SCO30 OPENING GALA / Singapore Chinese Orchestra / Review

 

SCO30 OPENING GALA

Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Singapore Conference Hall

Saturday (18 July 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 21 July 2026 with the title "Singapore Chinese Orchestra 30th anniversary gala celebrates early Nanyang music".

The programme of Singapore Chinese Orchestra’s 30th anniversary opening gala concert, led by principal conductor Quek Ling Kiong, was kept secret from all who attended up to the moment it began. The works had been selected based on audience feedback, a sample of what they wanted to hear most.

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Surprising was the fact that most of the music was less than totally familiar or populist. Instead it was representative of repertoire SCO performed during its early years when led by conductors like Hu Bingxu and Xia Feiyun. The Overture from Shang Yi’s The Dagger Society Suite, arranged by Sim Boon Yew, opened the show. Resplendent suonas backed by percussion fronted this celebratory number from the 1989 folk-dance opera.

Ma Shenglong and Gu Guanren’s Fisherman’s Song of the Eastern Seas was a symphonic poem relating the toils, trials and tribulations of fisher-folk. Its conjoint sections depicted dawn with an evocative dizi solo, the outward journey with lyrical songlines, a proverbial storm to be weathered, before the emphatic triumph of a bountiful harvest.

Academy Award winner Tan Dun’s Yellow Earth followed with similarly programmatic content. The highly cinematic music opened dramatically with Raining From The Sky, lots of percussion, a plangent suona solo and vocalisations from the musicians. Gate Crashing the Bridal Chamber was suitably raucous, while Desiring Intimacy saw dizis and erhus expressing sensuousness in the highest registers. Coming back down to earth was Stone-Slab Waist Drum, with martial and ceremonial music dominated by percussion again.

Peng Xiuwen’s The Sixth Month: A Night in Pasir Ris from Twelve Months Suite opened the second half, in a scene of nocturnal tranquility interrupted by Malay and Indian dance rhythms, with Chan Mali Chan being alluded to. Whoever thought sleepy Pasir Ris during the 1980s to be this festive in an early example of Nanyang music?

Photo: Singapore Chinese Orchestra

Lo Leung Fai’s Winter opened with snowy flurries represented by string prestidigitation, a perpetual motion that also depicted gently falling snowflakes. A big tune first heard on dizi was worked to a plethoric climax before a resumption of virtuoso fiddling for a brilliantly festive finish.

Former SCO composer-in-residence and Cultural Medallion recipient Law Wai Lun’s Admiral of the Seven Seas was a prime example of Nanyang music at its finest, with two movements closing the concert on buoyant spirits. The Voyage of explorer Zheng He (Cheng Ho) deftly depicted adventure on the high seas, with broad melodies ornamented by cries of seagulls. The Vow, recounting the marriage between a Malay sultan and Chinese a princess, good reason to bring out all the gamelan scales, a chorus of suonas and drumming at full pelt.

Attended by Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, on whose watch SCO turned professional from its humble beginnings as the People’s Association Chinese Orchestra, the playing was full-blooded and celebratory. The obligatory encore of Hua Hao Yue Yuan (Full Moon Blossoms) by Huang Yi Jun merely capped off the importance and significance of SCO’s three illustrious decades as “the people’s orchestra”.

RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: A RETURN TO BUKIT BARTOK BLOCK 217

Here is a rerun of the food court (Wan Hao Kopitiam) located in Bukit Batok Block 217, simply to try the other stalls. This eating place has a lot going for it. For one, it is always crowded, and the food is very good. On this occasion, we tried the Western food stall and the BBQ seafood stall, the latter mostly because of Janet's hum-ful lifestyle, and her thirst for lightly cooked and almost raw blood cockles. Jamus Lim can definitely identify with this. 

Here are more photos of our eventful lunchtime.  

Sirloin Steak with herb butter

The bloodier, the better!

BUKIT BARTOK BLOCK 217

Bukit Bartok Street 21

pianomania: RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: BUKIT BATOK BLOCK 217

(For goodness sake, can't you 

just open the Seventh Door?)

PRE-CONCERT EATS: HA-JUN KOREAN FOOD @ ESPLANADE MRT XCHANGE

Where do I have a quick meal before a concert at Esplanade? Makan Sutra Gluttons Bay offers al fresco dining but Esplanade MRT Xchange offers air-conditioned comfort. There used to be a food court which had good Penang food but that's gone for several few years, so I make do with decent Korean food at Ha-Jun Korean, a chain dining outlet that does swift business.

It does not really matter if there are no Koreans cooking the meals. In fact, the chefs and servers are mostly Indonesian, and you can sometimes hear Indonesian pop music blaring in the background, which is groovy in a certain way. The service is quick, and one barely needs to wait 5 minutes before your "number" is called, in Mandarin!

I invariably have a beef kimchi ramyeon which is hot and spicy, but I don't mind the sweat. My wife and I shared a beef bimimbap on one occasion, and were well-filled before a concert. Another very nice aspect of this place is it provides a free flow of hot brown rice tea, which I make sure to get at least two cups full. Prices are modest, and there's no dish above $10, while my humble ramyeon is $6.50, with a recent raise of 50 cents. Halal certified of course.

