TINTINNABULI! / The Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Review

 

TINTINNABULI!

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Chamber @ The Arts House

Sunday (26 April 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 29 April 2026 with the title "A touching showcase of Arvo Pärt's religious songs".

The concert’s title comes from the onomatopoeic Latin term referring to the tinkling and pealing of bells, a showcase of choral music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt who celebrated his 90th birthday last year. He is the best-known and most-performed of the so-called “mystic minimalist” composers, the others being John Tavener (England) and Henryk Gorecki (Poland).

Conductor Lim Yau has been Singapore’s most ardent advocate, having directed local premieres of Pärt’s Te Deum, Third Symphony and Cantus In Memoriam Benjamin Britten. Leading the 29-member Philharmonic Chamber Choir he founded in the mid-1990s, the hour-long showcase of Pärt’s a cappella music spanned some 30 years and displayed the widest range of vocal sonorities.

Opening with Da Pacem Domine (Give Peace, Lord, composed 2004), each voiced syllable of the Latin words resounded like a series of rung bells. Spreading through the sections, the illusion of alternating pulsations furthered the haunting quality of tintinnabuli. Conceived after the wake of the Madrid train bombings, the music provided a calming effect and ultimate consolation.

Magnificat (My Soul Doth Magnify The Lord, 1989) or the Canticle of Mary, also in Latin, contained more dissonances in high registers, including whole tones and semitones. These resolved as the music soared in a crescendo, the power of which to humble the mighty and reward the meek and hungry.

Dopo La Vittoria (After The Victory, 1996) was an unusual departure as it was an Italian description of St Ambrose’s Te Deum (Song of Praise) and its history rather than actual liturgical texts. The mood was more upbeat and jocular, with staccato phrasing at its beginning and closing. In between were expressions of exultation which provided the work’s spine-tingling climaxes.

Nunc Dimittis (Now Lettest Thou Thy Servant Depart, 2001) or Song of Simeon, had more of the trademarked tintinnabulation. From the opening drones, its spare textures interspersed with moments of harmonic beauty built up to a stirring high with the utterance of the word Lumen (Light).

Singing in English, The Woman with the Alabaster Box (1997) related an incident in the Gospels where a sinful woman did not spare her precious ointment on Jesus despite the disdain of onlookers. The austere and subdued tones, delivered with ultimate reverence, told a story of humility, repentance and forgiveness.

Virgencita (Virgin Mary, 2012), inspired by the Virgin Mary of Guadelupe and sung in Spanish, was a prayer of supplication which provided the concert’s most transcendent outburst of faith. Closing the concert was Ja ma kuulsin hääle... (And I Heard A Voice..., 2017), sung in Estonian, where “Blessed are the dead” becomes not a statement of grief or mourning, but one of respite and relief.

Despite the venue’s dryish acoustics and high ceiling, the choir coped well to deliver performances that touched the heart and soul. The sedate atmosphere of a church service was maintained from start to end. The audience instinctively knew not to applaud between works despite not being prompted, instead reserving their long and deserved accolades at the very end.

ASIAN A CAPPELLA: ECHOES OF ANCIENT AIRS / The Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Review

 

ASIAN A CAPPELLA:

ECHOES OF ANCIENT AIRS

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Esplanade Recital Studio

Friday (5 September 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 8 September 2025 with the title "Rebooted Philharmonic Chamber Choir is peerless".

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir (TPCC) was formed during the mid-1990s as an offshoot of the Singapore Symphony Chorus, with a vision to specialise in Asian a cappella choral music. Its members have come and gone over the decades, but one constant remains – the leadership of founder chorusmaster Lim Yau, still a lively presence in his 70s.

Photo: Ellissa Sayampanathan

His thirst for musical exploration and choral discipline knows no bounds, and reviving TPCC after a seven-year performing hiatus was no mean feat. Its latest programme dwelled mostly on contemporary Japanese music, opening with two quite different song cycles sung in the native language.

