB), led by violinist and Young Artist Award recipient Alan Choo, is Singapore’s only professional group playing period instruments. In 2023, it performed all six of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos in a single sitting. Its latest concert, celebrating SG60 and marking sixty years of Singapore-Germany diplomacy, saw four favourite concertos of the German baroque master aired.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Opening the show was the Concerto for violin and oboe in C minor (BWV.1060) with soloists Placido Ho (violin) and Veda Lin (oboe). Both played as members of the general ensemble before assuming their solo parts and standing out with piquant tones. There were few moments as beautiful as the slow central movement’s duet, before a flurry of counterpoint completed the fast finale.

The title of Orchestral Suite No.2 in B minor (BWV.1067) may seem a misnomer as there were just six players partnering Rachel Ho on traverso (baroque flute) for the set in seven movements. Partita or Overture might have been more apt titles for this, but Ho’s lovely tone presided over dances including a Rondeau, Sarabande, Bourree, Polonaise and Menuet.

Photo: Yong Junyi

The audience’s erratic response of applauding between some movements may have distracted the ensemble, leading to a false start for the Badinerie. However, playful bantering between players was the idea of this mercurial finale, closing the work on an irrepressible high.

Photo: Yong Junyi

After the interval, a rare performance of the Harpsichord Concerto in A major (BWV.1055) featured Mervyn Lee as soloist. His understated but crystal-clear articulation was the highlight in this forerunner of the piano concerto, with brooding and emoting in the Larghetto slow movement, before breaking free of fetters in the fast outer movements.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Closing the matinee was the popular Concerto for two violins in D minor (BWV.1043) with leader Choo and Gabriel Lee in the spotlight. The unspoken chemistry between two founding members shone through despite having quite different stage demeanours, Choo’s animated movements versus Lee’s steadfast stance. The performance, true to form, exuded joy from every pore.

Inserted between the concertos in each half was the Asian premiere of Rainforest Refrains (2025), composed for RDB’s Italian tour earlier this year by Young Artist Award recipient Chen Zhangyi. This is a modern update of the multi-movement baroque suite or partita. With narration and delightful singing by soprano Teng Xiang Ting, this could also pass off as a neo-baroque cantata.

Photo: Yong Junyi

Tropical flora and fauna were the subjects in its nine movements. Burung Hamba Kera (The Monkey’s Servant Bird), a reimagination of the Malay song Burung Kakak Tua contrasted with Pangolin Passacaglia, a doleful lament. The lively finale became a play on the Chinese words “liu lian”, which was to linger besides being the name of a thorny but aromatic fruit.

Composer Chen Zhangyi
acknowledges the applause.

The encore of Phang Kok Jun’s A Barojak Suite (2020) comprised four dance movements which were settings of local songs in the form of antique dances: the allemande, corrente, sarabande and gigue. Commissioned out of pure fun, one has not lived without having heard Munnaeru Vaalibaa or Jinkli Nona played on baroque instruments.

BEETHOVEN'S NINTH: YOUR ORCHESTRAL EXPERIENCE / Musicians' Initiative / Review

 

BEETHOVEN’S NINTH: 

YOUR CONCERT EXPERIENCE 

Musicians’ Initiative 

SOTA Concert Hall 

Saturday (7 December 2024) 

Some cultures celebrate the Christmas season with Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Singapore is not one of these, but it is still a welcome prospect to be greeted with the Ode To Joy. Many Beethoven 9 concerts have it as the sole item on the programme, but Musicians’ Initiative led by Alvin Arumugam preceded its concert with an unusual hour-long first half with what is likely to have been three Singapore premieres. 

The ostensible theme of the concert was a journey from darkness to light, and the world desperately needs that kind of inspiration now. The music of pioneering Japanese composer, the Berlin-schooled Kosaku Yamada (1886-1965), opened the concert. His Madara No Hana (The Spotted Flower, 1913) is a short tone poem which assimilated the influences must have had during his years of study – post-Wagnerian Tristanesque harmonies, impressionist hues and spurts of Richard Straussian lyricism. With neither whiffs of sakura nor sake, it made for a pleasant atmospheric overture. 

