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.

IN HARMONY 43 / SAF Central Band with Boston Brass / Review

 

IN HARMONY 43

SAF Central Band

Esplanade Concert Hall

Saturday (25 April 2026)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 28 April 2026 with the title "Well-drilled SAF Central Band shows versatility in concert".

Some of the best things in Singapore are free, and one of these are concerts by the Singapore Armed Forces Central Band. Directed by Military Expert 5 (ME5) Ignatius Wang, its latest concert opened as it always does with Majulah Singapura, the national anthem by Zubir Said. It is a rare occasion when an audience is heard singing with pride, leading the way for a programme of music mostly from the Americas.

Ron Nelson’s Aspen Jubilee was a celebratory work composed for the 40th anniversary of Aspen Music Festival, with winds and brass blazing a high decibel-laden path. Its rousing opening and close were contrasted with a slower central section where soprano Joyce Lee Tung’s wordless vocalise beautifully wafted over the instrumental throng.

Following that ice-breaker, Henry L. Dorn’s Never Forgetting was a study of melancholy, with muted brass and bowed percussion prefacing poignant solos from oboe, saxophone and finally flute. Its elegiac tone reflected intense contemplation and eventual peaceful resolution.

Closing the first half on a spirited high was James M. David’s Pulsing Onward subtitled “A California Pastorale”, three continuous movements with neoclassical references in their titles but inhabited with Latin beats and vibes. Pacific Coast Canons was fast and exuberant, contrasted with the brass chorales of Sierra Sarabande before Golden Gate Toccata exulting in the bright lights of San Francisco.

Cy Twombly's Petals of Fire.
Honestly, the music sounds better
than the art looks.

American-Chinese composer Zhou Tian’s short but brilliant Petals of Fire was inspired by American painter Cy Twombly’s abstract painting of the same title. The most modernistic work on the programme, it relived the violent dissonance and chinoiserie of Bela Bartok’s ballet Miraculous Mandarin and climaxed with the transcendent radiance of Olivier Messiaen. All four works were Singapore premieres which showcased the impressive versatility of this young and well-drilled ensemble.

Then it was time for the band’s guests, the five-member Boston Brass formed by founding member Jeff Conner and Jose Sibaja (trumpets), trombonist Domingo Pagliuca (trombone), Chris Castellanos (French horn) and William Russell (tuba), to join the fray. 

Formed in 1986 and renowned for its mix of virtuosity and humour, the quintet opened with the riotous Galop from Dmitri Shostakovich’s satirical operetta Moscow Cheryomushki, setting the tone of lightness and mirth for the rest of the show. Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla’s Verano Porteno (Summer) from the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, arranged by Sibaja, delighted with its comedic timing, whoops and slides.

With the bigger band in support, Rick DeJonge’s Sounds of Cinema was an enjoyable summation of all the tropes and cliches of movie music scoring that makes the silver screen great without actually quoting any familiar tunes. Other than a hilarious cadenza for tuba, it sounded very like John Williams except it was not. That was its play on the imagination, and ultimate musical magic.

Closing the highly enjoyable evening was Cuban composer Ernesto’s Lecuona’s Malaguena, lushly arranged by Bill Holman, and a brilliant encore by the Boston Brass of Duke Ellington’s Caravan. Watch out for SAF Central Band’s next free concert at Esplanade Concert Hall on 30 May.

SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: LACHNER & SPOHR SYMPHONIES on MARCO POLO / NAXOS

 

LACHNER Symphony No.1

SPOHR Symphony No.2

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

   Marco Polo 8.220360

   Naxos 8.573507

This is SSO’s very first symphony album, recorded in June 1985. It coupled two rather obscure symphonies by German composers Lachner and Spohr, which now looks like an album the German label CPO (Classik Produktion Osnabruck) might put out today. It seemed like the Hong Kong-based Marco Polo label had the idea first, and SSO under founding music director Choo Hoey became part of the story. I do not remember attending any concert in which SSO performed either of these symphonies, and this album just appeared out of the blue.