Each of the five songs in Yuka Yamashita’s Haru Ga Kitanara (When Spring Comes, 2023) was prefaced by a reading of the short-lived Michizo Tachihara’s poetry by alto Tomoko Ichimaru, also the choir’s Japanese language coach. The musical idiom, although contemporary, was highly tonal and accessible.

Photo: Ellissa Sayampanathan

The 28 singers brought out a warm sonority, beginning with the very engaging If Spring Should Come. Clear enunciation and pronunciation helped, and even if one did not understand Japanese, one could feel a prevailing spirit of optimism and happiness. This was most apparent in the final song How Many Happy Days, which was serenity and contentment portrayed in as many words.

Photo: Ellissa Sayampanathan

Takatomi Nobunaga’s Rubaiyat (2011), based on a Japanese interpretation of an English translation of Omar Khayyam’s verses, was more invigorating. Some songs delighted in chant-like unison passages, while The Bird In Time had detached phrases and high melodic registers, recalling a nightingale’s song. The tricky counterpoint in the final two songs - Rolling Time and Spring Should Vanish - was comfortably surmounted, while luxuriating in lovely harmonies.

Photo: Ellissa Sayampanathan

It was a pity that the trigger-happy audience applauded after almost every short number, which disrupted the flow of both suites. At least they were listening intently and responding positively. Even the children in attendance were well-behaved.

More Japanese music featured in the 90-minute concert’s second half. Toru Takemitsu, Japan’s most well-known classical composer, was represented by three pieces of a decidedly light nature. The ballad-like and strophic Chii Sora (Small Sky, 1962/1981) was so free of his trademarked dissonance as to be positively inviting. Similarly, Maru To Sankaku No Uta (A Song of Circles and Triangles, 1961/1984) and Tsubasa (Wings, 1982/83) also revealed his more sentimental side.

Singapore was represented by the local premiere of Zechariah Goh’s Fei Qin (Abandoned Qin, 2023), commissioned by a Taiwanese choir and premiered in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Sung in Mandarin, Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyu’s lament on the erosion and neglect of classics was referenced in the onomatopoeic tones which simulated tones of the plucked guqin.

The final song was Francisco Feliciano’s Si Yahweh Ang Aking Pastol (The Lord Is My Shepherd, 1981), a canonic Tagalog setting of the famous first line from Psalm No.23 which built to a moving and sonorous climax. There are many choirs in Singapore today, but as a chorus of mature voices tackling serious repertoire, the rebooted TPCC remains peerless.

Photo: Allissa Sayampanathan

THE SILENT REALM IN MAJESTY / The Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Review

THE SILENT REALM IN MAJESTY

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Victoria Concert Hall

Sunday (13 March 2015)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 March 2016 with the title "Choral concert focuses on longing for spiritual peace". 

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir, founded by conductor Lim Yau, is now in its 22^nd year. The choir's greatest strength lies in its programming of concerts with specific themes. This concert of German a cappella choral music, guest-conducted by Manfred Schreier from the Freiburg Hochschule fur Musik, was centred on man's longing for spiritual peace.

Opening the afternoon was Hungarian Zoltan Kodaly's Jesus und die Krämer (Jesus and the Traders), a narration of Christ's display of righteous indignation at the Temple of Jerusalem. After an opening fanfare, massed voices and a fugue represented the hubbub of commerce that had defiled the holy place. The repeated chant of “Gottloss” (Godless) was the serious warning which Jesus issued to all present, essentially a call for repentence.

The choir then settled into two songs by Josef Rheinberger, the soft cushioned harmonies of Abendlied (Evensong) and Ich liebe, weil erhöret der Herr (I Love the Lord, because He hath heard), both of which provided a calming sense of solace. The choir's sensitivity to words and music made these sound totally convincing.