Alvin introduces the works
in his own passionate way.

What came next was unprecedented, two double bass concertos with the excellent Atlanta-based Korean bassist Mikyung Sung. The Asian premiere of Dark with Excessive Bright (2018) by American composer Missy Mazzoli (born 1980), inspired by John Milton’s Paradise Lost, was revelatory. 

Written in a single movement, its all-string accompaniment resembled that in a baroque concerto grosso supporting Sung’s tour de force, which spanned the full gamut of bass technique. This encompassed subterranean growls, gentle caresses to wild lashings, within an idiom that was tonal and at many parts lyrical. The tintinnabuli of Arvo Pärt’s spiritual minimalism was also in evidence. Towards the end, Sung’s touching duo with the orchestra’s bass Sanche Jagatheesan made for a sublime minute or so before a quiet and gentle close. 

Far more traditional was Italian bass-virtuoso Giovanni Bottessini’s Double Bass Concerto No.2 in B minor, which had all the early Romantic virtuoso tropes – bel canto lyricism, transcendental technique and showboating for its own sake. Sung is an understated virtuoso, whose technique is wholly in service to the music. Adapting very well to both vastly diverse idioms, her intonation was always impeccable and made the unwieldy instrument sing. When a bass in its highest registers begins to resemble a cello, one is in the presence of a true master. 

The main event was Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in D minor (Op.125), popularly known as the Choral Symphony. The smallish orchestral forces employed by conductor Arumugam meant it was going to be lithe and light, much in the spirit of the period instrument movement. Heard on modern instruments, it was still a valid approach. Its opening, almost featherlight in its lift and very little vibrato used, would inform the tenor of the performance. The brisk speeds obligated very accurate playing and the orchestra obliged, the pinpoint pacing dictated by timpanist Christian Borres being a very dominant figure. 

The Scherzo was just as swift and emphatic, with woodwinds in tiptop and unimpeachable form. This conception, which worked very well in the first two movements, was becoming reminiscent of a famous recording in the catalogue, the London Classical Soloists under Roger Norrington. 

The Adagio was less immaculate, but unfolded in an unfussy and non-sentimental manner reaching a passionate climax before clocking in at just eleven minutes (Bernstein in Berlin ‘89 took over 20 minutes). With more rehearsal time, this would have been much better. 

And so to the much-awaited finale. Erupting with appropriate tumult, themes from earlier movements were relived before the An der Freude theme began to take shape. Just seven cellos and four basses meant the required heft was missing, a price to pay for the earlier litheness. Baritone John Lee was the perfect choice to voice the opening O Freunde, nicht diese Töne!, his stentorian presence a reassurance. Less impressive was tenor Raymond Lee who was virtually drowned out by the janissary band in the Turkish march episode. The quartet was soloists was completed by soprano Teng Xiang Ting and mezzo-soprano Cindy Honanta who were excellent. 

Pride of place had to go to the 74-strong Symphonia Choralis (Chong Wai Lun, chorusmaster) which was very well-disciplined and delivered the choral climaxes and tricky fugues with suitable aplomb. The unison Seid umschlungem, Millionen was particularly arresting, hair-raising in intensity but with no hair out of place. As everybody knows, this was Friedrich Schiller’s paean to the “Brotherhood of Man”, the unfettered joy displayed by orchestra, chorus and soloists evident to all who were fortunate to have attended. 

This was clearly the most impressive showing to date by Musicians’ Initiative under music director Alvin Arumugam. Their future concerts will be keenly anticipated.