Franz Lachner (1803-1890) was close friend of Schubert, and also wrote eight completed symphonies. He was a student of Simon Sechter, who also taught Bruckner, and gave a single lesson to Schubert. Composed in 1828 (the year of Schubert’s death), his First Symphony in E flat major is an ambitious 35 minutes in four movements. Although shorter than Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony, it has similarly lofty ideas. The musical content is very enjoyable, even if not ultimately memorable. The third movement’s Scherzo is proto-Bruckner, with that feel of an outdoor hunting trip further enlivened with a play of counterpoint. The finale is also a Schubertian romp, with a touch of Berlioz’s pomp, that will win many friends.

It is hard to believe that Ludwig Spohr (1784-1859), a violin virtuoso who composed 15 violin concertos, was once spoken in the same breath as Beethoven and Mozart. He was a contemporary of Carl Maria von Weber, whose music his Second Symphony in D minor (1820), particularly in the spirited and playful finale, resembles. A solid half hour, the Sturm und Drang elements are there but underplayed, the idiom being a transition from Classical to Romantic. Schumann and Mendelssohn also belong to this period. That alone makes this music, and performance, worth listening to.

Of all of SSO’s early recordings, this is the one I played the most times, gaining more insight with each listen. Originally released on the full-priced Marco Polo label, it can now be enjoyed in the budget-to-mid-priced Naxos label. The original drab cover art of composer portraiture by Chai Ben-Shan (which used to accompany all the early Marco Polo releases) has now been replaced by a nice photo of Vienna’s Upper Belvedere Palace. The SSO performs with zeal and commitment, and that was typical of its early years.

SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: RESPIGHI CONCERTO GREGORIANO ON MARCO POLO RECORDS

 

RESPIGHI Concerto Gregoriano

Poema Autunnale

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Takako Nishizaki (Violin)

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

   Marco Polo 8.220152

Following the successful collaboration between the Singapore Symphony Orchestra led by music director Choo Hoey and Japanese violinist Takako Nishizaki in the Hung Hu Violin Concerto album, this was a logical follow-up. The Hong Kong-based Marco Polo label was mining little-recorded repertoire to fill gaping lacunae in the catalogue and Italian composer Ottorino Respighi, underrepresented on disc other than his Roman Trilogy, was a good choice.

Respighi’s Concerto Gregoriano (1921-22) is a sumptuously scored violin concerto in three movements based on Gregorian chant themes. The modal character of its melodies places it in the stylistic territory of concertante works like Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending (premiered 1921) and the much later Butterfly Lovers Concerto (1959) by Chen Gang and He Zhanhao. In fact, all three works make a splendid programme for a dreamily rhapsodic album. 

The solo part is virtuosic which Nishizaki masters with aplomb, and SSO is a sympathetic partner which has substantial orchestral chunks of its own to chew on. The 31-minute concerto has a shorter companion in Respighi’s Poema Autunnale (Autumn Poem, 1925), a 14-minute long work with very similar inspirations, making it a virtual twin of The Lark Ascending.

The young Choo Hoey, looking stylish

Recorded in May 1983, both performances have since been eclipsed by Lydia Mordkovitch / Edward Downes on Chandos (1993) and Vadim Brodsky / Francesco la Vecchia on Brilliant Classics (2009-10). This received a dismissive review on Gramophone but garnered 4 of 5 stars on Classic CD. Go figure. Nonetheless, this is an interesting look at how the young SSO accompanied its soloists, usually a prelude to recording more repertoire on its own.

TWO SPLENDID PIANO RECITALS AT YONG SIEW TOH CONSERVATORY

 

The Conservatory's Fazioli Grand
was donated by Mr & Mrs Tan Kah Tee

TWO SPLENDID PIANO RECITALS

AT YONG SIEW TOH CONSERVATORY

   Wednesday afternoon (29 April 2026)

Imagine you are a fourth-year student at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, and your final test before graduation is an hour-long recital, a culmination of years of study and practice. That recital (or practical examination) determines your Bachelor’s degree, and you leave the halls of Kent Ridge as a professional musician. I had the fortune to attend two such piano recitals from two very talented final year students. That these could have been recitals at a piano competition or part of a piano festival is a testament to what the students have achieved.