Your order number is announced 
in Mandarin, while you sip your tea.

HA-JUN KOREAN

90 Bras Basah Road, #B1-29 /29a

Esplanade MRT Xchange

Ha-Jun Korean (90 Bras Basah) Menu, Price – Delivery Near You | foodpanda  

HANNU LINTU INAUGURAL SERIES: GIL SHAHAM & MAHLER 5 / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

HANNU LINTU INAUGURAL SERIES:

GIL SHAHAM & MAHLER 5

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Friday (17 July 2026)

Esplanade Concert Hall

This review was first published in Bachtrack.com on 20 July 2026 with the title "Hannu Lintu makes his mark in inaugural concert with the Singapore Symphony".

Until today, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has had just three music directors in its 47-year history – Choo Hoey, Lan Shui and Hans Graf. Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu was introduced this evening as its the fourth music director. A towering physical presence with a hint of a wizened smile, he made his presence felt immediately.

Lintu’s inaugural concert programme consisted wholly of 20th and 21st century works, opening with the world premiere of Après l'Odyssée by Singaporean composer Tan Chan Boon (born 1965). The École Normale-schooled Tan is Singapore’s most prolific symphonist, and this nearly 20-minute-long commission is the first movement of his yet to be performed Seventh Symphony. 

His models are anachronistically Romantic, with Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss coming to mind, not least the pastoral opening string melody backed by cascading woodwind chords. The movement’s title After The Odyssey was premised on the feeling of relief and uneasy calm after his Sixth Symphony (L’Odyssey, recounting the Covid-19 pandemic). Its breezy beginning was qualified by a fugal treatment of its second subject. Tension ensued with the introduction of brass and percussion, gradually building to a fulsome climax before receding in a quiet close that portends hope for the future. A performance of the symphony in full is keenly anticipated.

American violinist Gil Shaham made a welcome return to Singapore with the Asian premiere of Nomad Concerto by American composer Mason Bates (born 1977). Conceived in four movements, this deliberately exotic yet gratifyingly tonal work imagines an assemblage had Ravel been requested to expand his rhapsodic Tzigane and throw in some New World jazz for good measure. 

Photo: LG Lim

Shaham’s virtuosity defined its first two movements, Song of the balloon man and Magician at the bazaar, casting a spell as an itinerant entertainer journeying through Eastern Europe to the Middle East. The mystically desolate slow movement Desert vision: oasis quoted a Jewish song before the rocking syncopations of Le jazz manouche, à la Django Reinhardt as Bates’ own programme notes reminds, brought down the house. The ensuing cheers ensured that the Magician movement, with its John Williams’ Harry Potter moments, was encored.

The only familiar music on show was Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, in a gripping performance that was long on drama but short on bombast. Jon Paul Dante’s excellent trumpet solo set the tone for a deliberately paced funeral march, yet there was never a moment where the narrative lagged. In the tumultuous struggle of the second movement, the marking mit größter Vehemenz (with greatest vehemence) was taken most literally, yet the earlier march’s driving impetus remained fresh in the subconscious. The central Scherzo’s French horn solo resounded like an exultant call from the abyss, heralding a celebration of some perverse joy, such was Mahler’s idea of irony.

There were no doubts in the Adagietto’s love message, delivered plain and without neuroses by gilded strings and harpist Gulnara Mashurova. In the attacca finale, an initial French horn fluff did little to dispirit the clever counterpoint Mahler wove into his satirical Wunderhorn song Lob des hohen Verstandes (In Praise of High Intellect), wittily closing the symphony on a blazing high. 

The orchestra responded with the acute awareness of a band guided by a fresh and uncompromising new leader who knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. Hannu Lintu has just ushered in an exciting and enticingly interesting new future for the Singapore Symphony in seasons to come.

Photo: LG Lim

Star Rating: *****

The original review may be found here:

Hannu Lintu makes his mark in inaugural Singapore Symphony concert | Bachtrack

SUKA MAKAN: SUN WITH MOON JAPANESE DINING & CAFE @ WHEELOCK PLACE

It's another one of the Chang family birthday meals, and we're off to one of its favourite restaurants. Everyone seems to love Japanese food, and Sun With Moon Japanese Dining & Cafe is as good as it gets. We even got a private dining area away from noisy crowds and prying eyes to enjoy our sushi, sashimi and other favourites.

Presentation is very important here, and there isn't a dish that does not look less than enticing. There isn't even a hint of bento boxes. The most important thing is the food is excellent. I particularly loved my "Warrior" Hot Pot which was filled to the brim with all sort of meaty, seafoody and mushroomy goodies. I'll order that again in a heartbeat. 

The sushi and sashimi dishes were small, and so was the carpaccio, so there were multiple orders to the diners happy. Happy to come back here again.

I'm pretty pleased with myself
for ordering this hotpot! 

Somebody ordered a steak!

Enough of food porn. Here are the desserts:

SUN WITH MOON 

JAPANESE DINING & CAFE

501 Orchard Road, #03-15

Wheelock Place

Singapore 238880

SUN with MOON Japanese Dining & Cafe