Genesis, Clytus Gottwald's choral arrangement of the orchestral prelude to Haydn's The Creation, known as The Representation of Chaos, with words by Moses Mendelssohn based on the Torah, then taxed the 26-strong ensemble. A deliberate absence of melodic line and unstable tonal centres were to throw off any semblance of order. Were the singers in pitch and in sync, or not? Or was that the general idea of the work that closed calmly in C minor?

A better depiction of heavenly bliss than Finn Jaako Mantyjärvi's Die Stimme des Kindes (The Voice of the Child) would be hard to find. Over a gently rocking rhythm, the music portrayed the sleep of innocents with hosts of angels, before melting into a soft peal of bells. This aural balm continued into Gottwald's transcription of Mahler's Ich bin der welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the World) from the Ruckert-Lieder song cycle.   

Was this an improvement over the original for solo voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment? It certainly sounded more fussy, with voices sharing both solo part and orchestral details, which included a mellifluous soprano line that soared towards the celestial realm.

There were two Bach transcriptions, beginning with Knut Nystedt's revisionist look at the well-known chorale Komm, Susser Tod (Come, Sweet Death) which had eight singers planted in the stalls. The antiphonal bending of pitches and off-phase entries provided a brief haunting sense of disorientation, with order restored in Dieter Schnebel's more conventional transcription of Contrapunctus I from The Art of Fugue.  

Completing each half of the concert were Hugo Wolf's Sechs Geistliche Lieder (6 Sacred Songs) and Johannes Brahms' late Fünf Gesänge (5 Songs). The first probed man's uneasy quest for solace, where Eichendorff's words Herrlich ein im Stillen Reich (Silent Realm In Majesty) provided the concert's title. The second was an autumnal reflection at the end of life's journey, one rewarded with eternal peace. The choir's response was one of quiet rejoicing and radiant equanimity, and given their demanding programme, also for a job well done.

Manfred Schreier receives his applause.

Two Sibelius aficionados meet:
Lim Yau, Singapore's foremost Sibelius conductor
with Erik T.Tawaststjerna, Head of Piano
at Helsinki's Sibelius Academy and son of
Erik Tawaststjerna, Sibelius' biographer.

DON'T MISS THIS CHORAL SPECTACULAR: THE PHILHARMONIC CHAMBER CHOIR in THE SILENT REALM IN MAJESTY

FOR LOVERS OF CHORAL MUSIC,

A CONCERT NOT TO BE MISSED!

THE SILENT REALM IN MAJESTY

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Manfred Schreier, Guest Conductor

Sunday 13 March 2016

Victoria Concert Hall, 5 pm

Tickets at $28 & $38,  available at SISTIC

The award-winning and highly acclaimed The Philharmonic Chamber Choir performs a programme of German sacred and secular a cappella music, from Romantic to the modern era, exploring the theme of Chaos and Divine Rest, under the direction of German choral conductor Manfred Schreier of the Hochschule fur Musik Freiburg.

Works include:

KODALY Jesus und die Krämer

RHEINBERGER Bleibe bei uns 

& Ich liebe, weil erhöret

HAYDN-GOTTWALD Representation of Chaos

From Die Schöpfung (The Creation)

WOLF Sechs Geistliche Lieder (Six Sacred Songs)

MAHLER Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

(I Am Lost To The World) from Rückert Lieder

MANTYJÄRVI Die stimme des kinde

J.S.BACH-NYSTEDT Komm, süsser tod

J.S.BACH-SCHNEBEL Contrapunctus

BRAHMS Zum Ende from Op.104

Don’t miss this concert of truly spiritual inspiration.

HEAR SINGAPORE'S TOP A CAPPELLA CHOIR IN CONCERT on 26 April 2015

If you love unaccompanied choral music, do spend an evening with The Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Lim Yau. Its latest concert of 20th century choral music has a Nordic and French flavour, including several Singapore premieres of repertoire works.  

