MUSIC RESIDENCY SHARING CONCERT / Chamber Music & Arts Singapore / Review

 

MUSIC RESIDENCY 

SHARING CONCERTS

Chamber Music & Arts 

Homegrown Artists

Objectifs Chapel, Middle Road

Sunday (21 June 2026)

The final day of Chamber Music & Arts’ (CMAS) Chamber Music Residency programme yielded one last concert by four of its Homegrown Artists, whom over a two-week course were mentored by three established international artists. Their Sharing Concert, just like the formal evening concerts, focused on all-French repertoire.

Titled The Conclusion of the War, it opened with Claude Debussy’s late Violin Sonata in G minor (1917) with violinist Isabelle Ong and pianist Tian KeXin. This was the terminally-ill composer’s attempt to relive Gallic characteristics and sensibilities in music, moving away from the German model that had influenced composers like Franck and Chausson. 

Penchant for melody and lightness in textures were key, which informed Ong’s perceptive playing and Tian’s fluid accompaniment. This was a performance strong in flavour and sensitive to nuance, not least in the middle movement’s subtle humour and the finale’s scintillating caprices.

This was followed by Gabriel Faure’s Cello Sonata No.1 in D minor (Op.109, 1917) performed by Singapore-based Korean cellist Cho Hang-oh with Tian again on piano. This underrated gem should be as popular and often played as Debussy’s late Cello Sonata, which remains a mystery. An elusiveness in melodiousness may be a reason, the lyrical glories of the Belle Epoque being well left behind by the horrors of war. 

Still, the duo mastered the opening movement’s rhythmic quirkiness and the finale’s emotional vagaries. However, the tender beauty of the slow movement’s plaint remains the abiding memory of this reading. Cho’s tone is simply gorgeous, and the outpouring of emotion by both players totally palpable. Bravo!

The matinee concluded tumultuously with Maurice Ravel’s La Valse (1919-20), in the version for piano four hands by Lucien Garban. Here, young pianist Tay Shu Wen was partnered by mentoring Scottish pianist Alasdair Beatson. The duo could not completely escape the Yamaha’s tendency for percussiveness, but Beatson’s ever-steady waltz rhythm in the secondo part was met with alacrity by Tay’s flashily swooning primo role. 

Before long, both musicians were waltzing on their seats, while busily avoiding collisions of bodily parts. A sense of danger was ever present, and one was almost half-expecting the piano to collapse in the heap. The reality was that both pianists were on top of their game, and the message of societal decadence and collapse was well and truly received.

This Sharing Concert was more than a show-and-tell session after two weeks of music professionals working today. It was a clear indication that thanks to CMAS, chamber music performance in Singapore is heading in the right direction.

RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: S11 FOOD HOUSE @ BUKIT BATOK CENTRAL

This is an eating place so random that it was totally unknown to us, until now. However, thanks to the regular patronage of Phan Ming Yen and Amy, we became their guests for Indian Muslim food not for the first time. Ming Yen swears by the vegetarian curries served here, and we were the happy beneficiaries.

This typically HDB food-court also serves the usually non-vegetarian meals, but somehow we kept to the script. Popiah and Singapore Chinese rojak are also vegetarian! So, this was a vegetarian meal all round, and being healthy does not equate to not eating well. We were very well-filled and can scarcely wait for the next time.

Chinese rojak

Traditional popiah

Indian puris and side dishes

Everything you see is vegetarian!

This food is best eaten with bare hands.

S11 FOOD HOUSE

Block 640 Bukit Batok Central

First floor

S.650640

(Walking distance from 

Bukit Batok MRT)

RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: VIETNAM PHO @ CLEMENTI WEST / WEST COAST

Here is another foodie gem located at Clementi New Town. Our quest for genuine and authentic Vietnamese pho (clear soup noodles) in Singapore netted this tiny hole-in-the-wall food outlet at Clementi West, located just beside its massive community club. It's a little hard to find, blink and you might miss it. Sharing the same unit as a hairstylist, you will recognise it by the prominent signs and menu. If you reach the Penang Island Restaurant, you've walked too far.

All the favourite delights of Vietnamese street food can be found here. The piece de resistance is the beef pho; the portions are generous and the soup filled with flavour. Also recommended is the dry chicken noodles. These items comprised our simple dinner, of more comfort foods. 

Classic beef pho - cannot go wrong!

Dry chicken noodles

Iced Vietnamese coffee and tea

If one needs a snack to go for supper later, there's even a bread shop nearby. Eat local and at mom-and-pop stores. We need to keep them alive!