Enjoy the concert here:

IN DULCI JUBILO by Red Dot Baroque / CHRISTMAS WITH ROS by Resonance of Singapore / Review

IN DULCI JUBILO

Red Dot Baroque

Chamber @ The Arts House

Saturday (17 December 2022)

 

CHRISTMAS WITH ROS

Resonance of Singapore

Esplanade Recital Studio

Tuesday (20 December 2022)

 

This review was published in The Straits Times on 22 December 2022 with the title "Charming chorals for Christmas".

It takes an Ebenezer Scrooge to begrudge the idea of Christmas concerts, events with light festive music where both musicians and audience may be excused for letting down their collective hair to enjoy the moment. There are other occasions for serious reflection during times of pestilence and war, but such concerts make people forget their troubles, albeit for a while.

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

Red Dot Baroque is Singapore’s premier outfit for performing chamber music on period instruments. Its Christmas concert was totally refreshing by programming fare mostly unfamiliar to local audiences. Some people might, however, know the Coventry Carol which opened as a processional, sung by soprano Teng Xiang Ting accompanied by host Rachel Ho on recorder.

 

The ensemble of nine players and two singers then performed a sequence of short suites representing Christmas traditions in different European countries. The sequence started with Italy, Germany and France before closing with England. Which group could have offered Dietrich Buxtehude’s Trio Sonata in G major, performed on two violins (by Brenda Koh and Placida Ho), viola da gamba (Mervyn Lee), theorbo (Christopher Clarke) and organ (Gerald Lim), with such missionary zeal? Or Michel Corrette’s Sinfonia No.1, which brought together French carols as light entertainment?

Photo: Yong Junyi

 

If there were a single work to sum up the evening’s sublime quality, that would be Heinrich Schutz’s Hodie Christus Natus Es (Today Christ Is Born) where the beauty of two voices, Teng and tenor David Charles Tay’s, became intertwined as one, accompanied by just the organ. The titular In Dulci Jubilo by Michael Praetorius received an equally lovely reading, while Tay’s leading of the audience singalong in Wassail, Wassail, All Over The Town got the audience enthusiastically involved.

 

Resonance of Singapore (ROS), led by award-winning choral conductor Toh Ban Sheng, is an a cappella choir formed entirely of professional singers. Its Christmas concert was an equally sparkling affair, opening with the famous Shaker hymn Simple Gifts, in a medley arranged by Toh and Bob Chilcott (once of the King’s Singers). Its eight singers filled the suitably reverberant Esplanade Recital Studio with a cathedral of rich sonority totally befitting the group’s name.

 

John Rutter’s saccharine What Sweeter Music? saw guest countertenor Chan Wei En and pianist Matthew Mak join in the festivities. Chan, fresh out of last weekend’s Die Fledermaus, also delighted in Mozart’s most famous motet Exsultate, Jubilate, revelling in its familiar rounds of Alleluias.

 

In common with Red Dot Baroque’s concert was In Dulci Jubilo, now sounding fuller with more voices involved in R.L.Pearsall’s arrangement. Just as beautiful was Gustav Holst’s In The Bleak Midwinter which sounded anything but bleak with soprano Susanna Pua’s solo contribution. The longest and most serious work was Francis Poulenc’s Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noel (Four Christmas Motets), sung in Latin, rendered sensitively and reverentially.

 

Eleven-year-old Riyan Ballesteros-Pattanayak, a ROS young artist, was given the spotlight in the gorgeous carol Adolphe Adam’s O Holy Night. Discreetly accompanied by soprano Pua and pianist Mak, he sang with a purity of tone and no little confidence.

 

The latter segment of the concert showcased popular seasonal favourites such as The Christmas Song (popularised by Mel Torme), Leontovich’s Carol of the Bells (based on a Ukrainian hymn) and a most animated version of The Twelve Days Of Christmas possible, sung with a panoply of slick actions. The general singalong, with no less than five carols, was surprisingly rousing given the usual reticence of local audiences. Perhaps they had been sufficiently roused by ROS to go one better.  

ROS photographs by courtesy of 

Resonance of Singapore