TPCC Presents: 

EQUINOX - A Tale of Night and Day

Sunday, 26th April 2015

5:00pm

Victoria Concert Hall 

LIDHOLM . De Profundis
SIBELIUS . Rakastava
PIZZETTI . Due Composizioni Corali
POULENC . Soir de Neige
MESSIAEN . O Sacrum Convivium
LIGETI . Reggel
LIGETI . Ejszaka
POULENC . Sept Chansons

Tickets available at SISTIC and Victoria Concert Hall box office.

A CONCERT TO ATTEND: The Bird of Time: Asian A Cappella by The Philharmonic Chamber Choir

Do not miss this concert by one of Singapore finest a cappella choirs, The Philharmonic Chamber Choir, conducted by Lim Yau, which has made it a mission to perform Asian a cappella choral music.

THE BIRD OF TIME Asian a cappella

Zechariah Goh . Peng (鵬)

Takatomi Nobunaga . Rubáiyát (ルバイヤート)

Francisco Feliciano . Si Yahweh Ang Aking Pastol

Lee Geonyong . Mueonga Nepyeon (무언가 네편)

Lee Geonyong . Me Mil Muk Sa Ryeo (메밀묵 사려)

Francisco Feliciano . Pamugun 

Date: 31 August 2014, Sunday, 5:00pm 

Place:Victoria Concert Hall

Tickets from $15 - 30

Available at www.sistic.com

and SISTIC outlets

ZEN RENAISSANCE / The Philharmonic Chamber Choir with Ueno Koshuzan / Review

ZEN RENAISSANCE

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir

School of the Arts Concert Hall

Saturday (8 September 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 10 September 2012 with the title "Chorus of celestial harmonies".

Following the popular success of the Hilliard Ensemble juxtaposing early choral music with Jan Garbarek’s saxophone, The Philharmonic Chamber Choir (TPCC) conducted by Lim Yau has attempted something along similar lines by working with locally based Japanese shakuhachi (bamboo flute) master Ueno Koshuzan.

What do Renaissance choral motets have to do with Honkyoku (Zen music) played on the shakuhachi? Nothing really, except when these are performed and heard in turn, one feels a spiritual kinship between the two completely different art forms, and translated into an unusual synergy.

The music of John Taverner and Giovanni Palestrina, both 16^th century masters, represent an early pinnacle of polyphony, while the shakuhachi pieces dating from the early 20^th century are strictly monophonic. This does not mean that one civilisation was musically or culturally more advanced than the other, but both seem to have sought purity and enlightenment in completely different ways. 

The 35-member chorus yielded an even, homogeneous sound that filled the naturally reverberant auditorium with a warm and velvety glow. This is simply the best hall for choral and intimate music making. Celestial harmonies wafted through the air, and with the end of each choral piece, the lighting dimmed, leaving a single spotlight on Ueno, strategically seated up in the gallery behind the chorus.

He played standing, producing a deep otherworldly timbre that was thick with vibrato, and with amplification resembled a muezzin’s call to prayer. Although the music was mostly pentatonic, his technique enabled an easy segueing and transitioning into various pitches. His range was amazingly wide, and none of the works was made to sound monotonous.

Ueno’s own Winter Moon was chant-like and meditative, contrasted with the percussive interjections that distinguished Yamamoto Hozan’s Kan Otsu. In an improvisation of Tanabe Shozan’s At Times Of Quiet, a requiem for earthquake and tsunami victims, the skilful use of tremolos simulated a semblance of harmony.

The choir astutely programmed two short pieces by contemporary Polish composer Pawel Lukaszewski, Memento Mei, Domine and Ave Maria. Tonally based and strongly influenced by early music, these nevertheless explored dissonances that spiced up and piqued the senses. Inserted between these was O Vos Omnes by 16^th century Carlo Gesualdo (also notorious as a wife-killer), which unsettled with startlingly modern harmonic shifts, a touch of programming genius.

The Zen master quietly leaves but not before taking a couple of ceremonial bows (top right).