Not owned by Sim Wong Hoo

VIETNAM PHO

Block 721, Clementi West Street 2 #01-120

Singapore 120721

RANDOM HEARTLAND EATS: MERMAID CHINESE CUISINE @ CLEMENTI AVENUE 5

This is an eating place we regularly frequent after a long day at work. That's where comfort foods are important in restoring some sanity to life, and just before we retire at home. On evenings when there are no concerts to attend, here is a quiet place to chill and have a simple one dish meal. We discovered Mermaid (Yu Mei Ren) Chinese Cuisine by accident, located between two HDB food courts which we regularly frequent in Avenue 5 of Clementi New Town. And we have returned regularly, which says quite something.

The establishment describes itself as a da bai dang (tai pai tong) or simple food stall regularly found in China and Hong Kong. In reality, it's more like a zichar store in Singapore, serving up rice, noodle and soup dishes, as well as mala dishes, but without the live seafood. We've grown to enjoy its simplicity and generous portions. It also does home delivery (which comprises much of its business), and it is just as tasty.

Our favourite dishes:
Beef noodle soup

Stir fried beef noodles

Ah Guang is our usual friendly chef,
originally from Ipoh, Perak.

MERMAID CHINESE CUISINE

Block 378 Clementi Avenue 5 #01-388

Singapore 120378

Orders may be made 

on FoodPanda

Mermaid Chinese Cuisine 中国大排档 (378 Clementi Avenue 5) Menu, Price – Delivery Near You | foodpanda

  

SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: SINGAPORE SYMPHONY CHORUS - THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS

 

THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS

Singapore Symphony Chorus

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Lim Yau (Conductor)

So far we have been listening to the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s oldest recordings, issued during the mid- to late 1980s. One aspect of SSO history which should not be ignored is its performances of symphonic choral repertoire. The Singapore Symphony Chorus (SSC) was established in 1980 to serve that purpose, inaugurating with Brahms’ A German Requiem (sung in English) in the same year. By 1992, the SSC had contributed to Singapore premieres of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (1983), Tippett’s A Child of Our Time (1978), Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass (1989) and Rachmaninov’s The Bells (1992).

This CD album was issued in 1993 to commemorate the SSC’s first dozen years, conducted by its chorus director Lim Yau (also SSO Associate Conductor) since 1981. Excerpts from live concerts at Victoria Concert Hall from 1989 to 1992 were selected from engineered recordings by Donald Wong of Ultralinear International, who was later responsible for the “clandestine” recording of SSO’s Richard Strauss Alpine Symphony in 1993. This recording was however authorised and sanctioned by SSO and Lim Yau, and released for public sale. It even enjoyed a brief run at the top of the classical charts in Singapore’s record shops including Tower Records and Music Power House.

What were its contents? There is a complete performance of Poulenc’s Gloria, recorded in 1989 with late British soprano Susan Chilcott. This reading sparkled with life and verve, with both chorus and orchestra enjoying its unique blend of liturgy and humour. From 1990 came the orchestra’s only recording of a Beethoven symphony, namely his Ninth, or Choral Symphony. 

Since this is a choral CD, only the An die Freude (Ode to Joy) final movement, was included but with its first 202 bars omitted. Thus the music begins just before bass-baritone John Tranter’s declaration of O Freunde, nicht diese Tone. The vocal quartet was completed by tenor Neil Mackie, soprano Dorothy Ross and mezzo-soprano Yang Jie. The chorus is in very good form and the fugal entries well-handled, as would be expected from the disciplinarian Lim Yau, then Singapore’s only orchestral conductor with extensive choral experience

Lim Yau and the SSC in 1992.

Shorter choral excerpts make up the rest of the disc. From Mozart’s “Great” Mass in C minor (K.427), Jesu Christe and Cum sancto spirito from its Gloria (recorded 1991) brought back fond memories. Lim Yau once recounted to me that he needed to recruit more singers from church choirs to join the SSC, which was one reason why Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah was programmed in 1990. A result was the fine chorus, Yet the Lord see not.

A very satisfied Lim Yau after the performance
of Rachmaninov's The Bells in May 1992,
with Mrs Valentina Loginova,
Russian language coach.

To close the hour-long disc were the Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Beethoven’s Mass in C major (Op.86) from March 1992. I joined the SSC as a tenor shortly after that concert, thus missing out from being included in SSO’s only wholly choral disc! Nevertheless, this snapshot of SSC and SSC history from the late 1980s to early 1990s is a historically important one.