ZARATHUSTRA AND BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE / Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Review

 

ZARATHUSTRA AND 

BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE

Singapore Symphony Orchestra

Esplanade Concert Hall

Friday (24 July 2026)

This review was published on 25 July with the title "Dynamic SSO steps up to music director Hannu Lintu's unusual pairing of Strauss and Bartok".

The tandem of German composer Richard Strauss with Hungarian modernist Bela Bartok does not seem like obvious bedfellows. However, the two major works programmed in the second concert of Singapore Symphony Orchestra new music director Hannu Lintu’s inaugural series proved uncannily synergistic.

Both Richard Strauss and Bela Bartok
composed these masterpieces in their relative youth.

Strauss was the master of orchestral opulence, and his tone poem Also Sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1896) had it all. Is there any classical work with a more recognisable opening two minutes? His famous depiction of Sunrise opened with a low rumble from Koh Jia Hwei’s pipe organ, ushering in the iconic three-note motif (C-G-C) on Jon Paul Dante’s solo trumpet and an orchestral outburst in glorious C major.

Such an arresting opening gambit could have rendered the rest of the 33-minute work superfluous, but Lintu’s clear-headed direction ensured this first of climaxes to be part of a series of coherently connected episodes. While reveling in big moments, many moments of chamber music-like intimacy also stood out.

The journey of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Ubermensch (Superman), pondering his yearnings and celebrating his achievements, also found a pivotal role for SSO’s new concertmaster Andrew Beer, whose ecstatic violin solo in the great waltz of the Tanzlied (Dance Song) was another high point. The orchestra responded with much immediacy, responsive to every dynamic shift in the music’s ebb and flow all through to a retiring but fulfilling close.

Photo: Jack Yam

While Strauss exulted in great aspirations of mankind, Bartok’s only opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, composed in 1911 but premiered in 1918, probed the underbelly and unmentionables of the soul. This highly effective concert-staging was sung in the Hungarian with Bela Balazs’ original libretto, with a spoken prologue voiced by famous Hungarian conductor Gabor Takacs-Nagy.

Photo: Jack Yam

There were sinister undertones to this “Once upon a time” introduction, heralding an hour-long psychological drama plumbing the deepest and darkest recesses of human ambition. Chinese bass-baritone Shenyang portrayed the eponymous villain with a cool and unflappable mien meant to be inscrutable. Opposite him was British mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston as newest bride Judith, displaying a tour de force of contrasted emotions – overbearing love, extreme vulnerability and inquisitiveness with a penchant for self-destruction.

Photo: Jack Yam

The pair of opposites were well-matched, their emotional tug-of-war accompanied by music of intricate detail best appreciated in a live performance rather than in recordings. This was Bartok’s orchestration at his most Romantic, preceding a more recognisable brutalist style of later years. A huge climax was reached at the opening of the fifth door, a revelation of Bluebeard’s immense wealth and territory, with stentorian chords in glorious C major - a most Straussian moment.

Photo: Jack Yam

The unfolding tension was acutely matched by Gabriel Chan’s deft lighting design and the audience engaged by English surtitles (expertly operated by Michael Huang). Most of all, the very positive audience response for sophisticated programming choices such as this bodes well for the concert seasons under Lintu’s helm to come.

SUKA MAKAN: QIJI TRADITIONAL FISHMAW SOUP & MINCED MEAT NOODLES @ SUNSET WAY, CLEMENTI

This is one of the eating places which is so small that you walk past barely taking a look. However, on this occasion, we decided to take a look and try the food - and it's a gem. Wedged between the famous Springleaf Prata Place and a Korean restaurant on Sunset Way is this "hole in the wall" restaurant. Walk faster and you'll miss Qiji Traditional Fishmaw Soup & Minced Meat Noodles, which despite its nondescript appearance at first glance, has some really delicious items.

The interior is rather cramped
but there's much more outdoor seating. 

Chef Darwin's hilariously inept
Photoshop portraits with celebs.
Bro, there are such things as AI!

Its speciality is a fishmaw soup served with rice or noodles, and crocodile bak kut teh in earthen pot, the most pricy item on its menu. We just tried the seafood / bak chor noodles and were justly impressed. The mee pok that came with seafood soup was very delicious. the Janet could not resist the Teochew seahum (chilled cockles in sauce) and that was quite lovely too.

Seafood fishmaw soup
with a seriously good mee pok.

QIJI TRADITIONAL FISHMAW SOUP 

& MINCED MEAT NOODLES

Block 106 Clementi Street 12 #01-62

(20+) Video | Facebook

SUKA MAKAN: SPRINGLEAF PRATA PLACE @ SUNSET WAY, CLEMENTI

When it comes to Indian mamak food, Springleaf Prata Place has it all. We've ordered many times for home delivery, but on this occasion, we decided to dine at the nearest outlet - the trustworthy Clementi Street 12 Block 109 along Sunset Way. Prata, murtabak, nasi briyani and mee goreng in all their infinite varieties can be found here.

The premises is simple, unpretentious with a no-frills cafeteria vibe, and we were the only diners on this early evening. Service was swift, and we had our fill within just a few minutes. Prices are higher than most hawkers centres and food courts, but there's the luxury that only an AC can bring. 