After completing Nakao Tozan’s Iwashimizu (Chapter II), which was rhapsodic and moving, Ueno quietly took his leave with two low ceremonial bows as the choir completed its programme with music by John Sheppard and the earliest composer of the lot, Jean Mouton. For the sheer beauty of the music, performed with utter conviction by all on stage and presented with TPCC’s usual high standards (not to mention excellent booklet notes), this has to be one of the best concerts of the year, without a doubt.

LUMIERE: A FRENCH REVERIE / The Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Review

LUMIERE: A FRENCH REVERIE
The Philharmonic Chamber Choir
School of the Arts Concert Hall
Saturday (10 March 2012)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 12 March 2012 with the title "French light shines".

Quite predictably and lamentably, a small audience was witness to a concert of 20th century French a cappella choral music by Singapore’s finest choir led by the land’s pre-eminent choral conductor Lim Yau. A real pity as the 27-member group really takes the pains to research the music it sings, including employing foreign language coaches to strive for authenticity.

The concert hall at the School of the Arts (SOTA) is truly coming into its own as a venue for chamber and choral music. The sound is naturally reverberant within its capacious but quaintly intimate space with high ceilings, and the choir utilised this to great advantage. Details of pronunciation and subtleties of harmonies may be easily discerned, and for its first all-French programme, that was no mean feat.

Choir chairperson tenor Kerryn Chan played an amiable host, opening with a smattering of French and provided commentary in lieu of the customary programme notes. The choir warmed up with a trio of Poulenc chansons, hived from a group of seven songs for the sake of variety. Any hint of nerves was soon dispelled with Debussy’s Three Chansons of Charles D’Orleans, a work that has been in the choir’s repertoire since its early years.

In the madrigal-like second song Quant j’ai ouy le tabourin (When I Hear the Tambourine), alto Ng Sheh Feng’s plaint lovingly and confidently rose above the busily scurrying accompaniment. As solos went, there was little to match the beauty and purity of soprano Esther Lee’s contribution in Ravel’s Trois beaux oiseaux du paradis (Three Lovely Birds from Paradise) which pretty much stole the show.

When non-Frenchmen compose for settings in French, certain transformations takes place. The German Paul Hindemith’s Six Chansons based on Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry sound miles away from his usual terse and astringent style. The soft-grained lingering lyricism of Un Cygne (A Swan) and the cheery reports of Verger (Orchard) came like a gust of fresh air.

Similarly Dutchman Ton de Leeuw’s Priere (Prayer), using texts from the Quran, gradually ambled from a supplicant’s humility – punctuated by repeated calls of Signeur (Lord or Allah) – to an ecstatic vision of awe. This rarity, sung with the radiance suggested by the recital’s title Lumiere (Light), was alone worth the price of admission.

When it seemed that everyone had gotten into the swing of things, the hour-long concert regrettably had to end. The perfumed harmonies of three final chansons from Poulenc: the sublime Belle et Ressemblante (Lovely and Lifelike), prancing moves of Marie, and the bright sunshine of Luire (To Shine), gave reason for cheer, in anticipation of the Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s next concert.

100 YEARS LATER: PETRUSHKA / The Philharmonic Orchestra / Review

100 YEARS LATER: PETRUSHKA
The Philharmonic Orchestra
Esplanade Concert Hall
Thursday (15 September 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 September with the title "Taut playing of Petrushka".

Veteran conductor Lim Yau completed the third leg of his personal quest of performing Igor Stravinsky’s music this year with an outing of the ballet Petrushka, completed exactly a century ago.

Consistent with The Philharmonic Orchestra’s approach to musical appreciation, this was preceded by The Philharmonic Chamber Chorus singing two short hymns by Stravinsky and a Russian folksong, to illustrate the composer’s sources of musical inspiration. The first half however belonged to irrepressible actor-presenter William Ledbetter (below), a wellspring of musical knowledge and on this evening a one-man ballet troupe.

Not only did he “dance” out the roles of the titular clown puppet, ballerina and Moor to musical excerpts, he also did a fine job demystifying the jargon associated with modern music – polyrhythms, bitonality, Petrushka chord, hemiolas and the like. It was almost sad to see this born entertainer take his leave, but the music had to begin sometime.