The first pianist was Chakrit Khanovej from Thailand. I had previously judged his performances at the 2020 Thailand Steinway Youth Piano Competition, where he was awarded the 1st prize in the Senior Category. Only a cruel technicality prevented him from being the pianist to represent Thailand at the Regional Finals. True artists learn from experience and become the better for it, and his senior recital was a serious programme with two major sonatas and a dessert to top it off.

Beginning with Beethoven’s Sonata in A major (Op.101), the gentle giant showed a poetic and lyrical bent in the first movement, then let it rip in the striding syncopated march of the second movement which was the undoubted influence of the corresponding movement of Schumann’s Fantasy (Op.17). The short third movement was merely an introduction to the finale, and it was a magical moment when the first movement’s theme returned, a true reminiscence which was not to him. The heroic finale was where nerves frayed, getting lost in the fugue but he did not stop, instead completing the sonata on an optimistic high.

This was followed by Schumann’s frankly over-long Sonata No.1 in F sharp minor (Op.11) in four movements. The introduction in dotted rhythm and exposition were very well-handled and he made a good case overall. The ensuing Aria and Scherzo were well contrasted, but the problematic and circuitous Finale was where for many coming to grief almost seemed a formality. He shrugged off the lapse to close the work strongly. With the heavy lifting over, Chakrit seemed a far more relaxed personality as he polished off Nikolai Kapustin’s jazzy Variations Op.41 (on a Ukrainian theme which the bassoon solo from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is based on) with cool but stunning aplomb.

Chai Zi Qing from Malaysia used to go by the name Venus Chai, but I am glad she has dropped that Roman goddess name, for nobody can take a moniker like that seriously (much like Aphrodite, Lolita, Kitty or Fanny) except on OnlyFans. She is a serious artist and her performances of two great repertoire works proved just that. It is often difficult to coherently string together the 18 short pieces that make up Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze (Op.6) but she did it.

The quixotic shifts of mood between the passionate (Florestan) and reflective (Eusebius) movements is bewildering, but she made each piece sound special before moving on the next one. Her technical command was also beyond reproach, making light of some really treacherous passages. The poetry and lyricism in the Innig second piece would soon return and that felt like a welcome homecoming as the work wound to a quietly lilting and reflective close. To make music come alive is true virtuosity, even when there are not so many notes to overcome.

Her pet showpiece was finally unleashed, in another stunning reading of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. I was not the only person in the hall who witnessed her performance at last year’s Ravel Marathon at the recording studio and returned for more. In the big auditorium, the true sonorities of her vision were realised. 

Ondine was shimmering and sensuous, building up to a thrilling and cataclysmic climax before its placid denouement. The repeated B flats in Le gibet were hypnotic in their intensity, while Scarbo scrambled with manic malevolence that was all-consuming. An absorbing Gaspard is a rare thing to behold, and this brought back to mind the best Gaspard of my memory, some 21 years ago from another lady from Malaysia, Foo Mei Yi.

I have little doubt that Chakrit and Zi Qing, two very musical souls, will have promising careers to come. This is only the beginning of greater things, and I can only wish them well for the future.

SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: WHEN WILL YOU RETURN? & SELLING LAND FOR THE BRIDE-PRICE / THE BEST OF CHINESE EVERGREENS

 

WHEN WILL YOU RETURN

Chinese and other Asian Evergreens

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

   Marco Polo 8.225815

The Chinese and English titles
do not match!

SELLING LAND FOR THE BRIDE-PRICE

More Chinese Evergreens

THE BEST CHINESE EVERGREENS

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

   Hong Kong Records 8.240216

   Marco Polo 8.223917

When the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under music director Choo Hoey started its recording relationship with the Hong Kong Records label (founded by Klaus Heymann) during the early 1980s, one of the objectives was to record performances of popular Chinese and Asian tunes in lush “high class” orchestrations. There was a market for such arrangements in those days, and the SSO was ripe for the task as a young newly-founded professional orchestra to fulfil that niche.