One is a kopi, the other teh tarik.

Maggi mee goreng with ikan bilis.

Good old chicken briyani

The SPP speciality, Murtaburger
a cross between Murtabak and Ramli burger.
Sinfully rich and filling, I was still eating
it the following day!

Springleaf also has a self-service free-flow curry station (both chicken and fish curry), where curries are kept piping hot and free from possible contamination. It looks hygienic but our stomachs will be the best judge of that. (It's been just over 24 hours, and so far no issues!)

SPRINGLEAF PRATA PLACE

Block 106 Clementi Street 12 #01-64

Off Sunset Way

Singapore 120106

Home

ART IN OUR MIDST: HAN SAI POR'S SEEDS @ ESPLANADE WATERFRONT

How many times have I walked this route outside of Esplanade (hundreds at the very least) and failed to notice this art piece by one of Singapore's most prominent sculptors. All thanks to Singapore Chinese Orchestra's Titan Sculptors concert in June that my eyes were finally opened to Han Sai Por's Seeds, strategically placed at Esplanade Waterfront just opposite the bridge that leads to the Merlion. It's been hiding in plain sight all this while!

Seeds is a 1995 work of Han Sai Por, comprising four pieces of polished granite in the shape of seeds from local trees. It is symbolic of the organic growth of the arts (and pretty much everything else) that takes place in a city like Singapore, germinating from within fertile soil. That the sculptures are within sight of Marina Bay Sands and the skyscrapers of Raffles Place / Shenton Way is also symbolic of an environment that grows wealth also grows the arts scene.

Big seed and the "durian".

Just a short walk away is an art piece
commemorating the old location of Satay Club.

Seeds by night.

Seeds - Sculptures - Esplanade

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL BAND FESTIVAL CLOSING CONCERT / SAF Central Band / Review

 

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL 

BAND FESTIVAL 2026

CLOSING CONCERT

SAF Central Band

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concert Hall

Sunday (26 July 2026)

The closing concert of the 10th Singapore International Band Festival was given by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Central Band, opening with the National Anthem, Zubir Said’s Majulah Singapura. Conducted by ME4 Koh Kai Jie (Associate Director), this preceded the concert’s opening work, Kelly Tang’s Three Portraits for Wind Band which he also led.

In three continuous movements, the opening Fanfare was martial and heroic, a wholly apt portrayal of patriotism with National Day not far away. Excellent intonation and tightness of ensemble distinguished this and the works to come. The Chorale that followed was none other than Singapura (I much prefer the alternative with David Lim’s words Thee I Honour, Thee I Adore over the sappy Sunny Island, Pretty Flowers version), wordless for once and subjected to a variation or two. The closing March relived the pomp and circumstances of Elgar, with Percy Grainger and John Williams thrown into the mix, bringing the work to a stirring close.

More modern in feel was American composer David Gillingham’s Heroes, Lost and Fallen, now led by ME5 Ignatius Wang (Director). Beginning quietly with bells, piano and xylophone producing tinkling sonorities, this slow introduction soon led into music of wider emotional range and orchestral colour. The narrative recounted conflicts with struggles, sacrifice, loss and remembrance, as wars in service of the nation tend to do. The alternation of calm and violence also provided moments for reflection before closing in reassuring C major, a harbinger of hope and harmony.

Next was Percy Grainger’s Colonial Song as arranged by R.Mark Rogers. Pianists who know this as a solo piece often find its introduction difficult to find its voice, but no such worries for the winds, which sound far richer than a keyboardist can hope for. The big tune carried by tenor saxophone and later trumpet is one of the best original melodies Grainger wrote, its glorious climax representing the benign face of the empire on which the sun never set.

CPT Jose Toranza, Assistant Director of the world-renowned “The President’s Own” US Marine Band, guest conducted in John Philip Sousa’s Solid Men To The Front, one of the March King’s less well-known marches relative to The Stars and Stripes Forever, Semper Fidelis or Washington Post. It was nevertheless a rousing, almost jazzy and foot-tapping reading with suitable bluster fully in sync with the earlier martial works about heroes, bravery and selflessness (something which the current POTUS has never known and will never know).

The hour-long concert closed with Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, in an idiomatic wind transcription by Yoshihiro Kimura led by conductor Wang. For this, the SAFCB was joined by ten members of the Osaka Shion Wind Orchestra, Japan’s oldest wind band. Respighi was one of music’s greatest orchestrators, and even if strings were absent here, the final outcome was no less gripping due to the sheer ebullience and responsiveness of the players.

The opening Pines of the Villa Borghese bristled with the bustle of children’s games, a carnival of mischief, followed by the more sober Pines of the Catacombs, where clarinet and trumpet solos provided moments of pensiveness. Koh Kai Jie’s piano part ushered in Pines of the Janiculum, its haunting beauty matched by the song of nightingales (the first instance of recorded sounds making an appearance in a classical work). It was left for the inexorable march of Roman armies in Pines of the Appian Way to close the concert on an energised and spirited high. Singapore’s finest professional wind orchestra has done it again.