With Petrushka, Stravinsky had already made several advances from the late Romanticism of The Firebird towards his epochal The Rite of Spring. In using the 1947 orchestration, smaller forces allowed for a leaner and more transparent sound, which the orchestra exploited to the fullest.

The opening and closing Shrovetide Fair scenes boasted some very alert and taut ensemble playing, with conductor Lim tightly engaged on the reins. While there were some less than precise moments in the Danse Russe and short snatches of the final tableau, this kinetically charged and exuberant score received nothing less than total commitment from the young orchestra.

Stravinsky’s ingenious interplay of rhythm and harmony was clearly and coherently delivered, with no half measures given. Pianist Nicholas Loh was a pillar of strength in his virtuoso solos. Woodwinds were generally excellent, the standout being flautist Marcus Tay, with the pair of clarinets, whose elucidation of the Petrushka chords was spot on, not far behind. Pride of place goes to trumpeter Nattapong Veerapun, whose silvery tones in the central dance segment and the muted Petrushka’s ghost should not go unnoticed.

The only disappointment was the small audience. Perhaps the Ministry of Education should make special arrangements for its multitudes of music students to attend the orchestra’s thoroughly laudable educational endeavours. Till that happens, one eagerly awaits The Rite of Spring.

THE POETIC JOURNEY WITH STEPHEN CLEOBURY / The Philharmonic Chamber Choir / Review

THE POETIC JOURNEY WITH STEPHEN CLEOBURY
The Philharmonic Chamber Choir
Esplanade Concert Hall
Saturday (23 July 2011)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 25 July 2011 with th title "Chorus for a sparse audience".

The Philharmonic Chamber Choir, founded by Lim Yau and Singapore’s finest a cappella choir, has worked with the world’s top choral conductors over the years. Its latest concert was helmed by Englishman Stephen Cleobury, long associated with the King’s College Choir, Cambridge and BBC Singers.

But where was the audience in the sparsely-filled Esplanade, in particular students of the schools’ choral excellence programmes? Winning awards at the Singapore Youth Festival mean nothing when young singers and their teachers cannot learn from Singapore’s best led by the world’s best.

Their loss is especially acute with such peerless performances of varied German and British choral music. The first half was entirely Teutonic, beginning with Heinrich Schutz’s Jauchzet dem Herrn (Make a Joyful Noise), where rich polyphony immediately piqued the ears and excited the senses.

The 34-member choir’s ability to vary nuances was heard to great effect in Brahms’s Warum ist das licht gegeben (Wherefore is Light Given), where each succeeding plaint resounded with different intensities and degrees of earnestness. In Mendelssohn’s Richte mich, Gott (Judge Me, O God) and Reger’s O Tod (O Death), dynamics and colours shifted from dark and forbidding to the light of hope and respite.

J.S.Bach’s joyous motet Lobet den Herrn (Praise the Lord) also demonstrated the choir’s masterly execution of fugal writing. Their ability to change gears and switch modes for the second half’s 20th century British choral fare was equally remarkable.

Although tonal in idiom, Michael Tippett’s Dance, Clarion Air and Nicholas Maw’s One Foot in Eden were demanding in intonation, coordination and rhythmic subtleties. Myriad colours were exploited, bathing the hall with a rainbow-like glow of light and shade. The excellent quartet of solos, answered by the warm main corpus, suggests they have been singing this music all their lives.

Vaughan Williams’s Three Shakespeare Songs and Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St Cecilia have long been in the choir’s repertoire since its early years. Yet these sounded even better now, ripe and mature in every way.

If there were an abiding memory of this evening’s masterclass, it would be Scotsman James Macmillan’s Christus Vincit (Christ Conquers). From a sea of otherworldly voices soared the virginal pure soprano voice of Mairianne Reardon, the very evocation of the eternal spirit transcending the temporal body. Encore!