SINGAPORE-CHINA GALA SYMPHONY CONCERT / Shanghai Nine Trees Philharmonic Orchestra / Review

 

SINGAPORE-CHINA 

GALA SYMPHONY CONCERT

Shanghai Nine Trees 

Philharmonic Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Sunday (26 October 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 October 2025 with the title "Classical collaboration marking six decades of Singapore-China ties".

Sixty years of Singapore-China diplomacy was celebrated with a concert by the Shanghai Nine Trees Philharmonic Orchestra led by the world-renowned Chinese conductor Tang Muhai. The resident orchestra of the Shanghai Nine Trees Future Art Center in Fengxian District was augmented by many local players to perform a programme of works representing both nations.

The evening opened with Singaporean Felix Phang’s Pasat Merdu (Melodious Market) which featured six musicians from The Straits Ensemble. This very accessible work skillfully combining elements of Chinese, Malay and Indian music, premiered by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra at its 2023 National Day Concert, was a microcosm of the harmonious melting pot that is our nation.

Next came the quintessential Chinese work, Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s Butterfly Lovers Concerto, in an abridged version scored for strings and piano. Soloists representing the ill-fated pair of lovers were Singapore Symphony Orchestra associate concertmaster violinist Kong Zhaohui and Singapore Chinese Orchestra erhu prinicipal Zhu Lin. This 15-minute edition which incorporated all the work’s essential themes may be described as Butterfly Lovers for short attention spans.

The truncation was necessary to accommodate Chinese composer Danny Dong’s Dreaming of Fengpu, a half-hour four-movement programmatic symphony. Dreams and aspirations of Fengxian residents in constructing the Fengpu Bridge, which spanned the Huangpu River connecting Fengxian with central Shanghai city, were realised in this melodious work which ticked all the boxes of modern Socialist realism. This included Nie Er’s March of the Volunteers, the Chinese national anthem, quoted not once but twice.

The concert’s undoubted highlight was the performance of Frederic Chopin’s First Piano Concerto in E minor (Op.11) by Singaporean pianist William Wei, former child prodigy and recipient of the National Arts Council’s Gifted Young Musicians’ Bursary. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and Yale University, his very idiomatic reading seemed like a continuation of the recently-concluded Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Those stricken with piano envy that a Malaysian pianist Vincent Ong could star in Poland’s premier event will find consolation in Wei’s artistic sensibilities which combined lyrical poetry with a strong technical arsenal. Performing on a C.Bechstein grand, he projected well in solo entries and kept the audience enraptured all through its 40-minute duration.

With the orchestra not letting up in tuttis, he surmounted the vigorous support with perfect restraint and without resorting to banging. Particularly beautiful was the opening movement’s second subject and the slow movement’s Romanze, where time stood still. This was followed by the Rondo finale’s infectious dance rhythms which literally leapt off the page. Singapore longs for a piano hero, and Wei might just be the answer.

The concert concluded with a hilarious encore for both pianist and orchestra, a medley of 17 of classical music’s most popular melodies which those with long memories will nostalgically remember as Hooked on Classics from the 1980s.

For the record, the melodies played in the slightly abridged version of Hooked on Classics were:

1. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1

2. Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumble Bee

3. Mozart Symphony No.40

4. Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue

5. Sibelius Intermezzo from Karelia Suite

6. Mozart Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

7. Beethoven Ode to Joy from Symphony No.9

8. Rossini William Tell Overture

9. Grieg Piano Concerto

10. Bizet Carmen Overture

11. Jeremiah Clarke Trumpet Voluntary

12. Handel Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah

13. Beethoven Emperor Concerto

14. Brahms Hungarian Dance No.5

15. Vivaldi Spring from Four Seasons

16. Dvorak Largo from New World Symphony

17. Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture

METAMORPHOSIS / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

METAMORPHOSIS

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (19 July 2025)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 July 2025 with the title "SCO's Metamorphosis a celebration of SG60".

The Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s opening concert for the 2025/2026 season, led by principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong was a celebration of SG60. Sixty years of Singapore’s nation-building were premised on a multicultural identity and social harmony, all represented in this concert.

The evening opened with SCO composer-in-residence Wang Chenwei’s Lion City Rhapsody, a modern look at the baroque concerto grosso. Its concertino group of soloists played 14 different instruments covered the five Chinese dialect groups in Singapore, each with its own distinct colour. Its infectious and kinetic energy founded upon the Nanyin classic Trotting Horses culminated with a greeting for National Day in Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and Hainanese.

Of a more descriptive nature was Chen Si’ang’s The Grand Canal, which began quietly with serene scenes of quaint river towns on the 2500-year-old water system. Working itself into a big climax as it empties into the great Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the quasi-cinematic work was symbolic of longevity and endurance.

Former SCO composer-in-residence Law Wai Lun’s The Stories of Singapore highlighted landmarks in the nation’s history as viewed in the pages and photographs of local Chinese newspapers. The accompanying images to the music’s optimistic and self-congratulatory tone have been updated to include defeating the Covid-19 pandemic and ascensions of Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and President Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

There were two concertante pieces, both featuring Young Artist Award-winning percussionists. India-born tabla player Nawaz Mirajkar was soloist in his Soul of Damaru, a raga-based work where he performed on six tablas. The hypnotic spell generated was most magical when heard in counterpoint with Benjamin Boo’s xylophone.

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

A quite different atmosphere came with Riduan Zalani helming no less than eight frame drums (including tambourines) in Taiwanese composer Chang Yungchin’s Within and Beyond. In its sequence of increasingly exuberant dances, there were spots for ad libbing and even audience interaction, which kept the episodic work edgy and absorbing.

Photo: SCO / SPH Media

Then came the world premiere of Wang Chenwei’s Converging Resonances, which commemorated 60 years of the Singapore Conference Hall’s history. Its metamorphosis from National Trade Union Congress headquarters to SCO performing home unfolded in the form of a passacaglia, an inventive series of short variations on a ground bass. While its inspiration came from Johannes Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, the immaculate execution with numerous instrumental solos was wholly Chinese in character and feel.

Closing the concert was Felix Phang’s Pasat Merdu, translated as “melodious marketplace”, another concerto grosso-like work where diverse cultures and ideas are welcome. This adaptation by Germaine Goh for Chinese orchestra placed centrestage four members of The Straits Ensemble – Govin Tan (tabla), Nizarfauzi (rebana), Azrin Abdullah (oud) and Phang (double-bass) – in a raucous and colourful melange. 

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

This and the encore of Tamil song Iyarkaiyin Kaatchi, which included President Tharman in a clap-along, were enjoyable reminders that multiculturalism in harmony is what makes Singapore tick.