The first album, When Will You Return, was recorded in 1984 and issued as a LP, which sold ten thousand copies in its first run. A sequel, Selling Land For The Bride-Price, came one year later. Listening to these recordings, long available on CD on Heymann’s Marco Polo label, was an exercise in nostalgia. These were songs our parents and grandparents knew and loved, and there is no reason why later generations cannot enjoy them too. Simple melodies that linger in the mind, much like those heavily-marketed British or American light music favourites, are the reason for their appeal.

When Will You Return is the more comprehensive album. Besides Chinese standards like Ye Lai Xiang (Midnight Fragrance) and Without You, it also includes popular songs from Indonesia (Bengawan Solo), Philippines (Dahil Sayo), Taiwan (Maidens of Alishan, Ti Or Or, which makes its English translation Dark Clouds in the Sky sound clumsy). The orchestrations of 15 tracks, by Japanese arrangers including T.Suzuki, T.Suzuki, K.Ogokubo and A.Yasuraoka, were very well done, highlighting SSO strings to the full. This possibly the closest one can get to reliving the Mantovani effect.

Its sequel is much less effective. Besides having one fewer track, and playing for just 44 minutes, the orchestrations (uncredited) are mostly anodyne. There are duplications of two songs, Midnight Fragrance and When Will You Return, which are shorter and in poorer orchestrations. To add insult to injury, 8.223917 (presumably for Western distribution), has neither Chinese translations of titles nor programme notes. So why bother having a Part Two without repeating the high standards of the former? The choice is clear, get the earlier album and that would be good enough.

SSO'S FORGOTTEN RECORDINGS: HUNG HU VIOLIN CONCERTO on Hong Kong Records

 

This was the not the original cover design
of the LP, but the first CD release.
Notice how much it resembles
Naxos CD sleeves to come later.

HUNG HU VIOLIN CONCERTO

Singapore Symphony Orchestra 

Takako Nishizaki (Violin)

Choo Hoey (Conductor)

   Hong Kong Records 8.880020

   Marco Polo 8.223902

   Marco Polo 8.225811

This retrospective of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s earliest and forgotten recordings begins with its very first album. Recorded in January 1981, this was born of a quite successful relationship between the two-year-old orchestra and the fledgling Hong Kong-based record label Hong Kong Records, founded by German entrepreneur Klaus Heymann, which would later become the specialist Marco Polo label, which in turn spawned the to-be giant budget label Naxos.

The main work of the LP was A Kejian’s Hung Hu Violin Concerto, a fantasy based on the Chinese folksong The Waves of Hung Hu. At just 15 minutes, this is shorter than the wildly popular Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, but conceived and scored in the same idiom – that of a Romantic violin concerto. The music is similarly enjoyable and demands made on the soloist par for the course, well suited for Japanese violin virtuoso Takako Nishizaki (Mrs Heymann), who went on to record Butterfly Lovers no less than six times.

The formidable Mrs Heymann

The second work is one half of Butterfly Lovers composing duo Chen Gang’s Fantasy on a Sinkiang Folksong, which is now better-known as Sunshine Over Tashkurgan, recently recorded by Chloe Chua and SSO (on Pentatone, recorded in 2023) as a fillup to her Butterfly Lovers. How the decades have passed. Unashamedly virtuosic, this is Central Asia’s rhapsodic answer to Ravel’s Tzigane.

Autographed by both Choo Hoey
& Takako Nishizaki

The balance of the album contains shorter works, Ge Yan’s The Horse Cart (performed at the official opening of Victoria Concert Hall in October 1980), Gin Yong Cheng’s The Happy Grassland, Ma Ke’s Shanbei Suite (which also features an uncredited gaohu soloist) and Fu Geng Cheng’s Celebration Dance. All very engaging music based on Chinese folk music, and some with a Socialist Realist agenda that Chinese composers during the 1950s and 60s were no inferior to their Soviet comrades and counterparts. 

Choo Hoey was SSO's founding maestro

The SSO under founding music director Choo Hoey give more than creditable performances in more than adequate sound, and it should be noted that today’s SSO no longer performs this repertoire other than the ubiquitous Butterfly Lovers. In short, a worthy blast from the past.

Another iteration of the same album,
now part of the Chinese Music Series.

The final edition, now under the umbrella
of Popular Chinese Orchestral Music.
Obviously, somebody must be
listening to these recordings.